Note: Some media outlets require users to log-in. The Gordon Library offers the WPI community free access to a number of newspapers. Visit newspaper database for details.
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.
The Telegram & Gazette reported on the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarding WPI a $1 million grant to help low-income, high-achieving students earn a STEM degree from the university. WPI Director of Multicultural Affairs and Biomedical Engineering Professor Tiffiny Butler is principal investigator, while Katherine Chen, executive director of the STEM Education Center, is co-principal investigator.
WBZ News Radio interviewed Cagdas Onal, associate professor of mechanical engineering about a $3m NSF grant WPI received to study how humans and robots can co-exist in the workplace.
Vice cited work by Professor Emily Douglas, head of the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies, for this article. The publication cited a 2016 analysis co-authored by Douglas, that found while women are more likely to be injured (or killed) in domestic violence disputes, men and women inflict violence on their intimate partners at roughly the same rate.
Under Emerging Tech, Digital Trends interviewed Craig Putnam, associate director of robotics engineering, about the student-led project that is developing the autonomous rover and payload-deploying drone. The goal is to find and safely destroy hidden munitions that kill or maim as many as 20,000 people around the world each year. Putnam told Digital Trends, “the goal was to come up with a system that was as low cost as reasonably possible so that it could be afforded by some remote village that has a problem with land mines in the area.”
Robotics Business Review published an extensive story with photos of last week’s Robotics Engineering Research Symposium at WPI. The story includes comments from WPI President Laurie Leshin and WPI alumnus Mathew DeDonato ’09, who is now a manager in the vehicle hardware group at Toyota Research Institute. President Leshin called WPI’s robotics program “an incredible model for higher education.”
WBZ radio aired a segment last night and this morning about WPI’s Jazz History Database. Rich Falco, director of Jazz Studies and assistant teaching professor of music, discussed the unique collection. WPI has compiled hundreds of CDs, cassettes, and other materials from jazz artists, families, and musical societies. Students digitize the analog versions of the jazz performances and enter them into the database.
The Associated Press published a Telegram & Gazette article on WPI’s Haichong (Kai) Zhang, assistant professor in biomedical engineering and robotics engineering, and his five-year $1.8 million Director's Early Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It’s to create a robotic system that will detect and analyze three different indicators of prostate cancer.
The Worcester Business Journal reported on WPI receiving $3 million from the National Science Foundation to study human-robot interaction in the workplace. Eight WPI researchers are involved: Cagdas Onal (principal investigator), Yunus Telliel, Jeanine Skorinko, Winston Soboyejo, Jing Xiao, Pratap Rao, Soussan Djamasbi and Jane Li.
Jing Xiao, director of Robotics Engineering, and PhD student Alexandra Valiton were interviewed by Worcester News Tonight about therecent Robotics Engineering Research Symposium.
The Telegram & Gazette interviewed Scott Barton, associate professor of music, about his producing a first-of-its-kind concert at Mechanics Hall, pairing human musicians with artificially intelligent musical robotics.
The Worcester Business Journal featured Haichong (Kai) Zhang, assistant professor in biomedical engineering and robotics engineering, and his receiving a five-year $1,869,423 Director's Early Independence Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It’s for his ongoing work to create a robotic system that will detect and analyze three different indicators of prostate cancer. Gregory Fischer, professor of robotics engineering, is also working on the project.
Boston 25 reported that WPI is getting an $8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to scale up ASSISTments, a middle-school math assessment tool. ASSISTments was created by Neil Heffernan, the William Smith Dean Professor of Computer Science and the director of the Learning Sciences and Technologies Program at WPI, and his wife, Cristina Heffernan.
BBC News profiled WPI landmine-related research in this segment. “I believe we’re probably the first that’s been doing the robot drone duo in the context of looking for landmines. Initially, it was just the aerial part then we worked on the rover. Now we’re trying to bring it all together,” Craig Putnam, associate director, robotics engineering, told the BBC. The student teams are developing the autonomous rover and payload-deploying drone to find and safely destroy hidden munitions that kill or maim as many as 20,000 people around the world each year.
WCVB-TV interviewed Professor Ted Clancy, electrical and computer engineering, as part of their feature on his teaming with experts to develop wireless sensors to improve the performance of prosthetics for individuals with upper limb amputations. “To be able to use both the hand and the wrist at the same time is a big challenge for a prosthetic,” Clancy told WCVB.
Associate Computer Science Professor Craig Shue was interviewed by the Worcester Business Journal for this article. As companies increase their defenses, hackers, meanwhile, react. “It is an arms race. We do have an ebb and flow going back and forth,” Shue said. “It almost feels like a competitive sport at times
WBUR interviewed Nikhil Karanjgaokar, assistant professor of aerospace engineering, who’s aiming to create a bulletproof vest in which the materials inside the vest could instantly change properties, providing greater shock protection at the exact point of impact. “You just feel safe knowing that know matter what sort of impact comes your way you’re protected,” he said.
Neil Heffernan, professor of computer science and director of the Learning Sciences and Technologies Program, had his opinion piece published in Ed Surge.
Jennifer Wilcox, the James H. Manning Chaired Professor, was interviewed for this Audubon article. (scroll down to 13th graph). The article noted her being coauthor of a report issued last year by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that calculated the negative emissions needed to avoid the most serious impacts of CO2-driven warming by 2100. “Wilcox says-working to grow forests, revamp agriculture, innovate technologies, and deploy every tool we have. As she puts it, “We need to do it all,’” the article stated.
