Student Perspectives

The benefits of the GQP project experience and the tremendous learning opportunities afforded through these projects on both professional and personal levels are priceless for the students. Beyond these benefits, our students secure amazing achievements and successes as part of their GQP experiences that range from filing a patent application as inventors (sponsor UTC), publishing the results of their projects in professional venues, contributing to the bottom line of the sponsoring company, and winning the first GQP project prize at the GRIE graduate student research symposium, to securing a lucrative job offer from their company sponsors.

Further, we note that each student’s journey is personal. Yet all the students came out of the experience with a new skill set and experience to impart upon their future employers. Each with an individualized lens, they share a glimpse into just what life was like as they worked on a project, and where they hope to go from here.

Fall 2023 GQP XTRA Sensing Project

Jasmine Laber, Tech Associate, The Hartford Financial Services Group

In my Graduate Qualifying Project (GQP), the team and I focused on utilizing time series vibration data to create and test different model types for predicting anomalies in HVAC machines. Through this process, I was able to hone my data science knowledge and apply it to a real-world problem. I also developed my communication skills through meetings with our sponsors. I currently am excelling in my data engineering position in the rotational program at The Hartford and am looking forward to learning more in the different positions that I will be experiencing to grow as a professional and select my data science career pathway.

Spring 2022 GQP ARL Corrosion Project

Ranier Gran, Data Scientist at Square Robot, Inc.

I am happy to give back to the community by sharing my own GQP project experiences, and the skills I gained through this project-based learning at WPI. I believe that while the technical skills gained through the GQP are valuable, the soft skills learned through this process are even more important. Teamwork and communication are key to success on this journey and are invaluable skills in industry. The opportunity to the impact of organization and project management on the ultimate GQP success and the importance of challenging yourselves while also setting attainable goals on the way is priceless.

Spring 2023 GQP InnoSpire Tech

Shreedhar Kodate and Abhishek Ulhas Shivdeo

Shreedhar Kodate, Senior Cloud Engineer at Renesas Electronics

Abhishek Ulhas Shivdeo, Machine Learning Engineer at Blue River Technology

During our GQP project, we worked with a startup called InnoSpire. The project's main objective was to make public transportation more accessible to Visually Impaired and Blind (VIB) individuals using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and vision models to translate images into information that they can understand. This is a high-impact project. We are excited to share how we implemented the project, what we learned about the latest AI technologies when working on the project as well as tips for working effectively with a company. The GQP project played a pivotal role in shaping us as professionals.