Grand Challenges Scholars Program
Meet Five of WPI's Grand Challenge Scholars
Holly Nguyen’s journey at WPI began with the Heal the World Great Problems Seminar, the seed of an ongoing interest in multidisciplinary problems, human health, and cultures around the globe. She reflects on how she integrated her major of computer science, a minor in business, and commitment to service as she created a business plan for women jewelry-makers in Ecuador, worked toward water security for rural people in Guatemala and Ecuador, and developed a mobile sleep app.
Rachel Welch has a passion for space exploration and spinoff technologies that will improve life on Earth. She reflects on her leadership of the Satellite Development Club to research, design, and build a CubeSat and on the challenges of coordinating communication between multiple technical and non-technical subgroups. Rachel also learned from internships at Deep Space Systems and interacting with professionals and startups in Denmark, Israel, and Lithuania.
A computer science major with entrepreneurial aspirations, Derek Feehrer saw first-hand the power of multidisciplinary teams via successes in hardware and software hackathons and product pitches. As a contribution to the grand challenge of advancing personalized learning, Derek developed and applied research, multidisciplinary, and multicultural competencies as part of an IQP team that developed a multi-channel promotion plan to launch the first massive open online course (MOOC) in Namibia.
High school sports injuries led Maggie Vaccaro to a goal of becoming an engineer in the medical device industry. She reflects on how she developed Grand Challenge competencies from work with Boston Scientific and a small startup company, courses she took for her business minor, multiple design projects in biomedical engineering, and travel in Ecuador and Israel.
The GCSP at WPI supports and recognizes undergraduates who wish to combine any major with a passion to address significant challenges facing society.
In August 2017 the NAE named WPI a Grand Challenges Scholars School, recognizing the university’s unique project-based curriculum—the core of the WPI Plan—that enables students to engage in real-world experiences across four years and around the globe. At WPI, our Grand Challenge Scholars Program builds on the WPI Plan. With the Great Problems Seminar, thematically related coursework through the Humanities & Arts Requirement, the Interactive Qualifying Project and Major Qualifying Project, Global Projects Program, summer experiences, and leadership roles in clubs and organizations, students have multiple opportunities to develop their research abilities, interdisciplinary and global perspectives, and entrepreneurial mindset, all in the service of society.
WPI Grand Challenge Scholars will be guided by advisors, mentors, and peers to make purposeful, informed decisions about their program of study with the multidisciplinary, global nature of societal grand challenges in mind. The goal of WPI’s GCSP is for students to connect and reflect on multiple learning experiences, inside and outside the classroom, as they develop the following five competencies:
- Research ability: Identifying and solving problems creatively through sustained critical investigation
- Multidisciplinary approaches and interdisciplinary perspectives: Interacting with and drawing from multiple fields of expertise; making connections between disciplines; analyzing the humanistic, social, historical, economic, and technical contexts of problems
- Innovation and entrepreneurship mindset: Creating value in the marketplace or in society with a viable business model
- Global and intercultural competency: Developing skills, knowledge, and dispositions to appreciate diverse perspectives and ideas and to engage in open, peaceful, and productive interactions with people and cultures around the world
- Social responsibility: Considering the social and human consequences of actions and responsibilities to others in local, national, and global communities; acting to improve the human condition.
Scholars will document their competencies, reflect on their learning, and communicate the impact of their work in an ePortfolio that touches on one or more of the Grand Challenges themes.
