In the News

Popular Mechanics wrote about undergraduate students from Worcester Polytechnic Institute building an autonomous underwater robot that could help reduce the threat posed by an invasive species of fish. 

Bioengineer reported on Renata Konrad, associate professor, Foisie Business School, being among those receiving National Science Foundation awards to advance the scientific understanding of how illicit supply networks function. Konrad’s project focuses on a data analytic approach to understanding human trafficking networks.

Medium interviewed Kaveh Pahlavan, professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Center for Wireless Information Network Studies, as part of its Iranian Americans’ Contributions Project.

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WPI landed in some Top 20 lists in The Princeton Review’s annual college rankings, as reported by the Telegram & Gazette in, "Where Did Massachusetts Colleges Land in Princeton Review Rankings?" WPI ranked fifth for "Best-Run Colleges," and also ranked in "good science labs, career services, studious students," and other categories.   

Chemical Processing Online is the latest to cover Jennifer Wilcox's appointment as the James H. Manning Professor of Chemical Engineering. 

Assistant Professor Erin Ottmar, psychology and learning sciences, was highlighted in this Telegram & Gazette article. “We have very strong evidence that it’s useful,” she said of the game called “From Here to There!.”  

Glenn Gaudette, professor of biomedical engineering, was interviewed by New Food Economy for this article, a look at efforts to develop alternative food sources in the future.

Worcester Magazine sought the art insight of humanities and arts instructor James Dempsey for the article, which details works by Worcester’s Scofield Thayer on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dempsey authored “The Tortured life of Scofield Thayer,” and co-wrote the exhibition catalog.



 

Worcester Business Journal reported on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) awarding WPI nearly $600,000 to support the university’s growing nuclear science and engineering undergraduate and graduate programs.

WPI leads off the Telegram & Gazette’s College Town this week with a feature on professor Susan Roberts, head of the chemical engineering department. She developed a genetic engineering technique that could speed up manufacturing of a widely used cancer drug and lower its production costs, the T&G reported. 

The Vineyard Gazette included WPI wildlife research in its article. “Marja Bakermans, a researcher at WPI who focuses on migratory songbirds, began a study last year where she outfitted whippoorwills with geolocator backpacks to track the exact spots where the birds winter,” the Gazette reported.

President Laurie Leshin was quoted in this Bloomberg Businessweek article. Looking back, then-President Bill Clinton’s decision to explore Mars “cemented NASA’s commitment to search-for-life research and made it appealing in a whole new way,” said Leshin, who the article noted is also a co-investigator on CAESAR (comet astrobiology exploration sample return).

WPI Men’s Basketball announced its top draft pick for the season: the “Fist Bump Kid!” NBC10 Boston reported that Liam Fitzgerald, who became known as the “fist bump kid” after a video from a Boston Bruins game went viral, was “signed” by the WPI's men's basketball team, thanks to Team IMPACT. “WPI has a long history of signing Team IMPACT athletes to its teams, most recently in football, baseball, and women’s softball,” NBC10 reported. Team IMPACT connects children facing serious or chronic illnesses with college athletic teams.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Associate Professor Craig Shue, computer science, in this article. The census “is a treasure trove of information for nation-state hackers [because] it hopefully will have information about every American,” Shue told The Journal.

Lifehacker.com interviewed robotics engineering research professor, Candace Sidner, for this article. Sidner offered insight into why voice assistants can sometimes be frustrating. “They are essentially programmed to do certain kinds of things, so they are breaking down utterances presented to them and then doing a search on the web.” 

Quartz at Work featured the article “Daughters of Working Mothers Grow Up to Be Just as Happy as Those of Stay-at-Home Moms,” which included research by Assistant Professor Elizabeth Long Lingo, Foisie Business School. 

The Worcester Business Journal reported on the genetic engineering work by Susan Roberts, department head and professor of chemical engineering, which aims to double the product of paclitaxel, an ingredient in the world's best-selling cancer drug. 

Yan Wang, professor of mechanical engineering, was interviewed for the Forbes article. Noted as an academic working on the problem of recycling li-ion batteries, Wang says “Battery Resourcers (a company he founded) has developed a process for recovering cathode materials like cobalt, as well as aluminum, copper, plastics, graphite, methanol and other chemicals used in the recycling process.” 

President Laurie Leshin has been named to the Worcester Business Journal’s "The Power 50," its annual list of the most powerful people in the Central Massachusetts business community. The WBJ writes “When we seek to create this list every year, we focus on the people who use their positions to have an outsized influence on the business community. We want to tell the story of a changing region and economy through the people creating that change.” The annual list section also includes a brief article on each nominee; here is a link to President Leshin’s page.