On April 25, student teams representing every academic department on campus presented the results of their senior theses during WPI’s annual Undergraduate Research Project Showcase. This signature event showcases the culmination of WPI’s distinctive project-based undergraduate education, where students engage in team-based professional-level design and research that mirrors the challenges they will likely tackle in their careers. Known as major qualifying projects (MQPs), these yearlong experiences provide students with both technical skills and “soft” skills like communication, leadership, teamwork, and critical thinking.
Industry support is vital to this process. Every year companies are invited to sponsor projects that introduce corporate-specific scenarios, offering students invaluable problem-solving experience while providing companies with bold new thinking and proposals for innovative solutions. Here are just a few examples of the exciting projects, conducted by graduating seniors, made possible by sponsors’ support this year.
Draper
- Project: Investigating Endothelial Responses to Tissue Under In-Vitro Flow: System Development for the Preclinical Evaluation of Draper’s LEAP Valve
- Department: Biomedical Engineering (BME)
- Students: Fatimah Daffaie; Emma DeMartino; Adeline Fede
- Advisors: Kristen Billiar, professor (BME); Corin Williams (Draper)
This project focused on helping children who have had heart valve replacements. Currently, replacement heart valves don’t grow as a child grows, which often means multiple surgeries. Draper has designed a new kind of heart valve—the LEAP Valve—that’s made to grow with the child. The WPI team built a special lab setup that mimics how blood flows through the body, specifically how cells that line blood vessels react when the LEAP Valve is in place. This is a critical step in studying the efficacy of the valve and identifying how it affects the body prior to clinical trials.
“Working with Draper’s biotechnology department—and learning from both the bio team and other departments—was an incredible experience,” said Emma DeMartino. “Our sponsor gave us so much helpful advice, and getting to see and understand the full scope of the project made it really fun and rewarding.”
Draper advisor Corin Williams said, “I’ve been really impressed with this team and the amount of work they put into the project. They essentially built this system from scratch—no one had created anything like it before. Watching it all come together from an initial concept to a fully realized system was incredibly exciting.”
L-R: John Chau, Halim Faker
Fidelity Investments
- Project: Creating the Metric Store for Business Performance Metrics
- Departments: Computer Science (CS), Data Science (DS), Financial Technology (FT), Industrial Engineering (IE), Management Engineering (MGE)
- Students: John Chau (DS, MGE, IE); Halim Faker (IE, FT); Mansi Gera (DS); Harshith Iyer (CS); Sophia John (CS)
- Advisors: Marcel Blais, professor of teaching (mathematical sciences); Joshua Cuneo, senior instructor (CS); Kwamie Dunbar, associate professor (The Business School); Xin Gao, assistant professor (The Business School); Renata Konrad, associate professor (The Business School)
An interdisciplinary team of students worked with project sponsor Fidelity Investments to develop a prototype for a user-friendly web-based application for employees to view, search, and easily understand business performance metrics. The students said the partnership with Fidelity provided them with valuable connections who helped them gain technical expertise and a greater understanding of how data are used to inform business decisions.
“Working with Fidelity was one of the best experiences in my four years at WPI,” said Halim Faker. “This project was an opportunity to work in a company and learn how the financial world works and how important data are to customer analysis.”
General Dynamics Electric Boat
- Project: Designing an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle and Updating a Parametric Design Tool
- Department: Mechanical and Materials Engineering (ME)
- Students: Taniya Crosby; Marc Donahue, MS ’25 (CS); Sofia Eckerson; Samantha Germano; Benjamin Perrin; Mir Valentine
- Advisors: Ahmet Sabuncu, assistant teaching professor (ME); Shubbhi Taneja, assistant teaching professor (CS)
The team continued research started by the 2024 MQP team into the design of unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), focusing on design features, materials, structural strength, and control systems. A key part of the work involved testing a new computer-based design tool and comparing its results to the 2024 team’s version. The students recommended refining the tool’s input settings, improving its ability to model water flow, and enhancing its real-time adaptability. Modeling is essential when working with large and complex systems like UUVs because it allows engineers to test designs virtually before anything is built. Another team will continue the sponsored project next year.
“It was a big responsibility to build on the work of last year’s team—we wanted to honor what they created while also making it our own and moving it forward,” said Taniya Crosby. “Working closely with our corporate sponsor helped us really understand the project’s full scope, and as we grew more confident, we focused on setting it up for success so next year’s team can launch it even further.”
L-R: John Clendenin, Bora Hurst, Sara Kelly, Eli Budde, Dominic Brunetti
Honeywell
- Project: GaN-based DC/DC Converter for Fuel Cell Applications
- Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)
- Students: Dominic Brunetti; Eli Budde; John Clendenin; Bora Hurst; Sara Kelly; Vanessa Narciso
- Advisor: Gregory Noetscher, assistant teaching professor (ECE)
The team worked with project sponsor Honeywell to design and develop a prototype for a compact and lightweight power converter for use in unmanned autonomous vehicles that utilize hydrogen fuel cell power. The students said the opportunity to work with Honeywell provided a valuable real-world experience, and they praised their project partners in the company for providing consistent feedback and information on industry standards.
“It was wonderful working with them,” said John Clendenin. “They really helped show us their standard way of doing things. They mentored us through the printed circuit board layout schematic part of the project. We got insight from them on the whole manufacturing process, from simulation to schematic to printed circuit board to ordering it.”
NVIDIA
- Project: Performance Architecture Team—PowerSense
- Department: Computer Science
- Students: Owen Rago; Alexander Samra
- Advisors: Mark Claypool, professor (CS); Lane Harrison, associate professor (CS)
NVIDIA, a top company known for making GPUs—the computer chips that help run advanced AI programs—opened its door to the MQP team at WPI’s Silicon Valley Project Center. The students worked on systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) within the Tegra division’s Performance Architecture Team, analyzing and improving how these chips perform so teams across Tegra can better understand and improve their technology.
“Working with a corporate sponsor at their headquarters gave me real-world experience—we were in the office from 8 to 5 every day, just like a full-time job. Being fully immersed in that environment helped me learn a lot about how I work best, what I value in a company, and what I’ll be looking for as I start my career,” said Alexander Samra. “It wasn’t just a class project—it was real work, with real expectations, and it gave me a true sense of what my future could look like.”
Saint-Gobain
- Project: Optimizing the Finishing Process in Bond Plant 7
- The Business School
- Students: Aidan Eldridge, MS ’25 (management); Lauren Mitcheson, MS ’25 (business analytics); Abigail Stack, MS ’25 (management); Sean Sullivan, MS ’25 (management)
- Advisor: Walter Towner, teaching professor (The Business School)
It’s no small task to increase the productivity of a manufacturing line, but that’s what four students set out to do for global company Saint-Gobain. The team members focused on improving the finishing processes on a production line in Worcester that makes large, circular abrasive wheels for cutting steel and other hard materials. The students, all of whom are graduating this year with BS degrees in industrial engineering plus MS degrees in business fields, proposed steps such as adding laser technology, organizing tools, and standardizing operating procedures to make the line more efficient. They estimated their proposed changes could increase production and revenue for Saint-Gobain.
“It was really cool. All the concepts we used in this project were concepts we had learned in courses,” said Lauren Mitcheson. Added Aidan Eldridge, “Almost everything we suggested, Saint-Gobain is trying out.”
