The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston/New England Chapter, awarded the series with four 2012 Boston/New England Emmy Awards for Outstanding Children/Youth Program, Outstanding Musical Composition/Arrangement, Outstanding Editor-Program, and Outstanding Magazine Feature/Segment. This is the third consecutive year that Jonathan Bird’s Blue World has been honored with Emmy Awards.

WPI alum Jonathan Bird ‘90 is an underwater cinematographer, underwater photographer, producer, public speaker, and author.  He is the president of Jonathan Bird Productions and a founder of the non-profit organization, Oceanic Research Group, a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote awareness of ecological issues affecting ocean life. Bird has produced films for National Geographic, PBS, ABC, USA Network, and the SciFi Channel.

Jonathan learned diving while at WPI, taking scuba lessons for physical education credit as well as an extracurricular. Already a prolific photographer, he began to take photos while on dives. Bird earned the Ichabod Washburn Young Alumni Award for Professional Achievement in 2000, for both the creation of the Oceanic Research Group Inc., and an endowed scholarship fund to allow undergraduate and graduate students to receive financial aid in order to pursue careers in the marine field.  Bird says the skills he learned at WPI greatly helped him to problem solve and have the confidence to overcome obstacles.

Jonathan Bird’s Blue World has aired continuously on public television channels in the United States since May 2008. Teachers across the nation use the series as an educational tool.  In addition, blueworldTV.com has a series of lesson plans that include subjects such as light, pH, and biology. The series has been shown more than 13,000 times in 38 states to more than 74 percent of the USA. Season 4 will be released in 2013.

Prof. Robert J. Gegear

Each fall, millions of monarch butterflies from eastern North America embark on a long-distance migration to their overwintering grounds in central Mexico. How do the butterflies find their way over such an arduous journey? Their antennae hold some interesting answers.

Robert J. Gegear, WPI assistant professor of biology and biotechnology, along with Patrick A. Guerra, Christine Merlin and Steven M. Reppert of the University of Massachusetts Medical School Department of Neurobiology, co-authored a paper on the subject that is published in the July 17 edition of Nature Communications, a prestigious online journal of science.

Read the Nature Communications article here.

A WPI press release on the article can be read here.

From left, Kira Segenchuk, Tanvir Islam and Avital Robinovitch participate in a robotics competition during Intellect Quest camp held at the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science on Prescott Street in Worcester.

Handmade LEGO robots, challenging daily engineering projects, and lots of smiles were on tap for the first session of Intellect Quest, a camp for youngsters held at the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science on Prescott Street in Worcester.

Now in its ninth year, Intellect Quest offers a hands-on environment within the disciplines of math, science, and technology. In the first week that ended July 13, some 34 seventh- and eighth-graders participated in a series of fun and challenging activities that culminated with a robotics competition. Also, 37 fifth- and sixth-graders will kick off camp the week of July 16.

Darrin Richard, coordinator of Intellect Quest,  said the youngsters were challenged daily, learning the basics of robotics building as well as learning how to use programming and sensors that allowed LEGO robots to negotiate obstacles. “The kids were really great and worked very hard this week,” he said.

The children also participated in daily engineering tasks such as “The Great Marble Roll,” in which teams built ramps designed to make marbles take the longest path before hitting the floor.

Will Craemer, 11, of Upton, said he learned a lot about engineering and how various objects work and like Go-Kart races. Justin Baron, 13, of Leominster, said, “I learned how science can affect a lot of things in the world,” adding that he enjoyed learning how “you can form crystals using simple, everyday objects.”

On their last day, 10 teams competed in a robotics competition using battery-powered LEGO robots that they programmed on computers. The robots were tasked with maneuvering around cups without initially knocking them over, and then, ultimately, knocking them down. Parents and children also enjoyed an ice cream social with the campers.

Curtis Belmonte, an 18-year-old camp counselor from Shrewsbury, was very impressed with the students. “I saw just how resilient and resourceful these kids are,” said Belmonte, who will study computer science at Princeton University in the fall.

Added camp counselor Naveena Shanmugam, 17, “The students had more knowledge than I expected. I had a blast.”

Mass Academy is a public school for academically accelerated 11^th and 12^th graders statewide, and is a fully-funded, collaborative effort among the state, WPI and area high schools.

David Leach, executive director of Institutional Advancement at WPI; Milosh Puchovsky, professor in FPE; Karen Bean, director of Advancement at WPI; William McAvoy, vice president of Advancement at WPI; Pravin Gandhi, director of Corporate Research at UL; Paul Brown, assistant general counsel for UL; Kathy Notarianni, head of WPI’s FPE department; August Schaefer, senior vice president and public safety officer for UL; and Tom Chapin, vice president of Corporate Research at UL.

Kathy Notarianni, head of WPI’s Fire Protection Engineering department, gave a tour of  the department’s  future home at Gateway Park this week to a contingent from Underwriters Laboratories, a world leader in safety testing and certification based in Northbrook, Ill.

Notarianni led UL representatives on a 45-minute tour of the new facility, which included stops at the department’s Fire Protection Engineering Lab, Fundamentals lab, and state-of-the-art digital classroom that offers synchronous learning.

The FPE department, currently located at Higgins Laboratories on the WPI campus, expects to move into the 50 Prescott St. building at Gateway Park in the coming months, just a little over a year after the groundbreaking. In addition to the FPE department, the building will also house the new Biomanufacturing Education and Training Center and the graduate division of WPI’s School of Business.  The building is located next to the WPI Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center, which opened in 2007.

The 2,500-square-foot Fire Protection Lab was the centerpiece of the tour and is expected to house activities related to combustion and explosion, fire and materials, policy and risk, suppression, wildland-urban interface fires, and engineering tools to support the fire service.

William McAvoy, vice president of Development at WPI, said the university is discussing a possible philanthropic partnership with UL as well as potential future collaboration and joint research.

August W. Schaefer, senior vice president and public safety officer for UL, was impressed with FPE’s next home. “I’m extremely impressed with this building,” said Schaefer. “The layout and design is outstanding for a university. Clearly a lot of foresight has gone into this building.”

The new facility will allow the FPE to conduct broader experiments and enable graduate students to improve their hands-on experience. In fact, the practical experience that students will gain was a familiar refrain heard from Notarianni throughout the tour.

“This is where all of the important large-scale activities will take place,” said Notarianni. “I want our students to face real-world problems.” For example, Notarianni said, the six-bay Fundamentals lab “…is completely set up to handle all of our full-scale work and scientific research.”

WPI plans to continue discussions with UL, an organization founded in 1894, about future joint activities.      

Dean of Arts and Sciences Karen Oates, standing, speaking with Dimitri Japaridze of Georgia.

A group of delegates from Georgia and Armenia are currently visiting WPI to learn about the university’s approach to education. More specifically, the delegates are interested in the field of “technology transfer,” the process of taking an idea or technical innovation and turning it into a marketable finished product.

The initiative is sponsored by the Commercial Law Development Program (CLDP), a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce, along with Oklahoma State University and WPI. Georgia and Armenia — formerly republics of the Soviet Union — are among six countries that the CDLP is currently working with to develop technical assistance and commercial reform.

The project is about “connecting people who have the jobs and ideas with economic development,” said Emily Linehan, International Program Specialist with the CLDP.

After visiting WPI the group will go to Oklahoma State University and learn that university’s education process.

In addition to their commitment to technological innovation, the CDLP chose WPI and OSU because of their smaller size, which is more comparable to current universities in Armenia and Georgia.

The group is composed of 10 Armenians and 9 Georgians who are university attorneys and members of government patent offices. The delegates hope that the tools they acquire on this venture will help them to stimulate economic growth in each country. They are also interested in the fact that such programs in the United States receive government funding but are managed by private corporate entities with experts in the field.

“This group is very interested in the fact that there is government funding, but with corporate management,” Linehan said.

The visitors are at WPI from July 11 – 13, partaking in a variety of lectures and discussions. At the end of the trip the group will hold a panel discussion reflecting on what they have learned and how best to implement these ideas. Further down the line there will be other workshops in Georgia and Armenia to continue the education process. 

WPI hopes that by sharing both their philosophy on education and organization of practical programs, the delegates will find new ways to create jobs and foster innovation. “Hopefully, they will come up with policy reform,” Linehan said.

- Miriam El Korchi, student intern

Frontiers students demonstrate their marble rollercoaster.

The first session of the Frontiers summer program at WPI is in full swing, and young students from around the globe have gathered to have a hands-on learning experience.

Now entering its 30th year, Frontiers is a “pre-college program for juniors and seniors where students can get exposure to whatever discipline they’re interested in, and also have the opportunity to explore college life,” said Suzanne Sontgerath, director of WPI’s K-12 Outreach.

“Frontiers attracts students from across the country and around the world, typically similar to those who would apply to be undergraduates at WPI.”

In fact, this year’s program includes 10 international students and 18 students from out of state.  “A good percentage of these students actually enroll at WPI. The class of 2016, for example, is about 5 percent Frontiers alums,” Sontgerath added.

In Frontiers session I, students focus on Science, Technology, Engineering or Math (STEM) challenges and projects. Areas of focus include aerospace engineering, biology/biotechnology, biomedical engineering, chemistry/biochemistry, civil and environmental engineering, computer science, electrical and computer engineering, environmental and sustainability studies, interactive media and game development, mathematics, mechanical engineering, or physics. To complement the academic program, each student is also enrolled in a humanities and arts workshop, such as writing, art, music, speech, history, international studies, law or theatre.

As the world of STEM grows, the Frontiers program grows with it. Of the classes being offered this year, biomedical engineering, environmental sustainability, and global sustainability are all new areas of study. “It’s a great group of kids who really become a part of the WPI community.  People enjoy having them here and seeing the campus come alive again during the summer,” Sontgerath said.

Former varsity football coach Ed Zaloom returned to WPI as featured performer in the Summer Breeze lunch concert series.

Ed Zaloom, who spent 11 years working the sidelines as head coach of WPI’s varsity football program, took center stage on July 11 as the featured performer in the Summer Breeze Lunch Concert Series, held in the Goat’s Head restaurant. Zaloom, who retired from WPI in June 2010, plays acoustic roots and country music on guitar and harmonica.

Listen to one of Ed’s tunes here.

The Summer Breeze Lunch Hour Concert Series features music and free ice cream each Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. The remaining concerts are listed below.

 July 18 – Worcester Brass Consort, on the Higgins House Lawn.

July 25 – Dave Binder, in the Goat’s Head Restaurant.

Aug. 1 – Phillip Young, in the Goat’s Head Restaurant.

Aug. 8 – Coos Canyon, on the Campus Center patio.

So when Boudreau, head of the Humanities and Arts department at WPI, learned recently that WPI had received a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts focused on a reading program based on that book, she was thrilled.

“This funny, tender, dramatic, tragic, and finally, uplifting novel tells the story of a young black woman’s movement from one abusive relationship to another until she learns to trust herself and to stand up for herself,” said Boudreau.

Boudreau said WPI is proud to be partnering with the YWCA of Central Massachusetts and the Worcester Public Library to host a series of “Big Read” events connected with the book next spring. “We’re pleased to oversee this Big Read event, aimed at encouraging lapsed and reluctant readers,” she said.

Added Boudreau, “It’s the perfect book for our partnership. The YWCA’s mission is to eliminate racism, empower women, and combat domestic violence, and the Worcester Public Library has been encouraging reading and lifelong learning since 1859.”

Boudreau also noted that WPI has been a leader in cultural programming in Worcester, and for many years has put its energies and engineering expertise to work solving both global and local problems.

WPI’s keynote event –tentatively scheduled for the third week of March 2013 — will be an evening of jazz, storytelling, and more at Mechanics Hall.

Some 30 students from grades 4 through 6 are exploring science and engineering in a hands-on program through WPI’s Junior Robotics Challenge.

WPI’s Junior Robotics Challenge began Monday (July 9), where 30 excited students from grades 4 through 6 are exploring science and engineering in an inventive and hands-on program. 

Led by Ken Stafford, Director of the WPI Robotics Resource Center, this week-long summer session is geared towards kids with no robotic experience. “At the end of five days, these students will be able to design, build, and program a LEGO-based robot that will do fairly complicated tasks—and do them autonomously,” Stafford said.

Split into groups of three, the kids will engineer and program their own robots.  “They’re learning about motors and programming,” said Stafford, “but also about team dynamics and how to get the best out of their group, which is a challenge when you’re 8, 9, and 10 years old.” On the last day of the session, the students and their robots will face-off in a friendly competition to exercise what was learned during the week.

- Cooper Wolken, student intern

Professor Chrys Demetry was the guest speaker at the Museum Institute for Teaching Science program at Tower Hill Botanical Garden.

Chrys Demetry was the guest speaker on the first day of the MITS (Museum Institute for Teaching Science) Summer Institute, Central Region, held at Tower Hill Botanic Garden on July 9.

Building on the theme of “Explore! Investigate! Invent! How Science Inspires Engineering,” Demetry shared an example of an engineering design challenge from her work in materials science and engineering and provided additional examples from biomimetics, such as design of water-resistant superglues inspired by mussels, spider- and snake-inspired robots, and energy-efficient buildings influenced by the design of termite mounds.

She also summarized findings of the National Academy of Engineering regarding public misperceptions of engineering, and effective messages for communicating the nature of engineering to adolescents, including girls and underrepresented minorities.

MITS Summer Institute participants are upper elementary and middle school educators, and the professional development activities are led by staff from Tower Hill, the Ecotarium, Mass Audubon’s Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary, and Catch the Science Bug.

The campers who usually dine in Morgan Hall will now eat in the Campus Center Lower Level Food Court.

In place of Morgan Hall, Dining Services will open the Goat’s Head Restaurant, the Library Café, and Higgins House for faculty and staff. These establishments will be run by Chartwells, and be available from July 9 through Aug.  9 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The ongoing renovations at Morgan will reconfigure the dining space and add 50 more seats, for a total of 530, said Janet Richardson, vice president of student affairs and campus life. “It will be more user friendly,” she said. “It used to have larger tables, for six to eight students, and it was not very inviting for students going in to eat alone. Now, they have the option of sitting at stools with high counters. Someone can come in and have lunch at a counter and watch TV, and not feel like they’re on display. There will also be more tables for four.”

Diners will still be able to enjoy the Summer Breeze Concert Series, as performers will be visiting the Goat’s Head Restaurant and Higgins House lawn.

Bon appétit!

-          Miriam El Korchi, student intern

WHEN: 12:05 to 12:55 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, from  July 9th through August 24th.

WHERE: Riley Commons

Price is determined by the number of participants and will be determined after the start of the class. Yoga is covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Please contact Barbara Milanese in the Biology and BioMed departments at (508) 831-5538 with questions or to join.

- Cooper Wolken, student intern

From left, Jason Parker ’12, Xiuping Chen ’12, and Vu Nguyen ’12 with their first-place award.

A Major Qualifying Project completed by senior mechanical engineering majors Xiuping Chen, Vu Nguyen, and Jason Parker recently won first prize in the student paper competition held during the 39th Annual Symposium of the New England Region of the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS) in Boxborough, Mass. By virtue of their first-place finish, Chen, Nguyen, and Parker have been invited to participate with students from around the globe in the student competition at the IMAPS international conference in San Diego, Calif., in September.

The WPI students presented a paper titled, “ACES characterization of damping in micro-beam resonators.” It described a project, funded by several government and industrial sponsors, which examined the quality of high-performance dynamic sensors. ACES stands for the unification of analytical, computational, and experimental solutions, an approach pioneered by Ryszard Pryputniewicz, Kenneth G. Merriam Professor of Mechanical Engineering, who advised the project.

The project was completed in a unique environmental chamber in the Center for Holographic Studies and Laser micro-mechaTronics, which Pryputniewicz founded and directs. The chamber permits the forces acting upon microscopic devices to be studied under precisely controlled environmental conditions using holographic interferometry.

The project team members all received their BS degrees during Commencement on May 12. Parker will remain at WPI to complete graduate work in mechanical engineering, while Chen has been accepted into the graduate program at Georgia Tech and Nguyen will be studying at the University of Minnesota.

With more than 8,000 members in the United States and around the world, IMAPS is largest society dedicated to the advancement and growth of microelectronics and electronics packaging technologies through professional education. Its members represent every discipline and specialty in the electronics industry.

WPI professor Joe Zhu of the School of Business (center, yellow shirt and tie) is flanked by Wang Li (left), deputy director of Southeast University and Shuan-Hong Wang of Southeast’s Office of Academic Affairs. All told, 26 faculty members from Southeast University are attending workshops in July at WPI.

Call it a role reversal.

For four weeks in July, more than two dozen faculty members and administrators from Southeast University in Nanjing, China, will become students at WPI.

Their mission: Soak up as much information about WPI’s teaching methods and processes as they can in order to integrate them at SEU, a public university of about 28,000 students in China’s Jiangsu province, located an hour from Shanghai. Specifically, the faculty members are learning the tenets of the WPI Plan, a 40-year-old project-based undergraduate education model widely viewed as one of the premier programs in higher education. The model places a focus on a relationship among science, technology and human kind while incorporating courses, projects and real-life experiences.

Throughout the month, Southeast University faculty will gain a greater understanding of the WPI Plan, which covers first-year Great Problems Seminars, the second-year Humanities and Arts Requirement, the third-year Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP), and the fourth-year Major Qualifying Project (MQP). Opening ceremonies were held in Higgins Laboratories on July 2 and daily workshops continue on campus through July 27.

On Thursday, July 5, WPI professor Joe Zhu of the School of Business held court in Stafford Hall, where he presented the “students”  with an IQP report on “Stock Market Simulation.” The sample IQP, completed by WPI students in 2007, included a number of chapters, including the history of the stock market, previous IQP review and literature review and methodology. The goal was to provide faculty members with a deeper understanding of WPI’s IQP approach.

Wang Li, deputy director of Southeast University, said she has already gained a lot of insight into the WPI Plan. She noted that the faculty has two specific short-term goals.

“In the short term, we want to learn new teaching methods that we can use to teach our own students,” said Li. “We also want to explore local culture and history.”

Longer term, Li noted, she would like to see broader cooperation between WPI and Southeast University that will allow for faculty and student exchange programs. Li said she likes that WPI weaves in a lot of real-world experiences into its curriculum, an approach that will serve SEU very well.

Southeast’s visit was organized by Professor Dalin Tang of the Mathematical Sciences department. Future workshop classes include “Teaching the IQP,” hands-on problem solving skills and further MQP studies. SEU’s visit comes just three months after Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam cited WPI’s project-based, experiential approach to learning as a model for his own country to follow in expanding its university system.

The Southeast contingent, while immersed in learning, has also enjoyed some shopping and sightseeing. They visited the Wrentham Outlets earlier in the week and have excursions planned to Rockport, Plymouth and greater Worcester.

A contingent from WPI greeted the Fox 25 TV morning news team at Elm Park on Friday morning. Shown in the back row are WPI Assistant Professor Alex Wyglinski and student Elizabeth Dufresne; in the front row are graduate student Tanek Zhang and undergraduates Paige Westlake and Tracy Sinkewicz (right).

A lively group of WPI students and faculty members turned out at Elm Park in Worcester Friday, June 29, to greet the Fox 25 TV morning news team that was hosting its newscast live from the grounds.

Led by WPI pennant-waving assistant professor Alex Wyglinski, who teaches in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department, the WPI contingent showed its spirit and personality amid intermittent rain. Joining Wyglinski were students from the class of ’14, including Elizabeth Dufresne, an aerospace engineering major; Paige Westlake, who is studying management engineering; and Tracy Sinkewicz, a bio-biotech major.

The Fox crew makes “Zip Trips” to a different New England community every Friday to showcase that community’s offerings. The WPI crowd, clad in WPI hats, windbreakers and T-shirts, appeared on the TV segment several times throughout the morning.

“I’m here to represent all that WPI has to offer,” said Westlake. “For me that means showing our spirit, Greek life and overall support of the city.”

The young women were particularly keen on pointing out that WPI is known for more than just being an engineering hub. “I want people to know that we’re enthusiastic about coming to school here in Worcester and that WPI isn’t just about engineering,” said Sinkewicz.

Dufresne had another message to share as well. “I want to prove that there are a lot of girls at WPI,’’ she said.

Without missing a beat, Tanek Zhang, a graduate student in WPI’s ECE department, said “And cute girls, too.”

As a show of goodwill, WPI presented Fox 25 commentator Doug “VB” Goudie with a WPI polo shirt and other souvenirs.