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Nantucket Project Center
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI)
Founded in 1865, WPI is a private technology-oriented university, located in Worcester, Massachusetts, with around 3,000 undergraduate students, 700 graduate students, and 220 full-time faculty members. WPI students pursue degree programs in engineering, the sciences, the humanities, and management. All WPI undergraduates must complete a third-year interdisciplinary research project called the “Interactive Qualifying Project,” or IQP. By working in multidisciplinary teams to address problems related to technology, society, and human needs, students come to understand how their careers will impact, and be affected by, societal structures and cultural values. More than 50% of students go off campus to conduct their IQPs and to co-ordinate these activities WPI has established over twenty “project centers” in Europe, Central and North America, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific region.
Project Centers
WPI has been conducting student research projects through its various project centers since 1974. Project cover an enormous range of topics and sponsors include national and local government agencies, private corporations, and various museums, service organizations, community groups, and other non-profit organizations.
Nantucket Project Center
The Nantucket Project Center is a new venture for WPI that began under the auspices of Professor Mike Elmes and led to the successful completion of four projects in the fall of 2008. One team explored options for the development of wind power on the island for the Nantucket Energy Study Committee. Another team collaborated with the Nantucket Historical Association to develop a prototype wayfinding and interpretive system for personal cell phones. A third team examined ways to enhance the exhibits at the Maria Mitchell Association and the fourth team identified innovative approaches to land use for Nantucket Housing. The feedback received from students and project sponsors from this pilot year was uniformly positive. Consequently, another band of students arrived in the fall of 2010 and conducted projects on ‘smart’ electrical grids and electric cars for the Energy Study Committee and Planning Department, on information security for the Nantucket IT Department, on tick-borne
disease education for the Tick-borne Disease Committee, and on the value of museum field-trips for schools for the Maria Mitchell Association. (Final project reports are available at http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Library/Collections/Projects/.)
In 2011, Professor Golding returned with a new group of students who conducted six additional projects. Two groups worked with members of the Energy Studies Committee to assess the Nantucket Energy Plan and conduct energy audits of several small businesses. Two groups worked with museums – one group under the auspices of the Maria Mitchell Association examined the possibility of developing a shared collections facility on the Island and another examined visitor evaluation data from the Nantucket Historical Association. A fifth group helped Sustainable Nantucket develop the structure and protocols for their new Nantucket GrownTM brand. The sixth group explored the regulatory and political landscape that faces GreenBeach or any other proponent of new beach erosion control technologies. As a
courtesy to WPI and to make these reports more easily accessible to Nantucket residents, these reports are available on the Town website. (Note that due to proprietary concerns, Sustainable Nantucket requests that anyone interested in copies of this report contact Michelle Whelan, Executive Director, directly at michelle@sustainablenantucket.org).
These projects (and the entire student experience on the Island) offer wonderful, real-world opportunities for WPI students and provide Nantucket with valuable data and perspectives on pressing problems. WPI hopes that this is just the beginning of a long and fruitful symbiotic relationship with the Island of Nantucket, its residents, and its visitors. We anticipate that each year for many years to come a small number of WPI teams will explore similar kinds of projects with these and other sponsors to address particular needs and concerns as they arise.
Projects Completed in 2011
(Advised by Professor Dominic Golding)
Project Title: Implementing the Nantucket GrownTM Brand
Project Team: Kellie Chadwick, Brett Limone, Hannah Pacheco
Sponsor liaisons: Morgan Beryl & Laura Villasenor, Sustainable Nantucket
Project Team: Aileen Caceres, Christa Coscia, and Christopher Surprenant
Sponsor liaison: Janet Schulte, MMA
Project Team: Jacqueline Foti and Jonathan Rapp
Sponsor liaisons: Chris Mason & Claire White, NHA
Project Team: Robert Alvarado, Corey Phillips, Joseph Taleb
Sponsor liaisons: Peter Morrison & Whitey Willauer, ESC
Project Team: Christopher Bannon, Timothy Ellsworth, Nicholas Musselman
Sponsor liaisons: Whitey Willauer & Peter Morrison, ESC
Project Team: Dustin Lombardi, Christa O’Rourke, Thomas Wise
Sponsor liaisons: Oscar Plotkin, GreenBeach
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