WPI Experts

Our experts can help provide context and analysis on several angles related to wildfires.

WPI’s Fire Protection Engineering program is one of only a handful in the country and many of its faculty and students conduct research on wildfires: how they start, how they spread, engineering strategies to protect homes and communities from these fires, what happens when wildfires enter into areas where people live; and they contribute to models that can better predict how wildfires behave. They are available for demonstrations in our laboratories where they work with fire to uncover knowledge and available for interviews to discuss how wind, drought, and other factors can play a role in large wildfires.

Professor Shichao Liu can discuss why the impacts of wildfire smoke don’t stop at the door to your home or office. He can explain how wildfire smoke gets indoors and how people’s emotions can be negatively affected by exposure to smoke. He can explain strategies to reduce exposure to indoor wildfire smoke. 

Professor Nan (Nancy) Ma does research to understand the impacts of wildfire smoke on indoor environments. Ma studies and can speak about the effects of smoke exposure on children’s sleep health.

Researchers led by Assistant Professor Jiawei Yang have designed a modular system that could potentially improve hydrogel implants in the body by customizing the materials for stiffness and functionality.

The system, described in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances, uses coatings to treat the surface of hydrogels, which are flexible, water-loaded polymers.