In the News

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Preview Professor standing behind student kneeling with actresses on movie set, huddled around robot featured in the movie.

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.

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Mass Live
As the grid goes green and electrifies, residents fret over safety of battery storage

Ali Rangwala, professor in Fire Protection Engineering and head of WPI's Explosion Protection Engineering program, talked with MassLive about safety concerns surrounding the installation of large battery storage centers in municipalities. 

Boston Globe
The Los Angeles wildfires are thousands of miles away, but the science of fighting them happens in Worcester

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.

Also featured in: WCVB | NBC Boston | NECN | Spectrum News 1
The Wall Street Journal
Fire at One of World’s Largest Battery Plants Prompts Evacuations in California

“Since lithium-ion batteries are a high energy density fuel, there is a possibility of an explosion hazard,” Ali Rangwala, a professor of fire protection engineering and director of WPI’s first-in-the-nation explosion protection engineering master’s program, provided analysis for a Wall Street Journal article on the risks associated with a fire at one of the world’s largest battery storage facilities. Lithium-ion battery fire and explosion dangers are among the topics being studied by WPI students in the explosion protection engineering program. 

Also featured in: Business Insider
Business Insider
Explosive experts: The Las Vegas blast could have been worse

Ali Rangwala, director of WPI's first-in-the-nation Master of Science in Explosion Protection Engineering program and professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, provided expert analysis to Business Insider for an article, republished by Yahoo! News, about a New Year's Day truck explosion in Las Vegas. 

Worcester Business Journal
WPI debuts nation’s first explosion protection engineering master’s program

The first of its kind program in the United States is designed amid growing concerns about fire and explosion risk posed by manufacturing facilities and advancing technologies like electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells.

 

Also featured in: The Worcester Guardian | International Fire Protection Magazine | Mass Live | Dust Safety Science
NBC News
New law requires portable gas containers to add devices to protect against explosions

NBC News cited tests conducted in 2013 by Ali Rangwala, professor of Fire Protection Engineering, that led to passage last week of the Portable Fuel Container Safety Act of 2020, which establishes performance standards to protect against portable fuel container explosions. The piece showed that under certain conditions — including a very low volume of gasoline left inside — gas container explosions are possible.