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A Celebration of the Class of 2022

amracicot — Mon, 09 May 2022 12:00:00 +0000

The members of the Class of 2022 may have completed this part of their journey at WPI, but WPI will never leave them. It鈥檚 commonly said that there鈥檚 no singular WPI experience, and the same holds true for our graduates once they鈥檝e got that long-awaited symbol of all their hard work in hand. Whether they鈥檙e planning to pursue graduate school, a new job, military service, or something else entirely, they鈥檙e more than ready to make their future their own鈥攁ll with the knowledge that they鈥檝e got the support of the entire WPI community behind them. In celebration of them and their countless accomplishments, we asked a few members of the Class of 2022 to reflect on their time at WPI and how they鈥檒l carry their alma mater in their lives once they leave the Hill.

WPI Researchers Seeking to Bridge the Digital Divide

admin — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Internet access in both rural and urban America continues to be a challenge due to a variety of factors鈥攔anging from being too expensive to install in sparsely populated areas to widening digital inequities in metropolitan areas鈥攂ut steps are being taken to correct that. And WPI is part of the solution.

U.S. Ignite, a high-tech nonprofit whose mission is to accelerate the smart community movement, today announced that WPI is involved in one of seven awards for Project OVERCOME, which was conceived by the National Science Foundation and is designed to bring novel broadband technology solutions to underserved areas. The NSF is funding $2.25 million while Schmidt Futures is providing $450,000 for the projects, which are being launched and overseen by U.S. Ignite. The projects will take place in six states and Puerto Rico.

In its announcement today, U.S. Ignite noted that the 鈥渨inning proposals reflect a range of rural and urban environments, demographic characteristics, geographic regions, housing types, local and industry collaborations, and technical approaches.鈥?NSF leaders said that the pandemic has shown the need for more broadband connectivity to the workplace, critical resources, and other online opportunities.

WPI is part of a collaborative team led by Missouri University of Science and Technology that has been awarded one of the projects. The Missouri S&T-WPI team is receiving $300,000 ($200,000 for Missouri S&T; $100,000 for WPI.) Read Missouri S&T鈥檚 announcement here and U.S. Ignite鈥檚 announcement here.

The Missouri S&T-WPI project involves what is known as 鈥渁n RF (radio frequency) over Fiber (RFoF)鈥?deployment using intelligent routing and multiple last-mile wireless technologies to serve a rural village in Clinton County, Missouri. WPI is providing the underlying technological support while Missouri S&T is building the hardware. Plans are to start by providing broadband Internet to 30 homes in this small village, but then to scale it to larger projects. Broadband refers to high-speed data connections that can easily support streaming services and multiple teleconference sessions at the same time.

Shamsnaz Bhada, assistant professor of systems engineering at WPI, is serving as the principal investigator while Alexander Wyglinski, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is the co-principal investigator for the project. Also involved on the WPI team are Galahad Wernsing, a PhD student; and Mariko Endo 鈥?2, who is majoring in interactive media and game development. Both Bhada and Wyglinski agree that it is critical for universities to collaborate on projects such as these for the betterment of society.

The Herd caught up with Bhada and Wyglinski to discuss the challenge of providing broadband access, the team鈥檚 role and goals, and how WPI鈥檚 twin mission of theory and practice are on full display on this project.

The Herd: Why was your proposal selected?
Shamsnaz Bhada: One of the reasons our proposal was selected was because we had a replication strategy. Although this proof of concept was for a village in Missouri, we have a systems methodology that can support the replication of this across the country.

Alex Wyglinski: Exactly. Our team is so critical because there is a fundamental need for communications and using it in innovative ways. The need to reproduce this technology, scale it, and tie it to not just the 30 households in Missouri, but to millions of homes across the country is vital. And that鈥檚 what U.S. Ignite was looking for in the proposal.

The Herd: How significant is the problem of rural broadband access in Missouri and nationwide?
SB: More than 1.3 million Missourians live in rural areas, and do not have adequate access to high-speed Internet. But if you expand this to tribal lands and other areas within the state, the figure extrapolates significantly. The problem is even wider across the United States. Since the pandemic, over 26 percent of Americans in rural areas and 32 percent in tribal lands have inadequate high-speed broadband.

The Herd: What exactly will your team be doing?
AW: We鈥檙e coming up with the innovation and the technology. The hardware is being built, collected, and installed in Missouri. WPI is responsible for understanding

the technology鈥檚 limitations. Can we stretch the technology to support 40 houses? Can we support 300? If we buy these basic (wireless) components, can we apply the research we do here at WPI to push the envelope of the technology to achieve that?

SB: Also, the intelligent router is going to be programmed at WPI so we will be doing a lot of the coding. [Missouri S&T] is putting the hardware on the ground, but the coding and analysis of what node should be operational in Missouri鈥攁t what point and when鈥攁re going to be decided and programmed here at WPI. So, that鈥檚 pretty cool that you can have the hardware on the ground and the software gets to run the show. We are also creating the digital twin of the entire system, which is going to have physical and software aspects that can be generated from the technology.

The Herd: How did the partnership with Missouri S&T come about?
AW: I received an e-mail out of the blue from Casey Canfield, who is an assistant professor at Missouri S&T. She plugged the words 鈥渨ireless鈥?and 鈥渟pectrum鈥?into Google and it produced my name. And I鈥檓 glad she did. I鈥檓 glad I responded and that we鈥檙e looking into the rural broadband problem further.

The Herd: What is your ultimate goal?
SB: For me, coming from a systems engineering perspective and addressing the digital divide challenge of social justice, I envision in a few years that we can pack broadband in a box and give it to students just like we do for free lunches. It鈥檚 no longer the case where you can have good health, good information, and a good education without broadband.

The Herd: It sounds like you鈥檙e clearly solving a real-world problem here.
AW: We鈥檙e taking our theory and putting it into practice to help the folks of a fellow state who really need help getting broadband connectivity. This is a very real-world need, and Shams and I are part of what will probably be an extremely transformative experiment that could ultimately change the lives of millions of people.

Personalized Online Education Offers Flexibility at WPI

amracicot — Fri, 16 Mar 2018 12:00:00 +0000

In an effort to meet the changing education needs of both students and professionals, WPI is piloting an online program initiative as part of the Strategic Plan that allows students to complete classes at their own pace, proving their competency in a particular subject area as they go. Known variably as competency-based education or personalized online education (POE), the approach is lauded for its flexibility.

POEs consist of a series of modules (approximately 10 to 14 per course), with each module focusing on a particular subject or competency. As students complete each module, they must prove their competency before progressing to the next module. The flexibility in time and in ways to prove a competency makes the program especially appealing to students who aren鈥檛 always able to commit to a set class schedule or timeline.

Stephen Flavin

WPI鈥檚 pilot program in systems engineering helped debut the POE concept in 2016; a new pilot in autonomous vehicles is slated to launch later this year.

With the advent of POE at WPI, the university hopes to open up more opportunities to students and potential students. 鈥淲e have lowered the barriers and relaxed the time requirements,鈥?says Stephen Flavin, vice president of academic and corporate engagement, who is co-leading the initiative with David Cyganski, professor of electrical and computer engineering. Mindful that the typical POE student is likely a working professional who is getting a master鈥檚 degree in order to advance at his or her job, Flavin notes how important the flexibility is. The modules, despite being accommodating to varying time constraints, are no less rigorous.

POEs also give more people more opportunities for success because of the nature of the timing and of the varied testing styles available. 鈥淭he tenet is that you move at your own pace,鈥?says Stacy Chiaramonte, director of online programs and corporate operations at WPI鈥檚 Corporate and Professional Education, 鈥渁nd everyone is moving at different time lines. There are different pathways based on an individual鈥檚 needs.鈥?Students, all at the graduate level, generally complete the work at their own pace鈥搇ogging in whenever they have the time.

While any course needs to be completed in a set amount of time (typically graduate classes must be completed in 10 weeks), POE students are allowed an additional 6 to 8 weeks to complete a course. Motivated students can complete course requirements much faster, and those who are especially pressed for time and who choose POE for flexibility can take the full amount of time. How to prove a student鈥檚 competency in each module is up to the student and the professor. Students often can choose from many options鈥攖aking an exam, writing a paper, making a presentation, completing a project鈥攖o reflect the module鈥檚 concepts.

Stacy Chiaramonte

WPI plans to launch a POE course in autonomous vehicles and will use approaches learned during the systems engineering pilot courses to make the process more streamlined and beneficial, says Chiaramonte. The systems engineering course reflects interest in one of the biggest traditional online programs at WPI and one in which there is already excellent student-to-student interaction (especially important for an online program) and student-to-faculty interaction.

鈥淭his is all about educating students and President Leshin鈥檚 vision for being a global polytechnic,鈥?says Chiaramonte. 鈥淲e are increasing access to education and providing targeted learning.鈥?But, in providing POE, WPI is also appreciating that students today are consumers and can get an education where they see the best fit; this option provides one more choice and that reflects WPI鈥檚 cutting-edge and innovative approach to education. 鈥淭his is part of the WPI focus on continually challenging ourselves to be better innovators and stay on the cutting edge,鈥?she says.

Converting courses to POE takes time and a different approach, Flavin says, as the actual planning tactic needs to look at multiple courses from a program level, not a course level. At the program level, faculty and staff can determine what modules are most effective and how those modules can be divided, combined, or structured. As the course modules develop, faculty members can collaborate on modules or independently on separate modules that will together become one cohesive course. And faculty members can also pull in various metrics or tests within a course to make sure the students are working on track, says Chiaramonte. With a short quiz, a poll, and discussion board participation, faculty members can determine if a student is struggling. Students can even take targeted modules, rather than completing the full course, for immediate learning that鈥檚 required on the job.

Alex Wyglinski

Associate professor of electrical and computer engineering Alex Wyglinski says the topic of autonomous vehicles alone is cutting-edge, but to combine it with a POE approach is nothing short of revolutionary. 鈥淭his area is a high-growth area,鈥?says Wyglinski. 鈥淣ot many people know what autonomous vehicles are all about and people are trying to catch up. Few are offering educational opportunities to learn about this, and no one is developing a curriculum that centers on understanding this like this is.鈥?lt;/p>

Students in POE will have a chance to complete a full set of modules for a course, says Wyglinski, but they might just choose to become competent in one or two modules as needed for their work. The innovative approach combined with such an emerging area is revolutionary, he says, because it delivers much-needed and current content in a rapidly developing field. 鈥淭he timing is great and the time is now,鈥?he says. 鈥淚 am hoping we can become one of the thought leaders.鈥?lt;/p>

One of the techniques with POE, says Chiaramonte, is choosing how to overlap modules that might be so similar they can be considered one module. By doing so, the process is even more streamlined for faculty, who don鈥檛 have to develop two modules when there could be one, and for students who won鈥檛 have to take an extra and similar module.

Reflecting on and keeping with WPI鈥檚 tradition of hands-on project work, Chiaramonte says the modules can be grouped to allow for both independent coursework and project work. 鈥淭he long-term vision is that students would complete the independent modules at their own pace and then join a team for a more structured project module or course,鈥?she says. 鈥淭his allows students to move at their own pace for the modules where that makes sense while supporting the project work that is such an important aspect of the WPI programs.鈥?lt;/p>

- By Julia Quinn-Szcesuil

Professor Beth Wilson Wins UPCEA Exemplary Teaching Award

amracicot — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 12:00:00 +0000

Beth Wilson, a systems engineering professor in WPI鈥檚 Corporate & Professional Education (CPE), recently won the 2017 Exemplary Teaching Award from the University Professional & Continuing Education Association (UPCEA).

Wilson, who teaches classes for the master鈥檚 degree in systems engineering, joined WPI last year after spending 33 years with Raytheon.

Beth Wilson with her Exemplary Teaching Award.

Although she considers herself retired, she teaches to remain active and technically current. Still, she didn鈥檛 expect the honor. 鈥淚 was very surprised,鈥?says Wilson, who has a BS, MS, and PhD in electrical engineering. 鈥淚 am new to online teaching, so this recognition is the result of The Dream Team (CPE and the Academic Technology Center (ATC) that I have helping me to design, deliver, and improve the courses I teach.鈥?lt;/p>

Before coming to WPI, Wilson was a systems engineer in the aerospace industry, where her experiences teaching her colleagues and peers sparked a passion to teach and inspire others. 鈥淚 provided some in-house training on topics to accelerate the career path of aspiring technical leaders and taught some classes in an on-site master's in systems engineering program,鈥?she says. 鈥淚 felt that it was an honor, privilege, and responsibility to enable the next generation of systems engineers to be successful.鈥?lt;/p>

Using her corporate experience helps Wilson teach, helps her students learn, and was one deciding factor in her award. 鈥淧art of her winning the award was from the quality of her teaching in general,鈥?says Adrienne Franciosi, UPCEA New England Regional Conference award chair. 鈥淏eth had the corporate experience, but she was also passionate about helping people advance their careers,鈥?she says. 鈥淪he created a system for her company, a learning pipeline, so the knowledge would transfer. One pipeline was to encourage engineers to become chief engineers. She has that energy and passion and puts that into her online courses.鈥?lt;/p>

Though a new online faculty member, Wilson is familiar with the format. She says she prefers teaching an online class because it presents distinct opportunities to her and to her students to have a learning experience that is satisfying, in-depth, and relevant.

The UPCEA award reflects all she has accomplished, and how she is having an impact on her students. 鈥淎s someone with a hearing loss, I find online teaching much more accessible to me,鈥?she says. 鈥淭he students interact with me on the discussion boards and submit written assignments; our synchronous sessions are conducted using the chat window.鈥?amp;nbsp;

With the basic differences of teaching students who are accessing her class from all corners of the globe, Wilson says adapting to the format required a few tweaks. She wants to make sure students aren鈥檛 feeling isolated in the class because they aren鈥檛 interacting in person. And because of that distance, she pays special attention to providing clear instructions, comprehensive content, and meaningful assignments.

Beth Wilson

鈥淎t first I made online courses a poor imitation of face-to-face classes,鈥?she says, 鈥渂ut after attending the WPI Faculty Institute for Online Teaching program, I now aspire to make the online learning experience the same or better than a face-to-face experience.鈥?amp;nbsp;

The online experience is different from in-person classes in many ways. Besides the obvious lack of physically meeting, Wilson鈥檚 students are working around the clock. She checks on her students鈥?work and discussions several times throughout the day. 鈥淚 spend a lot of time grading their assignments to provide feedback on where they can improve, but also where I thought their work was outstanding,鈥?she says. 鈥淚 set up a discussion board topic for questions about the lecture material or assignments. I check that every morning and use that opportunity to tune into the discussion board threads for that week.鈥?amp;nbsp;

Wilson鈥檚 preparation for a class is as involved as for an in-person class, but in a different way. She records an introductory video so her students know who she is. 鈥淭hat is the only time in the class I have to actually brush my hair,鈥?she quips. Wilson has high goals for her students and expects them to be successful, but also to lead the next generation of systems engineers to the same success.

She also reflects on what seems to be working or not working as the class progresses and presents it to her CPE/ATC team for some brainstorming on how to improve things like content delivery and student engagement. 鈥淭his continuous improvement model keeps me motivated to deliver quality classes,鈥?she says. 鈥淲hen students contact me during or after the class to describe something they learned that they are using, I am inspired to make it better for the students that follow them.鈥?lt;/p>

To keep her approach fresh, Wilson says she continually places herself in the student role, most recently taking a class at the Worcester Art Museum. 鈥淓very year I take a class in something I know nothing about so that I can learn something interesting and remember what it feels like to be a novice,鈥?she says. 鈥淚 think this makes me a better teacher.鈥?amp;nbsp;Her schedule hardly matches the typical retirement pattern, but she does take time to 鈥渄onate golf balls to the ponds and woods鈥?and 鈥渟ki green dots and blue squares in the winter.鈥?She is also dedicated to bringing hearing access to community members and works with the Hearing Loss Association of America Central Massachusetts chapter.

Franciosi calls Wilson an excellent role model for both her students and her peers. 鈥淚t is all about each student in her class,鈥?she says. 鈥淏eth is invested in delivering excellent content and delivering quality feedback.鈥?lt;/p>

As online learning grows in popularity and accessibility, Wilson says many people stand to reap great personal and professional rewards. 鈥淢y vision of future online learning is that we will stop acting like it is a consolation prize for face-to-face classrooms,鈥?she says. 鈥淭he technology available to us and the growing population of adult learners juggling work and family commitments means that online learning will be growing.鈥?amp;nbsp;

- By Julia Quinn-Szcesuil

amracicot — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 12:00:00 +0000

Ethical behavior is鈥攐r should be鈥攁n integral part of the way that each of us interacts with the world, no matter our background, locale, or profession.

Certainly, for engineers, a decision as minor as choosing a problem to study or a material for a design can require a thoughtful consideration of ethical implications.

To that end, it鈥檚 important for engineering students to be exposed to the ethical concepts that might arise during their careers.

Kris Billiar

At tomorrow鈥檚 Food for Thought teaching and learning seminar, three WPI professors will discuss 鈥淓veryday Ethics: Tips for Embedding Ethics in Technical Course Content.鈥? The event will take place from noon to 1:20 p.m. in the Hagglund Room at the Rubin Campus Center.

鈥淓mbedding鈥?is the critical word here: the focus is the 鈥渕icro inclusion鈥?of ethics, or preparing novice engineers to recognize the small-scale ethical issues that will arise during their first years in the profession.

Kris Billiar, professor of biomedical engineering, Fred Looft, professor of electrical & computer engineering and systems engineering, and philosopher Geoff Pfeifer in Humanities & Arts will each address micro inclusion as a strategy for ethics education.

In this context, micro inclusion can be defined as much by what it is not as by what it is.

Including ethics in an engineering course at the micro level is, by definition, not a full-scale unit or a series of lectures in ethics and ethical theory. Nor is it the classic approach of teaching engineering ethics through case studies such as the Challenger Shuttle disaster or the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e not given the million-dollar project when you start out; you鈥檙e given a small module that will be incorporated into the project,鈥?says Looft. 鈥淏ut the highly ethical behavioral model is important at any level. That resonates. That means something to an engineering student.鈥?lt;/p>

The micro approach 鈥渋mplements ethical situations where students hopefully will see there are ethical implications within the context of their technical work,鈥?says Billiar.

Fred Looft

That awareness is critical to the training of the young engineer. There is no required ethics course for students at WPI, and even those who have taken such courses don鈥檛 automatically connect 鈥渆thics out of context鈥?to the work they themselves will do, says Billiar.

Both professors struggled with how to include this vital material in their courses when they, themselves, have no background in the field.

鈥淚 value ethics and I think it is an important part of our curriculum鈥攁nd I didn鈥檛 know how to teach it. I had no idea how to get it into my courses,鈥?Billiar says.

To learn, he has been advising IQP students who are studying that very problem and bringing different approaches into his classroom. Pfeifer, who is a philosopher and ethicist, has been a co-advisor.

This year鈥檚 group is role playing, with students taking positions according to different ethical approaches to problems. One role might hold the position that a situation where anyone gets hurt is ethically wrong. Another might maintain that it鈥檚 ethical as long as more people are saved than hurt.

鈥淚t鈥檚 very difficult to stay in the role if they don鈥檛 agree with the theory they鈥檙e supposed to be demonstrating,鈥?says Billiar. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e developing an understanding that different theories have validity.鈥?lt;/p>

Looft, too, has relied on students to show him how to teach ethics in systems engineering courses. He had tried the classic case study approach but 鈥渢he students didn鈥檛 feel good about it and neither did I.鈥?lt;/p>

Geoff Pfeifer

He asked robotics engineering grad student Adela Wee, who needed one credit to graduate, to spend a summer doing research and writing a report on how he could do it better.

Drawing on Wee's work, Looft created modules that he taught last A-Term in a course on systems engineering. Following what he calls 鈥渁n inverted teaching structure,鈥?students watched videos outside of class and then returned for discussion and to work on problems.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e a systems engineer at any level, you have to have a strong ethical background,鈥?he says.

Looft鈥檚 emphasis was on ethical behavior at the entry level: 鈥渋n a team environment, in a professional setting, in their personal work habits, in how they respond to challenges.鈥?lt;/p>

鈥淭hat means doing your very best work every day, speaking up when you see a problem, and continuing your education - don鈥檛 be satisfied with what you鈥檝e already done. Keep learning. It鈥檚 ethically important to make sure you鈥檙e on top of your game, and that you鈥檙e not doing something just because it鈥檚 always been done that way. That may, in fact, be the wrong way.鈥?lt;/p>

Both Looft and Billiar note that their students鈥?reactions to the micro inclusion of ethics has been overwhelmingly positive.

Some 90 percent of Billiar鈥檚 students have said they would like more of this approach.

The seven students in Looft鈥檚 small class had 鈥済reat discussions. For the first time in my life, I got a perfect 5.0 score in teaching evaluations,鈥?he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 got to mean something!鈥?lt;/p>

Certainly, an ethical approach fits WPI鈥檚 long-held philosophy of training technical humanists, says Looft.

鈥淲e are solving engineering problems without making problems for the next generation.鈥?lt;/p>

- By Laura Porter

Shaping the Future of Systems Engineering: WPI at INCOSE International Symposium 2015

admin — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 12:00:00 +0000

With a focus on education and empowering women to be leaders in the field of systems engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is a sponsor and lead organizer of the 25th international symposium of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), which begins July 13 in Seattle, Wash.

INCOSE IS 2015 is the largest global gathering in the systems engineering field. More than 700 systems engineering professionals are expected at the four-day event that will feature keynote speeches, research and case study presentations, seminars, workshops, and discussion groups covering a wide range of issues related to the discipline.

"We are looking forward to an outstanding event for the global community of systems engineering," said Rachel LeBlanc, executive director of Corporate and Professional Education at WPI and chair of the INCOSE IS 2015 planning group. "At this 25th anniversary symposium we want to take stock of how the field has developed and, more important, discuss how to build on that foundation and advance the field to help people and organizations succeed."

INCOSE defines systems engineering as "an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the realization of successful systems. It focuses on defining customer needs and required functionality early in the development cycle, documenting requirements, and then proceeding with design synthesis and system validation while considering the complete problem."

Several WPI faculty members will present case studies and research findings or will appear on various panels at the INCOSE symposium. They include Tom Gannon, PhD, professor of practice in systems engineering and electrical and computer engineering (and assistant director of the INCOSE academic council); Don Gelosh, PhD, director of systems engineering programs; Fred Looft, PhD, academic director of systems engineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering; Jamie Monat, PhD, director of executive education; and Robert Swarz, PhD, professor of practice in systems engineering (and a member of the INCOSE board of directors). Look here for a schedule of WPI faculty participation at INCOSE 2015.

"A major theme for our group in Seattle is to advance the idea that some systems engineering content should become part of the curriculum for all engineering education," Gannon said. "Systems engineering is about understanding the big picture. It鈥檚 about taking a more holistic approach to a complex system or problem. Emerging research indicates that this is helpful to all engineers."

In Seattle, INCOSE will formally launch a new initiative called Empowering Women as Leaders in Systems Engineering. WPI is sponsoring the launch event and WPI faculty and staff, including Shamsnaz Virani, PhD, assistant teaching professor of systems engineering and electrical and computer engineering, will be active participants in the new group. "This is an important priority because while women certainly are becoming more visible in systems engineering and rising to positions of leadership, much more needs to be done to encourage, mentor, and attract more women into the field," LeBlanc said.

Also new this year at the INCOSE symposium, WPI systems engineering faculty will be available for individual 30-minute meetings with any registered attendee. The meetings will take place at the WPI booths (B3 and B4) at the event.

"Systems engineering is WPI's largest professional program," LeBlanc said. "Our faculty members have a depth of experience that we want to make more directly available to the symposium participants. We hope this new way to connect and share ideas will bring added value to those who come to Seattle."