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Computer science department head provides analysis on global technology outage
Professor Craig Shue, head of the computer science department, helped explain the causes of, impacts from, and lessons learned by the worldwide outage that resulted from a faulty CrowdStrike cybersecurity update. He was interviewed by and featured in reports from NPR and The Boston Globe. He was also quoted in The Associated Press in its coverage.
Andrew B. Palumbo, dean of admissions and financial aid, was interviewed for this Inside Higher Ed. article. Palumbo said test-optional policies shouldn't be viewed in isolation but as part of a commitment to help those admitted. “To me this says that WPI takes a chance on students and they may struggle, but we are a great environment for those students.”
Channel 3 aired a story about DARPA funded work by computer science professors Emmanuel Agu and Elke Rundensteiner to develop a smartphone app to help assess the health of soldiers.
A photo of President Laurie Leshin and other current and former presidents of private Mass. colleges accompanied The Boston Globe article, which noted, in comparison, that nearly half of all private college presidents in Mass. are women.
WPI leads off this week’sTelegram & Gazette’s College Town featuring Officer Robert Vandal, who received the Dr. Robert L. Burns Award. It’s a biennial award given to a fraternity advisor who increases and supports scholarship and/or enhances university relations, and who has a close relationship with his campus chapter.
WPI’s wildfire research was featured on Channel 3 in a story about tests conducted in a state-of-the-art wind tunnel at the university’s Fire Protection Engineering lab. Professor Albert Simeoni, fire protection engineering interim department head, says the work will help researchers better understand and predict flame spread during wildfires.
The Worcester Business Journal reported on work by computer science professors Emmanuel Agu and Elke Rundensteiner to develop a smartphone app to help assess the health of soldiers.
The Department of Energy's Office of Science kicked off National Clean Energy Week by highlighting research conducted by Mike Timko, associate professor of chemical engineering, on their home page. Through his research, Timko is aiming to greatly improve the yield of oil from the waste food conversion process while also improving efficiencies.
This article featured the news that computer science assistant professor Jacob Whitehill and his colleagues received a $750,000 from the National Science Foundation to develop a platform that will combine machine learning, natural language processing, and elements of psychology and educational theory to deliver rapid feedback on teacher-student interactions.
Librarian Anna Gold and Lori Ostapowicz-Critz, associate director for library academic strategies, told Inside Higher Edabout Gordon Library creating the first digital scholarship lab in this article.
WPI’s sailing prowess was highlighted in Robotics Business Review, " Sailing Away: Behind WPI's Victorious Sailbot 2018 Pursuit." “For the second year in a row, a team from Worcester Polytechnic Institute won the event,” the article stated.
Energy Central published "Cybersecurity for the Power Grid" by Michael Ahern, director of power systems engineering. “In my view, cybersecurity is like a race that never ends. Attackers are building their capabilities even as organizations improve their defenses,” he wrote.
Worcester Business Journal reported on the grand opening of the Foisie Innovation Studio in the article. The building, which includes beds for 140 students and a lab space equipped with the latest technology, adds a third element - impact - to WPI's two long-term pillars, theory and practice. "It's about taking that world-changing work to another level," President Laurie Leshin said at the ribbon cutting ceremony.
The Washington Post included insight from Michael Ahern, director of power systems engineering. Gas at high pressure, generally about 1,000 pounds per square inch (psi), is carried long distances in steel pipes with a diameter of 18 to 36 inches, Ahern said. In the case of Massachusetts, those lines will arrive from gas sources in Texas, Pennsylvania or Canada, he told The Post.
Assembly magazine talked with Raghvendra Cowlagi, assistant professor of aerospace engineering, and Alexander Wyglinski, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, about how automakers, suppliers and startup ventures can make autonomous vehicles operate safely and efficiently in complex urban environments.
President Laurie Leshin was quoted in this Chronicle of Higher Ed article in reaction to tweets by the president dismissing as partisan a study that tallied the death toll from Hurricane Maria at nearly 3,000 in Puerto Rico.
WPI formally opened the Foisie Innovation Studio and Messenger Residence Hall yesterday in a celebration hosted by President Laurie Leshin and WPI board chair Jack Mollen, with state and local officials including Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Matt Beaton ’01; Assistant Secretary of Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship for the Commonwealth, Damon Cox; State Senator and former Senate President Harriette Chandler; State Senator Michael Moore; Representative John Mahoney, and others. The ribbon cutting was reported by the Telegram & Gazette.
Data science student Rosemarie Day won Intel’s AI Interplanetary Challenge as reported by Venture Beat. She proposed a computer vision system that tapped satellite imagery to give a detailed look at how Earth is changing over time.
The publication includes an article by Albert Simeoni, fire protection engineering professor and interim department head. Simeoni addresses the question, "Why We Need More Support for Wildland Fire Research" explaining how this is a growing problem, not just in the United States but countries around the world.
