In the News

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.  

Preview News Image

WPI launches unique explosion protection program

MassLive published an article and video for its coverage of the university's new explosion protection engineering master's program, the first of its kind in the U.S. Designed amid growing concerns about fire and explosion risk posed by manufacturing facilities and advancing technologies like electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells, the new program builds on WPI’s esteemed legacy in fire protection engineering, which has been at the forefront of fire safety education and research since its inception in 1978.

 

NASA Tech Briefs

NASA Tech Briefs included the WPI YouTube video, “Advancing Medical Robots at WPI” and noted, separately, how in 2015, Greg Fischer, professor of robotics engineering and mechanical engineering, along with fellow researchers built a robot that finds its way through a patient to potentially dangerous tissue, using real-time images from an MRI as a navigational guide.

The New York Times

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.”

The Verge

The Verge featured Greg Fischer, professor of engineering, along with other makers in an online interview (quoted throughout). “This is not going to do as well as a commercially available ventilator, but it’s going to do a heck of a lot better than nothing,” Fischer told The Verge. “And, that’s really unfortunately the situation we might be in.”

CBS Boston

WBZ-TV is the latest to air the work that Greg Fischer, the William Smith Dean's Professor, is doing with other WPI researchers on designing ventilators and making their components publicly available so anyone with a 3D printer and background in electronics and mechanical engineering could use them to produce ventilators for hospitals.

WBUR 90.9

WBUR interviewed Greg Fischer, the William Smith Dean's Professor, on his spearheading the idea of having teams of WPI researchers make designs of ventilators and their components publicly available so anyone with a 3D printer and background in electronics and mechanical engineering could use them to produce ventilators for hospitals.

Worcester Business Journal

The Worcester Business Journal highlighted WPI’s PracticePoint ribbon-cutting event in its article​, "WPI Marks Opening of New $17M PracticePoint Facility​." PracticePoint is the university’s membership-based development and testing facility. The goal of this alliance space is to advance healthcare technologies and launch better medical cyber-physical systems, through collaboration across the spectrum of product development and implementation. 

Telegram.com

The Telegram & Gazette in this article, highlighted the university’s ribbon-cutting at PracticePoint, its membership-based development and testing facility. PracticePoint labs is a collaborative health care technology facility that university, state and business leaders hope will deliver breakthroughs in medical devices.

The Robot Report

The Robot Report quoted Gregory Fischer, professor of mechanical engineering, in its coverage of the Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum in California. He described the work done at WPI’s PracticePoint development and testing facility on robotic systems that can work on a patient inside an MRI machine. “We’re adding cooperative control like that for an autonomous car, with the doctor pushing the gas and the robot steering,” said Fischer, who is also director of PracticePoint. “PracticePoint is working in real time in clinical environments.” 

Associated Press

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.

Worcester Business Journal

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.

Mumbai Mirror

WPI mechanical engineering professor Greg Fischer, the director of WPI’s Automation and Interventional Medicine Lab, is noted in a story about medical robotics and his research on MRI-compatible robots for cancer therapy.

Robotics Business Review

The Robotics Business Review highlighted work by Major Qualifying Project (MQP) teams, ranging from an autonomous vehicle platform to a robot that can guide prospective students around a campus.

Worcester News Tonight

Worcester News Tonight featured the news of PracticePoint at WPI’s Gateway Park being named the site of the first so-called “sandbox” by Gov. Baker who was on campus yesterday to announce the new grant program. “It’s going to be about engineering and data science, and those are two areas where WPI is a national leader,” Gov. Baker said (8:45 mark). President Laurie Leshin added, “There’s so much innovation happening right here in the heart of the commonwealth, right here in Worcester. It’s fantastic to see the state recognizing that.”

Worcester Business Journal

Gregory Fischer, William Smith Dean’s Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Engineering, was noted in the Worcester Business Journal on his being elected a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors.

Telegram.com

This week’s College Town in the Telegram & Gazette led off with Gregory Fischer, William Smith Dean’s Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Engineering, being elected a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors. The article noted some of Fischer’s work, including development of an MRI-compatible robotic system, which will enable more effective treatment of metastatic brain tumors.

Worcester Business Journal

The Worcester Business Journal reported on Boston Scientific joining PracticePoint, a membership-based research and development and commercialization alliance founded by WPI to advance healthcare and patient wellness technologies through accelerating development of medical cyber-physical systems.

Machine Design

WPI researchers led by Gregory S. Fischer, associate professor of mechanical engineering and robotics engineering, were featured in Machine Design. They, along with Albany Medical College and corporate partners, received a five-year, $3.5 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue developing an innovative medical robotic system. 

Physics World

Physics World reported on WPI researchers led by Gregory S. Fischer, PhD, associate professor of mechanical engineering and robotics engineering, and Albany Medical College, along with corporate partners, receiving a five-year, $3.5 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue developing an innovative robotic system. Operating within an MRI scanner, it can deliver a minimally invasive probe into the brain to destroy metastatic brain tumors with high-intensity therapeutic ultrasound under real-time guidance.

Worcester Business Journal

The Worcester Business Journal reported on research led by Gregory S. Fischer, PhD, associate professor of mechanical engineering and robotics engineering, and Albany Medical College, along with corporate partners, receiving a five-year, $3.5 million award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue developing an innovative robotic system to treat brain tumors.

Mechanical Engineering Magazine

Gregory Fischer, mechanical and robotics engineering professor, and Laurie Dickstein-Fischer, professor of education at Salem State University, were interviewed for this article. The feature story focused on the potential of robots, including the Fischers’ PABI (Penguin for Autism Behavioral Intervention), to help therapists treat adults and children with autism.