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This Master’s in AI Program Is a Cross-University Collaboration. Here’s How Students Will Learn.
Elke Rundensteiner, the William Smith Dean's Professor of Computer Science and founding head of the WPI data science program, spoke with BestColleges about the university's new master's degree in artificial intelligence.
A recent WGBH broadcast featured students at the Mass. Academy of Math and Science who 3D print prosthetic hands for people in developing countries, free of charge. The students are part of a group called e-NABLE, which is comprised of volunteer designers and engineers from all over the world.
WGBH featured the WPI-related segment interviewing Glenn Gaudette, professor of biomedical engineering, and grad student Joshua Gershlak, on growing heart tissue on spinach.
The New York Times quoted WPI’s Jeanine L. Skorinko, associate professor of psychology. She told The Times, that people, especially Americans, prefer more distance between themselves and strangers and would rather take the stair below them or walk past them. “This is why people put bags on seats next to them on the train so people don’t sit next to them,” she said.
National Geographic features a WPI research team that has learned how to grow heart cells on spinach leaves. The stripped down spinach becomes a vascular network to deliver blood, oxygen and nutrients to grow human tissues like cardiac muscle to treat heart attack patients.
National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered” program profiles the WPI-developed Flame Refluxer, a novel technology that can greatly accelerate the combustion of crude oil floating on water, minimizing the environmental impact of future oil spills. “The coils collect the heat from the flame and they transmit it through the copper blanket,” Ali Rangwala, associate professor of fire protection engineering, explained to NPR. He and a team of researchers developed the Flame Refluxer.
WPI’s Yanhua Li, assistant professor of computer science and data science, received a $174,596 grant from the National Science Foundation for a transportation study involving a "hub-and-spoke" model: an alternative urban transit system. He also appeared on WBUR radio discussing his grant.
Worcester News Tonight aired a story on its Thursday night newscasts about the FIRST robotics district competition being held at WPI yesterday and today, which will feature 40 teams from all six New England states. Ken Stafford, WPI robotics professor and robotics resource center director, was interviewed for the segment and said the competition “has all the elements of an exciting NBA tournament with the thinking elements of math, science and engineering.”
Boston’s NPR station interviewed Edward Clancy about work he and fellow professor of electrical and computer engineering Xinming Huang are conducting on improving the ability of hand-wrist prostheses to move more naturally. Read full transcript. Listen to audio clip
The Telegram & Gazette talks with Kamal Rashid, director of WPI’s Biomanufacturing Education & Training Center, who traveled with a life sciences delegation from the U.S. to Cuba last month. Rashid was enthusiastic about representing WPI on the trip and learning about the robust biotechnology industry he saw in Cuba. “I’ve been in the area of biotechnology for 31 years; I had known a little bit about the Cuban field of biotechnology, but I had interest in seeing what their progress was,” he told the T&G.
WCVB Channel 5 featured PABI an autism therapy robot during its recent Cutting Edge segment. PABI, a co-creation of WPI robotics engineering professor Greg Fischer and his wife Laurie Dickstein-Fischer who is an education professor at Salem State University, effectively applies technology to address the psychological needs of the autistic population.
Brian Moriarty, IMGD professor of practice in game design, is quoted in this The New Yorker article. “The line between what is a movie and what is real is going to be difficult to pinpoint,” Moriarty said. “The defining art form of the twenty-first century has not been named yet, but it is something like this.”
A cooling technology developed by a team led by Jamal Yagoobi, mechanical engineering professor and department head, will fly aboard the International Space Station later this decade.
The article, co-written by Diran Apelian, founder of the Metal Processing Institute, and graduate student Sean Kelly. “By manufacturing aluminum components from secondary material streams, 95% less CO2 is emitted and the energy consumed is reduced by 92% compared to primary production [2-3]. The complete benefit of automotive light-weighting using aluminum cannot be fully achieved without an efficient and effective end-of-life collection and recovery process,” the article stated.
Greater Boston, (which airs on WGBH, Boston’s PBS television station) featured Alcogait—a WPI-developed app that can measure how much a person has had to drink by the way he or she walks. Emmanuel Agu, associate professor of computer science, designed the app with help from a team of students.
Numerous media outlets converged on Logan Airport to report on a WPI student from Iran, affected by the travel ban, who was able to return to the United States. President Laurie Leshin joined Congressman Jim McGovern and Congressman Joe Kennedy to welcome Behnam Partopour at Logan Airport.
Tis article reports on a WPI-developed electrohydrodynamic pump that could be a breakthrough in cooling high-powered electronics in space. Under professor Jamal Yagoobi’s guidance, the device was tested on NASA’s reduced-gravity aircraft, known as the Vomit Comet, to mimic the zero-G atmosphere of space.
The story described letters WPI President Laurie Leshin has provided to a PhD student and post-doctoral fellow currently prohibited from entering the United States, in an effort to affirm their affiliation with WPI.
