The Alumni Magazine for Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (WPI)
Issue link: http://wpialumnimag.epubxp.com/i/114745
Advancing WPI WPI students display their Treating and Caring for Swazi Children Orphaned by AIDS project at the recent Great Problems Seminar. WPI Students Solve Great Problems With Support from the Davis Educational Foundation WHEN MOST COLLEGE FRESHMEN are focused on prerequisites, Ƃrst-year students at WPI are engaged in solving societal problems of global consequence. Through the Great Problems Seminars, WPI freshmen address such topics as clean water, food security, signiƂcant public health issues, and energy challenges. Now, thanks to a $255,225 grant from the Davis Educational Foundation, WPI is expanding this innovative program to include all freshmen students. The Great Problems Seminars employ WPI's distinctive project-based, multidisciplinary approach to solving real-world problems identi- 68 Winter 2013 Ƃed by the National Academy of Engineering as Grand Challenges. The aim of the seminars is not only to broaden students' perspectives on the complexity of the challenges they will face after graduation, but also to create innovative and entrepreneurial professionals fully capable of tackling the great problems facing the world today. "WPI shares the Davis Educational Foundation's commitment to groundbreaking approaches to undergraduate education," says Dennis Berkey, president and CEO of WPI. "This latest grant from the Davis Foundation is another demonstration of its conƂdence in WPI's ability to continue cultivating engineers and scientists with the knowledge and wisdom to lead in an increasingly complex global society." The Davis Educational Foundation was established by Stanton and Elisabeth Davis after Mr. Davis's retirement as chairman of Shaw's Supermarkets, Inc. Conceived as a gateway to project work in later years, the Great Problems Seminars were developed in response to feedback from students who praised WPI's project-based curriculum but lamented the lack of opportunity for project work and preparation earlier in their WPI education. "The Great Problems Seminars bring our Ƃrst year experience so much more into alignment with the subsequent years at WPI," says Kristin Wobbe, professor and associate dean of undergraduate studies. "We extend our deepest thanks to the Davis Educational Foundation for helping us continue to deliver an exceptional education to our students." The program was Ƃrst offered Ƃve years ago with two seminars—Feed the World and Power the World—and were expanded the next year with Heal the World, and Grand Challenges. The success of these seminars, as documented by the Donahue Institute, and student demand led to the addition of four more seminars: Educate the World, Living on the Edge, The World's Water, and Global Health. With the support of the Davis Educational Foundation, the program will be expanded to 20 seminars so that