News & Events

Upcoming Events

WPI Worcester that reads- Give a book!

WPI is helping out. We are collecting new or gently used books for Worcester kids (pre-K thru 8th grade)  for summer reading. The book drive will be held March 15-April 15 at Gordon Library or other locations around the city of Worcester. The city task force has provided low income Worcester children more than 26,000 books over the past few years. Help kids get a jumpstart on reading!

WPI Contact: Christine Drew cdrew@wpi.edu or (508)831-6163.
For more details contact School Committee member John Monfredo at (508)853-3444.

Click for more information

Envisioning Sustainable Futures 2

As part of WPI's 2010 Earth Day Celebration, the WPI Task Force on Sustainability as well as the Environmental Studies Program will be sponsoring a sustainability-themed poster contest, with two top prizes of $250.

The competition will take place on April 21st in the Gordon Library and is divided into two categories:

Click for more information, and sign up by sending your project title, group members, and project abstract to sjwenc@wpi.edu

IF YOU WISH TO PARTICIPATE, PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR PROJECT USING THIS ONLINE FORM

Earth Day Guest Speaker

As part of WPI's Earthfest Celebration, we are happy to announce that Vincent DeVito will come to WPI to speak about The Green Market:  A national, Regional, and Local Perspective of the Modern Energy Economy. Vincent DeVito will talk about green jobs from the national to the local level.  How can our students prepare for jobs in the energy or sustainability sector in the current economy? Click here to read more about Vincent DeVito.
When: Thursday, April 15, 2010 from 4 – 5:30 pm
Where: Fuller Labs Perreault Hall (Upper)

Recyclemania 2010 begins!

WPI is joining the national Recyclemania competition again this year after a highly successful effort in 2009. Recyclemania is a friendly competition and  benchmarking tool for college and university recycling programs throughout the country to promote waste reduction activities. Over a 10-week period, we will report recycling and trash data to a national site. The data is then ranked according to which institution collects the largest amount of recyclables per capita, the largest amount of total recyclables, the least amount of trash per capita, or has the highest recycling rate.  

With each week's reports and rankings, we can watch how our results compare to other schools around the state and country, and hopefully use this competition to rally our community to reduce waste and recycle more. For more information, visit recyclemaniacs.org. 

Clothing Drive for Abbey's House

Abbey's House is a non-profit organization in Worcester that serves homeless and battered women and children. If you have any clothing in reasonable shape and would like to donate them to Abby's House, please contact Hossein Hakim at hakim@wpi.edu and bring them to his office at AK231. 

 

News

February 2010

WPI Students Win the Colleges of Worcester Consortium Community Engagement Award

WPI students Travis Collins, Christpher Gowell, and Aaron Hall-Stinson have been selected as recipients of the Colleges of the Worcester Consortium Engagement Award as a result of their IQP work with the Worcester Art Museum.  A reception and awards program will be held on Tuesday, March 2, from 6-7 pm, in Tilton Hall at Clark University.

The purpose of their IQP was to conduct a Green Energy Evaluation of the Worcester Art Museum, to determine the efficiency of the facility's energy consumption and provide a green technology solution to supplement current and future usages. Through a systematic audit, current energy usages on a device by device basis were outlined in order to create an energy projection. Photovoltaics, green roofs, and wind power were examined, as well as sources of funding for these technologies. Through research and consultations, the focus was narrowed to a photovoltaic design, which prompted a solar evaluation of nearby photovoltaic arrays.  Given researched funding sources, two possible photovoltaic array installation options were proposed, comprising an effective energy subsidizing strategy. 

 

February 2010

WPI Recognized for Sustainability 

WPI is rated one of America's Top Green Colleges by the US Green Building Council and The Princeton Review.   Watch for more details!

 

December 2009

WPI's East Hall Earns American School & University Citation

WPI earns a citation in the Post-secondary category of the American School & University's 2009 Architectural Portfolio.  For more information on this recognition, click here. 

December 2009

WPI's East Hall Recognized as a Green 'Teaching Tool'

EducationDesignShowcase.com has awarded Worcester Polytechnic Institute's (WPI) East Hall the "Judge's Choice" honor in its "Building as a Teaching Tool" category. East Hall's design-and-construction process and sustainable features were recognized as "educational opportunities" for the campus community. As a nominee in the "Building as a Teaching Tool" category, East Hall was judged according to the mindfulness of construction materials, energy, and environment; its design as a learning laboratory; student and community involvement; integration into the coursework; and innovation and creativeness.

The 232-bed, apartment-style residence hall was designed by Boston-based architect Cannon Design and constructed by Gilbane Building Co. Since opening its doors in August 2008, East Hall has provided real, hands-on opportunities to educate the community about sustainable design and the environment. As part of the building's "teaching tool" features, East Hall's project team engaged WPI's Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) faculty and students in planning and discussions throughout the construction process.  Furthermore, the building's "living green roof" and stormwater monitoring/testing station also serve as teaching tools by allowing for CEE faculty and students to study stormwater quality and flow rate, and to conduct green roof technology research.  The roof – the first of its kind in the city of Worcester – features 5,000-square-feet of sedum, chives, and other plants, whose seedlings were planted by a group of students, faculty, and university administrators. The plant beds are set atop a base of 12,985 square feet of EnergyStar roofing material.

Earlier this year, East Hall was awarded LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a national organization that certifies buildings that are green and sustainable, and protect the environment. Its LEED certification is second to Bartlett Center, the university's admissions and financial aid building, which opened in 2006 and was the first university building in Worcester to attain the distinctive certification. In addition, the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) New England Chapter's named East Hall the 2009 Project of the Year Award, winning in the "Building Construction Under $50 Million" category. The building project team also took home a Green Building of America Award from Construction Communications, publisher of Real Estate & Construction Review.

October 2009

EDUCAUSE Quarterly recently published an article on the role WPI's IT Division plays in making our campus more sustainable. It highlights the university as innovative and spotlights thoughtful leaders in higher-ed sustainability initiatives. The article was written by WPI's Jon Bartelson from our IT Division and it can be found here. 

October 2009

WPI scores a B+ on the Sustainability Endowment Institute's Green Report Card! WPI's performance this year has improved substantially over the past two years.  In 2008, WPI scored a D-, and in 2009, WPI scored a C-. "It is gratifying to see WPI's many accomplishments in sustainability - both for our campus and in our education and research activities - recognized.  These simplified ratings and rankings can never tell the whole story, but given our very real accomplishments in this area, it is obviously desirable that they receive this positive public visibility. While our sustainability accomplishments have grown over that time, I believe that other major reasons for the dramatic rise in rankings relate to both the Endowment Institute's greater care in collecting data, and to our attention to effectively presenting the broad range of WPI's accomplishments." says Provost John Orr. Check our the report card at greenreportcard.org. WPI was also mentioned in an article on the topic for the New York Times.

September 2009

Mass. Clean Energy Center has awarded a U$150,000 grant to IESIS - the Institute for Energy Innovation and Sustainability in Worcester. The goal of the IEIS is economic development and job growth in clean and alternative energy, energy conservation, and sustainability sectors. This grant will help support the start-up phase of the newly formed institute's operations. Read More...

September 2009

Recently, WPI hosted the lecture Sustaining our World: Energy for the Future, given by WPI alum and currently Sr. Vice President at ExxonMobil, Mike Dolan. Mike's book, "The Outlook for Energy, A View to 2030" is meant for general audiences and it is a rare opportunity to get a real "view from the top" about the world's energy situation. The book will be on reserve in the library for the next few weeks. Make sure to check it out!

August 2009

Visit Professor Hart's Summer of 2009 Sustainability Blog

WPI's Professor Fred Hart spent the summer of 2009 visiting engineering offices and sites that are related to sustainability. He planned to visit over 15 states and Canada, travelling from MA -to- CA -to- Seattle -to- Alberta -to- NY -to- MA. Click to visit his blog. 

July 2009

WPI's East Hall Awarded Gold LEED Certification

East Hall has been awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a national organization that certifies buildings that are green and sustainable, and protect the environment. East Hall, which features the city of Worcester's first "living green" roof, is WPI's second building to achieve LEED certification. Read more...

July 2009

WPI Proves to be one of Academia's Biggest Sustainability 'STARS'

WPI scored significantly higher than the 36 other universities participating in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education's STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System) Pilot Survey, for its academic, philosophical, and capital investments in becoming a "green" campus. Read more...

March 2009

East Hall wins Green Building of America award!

WPI's East Hall has been selected as a Green Building of America Award-winning project from more than 2,500 nominated projects. Green Building of America winners are projects in which teams work together to design and build important, innovative, and unique sustainable facilities. Information on our brand new hall will be featured in the Green Success Story edition of the Real Estate & Construction Review—Northeast special.

November 2008

Sustainability Projects

With the number of sustainability projects on the increase for which students require information from the Department of Facilities, our Facilities Systems Manager/Sustainability Coordinator, Liz Tomaszewski, requests that inquiries are routed through her office and she will work to assist in your research. She can be contacted at x5454 or at ltomasz@wpi.edu.

Sept 2008

Solar Panels at WPI

Three solar powered walkway lights were installed at WPI's Alumni Field in early September. The lights contain a solar panel which charges a battery located in its base in order to operate LED lighting at night. "There was a concern about student safety in some of the pathways leading to the Alumni Field from Harrington Auditorium. It was less expensive to purchase and install the solar power lights than installing our campus standard lights and having to run electrical power in those locations. The solar lights are similar in appearance to our standard polls, as they have the same fixture," said Fred DiMauro, assistant VP for WPI Facilities.

 

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Last modified: March 18, 2010 10:31:29