A close-up shot of a student playing guitar during an event in Higgins House.

The Month in Photos: November 2021

What do World Kindness Day celebrations, innovative guitar labs, Thanksgiving food drives, and a historic cross-country win have in common? Well … nothing, normally, but in this case they’re all examples of what the WPI community was up to during November. Explore even more campus happenings through the lenses of our talented staff photographers (and a few special guests).

DEPARTMENT(S)
Physical Education, Recreation & Athletics
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Mathematical Sciences
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Humanities & Arts
PROFILE(S)
Sam Walcott

Jordan Rosenfeld ’21 kicked off last C-Term by adopting Cleo, and now he’s using his design, robotics, and biology courses to build her a prosthetic leg. By all accounts, the two are a paw-fect match.

 

Guitar maker Rachel Rosenkrantz stopped by Higgins House for a lecture and demonstration of her guitars made of unique, sustainable materials like beehives and mushrooms. 

 

Goats are back in town! We celebrated Founders Day this year with glimpses into WPI’s history, giveaways galore, and of course, visits from goats.

 

Sam Walcott, associate professor of mathematical sciences, has received a $1.4 million grant to develop a mathematical model to predict the amount of chemical energy muscles need to contract—work that could lead to improved medical treatments and the creation of better prosthetic devices.

 

Members of the Events Office staff set up a station for free hugs near the fountain—there can never be too many of those. (Photo courtesy of Stacey Happy)

 

The Student Alumni Society celebrated World Kindness Day with the WPI community in the Rubin Campus Center.

 

A collaboration between faculty mentors and student actors, designers, managers, and technicians, WPI Drama/Theatre’s production of Silent Sky featured a majority female cast and original music and sound design by Robbie Oleynick ’24, all while highlighting the achievements of women in STEM through the story of Henrietta Leavitt’s groundbreaking discoveries in astronomy.

 

The men’s and women’s cross country teams completed their historic season with a trip to the 2021 NCAA Division III National Championships in Louisville, Kentucky.

 

After hearing about over sixty families requesting aid through Thrive Support & Advocacy, members of the Theta Chi fraternity chapter—as well as students from ACCESS (Awareness, Community, Collaboration, Empowerment, Support, and Success)—worked fast, setting up a donation table in the Campus Center and collecting enough food and funds to provide a “Thanksgiving in a Box” to nearly half of the families requesting help. (Photo courtesy of Brian Lima)

 

The latest issue of WPI Journal focuses on how some of WPI’s many innovators and entrepreneurs, including Manasi Vartak ’10, braved their own unknowns. Vartak came to WPI set on discovery, and is now the founder and CEO of Verta, a start-up focused on helping companies build AI-enabled products faster than ever.

 

Members of Sigma Phi Epsilon sold bracelets near the fountain, with all funds raised donated to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. (Idea initiated by Jack Mahoney, photo courtesy of Gabriella Rios)

 

Since 1994, members of WPI’s Lambda Chi Alpha chapter have spent the Saturday before Thanksgiving collecting food for Friendly House, and this year was no different—they collected 300,000 pounds of non-perishable items from the local community, which will be donated to 500 families. (Photo courtesy of Brandon Rein)

 

Members of the women’s soccer team cheered together leading up to a match against Babson as part of the NEWMAC quarterfinals.