The Bridge - January 2005

The deepest concerns of the WPI Alumni Association and all of its 26,000 members go out to our alumni and friends who live and work in the nations affected by the recent magnitude 9.0 earthquake in the Indian Ocean and the devastating tsunamis it generated. We offer our sincerest condolences to anyone who suffered losses as a result of these tragic events.

I want to let you know that the Association has established a message board on the Alumni Web site (http://alumni.wpi.edu/) that alumni and friends may use to let us know how you have fared, and to post messages you would like to share with the rest of the WPI family. Please feel free to use this service to inquire about friends and classmates who may be in the affected areas, or to let us know if you have heard of the whereabouts of those whose lives were touched by the earthquake and tsunamis.

I hope you find this message board of value.

Fred Costello '59
President, WPI Alumni Association

WPI News Alerts

Carol Simpson Named Provost and Senior Vice President

On Jan. 31, Carol Simpson will join WPI as provost and senior vice president. For more than 20 years, Simpson has been a leading academic administrator, faculty member, and researcher in the field of geology, most recently at Boston University as associate provost for research and graduate education, and professor of earth sciences. She is the first woman to hold this position at WPI. Read more...

WPI Signs Academic Agreement with Chinese University

WPI has signed an agreement with Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Wuhan, China) to formally establish cooperative relations between the two institutions, especially to develop academic and cultural exchanges for joint educational and research activities. More about the agreement...

Recognition for WPI's Department of Management

The director of accreditation of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business will use WPI's Department of Management mission statement as an example for other business schools to help them frame their own mission statements. It is one of eight mission statements selected from over 400 accredited business schools. According to McRae Banks, department head and professor of entrepreneurship and strategy, "framing our mission statement took almost four months of long weekly meetings, interspersed with considerable research and discussion." Read the mission statement...

In Memoriam: Roger Perry, Robert Taylor, Krishnaswamiengar Keshavan

Roger Perry '45 passed away on Jan. 9. He joined WPI in 1964 as the first full-time director of public relations and served in that post until his retirement in 1988. He continued to serve WPI as director of communications for the Campaign for Excellence and assisant to the vice president for university relations; he was the first editor of and the longtime senior writer for Quest, a publication that told the stories behind major gifts to the university.

Krishnaswamiengar Keshavan, former WPI professor of civil and environmental engineering, died Dec. 25, 2004, after a long illness. Keshavan joined the faculty in 1967; he retired in 1998 at the age of 69.

Robert (Bobby) Taylor, lead technician in WPI's Mechanical Engineering Department, died Dec. 23, 2004. Taylor worked at WPI for 37 years and was well known for his involvement with the university's SAE Race Team, Autocross Club, and Wireless Association.

Read more about Perry, Keshavan, and Taylor...

WPI Student Project Helps Maine Town Recover from Flood

When a 100-year-old flood hit the western Maine town of Canton just before Christmas 2003, town leaders already had a plan in place to relocate the flooded downtown out of the floodplain. Just seven months earlier, a pair of WPI civil engineering students completed their senior project, "Design of a New Central Village for Canton, Maine," which detailed how to prevent such a disaster. Read more...

WPI Hosts "No Limits" Challenge, FIRST LEGO League Tournament

On Dec. 18, 2004, hundreds of students between the ages of 9 and 14 converged on WPI to compete in RoboNautica 4, an official Massachusetts FIRST LEGO League tournament. Student teams used LEGO-robotic inventions to play in this year's game, "No Limits," and presented research projects that investigated the use of robotics technology. Learn more...

Alumni Events

View the complete listing of alumni events...

Jan. 15: Winter Social for GOLD classes (1995-2004) and their guests, 7 to 9 p.m., Boston Billiards, 454 Grove St., Worcester. Cost: $10 per person. Info and registration available at the GOLD Web site.

Jan. 19: Tech Old Timers talk, Robert Pazzella, safety liaison for Worcester Public Schools. Coffee hour at 9:45 a.m.; talk at 10:30 a.m., Campus Center Odeum. Info: alumni-office@wpi.edu or 508-831-5600.

Feb. 9: GOLD meeting, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., Campus Center Mid-Century Room. Info: gold@wpi.edu or 508-831-5600.

University Events

View the complete listing of campus events...

Jan. 17: "An Optical Vortex Coherence Filter," 4 to 5 p.m., Olin Hall. Info: "garcia@wpi.edu or 508-831-5342.

Jan. 21: "Investigation of Water/Magma Mingling," 2 to 3 p.m., Higgins Laboratories, Room 116. Info: medemetri@wpi.edu or 508-831-5236.

Jan. 23: NECCWA wrestling duals, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Bridgewater State College. Info: steveraz@wpi.edu.

Jan. 26: WPI Music Division lecture by Dan Foley on audio specifications, 7 to 8 p.m., Campus Center Odeum. Info: rfalco@wpi.edu or 508-831-5794.

Feb. 4: "Dynamic Balancing of Reciprocating Machinery with Application to Weaving Machines," 2 to 3 p.m., Higgins Laboratories, Room 116. Info: mdemetri@wpi.edu or 508-831-5236.

Career Opportunities

The WPI Alumni Association's Career/Employment Program assists alumni in the search for new employment or with making a career change and provides counseling and mentoring on a private, one-to-one basis. For more information, e-mail alumni-office@wpi.edu or call 508-831-5600.

EMPLOYERS: Send open position listings to thebridge@wpi.edu. Deadline is the first week of the month, for posting in that month's issue.

January Poll Question

Where are you traveling this summer? Send your responses to thebridge@wpi.edu. Answers will be published in the Spring 2005 issue of Transformations.

Bookmarks

We'd love to hear your suggestions or comments. Please send them to us at thebridge@wpi.edu.

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Last modified: May 25, 2006, 14:11 EDT