Projects are at the core of the WPI curriculum, requiring students to apply the knowledge learned in classes and labs to real-world situations, developing solutions to problems that matter to real people. Project work helps students become better collaborators, critical thinkers, public speakers, and communicators— vital to success at WPI and the skills that distinguish WPI graduates throughout their careers.
Our signature project-based approach to undergraduate education, known as the WPI Plan, prepares students for success. These great young minds bring ingenious approaches to an astounding array of challenges–and the projects fundamentally change the students, building leaders who possess passion, proficiency, and a certainty that their life's work can change the world.
Every student at WPI completes projects in addition to academic coursework throughout their undergraduate experience–sometimes on campus, sometimes off campus at sites around the world. Project-based initiatives are integrated into the undergraduate education through classroom projects, projects in the first year, major capstone projects, community-based projects, study abroad projects, and more. Most projects are undertaken in teams, an invaluable experience for getting things done in any profession, teaching students how to pool individual strengths and insights to accomplish something they could not do alone.
The Boston Business Journal reported on the opening of WPI Seaport, a multipurpose space in Boston that will further WPI’s role in the state’s innovation economy. President Laurie Leshin was joined by several state and local officials, including Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty, and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, who said the new collaboration with WPI will “will bring more outstanding talent into our neighborhoods.”
N magazine features the amazing project work that WPI students do at the university’s Nantucket Project Center that makes a difference to this local community.
WPI’s distinctive project-based educational model has been lauded in the academic world for years, but one of the most compelling acknowledgements is by those who know the benefits of a WPI education firsthand — WPI alumni. A 2012 survey of 2,500+ WPI alumni from the classes of 1974 through 2011 revealed the powerful impact of project-based learning on professional skills — and much more.
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To continue meeting the educational and learning style needs of students, WPI is engaging students in developing an entrepreneurial mindset, which focuses on curiosity, connections, and creating value to society. Our students learn how to think with an entrepreneurial spirit, even if they never plan to start a business, and our project-based educational model offers a great platform for this type of learning and thinking.
