WPI in the World

Global Projects Program

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We want every student to be part of a global project experience—including you! The university is committed to ensuring all students have access to its transformative Global Projects Program, an internationally recognized component of The WPI Plan that immerses student teams into local communities to make a tangible, long-term impact in the world.

Every full-time, degree-seeking WPI undergraduate student—including transfer students—is eligible for a one-time Global Scholarship of up to $5,000 to defray the cost of one credit-bearing, off-campus project experience through the Global Projects Program, be it the Humanities & Arts Requirement (HUA)Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP), or Major Qualifying Project (MQP).

At WPI, we know that the best way for students to understand and appreciate societal issues is to experience them firsthand. Through our Global Projects Program within The Global School, WPI science, engineering, and business students immerse themselves in new cultures and tackle unstructured, real-world problems in ways that are meaningful to local sponsors in real communities. Our diverse project centers—strategically positioned in locations ranging from large international cities to small mountainside villages—are host to interdisciplinary and major capstone projects, and humanities and arts projects.  As well, students can participate in language immersion and exchange programs.

Not Your Typical Study Abroad Program

Our Global Projects Program is not an ordinary study abroad experience—like everything else at WPI, it’s distinctive. Regardless of if you choose to work across the city or across the ocean, it’s the experience that takes you further—you’ll work to make a profound impact to communities and organizations, and come back a different person than you were before.

 

Global Impact

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A Sweet, Interdisciplinary Experience

The Switzerland Project Center is one of the few to host both Interactive Qualifying Projects (IQP) and Major Qualifying Projects (MQP).

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Student Project: Living with Fracking in Albania

This student team won first place in the President's IQP Awards for their project highlighting fracking's impact on women in Albania

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White Mountains, New Hampshire Project Center

Building Confidence While Helping the Environment

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WPI’s First Project Center

WPI's Washington DC project center celebrates its 50th year

WPI Receives 2023 IIE Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education

Heiskell Award Recipients

The IIE Heiskell Award recognizes and showcases innovative and successful models for developing and expanding international education opportunities. WPI was selected for its commitment to the Global Projects Program and specifically the Global Projects for All initiative—spotlighting a signature component of the university’s project-based learning model.

An Experience that Changes Students—and Their World

They say good things come to those who wait, and that’s exactly the case here. For most students, the Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP)—often completed at one of our global project centers in the U.S. or abroad—is more than a year in the making. Follow 13 students through their IQP journey fifty miles away in nearby Boston, Massachusetts, and learn how their experience has forever altered their perspectives of themselves and the world they live in. 

About the Global Projects Program


100%

of undergraduate students are eligible for a Global Scholarship to complete life-changing project work

50+

global project centers on six continents

Nearly 20,000

undergraduate students with off-campus project experience 

50

years of undergraduate project experiences through the Global Projects Program

1,217

students completed a Global Projects program project in the '23-'24 academic year

Where in the World Are Our Students?

At sites as close as our home city of Worcester and at 50+ other locations in 31 countries, opportunities are available to complete any of the projects required for graduation: Humanities & Arts (HUA), Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP), and Major Qualifying Project (MQP). The selection process is competitive and project work is preceded by rigorous preparation. 

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Personal and Professional Impact

It’s easy for us to say that the Global Projects Program can be life-changing, so we want you to hear it from those who lived it—a survey of over 2,200 WPI alumni revealed that their project experiences impacted them long after their time at WPI. Even more powerful was the impact of those project experiences through the Global Projects Program.
 

News

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Meet Our Staff

Q&A with Colin Watters, Director of Global Risk Management

Answers to questions about ways to keep travelers safe