Young Faculty Shine in Their Careers

Donald Brown, Neil Heffernan, and Jennifer Wilcox

This spring, the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious honor for new faculty members—the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award—was given to three WPI assistant professors: Donald R. Brown, electrical and computer engineering; Neil T. Heffernan, computer science; and Jennifer L. Wilcox, chemical engineering. Each received grants of approximately $400,000 in recognition of their potential as promising researchers and educators—teacher-scholars who are most likely to become academic leaders of the 21st century. Since 1995, 19 WPI professors have won CAREER Awards.

Brown is undertaking a five-year research program to investigate and develop new, more efficient and reliable cellular phone and sensor networks using cooperative communication systems in coordinating resource allocation and synchronization. Heffernan’s research project focuses on the creation of a Web-based intelligent tutoring system to help 8th grade students and teachers prepare for the math portion of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Survey (MCAS). Wilcox’s project aims to aid in preventing volatile metals selenium and arsenic from releasing into the atmosphere due to the flue gases of coal combustion.

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Last modified: Aug 23, 2005, 15:29 EDT