Alex R.

Alex finds the teamwork that makes WPI’s project-based learning approach so effective also builds essential business skills. With an appreciation for the strengths, backgrounds, beliefs, and weaknesses others have, he says collaborative teams create work that’s stronger than what each student could do alone. Adding in the technical-based knowledge they acquire gives WPI students an advantage in many industries upon graduation.

As he moved through his BS/MS program at WPI (which allows him to earn his master’s degree in only one year after earning his BS), Alex became involved in WPI’s Value Creation Initiative at its earliest stages. He took a Biomedical Engineering value creation course, where he learned to focus on value in work and used extensive customer interviews to understand exactly what customers needed. The experience gave him a new perspective.

“Value creation taught me the importance of asking, ‘Why are you working on a particular issue or topic?’ and ‘Who cares about it?’” he says. Value creation helps students and professionals create work that fills a need in the market or in society, rather than for discovery only. “As engineers, it is important that we work on meaningful problems and develop solutions that people care about,” he says, noting that he’ll use value creation principles in his professional life.