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WPI robot helps power Hollywood movie "Rule Breakers"
If you see the new movie Rule Breakers, look for a robot developed in 2022 by a student and professor from the robotics engineering program. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reported on the student research work that drew movie producers to the program; and ultimately led to WPI's unique contribution to the film about Afghanistan’s first all-female robotics team and its inspiring journey to international competitions.
WPI’s wildfire research is featured in The Common, a podcast from WBUR, Boston's NPR. Listen to the interview with Albert Simeoni, head of the Department of Fire Protection Engineering – a former firefighter – and see photos on the podcast's website to learn more about what drives the research of faculty and students, their work that seeks to mitigate the impacts of large wildfires, and the experiments taking place in the department's laboratories.
For its coverage of the Los Angeles area wildfires, The New York Times interviewed Albert Simeoni, professor and head of the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, about how the wildland fires in Southern California transformed into urban fires, leading to extensive loss of life and destruction of property. The department of fire protection engineering conducts extensive research on wildfires aimed at improving the prevention of and response to fires in the future.
The devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area exemplify the dangers of wind-driven fires in inhabited areas. WPI’s Department of Fire Protection Engineering is leading research designed to understand how fires spread with the goal of contributing to measures that can better protect communities and firefighters. WPI’s research, which involves faculty and ongoing experiments conducted by students in a state-of-the-art wind tunnel on campus, was featured by several media outlets. NBC Boston's report was re-aired on more than a dozen television news stations in cities around the U.S. including Washington, DC, Minneapolis, Dallas, Albuquerque, Spokane, Yakima, WA, Fresno, CA, Albany, NY, Topeka, KS, Greenville, SC, Abilene, TX, and Elmira, NY.
Albert Simeoni, professor and head of the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, provided analysis to the fact-checking website Full Fact for an article addressing online claims about the devastating Los Angeles wildfires. In the article, Simeoni explains how wildfires can cause uneven damage to objects that are in proximity.
The Brazilian newspaper O Globo interviewed Albert Simeoni, professor, and head of the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, about the Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris, upon the building’s restoration and reopening to the public. "The confusion over the approximate area of the fire and the time it took to reach the roof from the stairs resulted in a significant loss of time, which allowed the flames to grow beyond the firefighters' ability to control," Simeoni said.
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.
The WPI student chapter of the Society of Fire Protection Engineers held a laboratory demonstration in which two Christmas trees were burned to show how quickly they can ignite, especially ones that are not consistently watered. The chapter also provided fire safety tips.
Students in the fire protection engineering program demonstrated in a laboratory how quickly Christmas trees can burn. The demonstration shows the difference in ignition time for a dried-out tree and one that has been watered. Can you guess how high the temperatures reached? Find the answer in this Spectrum News 1 report.
New announcement will allow WPI to build upon its longstanding expertise in fire protection to study new fire detection methods, robotics solutions to enhance first responder safety, and fire suppression systems for wildfires.
WBUR reports on the addition of WPI to a federal Wildlife Interdisciplinary Research Center. The work will focus on fire detection models, first responder safety, and wildfire suppression systems.
Fire protection engineering professors Albert Simeoni and James Urban were quoted in a Reuters Fact Check article on the dynamics of the devastating fires in Hawaii. They explain how wildfires spread and why some things in a burned area avoid damage when so much else is destroyed.
Fire protection engineering professor Albert Simeoni was cited in the Agence France-Presse (AFP) Fact Check section about speculation surrounding the cause of the deadly Maui fire.
Simeoni stated, “You had all the conditions -- the fuel, the heat, the wind and the ignition sources -- to create a catastrophe.”
In the report, “How Climate Change is Impacting Wildfires,” NBC10 interviewed Albert Simeoni, professor, department head, fire protection engineering. “If we understand better how fires start then we can start to support policy and decision making, he said.
Professor Albert Simeoni, head of the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, was interviewed about his being awarded $519,893 from the National Institute of Justice to evaluate the reliability of burn pattern indicators used by investigators to determine the starting point of wildfires.
The Canadian Broadcast Corporation quoted Professor Albert Simeoni, fire protection engineering, in this article. He said Canadian findings in a new paper from Natural Resources Canada scientists quantify and add direct evidence to what he and others have seen in other places, including in eucalyptus forests in Australia . “We have observed that repeated heat insults to vegetation and the soil was damaging and this corroborates this observation," Simeoni told the CBC.
The New York Times quoted Albert Simeoni, professor, interim department head, fire protection engineering, in in this article. (see: Precious Time Lost subhead) “The only thing that surprised me is that this disaster didn’t happen sooner,” Simeoni told The Times.
Earther-Gizmodo published an article about Albert Simeoni, professor and interim fire protection engineering department head, and the work being done at WPI to better understand wildfires and their impact on communities.
Nova interviewed Albert Simeoni (2:32 mark), professor, interim department head, Fire Protection Engineering; and Steven Van Dessel (2:14 mark), associate professor, director, Architectural Engineering Program, for this PBSVideos segment on Facebook.