Artificial Intelligence

AI and Cutting-Edge Research at WPI

Researchers at WPI have long deployed artificial intelligence (AI) techniques such as machine learning across disciplines to probe for insights in data. Now, as advances in generative AI and large language models revolutionize research, WPI students and faculty are continuing to work at the cutting edge of AI to leverage vast quantities of information to make discoveries in health care, robotics, materials science, autonomous vehicles, and education.

Ethical and societal concerns guide that research, enabling students and faculty to pursue research thoughtfully while acknowledging the limitations of AI. Industry collaborations also provide essential access to large data sets that allow WPI’s researchers to make breakthroughs.

Academic offerings at WPI include a graduate program in AI.

AI in Education

Neil Heffernan standing in front of a poster in a dark suit jacket and red tie

The AI techniques of machine learning and natural language processing are critical to ASSISTments, the award-winning platform that Neil Heffernan and his wife, Cristina Heffernan, founded to improve math instruction and learning.

Partners and Funders

WPI faculty members collaborate with academic partners such as UMass Chan Medical School and McLean Hospital. Our faculty also work with companies such as Charles River Analytics Inc. WPI’s research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Education, the Department of Defense, the state of Massachusetts, and other private and public funders.

Faculty Experts

Faculty Profiles

Jing Xiao

Professor & Department Head, Robotics Engineering

My research spans robotics, haptics, multi-modal perception, and artificial intelligence, at the intersection of computer science and engineering. There are two highly related themes in my robotics research: one is the focus on “contact sport”, i.e., the contact and interaction b [...]

Emmanuel Agu

Professor, Computer Science

Emmanuel Agu is currently a professor in the computer science department at WPI having received his Masters and PhD in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His research interests are in the areas of computer graphics, mobile computing [...]

Berk Calli

Associate Professor, Robotics Engineering

Berk's research primarily focuses on problems related to robotic manipulation, which is a key functionality largely missing from the current state of the art in robotics for unstructured environments, including homes, modern warehouses, and collaborative manufacturing stations. H [...]

Danielle Cote

Associate Professor, Mechanical & Materials Engineering

  After graduating from UNH with a chemical engineering degree in 2005, Danielle Cote worked as a researcher at Saint-Gobain in the Northboro Research and Development Center in polymer science and data automation.  Cote continued working while she pursued a master’s degree a [...]

Raghvendra Cowlagi

Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering

Autonomous vehicles – aircraft, cars, rovers, over- and underwater vehicles that can move in the real world by themselves without human pilotage – have gained immense importance not only due to the broad spectrum of their potential military and civilian applications, but also due [...]

Xinming Huang

Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering

Being a faculty member is a privilege through which I can teach and mentor many students. My area of expertise is in computer engineering. More specifically, I conduct research on integrated circuits and embedded systems design for wireless communications, autonomous driving, and [...]

Xiaozhong Liu

Associate Professor, Computer Science

Dr. Xiaozhong Liu is an Associate Professor at Computer Science and Data Science, WPI. Before that, he was Associate Professor at School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering Indiana University Bloomington. His research interests include natural language processing [...]

Markus Nemitz

Affiliate Assistant Professor, Robotics Engineering

Dr. Markus Nemitz serves as an Assistant Professor of Robotics Engineering at WPI and leads the Robotic Materials Group (RMG). He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 2018 and trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard until 2020. Pushing towards his vision of ra [...]

Carlo Pinciroli

Associate Professor/Graduate Coordinator, Robotics Engineering

The focus of my research is designing innovative tools for swarm robotics. I am developing Buzz, a programming language specifically designed for real-world robot swarms. During my Ph.D., I have designed ARGoS, which is currently the fastest general-purpose robot simulator in the [...]

Elke Rundensteiner

Professor, Computer Science, Program Head, Data Science, Computer Science

As founding Head of the interdisciplinary Data Science program here at WPI, I take great pleasure in doing all in my power to support the Data Science community in all its facets from research collaborations, and new educational initiatives to our innovative industry-sponsored an [...]

Carolina Ruiz

Associate Dean of Arts & Sciences and Harold L. Jurist ’61 and Heather E. Jurist Dean’s Professor of Computer Science, Computer Science

Carolina Ruiz is the Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences and the Harold L. Jurist ’61 and Heather E. Jurist Dean's Professor of Computer Science. She joined the WPI faculty in 1997. Prof. Ruiz’s research is in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Mining, and their [...]

Jacob Whitehill

Associate Professor, Computer Science

My research interests are in applied machine learning, computer vision, data science and their applications to education, affective computing, and human behavior recognition. My work is highly interdisciplinary and frequently intersects cognitive science, psychology, and educatio [...]

Jing Xiao

Professor & Department Head, Robotics Engineering

Emmanuel Agu

Professor, Computer Science

Berk Calli

Associate Professor, Robotics Engineering

Danielle Cote

Associate Professor, Mechanical & Materials Engineering

Raghvendra Cowlagi

Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering

Xinming Huang

Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering

Xiaozhong Liu

Associate Professor, Computer Science

Markus Nemitz

Affiliate Assistant Professor, Robotics Engineering

Carlo Pinciroli

Associate Professor/Graduate Coordinator, Robotics Engineering

Elke Rundensteiner

Professor, Computer Science, Program Head, Data Science, Computer Science

Carolina Ruiz

Associate Dean of Arts & Sciences and Harold L. Jurist ’61 and Heather E. Jurist Dean’s Professor of Computer Science, Computer Science

Jacob Whitehill

Associate Professor, Computer Science

Jing Xiao

Professor & Department Head, Robotics Engineering

AI and Cutting-Edge Research at WPI

AI in Medicine and Health Care

AI for Robot Performance

AI in Human-Robot Interaction

AI in Education

Partners and Funders

Faculty Experts

AI at WPI

News

Artificial Intelligence

AI and Cutting-Edge Research at WPI

AI in Medicine and Health Care

AI for Robot Performance

AI in Human-Robot Interaction

AI in Education

Partners and Funders

Faculty Experts

AI at WPI

News

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