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."
WHDH featured student innovation at WPI by highlighting the winners of the Collegiate Entrepreneurs’ Organization 2024 Global Pitch Competition. Technotonin Industries, a company that includes students from WPI (Antonio Marzoratti and Ivan Zou) and Boston University (Arav Tyagi) won first prize. WHDH also spoke with Rosanna Garcia, Beswick professor of innovation and entrepreneurship, about how WPI supports student entrepreneurs with its i3 Lab, mentorship, networking, business guidance, and pitch competition opportunities.
As part of their Interactive Qualifying Project, four students at WPI's Nantucket Project Center are conducting a survey about usage of the Nantucket Community Pool. The project, in partnership with the Nantucket Community School, is one of 89 projects that WPI students have conducted at the project center since 2008 in collaboration with local organizations and town officials. “These projects have covered a wide variety of topics in areas such as energy conservation, museum studies, parks and recreation, coastal erosion, parking, sustainable agriculture, affordable housing, facilities management, light pollution, and town trees," said Nantucket Project Center Director Dominic Golding.
Nantucket is working in partnership with four WPI students and the non-profit Nantucket Lights on a project to reduce light pollution. As part of the students’ Interactive Qualifying Project, the students will take feedback from residents on new LED streetlights and potential future lighting decisions as part of the town's adoption of an outdoor lighting by-law.
An article in Australia's Waste Management Review highlighted the work of WPI students during their Interactive Qualifying Project at the Melbourne Project Center. The students helped Jesuit Social Services' Ecological Justice Hub to support local recycling solutions by designing a plastic recycling assembly line to collect, sort, and recycle bottle caps and turn them into new products. In March, the student team was honored for its work as winners of the Forum on Education Abroad's Award for Academic Achievement Abroad.
Jamal Yagoobi, professor of Materials Science & Engineering at WPI, spoke with Energy News Network about advances in laser-powered technology he’s developing at the Center for Advanced Research in Drying (CARD) that could make manufacturing more sustainable across several sectors.
As brush fires in the northeast continue, WPI students and faculty in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering are doing research and hands-on projects that help better understand how wildfires spread and their impact. Spectrum News 1 Worcester reported on the laboratory experiments being conducted aimed at protecting solar energy infrastructure from wildfire threats.
Albert Simeoni, head of the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, spoke with Boston 25 News for a report on the elevated brush fire danger in the northeast and the impacts of smoke from those fires on people living nearby.
Xiaowei Teng, the James H Manning Professor in Chemical Engineering, is leading a team to explore new battery technologies for grid energy storage. Teng hopes the research will lead to improved alkaline iron-air batteries for applications such as microgrids or solar or wind farms.
James Urban, assistant professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, spoke with 7News about active brush fires in Massachusetts, the elevated fire risk in the area, smoke hazards, and the challenges of putting out these types of fires in dry and windy conditions.
The agreement allows for pre-engineering students at Framingham State who meet minimum academic requirements to transfer into WPI’s School of Engineering, allowing them to complete a bachelor’s degree in engineering. The deal will see the two universities collaborate on three new accelerated master’s degree programs in data science, medicinal chemistry, and neuroscience.
The funding will finance fellowships for graduate students studying to become researchers and educators in cell and molecular biology and microbiology. Eight doctoral students will be funded in the Department of Biology and Biotechnology.
President Grace J. Wang was named to the annual list which was featured in The Boston Globe Magazine as part of its Women & Power issue. The list was created by The Women’s Edge, a nonprofit that supports female business leaders, and celebrates the state’s leading companies and nonprofit organizations led by women. The group examined 2023 revenue or operating budget as well as other variables and ranked organizations according to its own formula
Drought and winds have increased wildfire risk in Massachusetts. Dozens of fires have started in the last month. James Urban, assistant professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, provided insight into the factors leading to the elevated risk for an article in The Boston Globe.
An article in TechBullion highlighted WPI's research programs, talent pipelines, and partnerships with industry as drivers of growth in the tech economy in Worcester.
The Engineer reported on WPI Assistant Professor Yihao Zheng's new $1.2 million National Science Foundation grant to develop an artificial intelligence-enabled probe that can provide doctors with real-time assessments of blood clots in the brain.
An article on the economic growth of Central Massachusetts highlighted WPI's role in educating skilled graduates and advancing research and innovation in fields like engineering and biotechnology. It also featured the facilities and resources of Gateway Park.
“When you go from a lot of wet weather to a lot of dry weather, there’s a lot of fine fuels that grow and then die. If it dries out, that can be very dangerous tinder for a wildfire to start and spread.” James Urban, assistant professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, explains how dry weather is a factor in brush fires around the Northeast.
The Worcester Business Journal highlighted key strengths that bolster the life sciences sector in Central Massachusetts. Among those important resources outlined in the article for the publication's "Fast Forward to 2034" series is Gateway Park, a center of research, innovation and commerce that is home to many WPI academic, research, and development programs.
An article in The Worcester Business Journal's "Fast Forward to 2034" series looking at the future of job growth and workforce needs in Central Massachusetts highlighted WPI's role in helping shape the region's future. “I would say biomanufacturing, as well as clean tech. We have untapped potential in robotics, especially with the intellectual capital we have at WPI” and other local universities, said Worcester chief development officer Peter Dunn when asked to envision breakout work sectors.
“The fusion community needs to demonstrate a prototype fusion reactor that will produce more energy than the energy required to get the reaction going in the first place. That’s really the first major hurdle.” William McCarthy, assistant professor of physics, spoke to the Worcester Business Journal for an article in its "Fast Forward to 2034" series about the potential, and the challenges to overcome, of making commercial nuclear fusion energy a reality.
