A Publication for West Coast Alumni and Friends
Vol. 1, No. 2 / November 2001

From Mill Town to Mode Hops

"WPI showed me, in direct and practical ways, how to analyze problems and work in teams to construct solutions, always with a clear eye on the social effects of ideas and actions."

'Down that road...' The phrase caps the home page of Justin Greenough, who last May received dual bachelor's degrees in computer science and technical, scientific and professional communication.

Behind that phrase is an attitude that, so far, has taken the 23-year-old from the Rhode Island mill village of Pascoag to WPI, on to Thailand for one of his required WPI projects, then to Silicon Valley to complete another. Next likely stop: management consulting at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the global public accounting and consulting firm.

"WPI showed me, in direct and practical ways, how to analyze problems and work in teams to construct solutions," he says, "always with a clear eye on the social effects of ideas and actions." And then there is the all-important factor of trust. "At WPI," Justin says, "students are expected to do the right thing as they learn. This makes for what I believe will be invaluable lifelong confidence, knowing that I have acquired theory, handled practicalities, examined social consequences, and immersed myself in campus life. It's quite an education I have. I think that I am ready for the demands of the world of work."

A former editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, Tech News, Justin has worked as a campus tour guide, a peer writing tutor and a resident advisor. As a Web developer in the WPI Web Development Office, he revitalized the WPI Apartment Finder System, which is used to match the off-campus accommodation needs of students and the aims of landlords looking for tenants.

While the apartment finder system was a solo undertaking, his projects at the Bangkok and Silicon Valley project centers were team efforts. Working with Thomas Pfeiffer '01, now a graduate student in biology and biotechnology at WPI, Greenough studied the impact on villagers in the Mae Moh district of projects managed by the country's electricity generating authority that sometimes result in the villagers' relocation.

Working for sponsor New Focus Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif., which designs, manufactures and markets innovative fiber-optic products for next-generation optical networks, Greenough, Zachary Mouneimneh '01 and Natalie L. Chin '01 developed a software application for the study of active mode hop suppression.

A mode hop results from a mismatch in a change in the resonant wavelength of a specially constructed cavity, and the accompanying change in the optical path length of light from tunable lasers, one of the products manufactured by New Focus under its Smart Optics for NetworksTM brand. Justin, Natalie and Zac learned all they could about mode hops and the relevant physics; they collected and analyzed data, developed software, and put together a manual that enables New Focus engineers and scientists to detect and correct mode hops.

Justin, looking 'down that road,' says the projects he completed in Bangkok and Santa Clara helped him develop the integrated balance of the technical and scientific, and the sense of social consequences, that he now regards as his own as he prepares to leave Worcester. "Thanks to WPI, I have a deep-seated sense of social responsibility," he says.