Science with Kosmic Kelly

“Science with Kosmic Kelly” offers children and family programs that are fun, interactive, and educational. Kelly Lavoie has earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology and has been teaching and entertaining throughout Central, MA for over 10 years. As a wacky energetic scientist, “Kosmic Kelly” uses creative ideas to engage children of all ages on a variety of science topics.

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A New Class of Soft Robots Inspired by Origami

When most people picture robots, they see machines with rigid parts. The robots developed by Cagdas Onal, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and robotics engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), are soft, with parts made from deformable plastics and rubber. Soft robots are safer to operate around people and are ideally suited to carry out a variety of tasks that their traditionally rigid cousins can’t, including moving snake-like through confined spaces. But their ability to bend in many axes and change their shape make them unable to carry heavy loads, which limits their utility. Onal is building a new class of variable-stiffness robots that have which have rigidity and softness. His innovative designs draw on the ancient art of paper folding, known as origami.

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The Real World Applications of Data Science

Are you interested in business, mathematics, and computer science? If so, Data Science may be right for you! This up-and-coming field has several real-world applications and allows for individuals to go into nearly any other overarching occupational field! Through our presentation, you will learn about everyday tasks associated with being a data scientist and the opportunities to study Data Science at WPI. Lastly, we will demonstrate how data science can be used to solve a problem. To do this, we will use characteristics from family movies, such as those of Pixar and Disney, to determine what features combine to make up a successful movie!

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Virtual Tour of the Universe

Ride along on a 30-minute journey from the Earth to the edges of the known universe, from the impossibly small to the unimaginably big, in a show that employs computer graphics and NASA images.

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Prosthetics & Wireless Sensors

New wireless sensor technology developed at WPI is bringing newfound hope to those with Limb Loss.

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Guiding Research in a World of Human-Robot Collaboration

In a world where humans and robots are increasingly co-existing, student researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) are working on projects to help humans better interact with their robotic partners, and to enable robots to be more capable, more efficient and more user-friendly human assistants. Here a student team has built a robot that can take visitors on a tour of a campus building. Using cameras and sensors, the team also employed speech recognition, computer vision and navigation technologies to create a robot that can recognize and move around obstacles in its way and take people to multiple locations. It also can communicate with its users verbally and using facial expressions on a computer screen.

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Crowdsourcing Science: Monitoring Nuclear Radiation

Nuclear radiation is a rampant threat around the world—one that many may not even be aware exists. Together with the MIT Media Lab, WPI researchers are working to create a way for citizens to take the threat of nuclear radiation into their own hands, protecting themselves and others from unknown radiological releases.

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Getting Autonomous Vehicles to Work Together

Raghvendra Cowlagi, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), conducts research on a number of problems related to the challenges presented by autonomous vehicles, including optimal methods for planning and controlling their movements. Much of his research focuses on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), commonly known as drones. In one current project, he is developing methods that will allow teams of unmanned aerial and terrestrial vehicles (UXVs) to cooperate as they respond to emergencies, including natural disasters.

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Spinach Leaves Can Carry Blood to Grow Human Tissues

WPI research team shows spinach leaves stripped of plant cells can become a vascular network to deliver blood, oxygen and nutrients to grow human tissues like cardiac muscle to treat heart attack patients. This green solution may solve the major problem now limiting the regeneration of large section of human tissues, bone, even whole organs to treat disease or traumatic injuries.

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