Note: Some media outlets require users to log-in. The Gordon Library offers the WPI community free access to a number of newspapers. Visit newspaper database for details.
How can AI tools help consumers find the best deals and tackle the holiday shopping list? Associate Professor of marketing Purvi Shah spoke with NBC Boston about the technology driving retail transformation. "AI can help you compare products and prices across stores. It can also give you review summaries that can help you evaluate various product options based on those review summaries," Shah said. "All of this is done very efficiently."
Fox 25 News aired a feature about an afterschool program at the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science (located at WPI), during which high school juniors and seniors construct 3-D prosthetic hands for children in other countries. The prosthetic hands built by these students cost about $35 in material, a fraction of the cost for prosthetics from hospitals and other providers.
WPI received a $5 million state grant for a new healthcare research and product development initiative. The new center, PracticePoint at WPI, will be established at the college's Gateway Park.
Worcester News Tonight interviewed WPI Police Officer Brian Lavallee and K-9 Bella for a story in its 6:00 and 10:00 newscasts Thursday Night focused on Bella’s upcoming work at the Boston Marathon.
Michael Gennert, professor and director, robotics engineering, was quoted in this article. "It’s very much a different mindset than traditional IT,” he said. “Robots affect the real world. That brings issues IT managers have not had to confront.”
A recent WGBH broadcast featured students at the Mass. Academy of Math and Science who 3D print prosthetic hands for people in developing countries, free of charge. The students are part of a group called e-NABLE, which is comprised of volunteer designers and engineers from all over the world.
The New York Times quoted WPI’s Jeanine L. Skorinko, associate professor of psychology. She told The Times, that people, especially Americans, prefer more distance between themselves and strangers and would rather take the stair below them or walk past them. “This is why people put bags on seats next to them on the train so people don’t sit next to them,” she said.
WGBH featured the WPI-related segment interviewing Glenn Gaudette, professor of biomedical engineering, and grad student Joshua Gershlak, on growing heart tissue on spinach.
National Geographic features a WPI research team that has learned how to grow heart cells on spinach leaves. The stripped down spinach becomes a vascular network to deliver blood, oxygen and nutrients to grow human tissues like cardiac muscle to treat heart attack patients.
National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” program profiles the WPI-developed Flame Refluxer, a novel technology that can greatly accelerate the combustion of crude oil floating on water, minimizing the environmental impact of future oil spills. “The coils collect the heat from the flame and they transmit it through the copper blanket,” Ali Rangwala, associate professor of fire protection engineering, explained to NPR. He and a team of researchers developed the Flame Refluxer.
WPI’s Yanhua Li, assistant professor of computer science and data science, received a $174,596 grant from the National Science Foundation for a transportation study involving a "hub-and-spoke" model: an alternative urban transit system. He also appeared on WBUR radio discussing his grant.
Worcester News Tonight aired a story on its Thursday night newscasts about the FIRST robotics district competition being held at WPI yesterday and today, which will feature 40 teams from all six New England states. Ken Stafford, WPI robotics professor and robotics resource center director, was interviewed for the segment and said the competition “has all the elements of an exciting NBA tournament with the thinking elements of math, science and engineering.”
Boston’s NPR station interviewed Edward Clancy about work he and fellow professor of electrical and computer engineering Xinming Huang are conducting on improving the ability of hand-wrist prostheses to move more naturally. Read full transcript. Listen to audio clip
The Telegram & Gazette talks with Kamal Rashid, director of WPI’s Biomanufacturing Education & Training Center, who traveled with a life sciences delegation from the U.S. to Cuba last month. Rashid was enthusiastic about representing WPI on the trip and learning about the robust biotechnology industry he saw in Cuba. “I’ve been in the area of biotechnology for 31 years; I had known a little bit about the Cuban field of biotechnology, but I had interest in seeing what their progress was,” he told the T&G.
WCVB Channel 5 featured PABI an autism therapy robot during its recent Cutting Edge segment. PABI, a co-creation of WPI robotics engineering professor Greg Fischer and his wife Laurie Dickstein-Fischer who is an education professor at Salem State University, effectively applies technology to address the psychological needs of the autistic population.
Brian Moriarty, IMGD professor of practice in game design, is quoted in this The New Yorker article. “The line between what is a movie and what is real is going to be difficult to pinpoint,” Moriarty said. “The defining art form of the twenty-first century has not been named yet, but it is something like this.”
A cooling technology developed by a team led by Jamal Yagoobi, mechanical engineering professor and department head, will fly aboard the International Space Station later this decade.
The article, co-written by Diran Apelian, founder of the Metal Processing Institute, and graduate student Sean Kelly. “By manufacturing aluminum components from secondary material streams, 95% less CO2 is emitted and the energy consumed is reduced by 92% compared to primary production [2-3]. The complete benefit of automotive light-weighting using aluminum cannot be fully achieved without an efficient and effective end-of-life collection and recovery process,” the article stated.
