In the News

WPI’s Public Interest Technology (PIT) group was featured in the PIT University Network’s monthly newsletter, “Member Spotlight: Worcester Polytechnic Institute.” “With initiatives touching communities around Worcester and across the globe, and PIT projects and programs incorporating a set of disciplines just as vast, WPI is a national leader in integrating technology and public service disciplines. This expertise is a great asset to the network as other Network members—from fellow technical universities to liberal arts colleges—look to collaborate and build the PIT community,” the article stated.

NBC10 interviewed Sarah Strauss, professor, integrative and global studies, for its report on WPI’s new master of science program in Community Climate Adaptation. “We wanted to use the existing infrastructure and extend it to the master’s level to create an interdisciplinary with the specific goal of helping communities adapt to the impacts of climate change,” Strauss said

International Firefighter included WPI in the article, “Measuring What We Value: to Unlock a Budget for Emergency Services, We Need to be Able to Point to Success Around the World.” “All sides agreed that measuring public support and satisfaction was simultaneously one of the most important metrics to decision makers and rarely studied – a subject that GESA (Global Emergency Services Action) is beginning to tackle, working with Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Global Center for Public Safety. We need to build the tools to help practitioners track the success metrics that are important to them and the communities they serve – but we can’t do it alone,” the article stated.

WPI got a shout out in the Spectrum News 1 report. “With help from WPI, participants and their parents learn to program and code different robots. Staff from WPI and volunteers from the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI help facilitate the groups virtually.”

The Worcester Business Journal reported on Nima Rahbar, associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and lead author of the paper published in Applied Materials Today, was noted in the article.

Spectrum News 1 reported on Nima Rahbar, associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and lead author of the paper published in Applied Materials Today, was mentioned in the article.

The Worcester Business Journal reported on Mimi Sheller, PhD, head of the department of sociology at Drexel University and a distinguished and internationally recognized scholar and educational leader, joining WPI in July as the inaugural dean of The Global School.

WPI is noted throughout the article, “Worcester’s colleges have fostered a startup ecosystem to help students become business owners.” The decision by the Massachusetts Digital Games Institute to move to WPI reflects the university’s “world-renowned video game development programs,” the article stated. It also noted how the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce partners with “WPI’s Venture Forum and the business incubator and coworking space WorcLab to run an annual program known as StartUp Worcester to help young entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground.”

Travel Tourism News interviewed Professor Fabio Carrera, director of WPI’s Venice Project Center, for the article, “How Venice is managing Europe’s worst tourism crisis.” “It is this focus on the livability of a city that Venetian data scientist Fabio Carrera believes is the key to Venice’s future. Because if a city cannot retain its own populace, no amount of tourist tax will be able to avert its inevitable decline and death,” the article stated. “As such, Carrera has dedicated 30 years of his academic life working on the Venice Project Centre, dividing his time between Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the prestigious Santa Fe Institute and Venice. During that time, he has supervised over 250 projects examining the city’s challenges: mapping every bridge, bell tower, well and water bus.”

The Telegram & Gazette covered WPI’s Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony for the School of Arts & Sciences and the Foisie Business School, “Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Lt. Gov. Polito honor WPI grads via video during commencement ceremony Thursday.” Congratulatory messages from Tyson and Polito were delivered via video. President Leshin, meanwhile, told students during the ceremony how impressed she was by their endurance. “We have come through a once-in-a-century event together, this global pandemic. We will be forever bonded not only because of what we came through together, but how we came through it,” she said. “It’s sort of like we completed the largest and most complex IQP ever, and I know that when I reflect back on this unprecedented time in our lives I will always think of you, the great class of 2021 and what you all did individually and collectively to keep WPI safe and to make it to today."

President Laurie Leshin was named to The Worcester Business Journal’s “2021 Power 50.” “Worcester Polytechnic Institute tends to nearly always be at the center when people talk about where Worcester colleges shine: drawing more students, spurring startups, and a forward-thinking mentality toward equal opportunities,” the article stated. “Laurie Leshin, WPI’s president since 2014 and its first female leader, has led this change.”  

The Rev. Dr. Debora Jackson, dean of the Foisie Business School, were named to The Worcester Business Journal’s “2021 Power 50.” Jackson, “already has engaged with several organizations to strengthen WPI’s ties to the community, including Worcester Interfaith, the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, Diverse Professionals Roundtable, Black Families Together, Yes We Care, the Worcester Pipeline Collaborative, and the Black Excellence Academy,” the Journal wrote.

Boston 25 News reported on WPI biology professor Pamela Weathers being part of a team of researchers finding that extracts from leaves of the medicinal herb known as sweet wormwood inhibit the replication of COVID-19 and two of its variants. (7:36:31 mark)

MassLive reported on WPI biology professor Pamela Weathers being part of a team of researchers finding that extracts from leaves of the medicinal herb known as sweet wormwood inhibit the replication of COVID-19 and two of its variants. 

Spectrum News 1 reported on WPI biology professor Pamela Weathers being part of a team of researchers finding that extracts from leaves of the medicinal herb known as sweet wormwood inhibit the replication of COVID-19 and two of its variants. 

WBZ reported on WPI biology professor Pamela Weathers being part of a team of researchers finding that extracts from leaves of the medicinal herb known as sweet wormwood inhibit the replication of COVID-19 and two of its variants. Plays at time mark 19:07:26.

Boston Herald reported on WPI biology professor Pamela Weathers being part of a team of researchers finding that extracts from leaves of the medicinal herb known as sweet wormwood inhibit the replication of COVID-19 and two of its variants. 

Worcester Business Journal reported on WPI biology professor Pamela Weathers being part of a team of researchers finding that extracts from leaves of the medicinal herb known as sweet wormwood inhibit the replication of COVID-19 and two of its variants. 

The New York Times article highlights some of Prof. Greg Fischer’s work. “Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute are developing ways for machines to carefully guide surgeons’ hands as they perform particular tasks.”

Boston Globe columnist Thomas Farragher wrote a column about WPI robotics engineering professor Marko Popovic and undergraduates Mia Buccowich ’22, Andy Strauss ’23 and Brian Fay ’22 helping to develop a partial hand prosthetic for University of Houston student Payton Heiberger. “Working with them in the lab and coordinating with students of my own age has been amazing,” Heiberger said of her experience working with the WPI team.