Worcester Polytechnic Institute Celebrates 45 Years of Fire Protection Engineering Excellence For three days in May, WPI hosted a “Who’s Who in FPE” as the university celebrated the 45th anniversary of its renowned Fire Protection Engineering program. From May 16 to 18, more than 100 industry partners, faculty, staff, and former students gathered for a comprehensive look at FPE’s history, its impact at WPI and beyond, ongoing research, and the future of the field with the dawn of new disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence. Since its inception in 1979, the program has been a leader in innovation and education, significantly advancing the field of fire protection engineering. As the first university to offer a graduate program in FPE, WPI has also established itself as a premier institution for producing highly skilled practitioners and pioneering new knowledge that enhances global safety. “As we celebrate this milestone,” said Albert Simeoni, professor and fire protection engineering department head, “we reflect on the incredible journey that began with the vision of Dave Lucht and Bob Fitzgerald. These pioneers’ dedication to excellence shaped not only the FPE curriculum but propelled advancements in life-saving technologies, mitigation techniques, and a new understanding of fire dynamics—notably through the seminal work of Professor Dougal Drysdale from the University of Edinburgh in the UK, who developed the first-ever Fire Dynamics course during a long-term visit, which was made into a textbook and has become a foundational element for fire protection engineers worldwide.” Over the past 45 years, WPI’s FPE program has grown into a thriving graduate program with a robust research agenda and strong industry partnerships. With more than 1,000 alumni across the globe, WPI's influence is far-reaching, educating leaders in industry and agencies. Recent groundbreaking research in environmental remediation, wildfires, battery fires, and firefighter safety exemplifies WPI’s commitment to addressing contemporary challenges. Contributions have been recognized by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Society of Fire Protection Engineers (SFPE), and esteemed publications like The New York Times, with whom WPI helped investigate a fatal Bronx, NY, fire. As we look to the future, we recognize the continued critical need for highly skilled fire protection engineers,” said Bogdan Vernescu, Vice President and Vice Provost for Research and Innovation. “We strive to continue making significant positive impacts, guided by the sustained vision and leadership within our internationally recognized FPE Department, with input and support from our partners. We also aim to attract and retain talented graduate students through fellowships and equip our fire science lab to tackle the most pressing fire-related problems. “With continued industry support, WPI can expand its student pipeline and continue to produce exceptional FPE graduates who will lead work to advance safety and sustainability for future generations,” said John McNeill, the Bernard M. Gordon Dean of WPI’s School of Engineering. “These are indeed exciting times for Fire Protection Engineering, and at WPI we are ready to embrace the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.” To underscore the importance of industry support, during the celebration WPI and FM Global, one of the world's largest commercial property insurance companies and longstanding FPE industry partner, signed a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) reinforcing a collaboration surrounding workforce development, research, and philanthropic support. In addition, the annual Howard Emmons Lecture Award was given to Dr. Sergey Dorofeev, vice president and research area director, fire hazards and protection at FM Global. Named after Professor Howard Emmons, an early pioneer in fire research and safety science, this award recognizes global leaders in fire research and education, encouraging them to share their work with the WPI community. “We are proud of Sergey’s accomplishments and congratulate him for this prestigious award,” said Dr. Louis Gritzo, chief science officer at FM Global. “We are also very appreciative of our longtime partnership with the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, which is helping to prepare the next generation of scientists, engineers, and business leaders through its leading curriculum and academic approach of project-based learning.”

Worcester Polytechnic Institute researcher Shahin Tajik has been awarded a prestigious CAREER Award of $594,081 by the National Science Foundation to develop new technologies to monitor and protect computer chips and other hardware from malicious attacks. The grant will enable Tajik, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, to expand his research into hardware security, a field that focuses on physical threats to computing systems that attackers can hijack by tampering with chips, motherboards, and other electronic components traveling through global supply chains. “When we talk about computer security, many people will think about hacking attacks that target software vulnerabilities,” Tajik said. “However, computers are made of physical components, and they are vulnerable, too. By tampering with chips and motherboards, attackers can essentially spy on processed data on chips or disrupt the functionality of computer chips. This vulnerability is a critical challenge for businesses, infrastructure operators, and national security.” Computer hardware is vulnerable to tampering because multiple individuals and companies in far-flung locations, including overseas factories, can be involved in the design, production, and assembly of computer components. Ensuring the integrity of components as they travel through supply chains is critical, but tampering can be hard to spot. Tajik’s five-year project will investigate technologies that could potentially thwart hardware attacks by creating better metrics to verify that a computer’s physical parts are manufactured to design standards, correctly installed, and operating without interference. He also will use information theory to advance understanding about side-channel attacks, which involve extracting secrets from a chip or system using physical characteristics of the computing hardware. Finally, Tajik will create physically unclonable functions to monitor the activity of chips in computers. The project builds on Tajik’s previous research into the use of lasers for side-channel attacks on electronic systems and laser-assisted countermeasures. He is part of a team that received nearly $361,000 in National Science Foundation funding to acquire a powerful microscope for hardware security research at WPI, and he leads a team that was awarded nearly $1 million in funding from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to acquire a second microscope and launch a WPI center focused on semiconductor security research. The center offers testing services to business and academic researchers to support the semiconductor security industry in Massachusetts. As part of his project, Tajik will develop a new graduate-level course at WPI on the physical security of microelectronic systems, and he will recruit undergraduates to teams that will conduct research related to the project. “Research into hardware security is fascinating work, like solving a puzzle and then confronting an even harder puzzle that a hacker has created,” Tajik said. “It’s also important work. The physical layer of computers has been overlooked in security research for a long time, so we have a great opportunity to explore and seek solutions that can address a real need.”

The hands-on nature of project-based learning (PBL) is a big part of why it repeatedly proves to be an effective pedagogical method for student growth and skill building: Students are able to apply skills and concepts from the classroom to real problems, leading to real-world experience and impact. But students aren’t the only ones who benefit from this kind of active-learning approach. The faculty fellows program at WPI’s Center for Project-Based Learning (CPBL) gives faculty opportunities to conduct their own hands-on, practical research with the goal of advancing PBL education throughout the WPI community and across higher education. Following the success of last year’s first-ever summer fellowship program, a new cohort of fellows was selected from a competitive field of applicants to develop valuable resources and tools that advance PBL practice and will be shared through the CPBL. “The Fellowship Program is our opportunity to support and improve the undergraduate education on our campus and also to provide resources we can disseminate to other colleges and universities that wish to implement project-based learning on their campuses,” says Kris Wobbe, director of the CPBL. The four fellows each received a $10,000 stipend for their work over the summer. From researching the efficient usage of artificial intelligence tools to creating best practice guidelines for faculty and students, these fellows will contribute their ideas to enhance PBL experiences both on the WPI campus and beyond. Wobbe says, “We are delighted with the projects this year’s fellows have proposed (summarized below), as we are confident each of these will provide a meaningful contribution to the community of project-based learning educators, and will be received with enthusiasm by that community.” An Assessment of and Guide to Undergraduate Research Projects in the Humanities John Galante (Humanities & Arts Department) will be developing a guidebook for PBL in undergraduate capstone research projects and weekly workshop sessions. The guidebook will incorporate syllabus design, stacked assignment sequencing, in-class workshop activities, instructor feedback, and student reflection and evaluation. Although based on instruction in seminars on migration, Latin American studies, and global energy, the outcomes also apply to project advising in fields across the humanities and social sciences. Building a Toolbox for Utilizing AI in PBL Laura Roberts (Department of Integrative & Global Studies) plans to examine the AI tools available for research, writing, collaborations, and presentations and compare their reliability, cost, features, data sources, and privacy policies. After the completion of this project, Roberts hopes to develop a comparative matrix of AI tools and summary infographics, enabling students and faculty to leverage AI effectively and ethically for PBL. Inclusive Supports for Goal Setting and Motivation in Student-Led Inquiry Gillian Smith (Interactive Media & Game Development / Computer Science Department) leads a research project that aims to help students set goals, reflect on their achievements, and manage their time as they navigate the PBL environment. By conducting research into four years’ worth of student reflections for ungrading and project-based learning, Smith will identify patterns, themes, and gaps in student metacognitive strategies. She will also focus especially on students who self-identify as neurodivergent, and how to equitably design PBL experiences for neurodiverse groups. Ethics Pedagogy in PBL With aims to create ethical guidelines for PBL, Yunus Doğan Telliel’s (Humanities & Arts Department) project will create a research brief on applied ethics education for the Center for Project-Based Learning resource library. Telliel’s research will also be developed into an article to be submitted to a journal on science and engineering ethics. Building on the Center’s expanding resources, both publications aim to document and advocate for educational innovations centering on inquiry-based ethics education.

“The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby” may be one of Charles Dickens’s lesser-known works, but it is well-represented in WPI’s Fellman Dickens Collection, one of the richest collections of Dickens’s work and a premier resource for the region. In fact, “Nicholas Nickleby” has its own shelf in the Fellman Dickens Reading Room at the university’s Gordon Library, and the collection includes the novel as it first appeared in serial form, along with an engraved steel plate used to print one of the original illustrations. So when Joel J. Brattin, professor of Humanities & Arts at WPI and resident Dickens scholar, was invited to co-edit a recently published two-volume edition of “Nicholas Nickleby” for Oxford University Press, he had a good place to start. The novel follows the adventures of its namesake, a young hero who finds himself working at a school notorious for the cruel treatment of its pupils. Brattin said Dickens was truly finding his voice when he wrote “Nickleby,” which, like many of Dickens’s works, was initially published in serial form in 32-page installments. “His social conscience is fully engaged, and his criticisms of personal and institutional cruelties are powerful,” Brattin said. “This is also his first novel to have a young man who must work for a living as his hero.” Brattin’s work with Oxford University Press on the novel stretches back eight years, and one of his co-editors, Elizabeth James, had been working on “Nicholas Nickleby” years before that. He said the process involves poring over manuscripts and other original documents to look for clues about how Dickens originally intended the novel to be understood. The new volumes will serve as the gold standard Dickens scholars will turn to when examining the work. “Essentially you’re presenting how Dickens would have wanted the novel to appear to his original readers–what Dickens understood the novel to be when he wrote it in 1839,” Brattin said. “It feels a bit like you’re peeking over his shoulder—you see he’s trying to sharpen this bit here, and over there he’s making a joke, and refining it if he thinks it doesn’t work.” Brattin said Dickens’s sense of inventiveness and his keen observations run throughout “Nicholas Nickleby,” and that the novel’s appeal lasts to this day. “The novel is, first of all, very funny,” Brattin said. “But, also, we are still the same sorts of human beings among whom Dickens lived, and about whom he so brilliantly wrote. Dickens sees the world clearly, loves it, and wants to make it, himself, and us, better.” Brattin, who has helped guide the Project Boz initiative at WPI to digitize Dickens’s novels in the serial format in which they were originally released, said the new Oxford University Press volumes are aimed primarily for an academic audience, but noted that a paperback edition for casual reading is also planned.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) celebrated the achievements of the Class of 2024, including 1,169 undergraduates, 788 master’s degrees, and 69 doctoral degrees. Commencement ceremonies were held May 9 and 10 at the DCU Center, and on Wednesday, WPI hosted the Commissioning Ceremony for the Higher Education Consortium of Central Massachusetts’ Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). Undergraduate Commencement President Grace J. Wang, PhD, and Board of Trustees Chair William Fitzgerald presided over the 155th Commencement exercises Friday afternoon. Wang told the graduates that in a changing world, where new technologies and industries are rapidly emerging, and where they could be doing jobs that have not yet been invented, they should dream boldly, persevere, be a team player, and enjoy the journey. “WPI has prepared you for this future,” Wang said. “During your time here, you have been immersed in a transformative, leading-edge, and inclusive environment to ready you for jobs, careers, and, also, exciting opportunities to come.” In her commencement address to undergraduates, Nancy M. Pimental, a 1987 WPI graduate who spent 11 years as a writer and executive producer on the hit Showtime series “Shameless,” told the graduates they are well-prepared for whatever career path they choose to follow. “With your degree from WPI, you’re ready for success,” Pimental said. “You can literally accomplish anything you set sights on. Isn’t that amazing? The possibilities are unlimited. You learn to think critically, solve problems logically, and work together collaboratively. These are the skills you need to overcome any obstacles that are thrown your way. There’s nothing you can’t do now that you’re a WPI grad.” Pimental and Michael J. Dolan ’75, WPI Trustee Emeritus, who served for 16 years as an active member of the Board of Trustees, received honorary degrees as part of the ceremony. Student speaker Samuel Levitan, a biology and biotechnology major, weaved Commencement history into his speech, reminding the audience that Black educator, reformer, and intellectual Booker T. Washington gave WPI’s 50thCommencement address in 1915, speaking about America’s transformation since the end of slavery. Levitan also talked about the sense of belonging instilled in WPI students, who balance a STEM education with a formative personal experience. “To learn about cutting-edge technologies and scientific discoveries at WPI takes an open mind,” Levitan said. “But no matter where you go and no matter what you do, an open heart is just as important. Remember that you belong wherever that may be, and that the people around you are counting on you to believe that they belong, too.” Graduate Commencement During the graduate students’ ceremony Thursday evening, Wang said the WPI community will be watching with pride as “you pursue your passion, drive momentum, contribute knowledge and create solutions, persevere through every adventure; inspire others and be inspired.” Graduate ceremony speaker Greg Tucker ’92, entrepreneur, founder, vice-chairman, and chief executive officer of flexible packaging company ProAmpac, said the exceptional training and mentorship he received at WPI gave him a solid engineering foundation and nourished his entrepreneurial spirit. “Through WPI’s project-based approach, I learned to base decisions on data and facts, not opinion and rhetoric,” Tucker said. “I can see things as they are. This honesty has allowed me to grow, admit mistakes and be accountable, and strive to improve.” Tucker and Chartsiri “Tony” Sophonpanich ’80, president of Bangkok Bank, received honorary degrees at the event. Representing the graduate students this year was robotics engineering master’s candidate Hitanshu Shah, who spoke about how his journey was enriched not only by academic pursuits but by the challenge of weaving a tapestry of diverse cultures, languages, and perspectives. “This mosaic of experiences has fortified our resilience, broadened our understanding, and underscored the value of empathy, diversity, and collaboration in solving complex global challenges,” Shah said. ROTC Commissioning WPI’s 2024 Commencement Week also included a Commissioning Ceremony for the Higher Education Consortium of Central Massachusetts’ Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). On Wednesday, 26 cadets in the Army, Air Force, and Space Force programs at Assumption University, Brown University, Clark University, the College of the Holy Cross, WPI, and Worcester State University were commissioned as officers, having completed both their academic requirements and their military science courses and training. The Commissioning Officer was Brig. Gen. Andrew J. Leone, Mobilization Assistant to the Military Deputy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at the Pentagon. Special Sendoff for Longtime WPI K-9 Bella, the WPI Police Department’s certified explosives-sniffing dog, is retiring after eight years—and thousands of hugs from students, staff, and faculty–on the job. Bella was the first such K-9 to be assigned full-time to a college campus in Massachusetts, and she worked both on the WPI campus and assisted Massachusetts State Police and other authorities at hundreds of events across the state, including the Boston Marathon and the Fourth of July celebration at Boston’s Esplanade. The friendly black Labrador retriever walked down the aisle during the undergraduate and graduate Commencement ceremonies with her handler, WPI Police Officer Brian Lavallee, to receive her ‘diploma.’ Bella will enjoy civilian life at home with Officer Lavallee as he trains her successor, Jewel.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute researcher Natalie Farny is launching a $1.2 million, five-year project that could advance the use of bacteria for environmental cleanups by determining how a critical biological process regulates genes in bacteria as they adapt to conditions outside of laboratories. Farny, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology and Biotechnology, will examine the role of methylation on gene expression in Pseudomonas putida, a soil bacteria that was first identified in Japan and is considered a versatile organism for industrial and environmental engineering. The National Science Foundation has awarded Farny a prestigious CAREER Award to fund the project, which will provide research opportunities for WPI students and generate new undergraduate educational resources focused on synthetic biology, a field that applies engineering design principles to build novel biological systems for use in fields such as medicine, manufacturing, and agriculture. “Genetically engineered bacteria have the potential to break down contaminants in soil, whether they are explosive materials deposited on military firing ranges or chemicals left behind by industry,” Farny said. “To engineer stable bacteria that behave in predictable and desirable ways once they are released into the environment, however, it will be essential to better understand how their genes are impacted by the environment.” Farny’s project focuses on methylation, a biological process that can be triggered by environmental factors. Methylation adds a chemical, known as a methyl group, to an organism’s genome. This addition can influence how the organism’s genes are expressed. In bacteria, which are single-cell organisms abundant in nature, methylation is a key factor in regulating gene expression. Farny will investigate the impact of methylation on gene expression of P. putida in soil and in a laboratory system that uses a liquid containing organic matter extracted from soil. She also will build gene circuits, which are networks of genes and regulatory elements that interact with each other, to test engineered P. putida under soil-like conditions. As part of her project, Farny will create free educational resources to introduce undergraduate students to synthetic biology, develop material for her synthetic biology course, and integrate synthetic biology into research projects for undergraduates in her lab. Project funds also will support at least two graduate students a year in their work, as well as summer research opportunities for two to three undergraduates a year. The project builds on Farny’s previous research into cell stress responses, biological sensors that could assist in remediating environmental contaminants, and methods for studying bacteria. The fundamental knowledge gained from insights into cells and their environment could lead to advances in cleaning up soil to grow food for Earth’s growing population, which makes the research important and compelling, Farny said. “The interaction between a cell and its environment has always fascinated me,” Farny said. “This project explores an interaction that has the potential to impact a matter critical to humanity. If we want to feed a growing population, if we want clean drinking water from ground sources, we will need to nurture and reclaim compromised soil. Engineered bacteria are good candidates for this work.”

Almost hidden away in the back of WPI’s Sagamore facility, the Formula SAE Club’s headquarters has the look and feel of a true motor sports operation. That’s because it is. Every year, the club’s offshoot Major Qualifying Project (MQP) group takes on the monumental task of building a race car to compete in the annual Formula Hybrid + Electric intercollegiate competition at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H. Along the way, club members gain valuable hands-on skills doing everything from fabrication and welding to circuit board design and embedded computer programming. This year’s team finished just outside the top 10 against the 22 other colleges and universities competing in the electric vehicle category, and brought home the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Excellence in EV Engineering Award, given annually to the team that emphasizes preparation, team dynamics, attention to details, and establishing or continuing a legacy. “I think that this year’s car was one of the best-designed FSAE cars we’ve built to date,” said faculty advisor Bill Michalson, professor of robotics engineering. “The craftsmanship, design, and analysis that went into this year’s car was truly outstanding.” With support from various subgroups in the club, the MQP team took a bare tube-frame chassis and developed nearly every system on the electric-powered race machine from the ground up. From the battery to the brake rotors, much of the work was done in-house, on state-of-the-art machining equipment in Washburn or with a welding torch in the Sagamore shop. The completed car was then loaded into a trailer and hauled to the competition, where over the course of three days in late April the team competed in several events, including an autocross course and an endurance challenge. Active since 1985, WPI’s FSAE team has also made the trek to Michigan for the FSAE national competition. But in recent years, the team has focused its efforts on Formula Hybrid + Electric. “We switched to electric for a few reasons,” said Harris Brancazio, a senior and member of the MQP team. “But one of the main reasons was that sustainable transportation is really important, and it’s something we think students should be learning about at WPI.” In addition to making the move from internal combustion engines to fully electric power, the club has also adjusted its structure to ensure that the institutional knowledge gained through the MQP race car building experience does not leave with graduating seniors. Club members not on the MQP can complete various projects and tasks that support the race team in some way, and they earn independent study class credit along the way. One subgroup worked on the steering wheel design for the car this year; another fabricated a tool to move the car around in the pits at the track. “Next year those students will be on the MQP team, and will have all of that knowledge,” Brancazio said. “Plus, that way we can use the same base car over multiple years.” This year’s car is brand-new. The chassis was welded by a specialty manufacturer to the team’s exact design specifications, and once delivered, the team got to work at Sagamore, designing, machining, building, and installing nearly every nut, bolt, and suspension piece on the car. On a recent afternoon before the competition, the car sat atop a rolling stand. It looked like a race car, but there were still some rather important details to be buttoned up. Outside in the hallway, a team member unrolled spools of raw carbon fiber, which would soon be mixed with epoxy and fitted to body part molds to make the race car’s aerodynamic bodywork. A suitcase-sized box sat on a stand in the shop, ready to be packed with lithium-ion batteries and slotted into a specially designed space just behind the driver’s seat, along the bottom of the car. Senior Evelyn Maude is the MQP team’s electrical project manager; she oversees development of the car’s “nervous system.” “The electrical system is just as critical to the car as the mechanical system,” Maude said. “If the wheels fall off you can’t drive it. If the battery doesn’t work, you can’t drive it.” Maude said the battery is a marvel of packaging efficiency, but it’s also state-of-the-art technology. She said the team’s design is similar in concept to the batteries used in record-setting hill-climb cars. “Our battery puts out 80 to 100 kilowatts, which equates to about 140 horsepower,” Maude said. “That’s a lot for a 500-pound car. This thing can really rip. It’s pretty fun.” For team members, FSAE represents the essence of project-based learning, and was largely the reason they wanted to come to WPI. The team is almost entirely student-run. Students apply theory from across a range of disciplines, including computer science, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering, and turn it into rubber-burning, racetrack-conquering practice year after year. Maude said she remembers touring WPI and asking if the group could check out the FSAE facilities on campus. “It was one of the reasons I came here,” Maude said. “I got to see that they were doing all this awesome stuff.” Brancazio said his parents, who both attended and worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had been involved in building race cars when they were undergrads; he said his mother raced a solar-powered car when she was a student at MIT, and encouraged Brancazio to look for schools that had FSAE programs. He said WPI’s approach allowing students to get course credit for participating was unique among the schools he considered. Like Maude, his decision to come to WPI was heavily influenced by his visit to the FSAE shop. He said he believes WPI’s hands-on approach to learning provides a real-world career readiness few other institutions can compete with. The experience also gives the team valuable experience prized not only by professional race teams but by industry employers. “The company I’m working for this summer said they look for students who work on Formula SAE teams,” Brancazio said. “It’s really that theory-into-practice approach that solidifies your engineering skills. It’s teaching you what makes a good design, and why.” Perhaps just as important, FSAE gives club members a sense of belonging at WPI. “Working on a team like this—with the MQP at 12 people, and we have had about five people on independent study—we’re here seven days a week,” Brancazio said. “We have a lot of fun, we’re always cracking jokes. It’s a really good group of people. This has been my community.”

The story of Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor, the second African American athlete to win a world championship in any sport, has gone largely untold. Efforts are underway to change that as 2024 marks 125 years since Taylor won a world championship in cycling. On April 20, WPI’s Concert Band shined a spotlight on “The Worcester Whirlwind,” as Taylor was known, when it performed a world premiere musical composition titled The Ride. The piece was inspired by the 1899 world cycling champion, who was born in Indianapolis, made Worcester his home, battled racism, and triumphed in sport and spirit. The Concert Band, directed by Mitchell Lutch, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Humanities & Arts, commissioned the piece from Thomas O’Toole, composer, music educator and Director of Performing Arts for Shrewsbury Public Schools, who was driven by a desire to inform more people about Major Taylor’s story and ties to Worcester. O’Toole happened to fill in for an ill trombone player at the Concert Band’s 2023 spring performance. On a walk during his pre-show lunch break, he discovered the Major Taylor Museum, which opened in 2021 on Main Street in downtown Worcester. At that moment, he was motivated to compose a musical tribute and soon suggested to Lutch that a piece for the concert band would help students and the public learn about the history of this champion. “The seed for this piece was planted literally 365 days ago, from this room,” Lutch told the audience when introducing O’Toole, who conducted his piece during the 2024 spring performance by WPI’s Concert Band and Brass Ensemble at the Worcester Area Mission Society. “Marshall ‘Major’ Taylor was perhaps the greatest athlete of a generation,” O’Toole said; he explained that his goal of showcasing the cyclist’s story stemmed from his personal experience. “I’d been raised in the sporting culture of greater Boston, and I knew all the local sporting heroes of the time, but for much of my life I’d never heard of Major Taylor. His accomplishments have been masked by the racism of his era and the racism that continued long after his death into our time. I hope with this piece I’ve been able to spread the message about what a great athlete and human being he was.” Members of the Concert Band spent part of the past year learning about Taylor’s story as they prepared for the performance. Some band members viewed a documentary about the cycling champion from W-T-I-U, Indiana Public Media, and visited the Major Taylor Museum. Others participated in a Zoom conference with O'Toole and Lutch last summer that solicited ideas from the students to incorporate into the composition. The Ride details musically four events from Taylor’s life that help illustrate his strength in overcoming challenges. Each is established with a short, live narration over music. During the concert, Chima Ibebunjo ‘26, a civil engineering major who plays alto saxophone and participated in the Zoom conference, set aside his instrument, rose to his feet, microphone in hand, and proudly delivered the first narration. He says performing the piece took him on a special musical journey with its changes in rhythm, tempo, and time signature, reminiscent of the pace changes of a bicycle ride. Ibebunjo adds that he learned more about and was impressed by Taylor’s story through the piece’s narrations, including the one he delivered. “This was significant to me since I enjoy cycling as a hobby, and as a young Black/African American man, I take pride in discovering the positive contributions and success of other influential Black/African American individuals in society.” The concert also included performances by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Brass Ensemble (directed by Douglas Olsen, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Humanities & Arts), the WPI Brass Quintet, the Clarinet Quartet, and the Saxophone Quartet. A performance of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, by the WPI Concert Band, featured piano soloist Binan Gu, a postdoctoral scholar in mathematical sciences. WPI’s music ensembles, including the Concert Band, proudly exemplify how the university prioritizes and provides opportunities for students to explore the humanities and arts, embrace creativity, and consider the richness of the human experience. The performance of The Ride is one of the ways Taylor is honored in Worcester. There is also a statue at the Worcester Public Library; the Major Taylor Museum; and the annual George Street Bike Challenge for Major Taylor—a challenging hill climb for cyclists held every July, which raises funds for the Major Taylor Association.

The 2024 Faculty Honors Convocation, held April 26 in the Rubin Campus Center Odeum, celebrated outstanding WPI faculty members and teaching assistants. Awards were presented during the ceremony to recognize excellence in areas including innovation, teaching, service to community, research, and academic advising. Here are the winners: Karen Troy, professor and associate department head in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, received the Board of Trustees Chair’s Exemplary Faculty Prize. The award honors excellence across areas of faculty performance, including teaching, research, and scholarship. Troy was recognized for inspiring and mentoring students, exposing them to the excitement of lab experimentation, and researching biomechanics, bone strength, and risk factors for bone stress injury. Greg Lewin, assistant teaching professor and associate head in the Department of Robotics Engineering, received the Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Teaching. The award recognizes faculty who display excellence in teaching and outstanding professional contributions. Lewin was recognized for his engaging approach to presenting introductory robotics, for helping students in the lab, and for being invested in the success and well-being of students. Jamal Yagoobi, the George F. Fuller Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, received the Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Research & Creative Scholarship. The award recognizes outstanding teaching, research, and creative scholarship, academic advising, and service to the community. Yagoobi was recognized for his significant contributions to the understanding of drying and thermal processes and connecting industry and academic research. Leonard Albano, associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, & Architectural Engineering, received the Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Academic Advising. The award recognizes the guidance and mentorship offered by academic advisors through stages of professional and personal development. Albano was recognized for always leaving his door open for students, going out of his way to make students feel seen, and helping them grow as people and professionals. Mark Richman, associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and WPI’s Secretary of the Faculty, received the Denise Nicoletti Trustees’ Award for Service to Community. The award honors the memory and spirit of service of the first tenure-track female faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the co-founder of Camp Reach, a summer program which introduces girls to engineering and science. Richman was recognized for supporting and elevating people in the WPI community. Joseph Aguilar, assistant professor of teaching in the Department of Humanities & Arts, Kate McIntyre, assistant professor in the Department of Humanities & Arts, and Rose Bohrer, assistant professor in the Computer Science Department, received the Romeo L. Moruzzi Young Faculty Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Education. The award honors the memory of a longtime faculty member who was a key player in bringing tenure to WPI and creating the WPI Plan, which revolutionized undergraduate education on campus. Aguilar and McIntyre were recognized for their work to make creative writing thrive at WPI. Bohrer was recognized for advancing computer science education at WPI through a redesign of a programming language course and integration of theory with social and ethical considerations. Rebecca Gilchrist, a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, received the Teaching Assistant of the Year Award. The award honors the contributions graduate students make to the quality and success of WPI’s curriculum. Gilchrist was recognized for teaching with humor and skill and allowing students to leave the fear of failure behind. Alexandra Harrison, a graduate student in the Department of Chemical Engineering, received honorable mention for her excellent support of students and faculty.

Amazing things can happen when you answer a phone call and say “yes” to joining a team. Just ask four seniors who developed a prototype of a robotic surgical instrument for their Major Qualifying Project (MQP) and won a Best Paper Award in January at the International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics (AROB) in Beppu, Japan. Their journey began last year when Joshua Kleiman ’24, a mechanical engineering and industrial engineering double major, called to ask three students to join him and do their MQP together in Japan. “I’d worked with them on projects before, so I knew they were good teammates. And our double majors fit well together,” says Kleiman. Nicholas Johannessen ’24 (robotics engineering and mechanical engineering), Cameron Crane ’24 (robotics engineering and biomedical engineering), and Calvin Page ’24 (robotics engineering and mechanical engineering) accepted the invitation. Kleiman was inspired to do the work in Japan by his friend Charles Manger ’23, who started the project in 2022 by doing an initial design and analysis of the instrument at Kyoto University of Advanced Science (KUAS) with Professor Sajid Nisar in the university’s Novel Intelligent Systems & Advanced Robotics (NISAR) Laboratory. Kleiman says Manger was amazed by the experience working on the project in the lab in Japan. In the fall of 2023, Kleiman, Johannessen, Crane, and Page continued Manger’s work with Nisar. The team also began working with three WPI project advisors: Adam Powell, associate professor of mechanical & materials engineering and director of WPI’s Kyoto, KUAS MQP Project Center; Sharon Johnson, industrial engineering program director and professor of operations and industrial engineering; and Yihao Zheng, assistant professor of mechanical & materials engineering. The four students updated the design to address functional challenges and sourced or created individual parts and joints. They then modeled, tested, and ultimately built a prototype of the cable-driven robotic surgical instrument. The novel design is comparable to a human arm, which allows a surgeon to operate the robotic system remotely and move it in five independent ways. A baseplate houses motors, gears, and cables that drive joints in the instrument. These parts allow the shoulder to roll, the elbow to pivot, and the wrist to roll. Axles and gears in the wrist joint allow two forceps to be manipulated to open, close, and grip. The high degree of independent movement allows for precision, dexterity, and versatility, all of which are critical components of minimally invasive surgery. The team’s goal for the project is to improve minimally invasive surgery, which features smaller incisions, faster recovery times, and reduced costs. Page says the design allows the tool to reach around obstructions “which can really open the window to new opportunities. This tool could create an avenue for minimally invasive robotic surgery in parts of the body where maybe before a procedure would’ve had to be done by a traditional surgery method.” The team says other design benefits include the separate baseplate and arm, which allows for a smaller incision and easier sterilization. Given the seven-week time frame for the project, the students relied heavily on rapid prototyping to construct models and identify areas where changes needed to be made. To source parts, they used 3D printed objects, visited local hardware stores, tapped into the NISAR lab’s inventory of screws and bolts, and collaborated with others in the lab who were there doing different research. “We worked in a foreign environment, in a lab full of international students from Asia, Europe, and the Americas,” says Johannessen. “I was proud of how our team adapted to the environment of being in a completely different culture on the other side of the world without any connection or having been there before.” KUAS has more than 300 students from over 40 countries, with half from outside of Japan. It was KUAS Professor Nisar who encouraged the team to submit a research paper for AROB 2024. Crane presented the research paper, “Design and Kinematic Evaluation of a 5-DoF Robotic Surgical Instrument,” on behalf of the group. That meant joining the conference virtually from Worcester at 3 a.m. A few weeks later, an email informed the team they’d been chosen by conference organizers for a Best Paper award. “It was really nice to get this award,” says Crane, who feels the recognition validated the team’s creativity. “It shows you can think outside the box and do things in a way that’s a little unconventional, including how we bought fishing lines to serve as test cables and found unique parts and tools, and still be remarkably successful. We’re trying to, even if not directly, start a butterfly effect that one day could help save somebody’s life.” “It’s exciting to see others continue innovating the work,” says Manger, who started the MQP. “I was impressed by the ingenuity of the team’s updated design. I hope future teams continue to innovate the tool.” Professor Nisar praised the WPI students for their dedication to the project. “Their achievement of winning the best paper award is particularly noteworthy,” says Nisar. “This award is typically attained by post-PhD researchers. I look forward to continuing this collaboration and hosting more students from WPI.” Nisar says the next steps will be to further develop the prototype at his lab in Japan, with a focus on miniaturizing the instrument to provide access to hard-to-reach areas during surgeries. He envisions a collaboration with medical professionals and industry to integrate the technology into robot-assisted surgeries. The MQP team members say their work demonstrates the strength of taking an interdisciplinary approach to tackle a real-world problem and the transformative power of a global experience, both of which are key elements of WPI’s project-based learning model. “I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything,” says Crane. “It was awesome and formative.”