Welcome
Social science is the scientific study of human thought and behavior, interpersonal relationships, and the institutional structure and functioning of human society. Its goal is to contribute to human welfare by developing an understanding of why people do what they do and using this knowledge to design and implement effective public and corporate policies and regulations. Social scientists are employed in a wide variety of governmental, industry, and nonprofit organizations where they analyze policies, perform statistical analyses on social data, design and conduct experiments on human subjects, and build computer simulations of social and economic systems. At WPI social science students and faculty employ the latest tools and techniques of social science and computational science to conduct basic and applied research on a variety of social, economic, educational, and environmental topics, often addressing social problems that are at the interface of society and technology.
The SSPS Department supports general education in the social sciences through the university-wide Social Science Requirement. The Department offers B.S. degrees and minors in Economic Science, Psychological Science, Society, Technology and Policy, and System Dynamics. The Department also serves as the home for the Pre-Law program and Law & Technology Minor and is the lead department for the interdisciplinary B.A. program in Environmental Studies. The Department offers a unique and highly regarded graduate certificate, M.S. degree, and Interdisciplinary Ph. D. degree in system dynamics, delivered to an international audience through WPI's Advanced Distance Learning Network.
The SSPS Department is home to the Social Psychology Inquiry Lab, the Learning Science and Technology Lab, and the Economic Policy and Law Research Group.
You can learn more about our programs through the links on this page, as well as the WPI admissions web page for SSPS and the ADLN page for system dynamics.
Departmental News
Oleg Pavlov was awarded tenure and promoted to Associate Professor of Economics and System Dynamics.
Associate Professor of Learning Science Janice Gobert and her colleagues in Computer Science received a $1.5 million NSF Award to design, develop, test, and implement virtual microworlds for middle school Physical Science.
Associate Professor of Learning Science Janice Gobert, her colleagues in Computer Science, and Dr. Ken Koedinger at CMU received a $1.2 million US Dept, of Education Award to design, develop, test, and implement virtual microworlds for middle school Life and Earth Science
In January 2008 Professor of Practice Jim Lyneis began serving a year-long term as President of the International System Dynamics Society.
In August 2007 Prof. Jeanine Skorinko established WPI's first ever behavioral science laboratory, the Social Psychology Inquiry (SPI) Lab. Research in this laboratory exploresthe effects of subtle social environmental cues on perception, decision making, and interpersonal behavior.
WPI has launched an interdisciplinary environmental studies bachelor of arts degree program that provides students with both intensive technological and social policy training. Several new environmental studies courses taught in the SSPS Dept. form the core of this new program.
Virginia Ward '09 (Society, Technology, and Policy) was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to teach English in Taiwan during the 2008-09 academic year. She is the first WPI student to be named a Fulbright Scholar in the university's 143-year history.
Diana Dyamanova '08 (Economic Science) was awarded the Salisbury Prize. This award is given to the most meritorious seniors at the university in each department.
Belin Beyoglu '09 and Martin Ivanov '09 were awarded the 2008 President's MQP Award for Social Science for their project "Technical Analysis of CAN SLIM Stocks," advised by Prof. Mike Radzicki.
Maintained by webmaster@wpi.eduLast modified: June 28, 2010 11:35:08