Your generosity launches new, cutting-edge academic programs, from fintech to explosion protection engineering to AI. Most recently, WPI announced a new BS program in Cybersecurity, addressing a critical global shortage of skilled digital defenders, and a new BS in AI, preparing the next generation of AI innovators. 

You keep our finger on the pulse of industry disruptions and trends, ensuring real-time relevance and future focus of existing programs—Data Science, with a decade of such responsiveness, is a great example. 

In this environment you help provide, our students innovate solutions to real-world challenges before they graduate.

This spring, an MQP student team developed a prototype for a thermal energy storage system, which aims to be reliable, efficient, and affordable as a heating option. The project is now featured in high school curricula. 

WPI Professor Yan Wang, the William B. Smith Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, has been elected a 2025 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI)—the highest professional distinction awarded exclusively to academic inventors.

A global leader in battery recycling and sustainable manufacturing, Wang is widely recognized for pioneering a hydrometallurgical process that recycles lithium-ion batteries at industrial scale.

Inspired by bats, WPI researchers are developing ultrasonic navigation for tiny flying robots that could soar through smoke, fog, and darkness, aiming to save more lives in search and rescue operations.

WPI researchers have created a new carbon-negative building material that could transform sustainable construction. The work, published in the high-impact journal Matter, details the development of enzymatic structural material (ESM), a strong, durable, and recyclable construction material produced through a low-energy, bioinspired process.

A group of researchers in WPI’s Department of Chemical Engineering has developed a process for wastewater treatment plants that not only shows promise in removing PFAS from sewage but also may ultimately generate renewable fuel while potentially reducing the amount of carbon emissions produced by these plants.

WPI has been awarded $6.3 million for a groundbreaking initiative that could transform additive manufacturing by enabling the rapid production of high-quality components from scrap metal.

“This work is crucial as it allows us to build high-quality components from unknown source materials with new confidence,” said Associate Professor Danielle Cote, Harold L. Jurist ’61 and Heather E. Jurist Dean’s Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering

WPI, in collaboration with Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives (MBI), the City of Worcester, and more than 30 regional partners, has been awarded $5.2 million from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to establish the BioHub, a transformative initiative designed to power the bioindustrial revolution in Central Massachusetts.

In the past 10 years, the university’s research has resulted in 25 startups, including those in lithium-ion battery manufacturing and recycling, carbon-negative building materials, and AI in healthcare.

• 54 student startups at early-stage developments
• 536 employees hired by WPI spin-off companies
• $1.7 Billion in capital raised

Read more in WPI’s Community Impact Report. 

Your giving ensures that excellent faculty and staff are here to guide our students. Here’s how our students recently described their faculty mentors:

• “the best math professor I’ve had”
• “he really cares and wants his students to learn”
• “he lights up the room with passion for what he teaches”

While many colleges and universities were eliminating their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, WPI hired Brittany Frederick, WPI’s new director of multicultural education and community engagement. 

She shares, “Students come to me to talk about their study habits. They come to me about fitting in and making friends, about identity issues and who they are. These are all things that I can help with. And once students can address those concerns that they have outside of the classroom, they can thrive in the classroom.”

Your gifts allow our students to find belonging in student clubs, athletics teams, and Greek Life. As students build community, they thrive—and make a difference.

"Your support allows us to send more students to the American Institute of Chemical Engineers National Student Conference, where we make lasting connections. Your support builds our mentee/mentor program, creating leaders and furthering communication skills in chemical engineering and at WPI.

One of the best things about chemical engineering is that the skills we learn at WPI can lend themselves to many different industries. We will be able to make differences in energy, pharmaceutical, and consumer products to improve efficiency, safety and the environment, thus impacting society for the better in all aspects of daily life."

Colette Bernier '26, WPI American Institute of Chemical Engineers