Impacts of Projects

WPI students teams have partnered with almost 80 organizations in the D.C. area and have had significant impact on each organization. See below some of the work that has benefitted our partners.

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The organization WPI has partnered with the longest is the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office whom we have been with for 31 of the 43 years the project center has been running (2017). In 2015, the USPTO sponsored a WPI student team to create a cookbook on patent quality. This cookbook details how to conduct case-studies on patent quality at the USPTO. It is still used today by WPI student teams and agents within the Patent Office looking to learn more about patent quality. You can learn more about this project here.

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Another one of our partners is the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM). In 2008 WPI students investigated Fire Safety in Green Buildings and provided recommendations on how to improve the safety of these buildings. They performed extensive research and provided recommendations to the NASFM in their final report. This report was re-written into a grant application to FEMA and the National Association of State Fire Marshals were able to obtain a sizable grant to continue research within the area. If you would like to learn more about this project please go here.

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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC) has partnered with WPI almost every year for the past 26 years. Students have completed projects such as improving clothes dryers safety and creating a smoke alarm performance rating system. In 2016, a project evaluated the need for a consumer focused smoke alarm performance system. The USCPSC used their project results in a presentation to SUPDET 2016 and also used it to support a report on the public benefits of a smoke alarm performance evaluation scheme. If you would like to learn more about this project please go here.

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