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Undergraduate Programs

Providing Flexibility and Broader Scope for Today’s Leaders

The LAE program is designed to be flexible while supporting its core in engineering and the liberal arts. It upholds the two cornerstones of engineering - science and design - in a meaningful way and provides substantive treatment of humanistic, social, and business factors related to engineering and technology.

Our students are building resumes with relevant experiences to support their future pursuits. They will graduate from the LAE program not only possessing a solid knowledge of engineering, but also a broader business perspective, the tools to communicate effectively, and the ability to solve problems.

Discover what our alumni have accomplished. Their Major Qualifying Projects (MQPs) reveal the impact an LAE degree can have.

Designing and building a human robotic arm was always a dream of Paul Ventimiglia - one that was realized at WPI.

Addressing the current challenges in functionality and cost, Paul created the design for an affordable anthropomorphic prosthetic hand. His MQP explored the current state and limitations of prosthetic arms and hands and provided the platform for designing an improved one. >

Michael Fagan’s mission was to design a rover suitable for testing planetary surface exploration technologies in harsh earth environments.

This project involved the design, manufacturing, integration, and testing of ORYX 2.0, a modular mobility platform. ORYX 2.0 is a rover designed for operation on rough terrain to facilitate space-related technology research and Earth exploration missions. >

See Also

Faculty Profile

Name: John Orr
Department: Liberal Arts & Engineering
Title: Professor

Professor Orr's research interests span aspects of digital signal processing. Recent work is in positioning systems, particularly precision personnel location in the indoor environment.

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Faculty Profile

Name: Frederick W. Bianchi
Department: Liberal Arts & Engineering
Title: Professor

As director of computer music research, Professor Bianchi works with students from all disciplines. His particular focus is Virtual Orchestra technology and multichannel sound design.

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Faculty Profile

Name: David DiBiasio
Department: Liberal Arts & Engineering
Title: Associate Professor and Department Head

DiBiasio has been head of the Chemical Engineering Department since 2006. He was elected a fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education in 2009.

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Faculty Profile

Name: James Kevin Doyle
Department: Liberal Arts & Engineering
Title: Department Head and Associate Professor

Professor Doyle's research and teaching interests include applied social and cognitive psychology; system dynamics; and judgment and decision making.

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Faculty Profile

Name: Peter H. Hansen
Department: Liberal Arts & Engineering
Title: Associate Professor

Professor Hansen enjoys teaching history and international studies at WPI. He has also collaborated with students on solving real-world problems in WPI’s Project Centers.

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Faculty Profile

Name: Scott Jiusto
Department: Liberal Arts & Engineering
Title: Associate Professor

Professor Jiusto's research and teaching lives have been closely intertwined in Cape Town, South Africa, where he and his students work on sustainable community development projects.

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Faculty Profile

Name: Robert Krueger
Department: Liberal Arts & Engineering
Title: Associate Professor

Professor Krueger is founding director of WPI's ESS Program. He has been a co-principal investigator on two U.S. EPA grants focused on environmental justice issues in Worcester.

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Faculty Profile

Name: Taskin Padir
Department: Liberal Arts & Engineering
Title: Assistant Professor

Professor Padir is the Recipient of the Inaugural Rho Beta Epsilon Award for Excellence in Robotics Education

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Faculty Profile

Name: Kent J. Rissmiller
Department: Liberal Arts & Engineering
Title: Associate Professor

One of Professor Rissmiller’s greatest joys is watching his students go on to graduate and law schools and become accomplished public policy and legal professionals.

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Faculty Profile

Name: M. David Samson
Department: Liberal Arts & Engineering
Title: Associate Professor

Professor Samson teaches art history, with scholarship in the history of architecture, especially the modern period. He studies and explains the moments of transition when styles change.

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Faculty Profile

Name: Lance Schachterle
Department: Liberal Arts & Engineering
Title: Professor

Professor Schachterle enjoys the excitement of the classroom--meeting new students, sharing ideas about works of literature that matter, and learning to communicate more effectively.

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Faculty Profile

Name: Kenneth Stafford
Department: Liberal Arts & Engineering
Title: Adjunct Associate Professor

Professor Stafford’s research interests include low-speed aerodynamics, mechanical systems for autonomy and robotic dexterity, and continuously variable transmission design.

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Faculty Profile

Name: Richard F. Vaz
Department: Liberal Arts & Engineering
Title: Associate Professor

Professor Vaz has advised hundreds of undergraduate research projects in Australia, England, Hong Kong, Ireland, Namibia, the Netherlands, Thailand, and the United States.

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