Our Faculty
Power Industry + Pandemic = Cybersecurity Concerns
COVID-19 has changed the way we work, spending more time at home working remotely has increased our reliance on the internet, and cyber criminals have taken notice! Utilities have databases full of personally identifiable information and are operators of critical infrastructure—attractive targets for hacker thieves and potentially hostile nations. With remote work likely to continue […]
Moon Rocks & UFO’s: Ask an Engineer
Last week, one of our Systems Engineering experts (and his pupper pal, Logan) took over Reddit with his very own “AMA,” or Ask Me Anything…and we do mean anything. There are currently over 100 comments on his thread, and counting! Dr. Don Gelosh has worked at the Pentagon and for the Space Shuttle Program, so questions […]
New Interview: WPI’s Mike Ahern & Energy Central
One of WPI’s resident Power Systems experts has been busy lately! Michael Ahern recently sat down with power systems publication Energy Central as part of their Getting To Know The Experts interview series. Ahern talked about his path into power systems, the evolving training needs for power professionals, and a lot more. Read Energy Central’s interview […]
Fighting Climate Change: Massachusetts Task Force Enlists WPI CPE Expert
One of WPI’s resident experts in renewable energy and power systems will join a brand-new, statewide environmental task force in Massachusetts. The goal: reduce greenhouse emissions drastically by 2050 to combat climate change. According to a WPI release, Michael Ahern, Director of WPI’s Power Systems programs, “has accepted the invitation of state Secretary of Energy […]
ARTICLE: “Impact of Distributed Energy Resources on HR and Recruiting”
Distributed Energy Resources, or DER, are renewable power sources and storage: wind turbines, solar panels, and batteries. These innovations are in demand today, and often subsidized by the government because of their limited environmental impact compared to fossil fuels. But with this new frontier of power comes a wave of new complexities to tackle, and […]
ARTICLE: “Top 7 Issues Facing Power Grid Modernization”
Electric power delivery is an ever-changing science, and there’s no sign of that changing. As demand grows worldwide for the use of electricity, the technical complexity and security of power grids become more and more important. How can we modernize the grid to ensure it keeps pace with the evolving needs and challenges that lie […]
5 Engineering Disasters That Could’ve Been Prevented with Systems Thinking
What is Systems Thinking? According to the latest paper by WPI professors Jamie Monat and Thomas Gannon, it’s an approach to engineering that incorporates the full context of the problem at hand. And it might have helped avoid some of the most notorious disasters in engineering history. Here’s a summary of five catastrophes Monat and […]
Medical Device Forum Draws Diverse Crowd of Stakeholders to Boston
WPI recently hosted the first installment of a collaborative forum series concerning medical devices. The goal of these forums is to break down the silos that exist within the industry and connect academics and product manufacturers with clinicians and potential device users, in order to bring meaningful improvements to bear for patients in need. “It’s […]
WPI’s Michael Ahern on the Merrimack Valley Explosions
Michael Ahern has been in high demand lately. Last week, when gas explosions devastated over 70 homes across Lawrence, Andover and North Andover, Massachusetts, one question was on everyone’s mind: How did this happen? As WPI Corporate & Professional Education’s resident power systems engineer, Ahern had the answers. And over the past several days, he has […]
New Systems Thinking Paper from WPI’s Monat & Gannon
This just in: The latest paper by WPI professors Jamie Monat, PhD, and Thomas Gannon, PhD, is now available for download! Systems, an international peer-reviewed journal on systems engineering, has published Monat and Gannon’s “Applying Systems Thinking to Engineering and Design.” Here’s the abstract from the journal: The application of Systems Thinking principles to Systems Engineering is […]
