25th Anniversary Celebration Schedule

April 1, 2004

Time	Event	Location
12:30 - 6:30 p.m.	Registration	Campus Center Odeum Lobby
	The Odeum is located on the third floor of the Campus Center. An information desk and kiosk are available at the main entrance to the Campus Center. Please refer to a campus map for more information.
1:30 - 2:45 p.m.	Interactive Discussion	Olin Hall - Room 107
	The idea to create the Center for Firesafety Studies and the fire protection engineering degree program germinated in the 1970's. WPI President Edmund T. Cranch authorized creation of the Center and the hiring of David Lucht, its first director, in 1978. The campus-wide faculty voted to create the FPE degree program on February 15th, 1979. Join in this open interactive discussion with principals who were involved in this phase of creating the program, including: Robert Fitzgerald, Professor of Civil Engineering...the man with the original idea Wayne Moore, Director of New England Operations, Hughes Associates, one of our first students and Past President, SFPE. An early advocate, mover, and shaker. Jonathan Barnett, Professor of Fire Protection Engineering. In the late 70's and early 80's, part-time ME Instructor, Assistant Director and PhD student. David Lucht, Director of the Center for Firesafety Studies. Former Deputy Administrator of the United States Fire Administration, Washington, D.C.; Past President, SFPE Donald Zwiep, Professor Emeritus, former Head of Mechanical Engineering at WPI, advocate for the FPE Program and Past President of ASME Edmund T. Cranch, President of WPI when the program started. The man who made the decision. Professor Emeritus, Cornell.
2:45 - 3:30 p.m.	"Mill Around" and Open House Options
	During this time visit any of several Open House Options or just mill around to meet and greet professors, alumni, students, friends and colleagues in Olin 107 or the Odeum Lobby.
	Digital Library Open House with Professor John Woycheese	Higgins Laboratories Room 102
	Professor Woycheese is developing a breathtaking new global Digital Library Network which will make a wide spectrum of fire literature, computer programs, data and animations available to practitioners, researchers and students worldwide. Patterned after similar digital library networks used in other fields (for example see www.nsdl.org or www.dlese.org), this work is receiving over $500,000 of support from the National Science Foundation and NIST. Stop by for conversation and demonstration.
	Fire Science Laboratory Open House with Professor Nick Dembsey	Higgins Laboratories Room 026
	The Fire Science Laboratory was first opened in 1995 and equipped with fundamental apparatus such as the cone calorimeter and room calorimeter, Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer and Infrared Imaging System as well as fire pump and demonstration sprinkler, detection and alarm systems. This past year FM Global gave a boost to the laboratory operation with contributions exceeding $500,000. This included donation of new state of the art Fire Propagation Apparatus as well as support of doctoral student research in composites fire performance. Professor Dembsey has been designated as the FM Global Scholar. Stop by and see the new Fire Propagation Apparatus and chat with Nick Dembsey and Lab Manager, Randy Harris.
	Advanced Distance Learning Network Open House	Higgins Laboratories Room 102
	WPI has been doing fire protection engineering distance learning since 1993. In 1999 the first student graduated with the MSFPE, without ever having set foot on the WPI campus. Come to the TV Classroom Studio, see where the classes originate. Meet Pennie Turgeon and Pam Shelley to learn more about the Advanced Distance Learning Network operation.
3:45 - 5:00 p.m.	Interactive Discussion	Olin Hall - Room 107
	The fire protection engineering degree program got underway in 1979-1980, but without any full time students or faculty. Courses were initially taught to part time students (practicing professionals in the area); some full-time students in other majors also participated. Come and hear from some of these early pioneers and participate in the discussions. Participants will include: Dougal Drysdale, Professor of Fire Safety Engineering, University of Edinburgh In the early days this Scottish professor was recruited as the CIGNA Visiting Professor at WPI to write the landmark first edition of Introduction to Fire Dynamics and to teach the Fire Dynamics course for the first time. Robert Zalosh, Professor of Fire Protection Engineering Back then Bob Zalosh worked full time as Senior Research Scientist at Factory Mutual Research Corporation (now FM Global)...he started teaching part time in 1980 and joined the program full time in 1990. Ed Clougherty, Boston Fire Department Chemist (Retired) Ed Clougherty taught the first fire protection engineering course at WPI in 1980. He was then the Boston Fire Department Chemist...and continued teaching for many years thereafter...a great asset to the program. Richard L.P. Custer, Associate Principal and National Technical Director, ARUP Fire USA Dick Custer was the first full-time fire protection engineering professor, joining the department in 1982 as Associate Professor and Associate Director, coming to WPI from the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST). David Demers, President, Demers Associates Demers was the first part time student to graduate from WPI with the MS FPE degree (1984). He was then employed at NFPA, and has since gone on to found his own highly successful consulting firm, Demers Associates. Richard Bielen, Manager of Systems and Applications Engineering Department, NFPA Rich was the first full time student to graduate from WPI with the MSFPE degree (1984). His undergraduate major was electrical engineering. After graduation he joined NFPA as a senior fire protection engineer.
5:00 - 5:30 p.m.	Open time	Odeum A Odeum Lobby
	Take this time to freshen up or mill around, greeting friends and colleagues.
5:30 - 6:00 p.m.	Reception	Odeum Lobby
6:00 p.m.	25th Anniversary Banquet	Odeum A & B
	Aside from the good food and conversation, we will be entertained by two student a cappella singing groups: Interstate 8 (Women's A Cappella) and Simple Harmonic Motion (Men's A Cappella)

Presidential Medal

WPI President Edward A. Parrish will present the Presidential Medal to Mr. Duane Pearsall for his contributions as a technological humanist. An engineer, inventor and entrepreneur, Pearsall developed the first practical home smoke detector....which is credited with saving upwards of 50,000 lives from deadly residential fires over the past 30 years.

Professor Lucht's Remarks

And to close off the evening, Professor David Lucht will offer remarks on the history, development and future of the WPI fire protection engineering program.

Registration

The registration deadline of March 22 has passed. Please contact Linda Malone in the FPE Office, 508-831-5593, to see if any seats are available for the banquet. You are welcome to sit in on the discussion sessions without a reservation.

Questions? Contact the FPE Office at 508-831-5593 or fpe@wpi.edu.

Maintained by webmaster@wpi.edu
Last modified: October 12, 2007 15:18:06