Advance

Research at WPI is focused on discovery and innovation with a purpose

The university’s longstanding emphasis on applied research means faculty and students do research, first and foremost, to solve problems and make the world a better place. It’s a recognition that when there is personal impact, a spark for global change can be ignited. WPI’s home city may be Worcester, but its students and faculty take up residence on the cusp—of progress, change, and the next big innovation.

Advancing Research Collaborations

Several significant growth and investment areas benefit from WPI’s collaborative approach.

PracticePoint

This membership-based healthcare initiative brings research, development, and testing of revolutionary devices under one roof, channeling WPI’s multidisciplinary approach to education and research in pursuit of better patient care.

Materials- and Manufacturing-Related Research

A commitment as old as WPI itself, these research ventures have led to WPI’s involvement in Manufacturing USA, and have seen major funding from the Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, and U.S. Department of Energy.

Learning Sciences and Technologies

WPI faculty, staff, and students are committed to revolutionizing America’s educational system, taking deep-dives into learner characteristics, applying machine learning to the classroom, and creating learning visualizations and simulations—all to help students learn.

Neuroscience

In true WPI fashion, students and faculty from different disciplines come together in this multidisciplinary research program, complementing and building upon each other’s expertise to better understand the brain and nervous system.

Increasingly, we are hearing from major corporations that are anxious to come to campus to forge research partnerships to seek strategically important solutions and innovations.

Bogdan Vernescu

Vice President and Vice Provost for Research and Innovation

I sense that we are at a pivotal moment at WPI engaging with stellar faculty and partners in collaborative, focused efforts that will elevate WPI’s research action, investment and impact.

Ellen Grant Piccioli, Director of Manufacturing Innovation
Research Solutions Institute

PracticePoint: Advancing Healthcare through Cyber-physical Systems

PracticePoint at WPI is a a pioneering healthcare initiative that brings research, development, and testing of these revolutionary devices under one roof. Members—including public and private universities, research institutions, clinical partners, industry, and innovators—can collaborate on developing and incorporating cyber-physical systems into medical devices and equipment. These new products and systems can improve performance, security, accuracy, timeliness, costs, and outcomes in human healthcare.

More About PracticePoint

Career Paths

One of the best-known and most coveted young faculty honors is the five-year CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Eight of these career-establishing awards have recently been bestowed on WPI researchers, along with the university's first U.S. Air Force Young Investigator Award. These rising stars represent a depth of expertise in areas such as math, chemical engineering, biology, learning sciences, and cybersecurity.

WPI and UMass Lowell Team Up to Seed Growth of Combined Research

To support early-stage research collaboration between faculty at the two universities, WPI and the University of Massachusetts Lowell have partnered to award more than $111,000 in seed funding to six different teams, focusing on work ranging from human-robot collaboration to cancer detection and rehabilitation for stroke patients.

Presidential and GEM Fellows Arrive at WPI

To date, WPI has welcomed eight Presidential Fellows and two inaugural GEM Fellows (one student holds both distinguished fellowships) whose experiences and knowledge help to elevate the university’s research profile while also launching the PhD career of highly talented students to WPI.

Supporting the Graduate Student Experience

From resources that support travel expenses while students present their research findings to workshops that prepare students for post-graduation success, WPI continues to expand and enhance programming specific to the needs of graduate students.

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