Join Us August 8 as RET Teachers Present UN SDG Research at Poster Symposium

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A select group of eight middle and high school teachers have been spending their summer working in WPI faculty labs as part of the NSF Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program, and will be presenting their research projects at the RET Poster Symposium on Friday, August 8, from 10:30 am–11:30 am in Higgins House. Their research connects to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and has inspired integrated STEM lessons to be implemented in their math and science classrooms.

All are invited to attend this event, which will include coffee and light refreshments.

We look forward to seeing you there as we celebrate our teachers’ research and their plans to bring these experiences back to their classrooms.

WPI flyer for the RET Poster Symposium on August 8, 2025, at Higgins House. Teachers will share research aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals and classroom plans. Contact stemcenter@wpi.edu for parking info. Event times: 9:00 AM Industry Panel, 10:30 AM Poster Session.

Group photo of the 4th Cohort of RET Participants

(L-R) Demetrios Kennedy, Jesse Drozd, Abigail Prisby, Em Beeler, Tiffini Cornock, Deborah Baird, Michael Nixdorf Jared Quinn

2025 RET RESEARCH PROJECTS

Research Project (UN SDG #)	Research Project	WPI Faculty Mentor, Department	Teacher, Licensure, School	Teacher, Licensure, School/Major
#7 – Affordable & Clean Energy	Magnesium Production and Recycling for Clean Energy	Adam Powell (Mechanical & Materials Eng./ Chemical Eng.)	Jared Quinn (Life Sciences, Overlook MS, Ashburnham)	Demetrios Kennedy (HS Chemistry, WPI Chemistry)
#3 – Good Heath and Well-Being	Antibiotic Resistance in Mycobacteria	Scarlet Shell (Biology & Biotechnology)	Abigail Prisby (HS Biology, Groton-Dunstable HS)	Em Beeler (HS Math, Burncoat HS, Worcester)
#13 – Climate Action	Removing PFAS from Contaminated Soils	Andrew Teixeira & Mike Timko (Chemical Eng.)	Tiffini Cornock (HS Chemistry, Carver MS/HS)	Jesse Drozd (HS Chemistry, WPI Chemistry)
#3 – Good Heath and Well-Being	Engineering Bench-Top Testing of Interventional Devices for Cardiovascular Diseases	Yihao Zheng (Mechanical & Materials Eng., Robotics Eng., Biomedical Eng.)	Deborah Baird (MS Science, Broad Meadows Middle School)	Michael Nixdorf (MS Math, WPI Applied Physics)

People

Erin Solovey

Associate Professor, Computer Science

My research is in human-computer interaction and human-AI interaction, exploring how people and intelligent systems can work together in both high-stakes and everyday environments in ways that are natural, empowering, and aligned with human goals and values. One focus of my res [...]

Adam Powell

Professor, Mechanical & Materials Engineering

Adam C. Powell, IV is a Professor in the Mechanical & Materials Engineering department who joined the WPI faculty in August 2018. His field is materials processing, and research focuses on greenhouse gas emissions reduction, elimination, and drawdown. Current projects aim to [...]

Scarlet Shell

Associate Professor, Biology & Biotechnology

I have a passion for understanding how living systems work, as well as for sharing my love of biology and research with the next generation of scientists and informed citizens. The central goal of my lab is to understand the regulatory mechanisms that underlie mycobacterial stres [...]

Andrew Teixeira

Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering

Andrew is a classically trained chemical engineer with with specialties in the fields of chemical reaction engineering and materials science. He received his B.S. from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 2009, and continued to pursue his Ph.D. with Professor Dauenhauer at the Univ [...]

Michael Timko

William B. Smith Professor and Department Head 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 [...]

Yihao Zheng

Associate Professor, Mechanical & Materials Engineering

My research focuses on medical and manufacturing innovation. I apply manufacturing science and technology to enhance healthcare. I contribute fundamental knowledge of tissue mechanics and imaging properties, provide novel computational modeling methodologies to simulate and under [...]

Geoffrey Tompsett

Associate Research Professor, Chemical Engineering

Donna Taylor

Associate Director, Academic Services, STEM Education Center

Donna Taylor Associate Director, Academic Services Email: dltaylor@wpi.edu Phone +1 (508) 8316278 Department : STEM Education Center [...]

Kathy Chen

Exec Director, STEM Education, STEM Education Center

Kathy Chen joined The STEM Education Center at WPI after 15+ years as a professor in Materials Engineering at California Polytechnic (Cal Poly) State University, San Luis Obispo where she served as Department Chair and lead many K-12 and community STEM outreach activities. In her [...]