Putting the Pieces Together
By Edward A. Parrish
Accompanying essays by Allison Chisolm, Elizabeth Walker and Michael W. Dorsey
Photographs by Patrick O'Connor

From the Information Revolution, to the global economy, to upheval in the workplace, the world is changing in dramatic ways. At the same time, technological higher education is undergoing an unprecedented transformation. The shifting landscape is raising the visibility of WPI's pioneering curriculum - a program well suited to the world of today and tomorrow - and creating an opportunity for the University to once again lead the way in defining a better way of preparing technological professionals.

To capitalize on that opportunity, WPI last year began a communitywide strategic planning process that will help it build a new vision for the future and a plan for turning that vision into reality. In the first phase of that process, a cross section of the community made a critical appraisal of today's WPI and suggested ways to build a better University. From those proposals, the Strategic Planning Steering Committee formulated eight draft goals. To understand what WPI might be like in the future, we look here at eight current programs that exemplify those goals: