All WPI undergraduate students do significant research in pursuit of their degrees. It is in our DNA.
We know that performing meaningful, purpose-driven undergraduate research with faculty early in a college career helps students gain a greater understanding of their discipline, see the implications of their work in the world, and develop a better focus on the career they want.
WPI’s motto, Lehr und Kunst, extols the importance of theory and practice. One without the other has less impact so, no matter what their career plans are, all students at WPI engage in research.
Undergraduate research at WPI runs the gamut from basic to applied to fundamental. Research problems come from within academia or from our business, industry, or government partners.
Beyond these opportunities, students may work with faculty and graduate students on research during the summer or during the academic year.
Learning how to ask and solve open-ended questions leads to advances in whatever fields students are studying. Research takes undergraduate students past that important initial step of asking a question and leads them through the complexities of finding good solutions to original technical, scientific, and societal problems.
For the first time, undergraduate researchers presented their current research projects with poster presentations. The Works in Progress Undergraduate Research Symposium on November 25 allowed students to showcase their ongoing work for an MQP or other intensive design and research projects. Read more about Works in Progress.
Companies and organizations fund various WPI projects and give students real-world work experiences while solving an authentic industry problem. Undergraduate students often work on an MQP that is done in collaboration with industry partners. The following list is a sample of some companies that have sponsored WPI research projects.
Alissa sought out research opportunities with the Math Department that led to her completing an undergraduate research project with Vestigo Ventures—a project that has turned into her MQP and led to the submission of a research paper to IEEE.
Joshua’s work on his IQP in Australia and ecological research he has completed––especially projects involving songbirds with Professor Marja Bakermans––has led to a valuable undergraduate experience and, hopefully, grad school in the future.
