Master's in Science and Technology for Innovation in Global Development

people working on a project together outside around a sandy area digging a hole

WPI’s new global MS in Science and Technology for Innovation in Global Development focuses on global technology and development and combines your passion for technological and scientific innovation with cross-cultural design thinking to address pressing challenges and create change that will impact people and communities around the globe.

This master’s in global technology and development program will change the way you consider problem-solving approaches to challenges in your home community or in communities around the world. In a world where social concerns have a global reach with local implications, identifying sustainable solutions that promote resilience are more complex than previously thought. Whether you have a BA or a BS, this degree program offers opportunities to create change that makes a positive difference in people’s lives.

Program Summary

The Science and Technology for Innovation in Global Development program at WPI offers a transdisciplinary graduate experience that provides you with the confidence to facilitate socio-technical innovations in your area of focus. Regardless of your professional goals—academia, the private sector, NGOs, or government—your training will help you drive positive change in global development through purpose-driven action and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Our faculty have core competencies in the following areas: complex systems thinking, materials science, biomedical devices, digital development and AI, climate and environmental robotics, green design, green energy, and cross-cultural STEM education.

Core Competencies

A Student Perspective of this Degree

Hear Enis Agyeman Boateng as he shares his insights on how the Science and Technology for Innovation in Global Development program has helped him shape innovative solutions to address global challenges.

A Student Perspective of this Degree

Hear Rachel Santarsiero discuss how the MS program has provided her with the tools and knowledge to tackle global issues through technology, and how it’s prepared her to create impactful solutions.

Curriculum

The MS in science & technology for innovation in global development is a 30-credit hour global MS program. You’ll personalize your course of study by choosing electives that follow a logical path for deepening your understanding of one area. Program requirements will vary based on the concentration, but all include thematically related coursework and research.

You and your committee will choose three core fields of study, one of which is technical, and show their relationship. This degree will give you the global technology and development skills and knowledge you’ll need to

show a broad understanding of critical design thinking and how it applies to your work;
assess the suitability of different research methods for a range of socio-technical problems;
demonstrate cultural competence in at least one area; and
work with different disciplines that operate at the nexus of global innovation development.

Areas of Concentration

Requirements for the Master's in Science and Technology for Innovation in Global Development Program

Core Coursework Requirement (15 Credits)
Graduate Qualifying Project/MS Thesis (3–9 Credits)
Areas of Concentration (9–12 Credits)

The BS/MS and BA/MS degree with a Graduate Qualifying Project can be completed in 12 months. The thesis option will typically take one-and-a-half to two academic years. If you plan to add a language to your study, the program will take two years.

Research

Students in the master’s in global technology and development will find their research performed in classrooms at WPI and in places as close as WPI’s hometown of Worcester to one of more than 50 global project centers around the world.

At WPI, we have rethought the design process for responding to interventions in community development, the environment, product design, policy making, and education. Because of that broad approach, the global master’s program will prepare you for careers in business innovation and development, government, policy, nonprofit organizations, foreign service, foundations, or academia.

Research and scholarship are often done through WPI’s Development Design Lab. The research strives to improve the human condition using the expertise and life experiences of diverse scholars who work across disciplines to develop social change and supportive policy development.

Interested in degrees similar to the global MS in science & technology for innovation in global development? Explore our Science, Technology & Policy (BS) where your studies will put you at the intersection of society and technology and how those influence global issues.

The Development Design Lab

The Development Design Lab deploys our values of inclusion and improving the human condition through transformative and transdisciplinary research, application, social change and supportive policy development.

Learn More

Faculty Spotlight

Emmanuel Agu

Professor, Computer Science

Emmanuel Agu is currently a professor in the computer science department at WPI having received his Masters and PhD in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His research interests are in the areas of computer graphics, mobile computing [...]

Navneet Anand

Adjunct Instructor/Lecturer, Architectural Engineering

Navneet Magon Anand is a design strategist, consultant and researcher with a background in Architecture and Sustainability. She is the founder of Design Veritas, a design strategy consultancy and creative studio advocating for human and environmental sustainability and wellbeing. [...]

Crystal Brown

Assistant Professor, Social Science & Policy Studies

Dr. Crystal Brown earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Oregon in Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Public Administration. She also has a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Pennsylvania State University and a certificate in Data Ana [...]

Laureen Elgert

Professor & Department Head, The Global School

I joined WPI in 2011 as a scholar and teacher with training in public health, environmental policy, and international development studies. My research and teaching interests focused on the environment-development nexus, where tensions between sustainability and livelihoods often [...]

Achirri Ismael

Assistant Teaching Professor, Social Science & Policy Studies

Robert Krueger

Professor & Department Head of Social Science and Policy Studies, Social Science & Policy Studies

Robert Krueger is a human geographer whose scholarship and teaching focus on creating sustainable, socially just, improvements to development projects in the global north and south. His work has taken him around the world. He has worked in countries in North America, Europe, Asia [...]

Anita Mattson

Professor, Chemistry & Biochemistry

Research in the Mattson Group is a combination of catalyst design, methodology development, and complex molecule synthesis. Our catalyst design program is focused on the synthesis and study of new families of non-covalent catalysts, including boronate ureas and silanediols, that [...]

Geoffrey Pfeifer

Associate Professor of Teaching, The Global School

My areas of expertise in philosophy and social theory are in social and political philosophy, Marxism, global justice, development ethics, and also Critical Pedagogies that help center Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in my teaching and research. I teach philosophy courses, globa [...]

Pratap Rao

Associate Professor, Mechanical & Materials Engineering

My research is aimed at discovering, understanding and developing advanced materials for a range of applications including solar energy conversion, catalysis, printed electronics, sensors, and functional coatings. Our lab specializes in the synthesis of nanostructured thin f [...]

Jennifer Rudolph

Professor, Humanities & Arts

By training, I am a political historian of China and Japan. Coming to WPI has expanded how I view my own research and teaching and what can be done with them. I’ve led WPI’s efforts to build China-related programs for STEM students on campus and off. With like-minded colleagues I [...]

Elke Rundensteiner

Professor, Computer Science, Program Head, Data Science, Computer Science

As founding Head of the interdisciplinary Data Science program here at WPI, I take great pleasure in doing all in my power to support the Data Science community in all its facets from research collaborations, and new educational initiatives to our innovative industry-sponsored an [...]

Mahamadou Sagna

Associate Professor, Social Science & Policy Studies

  Mahamadou Lamine Sagna has a PhD in Sociology, a degree in Business (financial management) and Ethnopsychiatry. He is the inaugural director of WPI's Africana Studies program, and is an associate researcher at the Laboratory for Social and Political Change (LSCP) at the Un [...]

Aaron Sakulich

Associate Professor, Civil, Environmental, & Architectural Engineering

Replacing our crumbling national infrastructure with conventional materials would be only a temporary solution to a critical problem. My research focuses on developing new, more durable materials for use in infrastructure, which will lead to a lowered maintenance burden, improved [...]

Alexander Smith

Associate Professor, Social Science & Policy Studies

Alex's current focus is incorporating behavioral economics into personal finance. While many experts would have you believe that the basic principles of personal finance are simple and easy to follow, biases in judgement and decision-making actually make it a challenge for many p [...]

Steve Taylor

Professor, The Business School

My research is focused in two areas: Organizational aesthetics takes seriously the idea that management is as much an art as it is a science, and applies art-based scholarship and practice to management and organizations. Reflective practice is the ability to analyze our own acti [...]

Yunus Telliel

Assistant Professor, Humanities & Arts

I am an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Rhetoric. Before joining WPI, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. My work is animated by an intellectual curiosity with how ideas travel across time and space, and generate diverse practices of act [...]

Michael Timko

Professor and Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Engineering

Sharing that “ah hah” moment with a student struggling and suddenly mastering a difficult concept; helping expand the intellectual horizons of an aspiring engineer; tackling and solving problems that challenge the energy, economic, and environmental security with passionate stude [...]

Pamela Weathers

Professor, Biology & Biotechnology

Prof. Weathers is an internationally recognized expert on Artemisia annua and artemisinin, having worked with the plant and its phytochemicals including the antimalarial drug, artemisinin, for >25 years. She is a Fellow of AAAS and SIVB, won many awards, given many national an [...]

Craig Wills

Professor, Computer Science

My research has primarily focused on Internet application performance and measurement with more recent work examining issues related to Internet privacy. This work has led to a number of research publications and presentations as well as visibility in venues such as the New York [...]

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Master's in Science and Technology for Innovation in Global Development

Program Summary

Core Competencies

A Student Perspective of this Degree

A Student Perspective of this Degree

Curriculum

Areas of Concentration

Requirements for the Master's in Science and Technology for Innovation in Global Development Program

Research

The Development Design Lab

Faculty Spotlight

Have questions?

Graduate Studies Series.

More Information

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