Saluting our Schools

WPI engineering programs meet 21st century challenges

International work is standard and problem-solving is a core focus. Every undergrad does two large-scale projects

If you’re looking for cutting-edge programs with the promise of a lucrative career after graduation, you might want to check out the offerings at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI, Worcester, MA).

WPI is located about fifty miles west of Boston. Founded in 1865, the school is one of the nation’s earliest technological universities.

But there’s nothing archaic about its cutting-edge academic programs. Its fire protection engineering program has gained international recognition. The school recently opened a new interdisciplinary life sciences lab facility. And WPI has new graduate programs in robotics and systems engineering lined up for the fall of 2009.

A diversity of practical experience
Undergraduate students get to solve real problems in communities around the globe. Through the university’s Global Perspective Program, students can travel to one of twenty-five project centers in North America and Central America, Africa, Australia, Asia and Europe. Two-thirds of WPI students complete one or more projects off campus.

“Our undergraduates regularly go overseas and work on things like finding a way to get clean water to an African village or improving a communications network in Southeast Asia,” says Michael McGrade, director of graduate admissions. “While finishing a degree, they have several opportunities to solve practical problems and make a difference.”

WPI programs support diverse students
WPI is committed to increasing the diversity of its student population, says diversity program office spokeswoman Nicole Bradford. In 1993, the Thurgood Marshall/Cesar Chavez/Russell Means scholarship was established to recognize the academic achievements and leadership skills of African American, Latino and American Indian students.

Through the Office of Diversity Programs, the university is committed to providing student mentors, Bradford adds. The DINE (diversity and inclusion networking evenings) Out program is a campus-wide effort designed to inspire its students of color to achieve success through collaboration with professional role models who promote and support their aspirations.

Interdisciplinary options are available
WPI’s eighteen academic departments offer a wide range of undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology and management, as well as courses in the social sciences, humanities and arts. Students can earn a BS, BA, MS, ME, MBA or PhD. Graduate certificates are also available in some fields.

Faculty research is conducted in tandem with students in a number of areas, leading to breakthroughs and innovations in such fields as biotechnology, fuel cells, nanotechnology and information security.

“While many of our graduate programs naturally develop a student’s expertise in more than one field,” McGrade says, “we also have an inter- disciplinary option that allows them to design their own programs and take courses in different engineering fields.”

Job placement is high for graduates
Typically, more than 90 percent of the undergraduates who register with the university’s career development center are accepted to grad school or placed in jobs at organizations like Accenture, Cisco Systems, Dell Computer, General Electric, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Sun Microsystems, United Technologies, the World Health Organization, and more. A recent ranking by Forbes.com rated WPI ninth in the nation among “top colleges for getting rich,” and the part-time MBA program was ranked number one in New England by Business Week magazine.

Innovative curriculum sets school apart
What distinguishes WPI from other learning institutions is its project-based approach to education, McGrade says. In the 1960s, he explains, the faculty said that they “were tired of teaching out of books, and they wanted to rethink engineering education from the ground up.” So they revamped the entire curriculum, developing a project-based program that gives students the opportunity to put their classroom knowledge into practice to solve real-world problems in communities around the world. While some colleges and universities are just now seeing the benefit to a project-based curriculum, WPI was the first to embrace it, shaping the model more than thirty-five years ago.

Two large-scale projects form the heart of the WPI undergraduate experience. The first, usually conducted in the junior year, asks students to explore relationships between society and technology. The second, undertaken in the senior year, focuses on solving a problem in the student’s major field. Both projects are collaborative affairs, carried out by small groups of three to five students.

“The senior-year project is a lot like a thesis,” McGrade says. “Students use the projects to tackle real-world problems, and 40 percent of the undergraduate population spends time overseas in one of our project centers.” In the past, some students have earned patents for their project work while other projects have led to job offers.

Fire protection engineering is in demand
On the graduate level, students can tackle fields that meet unique twenty-first century challenges. A fire protection engineering graduate program gives students entry into “an extremely lucrative field where there is enormous demand and little supply,” McGrade says. Both masters and PhDs are available. In fact, WPI is one of only a few schools in the world that offer such a program and it’s the only school in the nation that offers a PhD in the field.

The program is very competitive. Candidates should have a degree in mechanical, civil, chemical or electrical engineering. “Because fire protection draws on several fields, students are usually missing a couple of courses before they start the MS program. But those who pursue this field are highly motivated,” McGrade says. “We usually accept them provisionally and ask them to complete what they’re missing.”

Alumni find themselves working on safety for large skyscrapers, cruise ships, facilities at Disneyland and Las Vegas or anywhere that has fire codes, McGrade says. They work in military branches, government entities and general construction firms.

Life sciences facility boasts unique design
WPI has a new life sciences center, open since May 2008. “The building was specially designed to encourage collaboration and interdisciplinary work,” McGrade says. “Professors don’t have their own labs. Instead there are large, open spaces on each floor with rows of benches. A chemical engineering professor may work alongside someone doing biotechnology work.”

McGrade notes that this design allows for the free flow of information. “A lot of thought went into designing a space to encourage interactions among students and faculty.”

The new building also houses several startup companies. Now, a patentable idea conceived in the lab can be developed and commercialized all in one place.

Masters in robotics for 2009-10
In early March 2009, WPI’s board of trustees approved a masters degree to complement the school’s successful undergraduate robotics program. Applications are already being accepted for 2009-10, but McGrade doesn’t yet know how many students will be enrolled in the program. Grads will find opportunities in industries such as national defense and security, elder care, automation of household tasks, customized manufacturing and interactive entertainment.

McGrade notes that New England is home to a strong and growing robotics industry. Massachusetts alone boasts over 150 companies, institutions and research labs in the robotics sector that employ more than 1,500 people.

Other unique options are available
WPI has a well-known metals processing institute that works to find environmentally friendly and less costly ways to process metals. The work is done on campus and is the largest industry-university alliance with the metal processing industry.

In the IT arena, the school has a well-respected CS program, and offers an MS in IT management.

WPI also offers a masters degree in mathematics for educators. “The feedback I have from applicants about why they chose WPI’s MME is that we are more focused on math and less focused on courses in education,” McGrade says. “For a secondary-ed teacher who wants to focus on math, it’s a nice degree.” The CS department is also involved in improving math and science education.

Online programs include certificates and MS degrees in environmental engineering, fire protection engineering, and system dynamics, which is a combination of mathematical modeling, economics and public policy. It studies how decision-making affects the way organizations function. WPI also offers an online MBA.

OWP reaches out to middle and high school girls
WPI is proud of its efforts to promote women in science, technology and engineering fields. The Office of Women’s Programs (OWP) works directly with local and national chapters of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE, www.swe.org), says women’s programs director Shelley Errington Nicholson.

“I’m a member of SWE and attend the national convention with admissions each year to recruit for our graduate programs,” she says. “Our SWE group does outreach to the Girl Scouts (www.girlscouts.org) in central Massachusetts by sponsoring two Girl Scouts days each year.”

Additionally, her office hires an intern to work on various projects, including collaboration with Hudson High School’s Women in Technology (www.womenintechnology.org) cluster. She notes that part of the OWP’s mission is to develop pipeline programs for girls.

Programs include a one-week residential summer camp, WUNDERS (Women Understanding New Dimensions in Engineering-Related Science); a two-week summer program for girls entering the seventh grade called Camp Reach; a one-day introduce-a-girl-to-engineering day program entitled IGNITE (Interest Girls Now In Technology and Engineering) that focuses on high school girls; and a year-long program for middle school girls called Tech Girls.

Forty-three girls are now in the Tech Girls program. They come to campus fifteen times during the academic year to do hands-on experiments with female engineering students.

In addition to a SWE chapter, there are two student groups, Women in Computer Science and Women in Electrical and Computer Engineering, that also do outreach programs with girls in the Worcester area.

“My office has standing collaborations with the local Girl Scouts council, Girls Inc (www.girlsinc.org), Girls Choice (www.girlschoiceinc.com), the Worcester YWCA (www.ywca worcester.org), and the United Way Women’s Initiative in Central Massachusetts (www.unitedwaycm.org),” Nicholson says. “We have tremendous programs to support and encourage high school girls and show them how science, technology and engineering can transform the world.”

D/C