WPI regularly serves as a hub for innovation and groundbreaking research, but for one day each April—known as Project Presentation Day—the entire campus transforms into a stage where seniors have the opportunity to present their Major Qualifying Projects (MQPs), capstone projects they’ve been working on for the better part of a year. Usually undertaken in teams, the MQP is a professional-level design or research experience in which students take what they’ve learned during their time at WPI and combine it with their own natural skills and talents to tackle and solve a wide variety of real-life issues.
What kind of issues, you ask? Well, how much time do you have?
One side of campus housed apps designed to sense depression in users, studies on the effectiveness of exergames, and in-depth presentations on the work of Jean-Paul Sartre, while another showcased robots designed to do everything from assembling sandwiches to locating and recovering humans underwater. Students presented the results of their research into diseases like tuberculosis and Alzheimer’s, and offered solutions on how to harvest energy from the deep ocean.
With classes canceled, students, faculty, and staff, as well as family members, alumni, and external sponsors, were able to spend the day learning about the students’ work and celebrating their achievements.
The MQP is designed to help students further envision what they’re capable of after graduation, and if Friday’s presentations are any indication, the students aren’t the only ones who have bright futures ahead of them—the world does, too. Check out some photos of just a few of the projects that were on display across campus.
