A Widened Lens by Joan Killough-Miller | Photography John Mollura an Iqp in Namibia Inspired Donal Boyd ’13 to Pursue a Career Behind the Camera

piJOURNAL The Alumni mAgA zine of WorcesT Widened DONAL ’13 BOY D lens N CAREER BEHIND er PolyT AMIBI HOW AN IQP I IQP AN HOW TO TO TH E CAMERA P a URSUE A A I NSPIRED echnic N i nsTiTuTe

SUMMER 2016 WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE VOL. 112, NO. 3 | summer 2016

[CONTENTS] 24 FEATURES 20 34 THE SPECIALIST THE STATS BEHIND THE STORY ALEXIA (BILILIES) RANTALA ’09 CAN’T REMEMBER A PASSION FOR NUMBERS TURNED INTO A NEW WHEN TRAVELING INTERNATIONALLY AND HELPING LANGUAGE OF SPORTS FOR JEFF BENNETT ’94. PEOPLE LESS FORTUNATE WEREN’T PART OF HER LIFE. BY TED FLANAGAN | PHOTOGRAPHY KATHLEEN DOOHER BY CATE COULACOS PRATO | PHOTOGRAPHY ERIC HASON 40 24 SEWING SPACE [ COVERstory] JINNY FERL ’83 HAS DESIGNS ON THE GALAXY. A WIDENED LENS BY JOAN KILLOUGH-MILLER | PHOTOGRAPHY JOHN MOLLURA AN IQP IN NAMIBIA INSPIRED DONAL BOYD ’13 TO PURSUE A CAREER BEHIND THE CAMERA. BY ANDREW FAUGHT | PHOTOGRAPHY DONAL BOYD

COVER PHOTO DONAL BOYD

WPIA_FOB_Summer_INF-19.indd 6 7/28/16 12:40 AM 64

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALUMNI RELATIONS Peter A. Thomas

CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER Amy M. Morton

EDITOR Doreen Manning [email protected]

ASSOCIATE EDITORS Peggy Isaacson Joan Killough-Miller

34 CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Judith Jaeger

ART DIRECT0R DEPARTMENTS Caryl Guarino Buhler CONTRIBUTORS Michael Cohen Andrew Faught 02 32 Ted Flanagan LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Cate Coulacos Prato WPI INSIDER Julia Quinn-Szcesuil SOME STUFF YOU LIKED FROM THE SPRING JOURNAL, KATIE PICCHIONE ’16 IS A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF Jennifer Wyglinski AND SOME OTHER ITEMS THAT DIDN’T IMPRESS YOU. A WPI INSIDER. PRODUCTION MANAGER WE AREN’T SHY … WE SHARE IT ALL. Dianne Vanacore

PHOTOGRAPHERS 45 Donal Boyd 03 Matthew Burgos ACROSS EARLE BRIDGE Kathleen Dooher MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT LESHIN MA FELLOWSHIP, ALUMNI AWARDS, #MYWPILEGACY, Leah Fasten Eric Hason AND ALUMNI WEEKEND SNAPSHOTS Steven King 05 John Mollura BYTE o’ 50 ILLUSTRATORS π Gabriela Zurda Corbarán A TALK WITH IMGD PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE DONOR IMPACT PJ Loughran LEE SHELDON JOIN US IN CELEBRATING THE SUCCESS OF THE ALDEN TRUST CHALLENGE. 07 GLOBAL IMPACT 53 CORRESPOND WITH WPI JOURNAL TRAVEL TO A NEW PROJECT CENTER IN INDIA CLASS NOTES WPI Journal WHAT THE GOAT? DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR 100 Institute Road - Boynton Hall Worcester, Massachusetts 01609 FORMER CLASSMATES HAVE BEEN DOING? DON’T [email protected] 08 FORGET TO SEND US YOUR OWN UPDATE AT wpi.edu/+journal 508-831-4971 Wπ [email protected]. Submit Class Notes: [email protected] CAMPUS NEWS RANGING FROM “UNBUILT WPI,” WPI Journal (ISSN 1538-5094) ©2016 is THE GORDON PRIZE CELEBRATION, AND MEET A published quarterly by Worcester Polytechnic MUSLIM DAY—PLUS KNIGHTS AND BIKES AND A 63 Institute (WPI) in conjunction with the WPI Alumni Association. Periodical postage paid FEW THINGS IN BETWEEN COMPLETED CAREERS non-profit at Worcester, Massachusetts, and IN MEMORY OF ALUMNI, FACULTY, AND OTHER additional entry offices. Issues are mailed to all known WPI alumni living within the U.S. MEMBERS OF THE WPI COMMUNITY as a benefit of having graduated from WPI. 19 This publication is guided by WPI’s principles of free expression and accepted standards of TURNING POINT good taste. Opinions expressed are those of the GEORGE AGHJAYAN ’88 TURNS HIS ATTENTION TO 64 signed contributors and do not represent the opinion or official position of WPI or its officers. HIS ARMENIAN HERITAGE TO ENSURE HIS PEOPLE COMMENCEMENT POSTMASTER: Please send address changes, WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN. Form 3579, to WPI Journal, Worcester CELEBRATING THE GRADUATING CLASS OF 2016 Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609-2280.

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 1 . [ LETTERS TO THE editor]

PRAISE US OR PAN US, OR SIMPLY SHARE BY SUBMITTING YOUR LETTER TO EDITOR DOREEN MANNING AT [email protected]

APPROVAL #LIKEAGIRL Just a brief note to register my approval, indeed Regarding the interview with Linnea Palmer Paton applause, for the handsome quality of the recent ‘11 in the Spring issue, I have three words about WPI Journal. I like the satin texture of the paper Ms. Paton’s activism...YOU GO, GIRL! and the visual quality that it imparts to the images. — V. C. Danos ’76 It makes it more user attractive and this prompted me to sit down and actually walk my way through VAN A it page by page. Dear Friends of van A, I was also intrigued to see my classmate Bob Of all our WPI memories, I’m sure there are Behn on the cover. We both lived at Morgan Hall as some indelible ones of a person who, for many freshmen and then at Theta Chi until graduation. of us, was equal parts teacher, guide, fan, and I, too, still use my Sears and Zemanski physics friend—Dean John van Alstyne. There was textbook that he mentions. something magical and timeless about van A. I was sad to hear that Alumni Gymnasium will To honor his contribution and the special place be torn down. I spent many hours in the pool there he occupies in our hearts, the WPI Class of ’86 and for a time held the pool record in the freestyle Reunion Committee has begun a movement that relay event. We were coached by Frank Grant, an spans all WPI communities to fund a lasting Olympic contender who lost to Johnny Weissmuller tribute to van A that will remember him, and of Tarzan fame. Those were good days. introduce him to students for generations to I had a great experience at WPI. I was taught come. For nearly three decades he was dedicated electronics by William Grogan. I was taught to the Institute and, most especially, to its students. mechanical design by Carlton Staples. I was taught He was a walking spirit of WPI and of the WPI strength of materials by Fred Anderson. I was Plan that he helped to envision and bring to life. coached by Frank Grant and Alan King. I was NOT We’d like that spirit to continue. taught physics by Heller, aka the “red vector,” As the Class of ’86 celebrates its 30th reunion unfortunately. this summer, we ask that all WPI alumni join us Congratulations on the Journal. Keep up the in contributing whatever you feel compelled to good work. offer in van A’s memory. —Daniel Pender ’63 • Goal Our intention is to create a physical ’68 STILL GREAT remembrance of van A at WPI as well as an Having read the latest Class Notes without a endowed scholarship in his name. The exact contribution from the Class of 1968—the 100th form and combination this takes will depend WPI graduating class (remember ’68 IS GREAT! on the amount raised. Our hope is to achieve during freshman hazing?)—I figured I should a minimum of $100,000 (preferably, far more) maybe write in. We are the last of the “old WPI” to truly create a lasting legacy. before the Plan, and before women attended in the fall of 1968. • Duration The campaign is running through It was sad news to see that my WPI advisor, June 2017. You have the option of making a Carlton Staples, had died. I never had him for any pledge and spreading out the actual payments of my ME courses, but he was always there if I to WPI for up to five years. This will help us needed some support. More sad news was the reach our goal faster while still recognizing passing of fraternity brother Bill Grogan, and of that many in our class are working to put our Father Pete, who married my wife, Ruthanne, and own kids through college. me back in the fall of 1972 at the chapel at Tufts —Brian Murphy ’86 University, where she worked. We exchanged For more information about how to give to the Tribute to Christmas cards for over 40 years. I do keep up John van Alstyne, contact Brian Murphy at 508-831-6629, with a few former classmates, roommates, and [email protected]. Phi Kappa Theta brothers. —Kenneth Gminski ’68

Editor’s note — don’t let your class go unrepresented next issue. Send your update, reminiscenses, and historical notations (heck, maybe even a photo) to [email protected] today!

Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

2 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 [ MESSAGE FROM THE president]

Dear Friends, Which brings me to the lesson behind these two converging streams of history. As you read this, a remarkable transforma- In 1913, newly inaugurated president Ira tion is taking place on the WPI Quad. It is a Hollis made it his mission to fill the long-felt transformation with an interesting history need for athletic facilities. He appealed to and a powerful lesson about the good that WPI alumni to help him realize that vision. can come when people truly believe in the The Alumni Association had already been power of an educational institution to raising funds from its members for new change lives. athletic fields, and it gladly took up the task Let’s begin with the transformation. of gathering the additional funds needed Early this summer, following the pomp and for a gym. festivity of Commencement, workers began Not long before I joined the WPI commu- dismantling Alumni Gymnasium. Taking nity in the summer of 2014, a plan for the care to recover its treasured stonework Foisie Innovation Studio had begun to take (including its 34 grotesques), they are making shape. I quickly recognized the value this room for the newest addition to our new facility would bring to our students, campus, the Robert A. Foisie Innovation and the vital role it could play in realizing Studio and Residence Hall. my own vision of elevating WPI’s impact When it is completed in summer 2018, in the world. I also understood that if we the building will be a focal point for the were to open the doors of the Studio in this collaborative, innovative, and entrepreneurial decade, our alumni would need to step up project work that forms the core of our and help make it happen. unique undergraduate curriculum through Fortunately, the George I. Alden Trust, THE IEW the WPI Plan. The first two floors will house one of the university’s most generous V a maker space; state-of-the-art classrooms for benefactors, issued our alumni a challenge: FROM HERE the Great Problems Seminar, robotics, and give $9 million for the new building, and other active-learning classes; a new Global the Trust would contribute the remaining Impact Lab, which will integrate our global $3 million required to begin construction. activities for maximum impact; and space As they did more than a century ago, our for entrepreneurship and innovation. Its graduates came through admirably. This top three floors will house 140 students in spring, the challenge was met and work rooms that will feature some of the best on the Studio is under way. views on campus. It is gratifying to know that as we say The new building will displace a structure goodbye to Alumni Gym, a building made dedicated almost exactly 100 years ago. In possible by the generosity of our loyal fact, the construction of Alumni Gym was a alumni, we will soon see a new structure highlight of the Institute’s 50th anniversary rise thanks to that same spirit of benefi- celebration. The Foisie Studio will be the cence. And it is exciting to see that our first major building to rise at WPI in the alumni, inspired once again by the impact second half of our second century. of their own student experience and a desire Though their purposes might seem to to assure that the experience of future have little in common, both buildings were students will be even more valuable, have designed to meet pressing needs of our made such a momentous and lasting students. In the early 20th century, the lack investment in WPI’s future. of suitable facilities for sports and physical exercise was becoming a sore point for Sincerely, undergraduates. A century later, the need for a dedicated home for WPI projects seems equally clear. Laurie A. Leshin President

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 3 A FESTIVAL OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND ROBOTS AT WPI

We were thrilled to welcome thousands of guests to WPI’s beautiful campus for TouchTomorrow 2016. WPI put its best foot forward, and surely many of the kids who were with us for the day will be members of the classes of 2020 –2030!

THANK YOU! [ BYTE o’π]

FINDING THE STORY BEHIND THE GAME

Lee Sheldon is a new professor of practice in Most of the members on the forum were WPI’s Interactive Media and Game Development content with the storytelling and loudly (IMGD) program. His vast experience in the disagreed. When games on CDs arrived, entertainment industry brings the “practice” in I again complained about the writing. This his title to a whole new level. A former co-director time, in addition to more loud whining, of the Games and Simulation Arts & Sciences I received three private messages from game program at RPI, he now helps students blend companies. I took the offer in the most art with technology in a more entertaining and interesting geographical location—Victoria, substantive way. British Columbia—and I’ve been writing and designing games ever since. I’m LEVEL ONE currently working on my 43rd game. I was a performer in grammar school—from reading books aloud in 4th grade to staging RAISING THE BAR a classroom play in 7th grade. In college (BU), Writing has been, for a long time, not much I directed theatre productions and wrote skits more than an afterthought in game develop- for my fellow students. I turned in poetry ment. Mainly, I think, because the strengths and plays instead of traditional papers for of games and stories have been seen, until writing assignments. recently, as in conflict with each other. Lazy At the same time, I discovered that movies game design practices have caused storytelling could be a form of therapy. If my academic to be segregated in cinematics, or coagulated or romantic life was in crisis, I would go to into long dreary speeches. Happily, that is Washington Street where movie theatres changing. lined both sides of the street. I would start at the first show at ten in the morning, and STUDENT EXPERIENCE go from one to the next, finishing with New students who arrive in a Writing for midnight shows. Games class still believe in some of these In my junior year, I took a screenwriting older storytelling tropes, like stopping the independent study from a professor who gameplay for mini-movies to advance story, ILLUSTRATION PJ LOUGHRAN ILLUSTRATION handed me the script of Bonnie and Clyde or packing all the story into dialogue. There and said, “This is how you write a screenplay.” are dozens of other ways of advancing the He sent me off. I wrote a screenplay—not as story and revealing the characters. I teach prep for the next writing assignment. I wrote good as Bonnie and Clyde, but it got me into three types of communication: written, a pilot for a TV series that Atari was involved the CalArts film school. verbal, and presentation. All are essential. in about a family who could travel through Coupled with storytelling, play speaks their widescreen TV into video game worlds. TRANSITIONS directly and deeply to who we are as human The show was never made, but Atari gave Despite my degrees in directing, I have spent beings. Students must ask the right questions me a console and a bunch of games, and my most of my life primarily writing. After many to create games that mean something more transition began. years in Hollywood, writing over two hundred than an adrenaline rush. Games are one of Every time the Writers Guild went on scripts for everything from Hanna-Barbera the most powerful cultural, educational, strike, I would flirt with game companies like cartoons to Charlie’s Angels to Star Trek: The and transformational forces on earth. The Cinemaware and Electronic Arts. I reviewed Next Generation, I found I was no longer strongest lesson students can learn is to games for the CompuServe Gamers Forum, watching much TV for relaxation, only in wield that power responsibly. and complained about the writing in them.

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 5 WPI CENTER FOR ADVANCING PROJECT-BASED LEARNING AC R O S S H I G H E R PROJECT-BASED EDUCATION LEARNING

nd annual Institute on 2016 Institute 2 Project-Based Learning countries represented 3 (US, Russia, Thailand) types of institutions 3 (public, private, community) 23 institutions accepted 130+ participants

“The most valuable thing I got out of participating in the 2016 Institute was concrete ideas about how to implement project-based learning into our classes and curriculum.”

— Sara Ruble Gustavus Adolphus College

Learn more Center for Project-Based Learning wpi.edu/+projectbasedlearning [ GLOBALimpact]

n the lap of Northern India’s Himalayas lies the state of Himachal Pradesh—there, Itucked away in the Shivalik Range, sits the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Mandi and one of the newest WPI project centers. Established in 2013, the India Project Center works with IIT Mandi, in collaboration with local partners, on projects lasting roughly two months. The teams of IIT and WPI students tackle projects such as urban and rural infrastructure, community resilience, public health, micro-economies, sustainable shelters, and regional communication technologies. The WPI students prepare for their project work during the seven weeks before the project begins; their IIT counterparts, about a month before. Once onsite, both sets of students merge for seven weeks of fieldwork and report analysis. As Professor Ingrid Shockey, an environmental sociologist and director of the India Project Center, explains, the WPI/IIT teammates not only tackle a problem collectively, but experience deep learning regarding expectations and collaboration— redefining their former under- standing of what makes a team. of India’s most rural areas. He he and his team designed a mobile India. The team members had “Students at both universities worked with his team to find stretcher that could help make opportunities to interact with learn that the stakeholders have administrative and technological the journey to a local hospital safer government officials while to be seen as partners in this solutions for accessible health and less distressing for the sick experiencing the richness of process,” explains Shockey. care—residents in remote areas or injured. day-to-day life in small villages “Without experience in how needed help simply getting to “India was the highlight of my —all while bringing their class- other people live/work/learn, a health facility due to poor undergraduate education in so room education into the field to our students have no business conditions of local roads. “In our many ways. I not only had to help create viable, workable making policy or design decisions interviews with local residents, we tie information from my major solutions within the community. as engineers or scientists working learned the difficulty of getting the to the project in a direct way, but Shockey, who also serves as in the world today.” injured or sick to a hospital,” he had to work with a team in a co-director of WPI’s New Zealand Management information systems recalls. “We’d heard stories about completely new manner.” Project Center, says, “The kinds of major Philippe Kelley ’16 says his strapping the sick to chairs to Kelley is now working at Liberty rewarding experiences we have here time was spent assessing local public make the rough journey to the Mutual as an IT analyst, which he are almost beyond description.” health care infrastructure in some local medical facility.” As a result, credits directly to his work in

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 7 [Wπ]

In C-Term, a student team investigated IQP TEAM UNCOVERS AN the campus that never was, through an IQP called “Unbuilt WPI.” Advised by art and architectural history professor ALTERNATE David Samson, the students dug through the Gordon Library Archives for proposed designs, asking, “What would these building have meant for WPI? Why don’t they exist today?” A sampling of the unrealized architectural plans were exhibited in existing WPI buildings all over campus.

8 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 [ Wπ ]

IMAGINE:

BOYNTON HALL might have had three towers— and flying buttresses—if the u quotable founders had not selected Stephen Earle’s design. A rectilinear concrete skyscraper in the “brutalist” A test-optionAl policy style (think Southwest Towers is not About AttrActing at UMass Amherst) proposed in 1960 might have replaced weAker students. it is stately Boynton Hall (WPI’s “ About sending prospective cradle of civilization) as the university’s main administra- students A messAge: tion building. we see you “WPI OF TOMORROW,” an artful black-and-white sketch produced by Woodbury As more thAn and Company in the early 1900s, speculated eight new buildings, labeled A–H. One A number. even had a spiral staircase climbing to a domed observa- tory. None were built. In the ” late 1900s, a proposed academic building would have added — Senior Vice President Kristin Tichenor, “global networked classrooms” in a Washington Post editorial on WPI’s decision, eight years and a sweeping plaza between ago, to stop requiring SAT or ACT scores. Surprisingly, she wrote, only five percent of applicants suppress their test it and Gordon Library. scores. Applications from women have nearly doubled, and applications from underrepresented minority students have THE RUBIN CAMPUS risen 241 percent. CENTER, at the heart of today’s campus, was proposed in many locations and permutations. Ideas included elevating “the Wedge” between Morgan and Daniels, suspend- ing a structure above West Street, and sinking the campus center beneath the quad, with grass and trees planted over the roof.

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 9 [ Wπ ]

DIGITAL CLASSROOM

Computer science may have been elective (or nonexistent) when you went to WPI, but in January President Obama pronounced it a priority for the nation’s schoolchildren: “In the new economy, computer science isn’t an optional skill—it’s a basic skill, right along with the three Rs.” A new White House initiative, Computer Science for All, calls for billions of dollars from the federal budget to help school districts help students, especially girls and minorities. Bootstrap, a program developed by WPI computer science professor Kathi Fisler and Brown University faculty, along with others, is part of the solution. Bootstrap guides students to employ algebraic concepts in a step-by-step process to build a videogame. Fisler calls the gaming element “the spoonful of sugar” that gets kids excited. The beauty of embedding the Bootstrap curriculum in regular math classes, she says, is that every student takes math, and existing teachers are already positioned to teach

it. She says it’s “a gentle introduction” for teachers with no CORBARÁN GABRIELA ZURDA ILLUSTRATION prior computing background, one that eases them into computing at their own pace while leveraging their deep locomotion in complex environ- experience as teachers. Bootstrap was introduced in New ments right now,” says Dmitry York City schools two years ago and has been adopted by SAFFiR Berenson, assistant professor of hundreds of schools nationwide. Teachers from across SAFFiR, a robot developed to fight computer science and robotics the country will be trained at an intensive workshop in fires on Navy ships, still needs to engineering at WPI. Berenson Colorado this summer, to enable them to reach a potential refine its moves. Working in the recently received nearly $600,000 10,000 students each year. constrained quarters of a Navy from the Office of Naval Research submarine is not so easy for an to develop motion planning autonomous humanoid robot algorithms for the firefighting like SAFFiR (short for Shipboard robot built by Virginia Tech Autonomous Firefighting Robot), engineering students. The which is not controlled by project has also been supported teleoperation. Navigating tight by University of Pennsylvania corners, for example, or staying and Carnegie Mellon University upright on rocking decks requires robotics teams. exceptional motion control. SAFFiR stands 5 feet 10 inches “These robots are not good at tall, weighs about 140 pounds,

10 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 [ Wπ ]

REDEFINING RISK You have just finished saving When you think of the word for a “once-in-a-lifetime” vacation. “risk,” which of the following Three weeks before you plan to comes to mind first: Loss? leave, you lose your job. You would: Uncertainty? Opportunity? Thrill? WPI social science and policy q Cancel the vacation studies professors Michael q Take a much more Radzicki and Alexander Smith, modest vacation along with PhD student Fred Kautz, are using questions like q Go as scheduled, reasoning these to develop a survey instru- that you would need the time ment that would more accurately to prepare for a job search measure how much risk an q Extend your vacation, because investor is willing this might be your last chance to tolerate in pursuit of higher to go first class financial return. Radzicki calls current measurement methods “primitive” and Your trusted friend and neighbor, wants to see financial advisors an experienced geologist, is move away from relying on putting together a group of clients’ subjective assessments investors to fund an exploratory of themselves. “Our operating and is equipped with stereo conditions within a ship gold mining venture. The venture concept is ‘Don’t tell me, show camera, thermal imaging to environment mock-up at could pay back 50 to 100 times the me,’” he says. “Many of our survey see through smoke and detect Virginia Tech. The robot will investment if successful. If the questions ask people to do heat, and laser rangefinder for walk up stairs and perform mine is a bust, the entire invest- something (make a decision), accurate mapping. “By using other locomotion tasks to ensure ment is worthless. Your friend rather than describe something.” autonomous humanoids, we’re the algorithms are generating estimates the chance of success is Using risk-adjusted performance hoping to reduce the need for the correct motion. In a later only 20%. If you had the money, measures, machine-learning Navy personnel who have to phase of the research, the robot’s how much would you invest? techniques, and statistical process perform a whole host of tasks capabilities will be tested again control tools, the team is working and to also help mitigate the aboard the USS Shadwell, a q Nothing to develop an active feedback risks to people in fire suppres- decommissioned U.S. Navy q One month’s salary mechanism that will tie client sion scenarios,” says Berenson. landing ship docked in Mobile preferences to portfolios and q Three months’ salary WPI is testing its algorithms Bay, Ala. Joining Berenson on signal the financial advisor with a virtual model of the the WPI research team are q Six months’ salary when market changes put them SAFFiR robot. Later this year, the Will Pryor ’16, grad student out of alignment. WPI team will test its algorithms Yu-Chi Lin, and postdoc fellow in the actual robot in controlled Andreas Orthey.

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 11 [ Wπ ]

ASIMA SILVA

ASIMA SILVA ’01, ’02 (MS CS) is not afraid of questions. Through her organization, EnjoinGood (enjoingood.org), she promotes frank dialog with “everyday Muslims” on everything from “that goofy headscarf” to Islamophobia in America. Her mission began at WPI and this year took her all the way to the White House. In April she returned to campus to present a workshop for educators through WPI’s International House.

WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR ENJOINGOOD? My passion has always been dispelling misconceptions regarding Islam. I’m not a scholar, but the preconceived notions people have about Muslims and how they practice are typically very simple and easily dispelled by giving our neighbors a few moments of our time. The specific trigger for to stay out of the spotlight. When I began my WHAT WAS IT LIKE VISITING WASHINGTON creating EnjoinGood was the bullying of my graduate studies, I took an advisory role to FOR THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS? daughter at her school in Holden. After meeting help the MSA return to its previous state. As I am honored to have been selected to be Rep. many roadblocks, I engaged the ACLU, and we a representative of the MSA, I spoke out against Jim McGovern’s guest, in response to the hate resolved the situation to some extent. But the the 9/11 attacks at a vigil at Worcester’s City rhetoric by some presidential candidates. The core issue of Islamophobia was still there. Hall along with other area leaders. experience was humbling. It made me realize how well our democracy works. Many Muslims HOW DID THE CLIMATE CHANGE DURING YOUR TELL US ABOUT MEET AMUSLIM DAY. feel that the United States is the closest form TIME AT WPI? When I was an undergraduate, It was held at the Worcester Islamic Center of government to the ideal Islamic Democracy Islam and Muslims were an unknown, and thus in January. Over 1,000 neighbors attended, outlined by scripture and by historical context. a non-factor for most students. After 9/11, supported by about 50 volunteers, giving people Ironically, most “Islamic” forms of government Muslims had trouble getting education visas, a chance to meet “everyday” Muslims. I gave today are dictatorships and monarchies, which and others shied away from being associated tours of the center, and we had booths for go against the preachings of Islam. This makes with the Muslim Students Association due to an visitors to learn about the Prophet Muhammad, me proud to be an American Muslim and a increase in hate crimes. The faculty was always the hijab, women’s rights, Islamic art, Arabic Muslim American. The highlight was meeting open-minded, considerate, and supportive of calligraphy, and Sharia law—and to taste ethnic President Obama. I thanked him for his speech spreading awareness, but with the climate of foods. It made people happy on all fronts. because he focused on many of my passions. fear being portrayed in the media, it was easier

12 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 [ Wπ ]

GORDON PRIZE In April the WPI community celebrated its prestigious 2016 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education with a panel discussion and an award ceremony in which NAE president C. D. Mote Jr. introduced Bernard Gordon. Accepting the award on behalf of Bill Grogan, often referred the university and four faculty to as the father of the WPI Plan. leaders recognized for advancing Vaz points out that more the WPI Plan to new levels of than 22,000 WPI alumni have innovation and opportunity was experienced WPI’s project-based Diran Apelian, Alcoa-Howmet curriculum, and survey results Professor of Mechanical Engineer- show its long-term impact on ing. The individual recipients are leadership, problem solving, Apelian; Rick Vaz, dean of interdis- teamwork, and communication. ciplinary and global studies; Art WPI will use the institutional Heinricher, dean of undergraduate portion of the Gordon Prize to studies; and Kris Wobbe, associate support the launch of the WPI BURGOS dean of undergraduate studies. Center for Project-Based Learning, Apelian praised the courage and aimed at helping other colleges and tenacity of those who pushed for universities advance project-based

PHOTO MATT the WPI Plan, including the late learning on their campuses.

WHAT’S THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION ABOUT ISLAM THAT YOU ENCOUNTER? WHAT WILL IT TAKE TO CHANGE PEOPLE’S PERCEPTIONS? The media and many politicians have created a culture of fear, and the newest bogeyman is what has been called Islamic Terrorism. It’s very easy Through its free Summer Immersion Programs and after-school to think that all Muslims associate with the same clubs, Girls Who Code is leading the movement to close the misguided thinking that terrorists use to condone gender gap by working to inspire, educate, and equip girls with their actions. The vast majority of Muslims stand the computing skills to pursue 21st century opportunities. against these actions, but the community would During WPI’s 2016 undergraduate Commencement ceremony, never know it, because they don’t know their which featured GWC founder and CEO Reshma Saujani as keynote Muslim neighbors. This is where Meet a Muslim speaker, President Leshin announced a pledge of $100,000 per Day comes in. Islam is inherently tolerant toward year to help make it possible for GWC graduates to attend WPI other cultures and we are encouraged to learn and continue their computer science–related studies. about other religions. Education and conversation The WPI/GWC Alumni Scholarship will provide five Girls are essential to changing people’s perceptions. Who Code graduates annual awards of $20,000 during of their four-year undergraduate studies at WPI. SCHOLARSHIP Learn more at girlswhocode.com

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 13 [ Wπ ] PHOTO STEVEN KING

“GOMPEI’S GEARS,” a with Jack Colfer ’16, of the potential to have an impact.” student-run initiative launched project that paved the way by These bikes boast an internal during Earth Week 2016, surveying campus needs and gearing system that makes provides snappy white bikes analyzing other university bike traversing the hills of Worcester that can be checked out 24/7, share models. “When I was easier than walking, according via smartphone. “It was gratify- searching for a project, I didn’t WPI’s Green Team. “Whether it’s IQP ing and thrilling to put the want to work on one that would traveling to Gateway Park, Price ON result of our IQP, ‘A Bicycle Share only end in a big report or even a Chopper, Union Station, or just Plan for WPI,’ into action,” says nice presentation. I wanted to riding for some exercise, the bike WHEELS Kevin Ackerman ’16, co-author work on a project with the share will provide increased

14 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 [ Wπ ]

ROAD TEST

DRIVERLESS CARS POSE TECHNICAL CHALLENGES THAT ARE EXCITING—AND DIFFICULT, says ECE associate professor Alex Wyglinski, who recently took office as president-elect of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, with 4,200 members worldwide. “Autonomy doesn’t happen in a day,” he says, noting that the subgroup has many critical questions on the table. “The community is on fire and solutions are coming up everywhere.” Here are three basic lessons for so-called “self-driving” or “driverless” cars.

TALK IT OVER Driverless cars will still need to interface with humans and share information with the cars around them. They cannot—and should not—make decisions independently, Wyglinski says. “You can’t have autonomy without connectivity.” They’ll also need a “graceful failure option” to hand over control to the driver.

THINK LIKE A BEE WPI researchers received a three-year, $300,000 TRUE NSF grant to study the foraging decisions made by bumblebees as a model to create better networking ENIUS between connected vehicles. Wyglinski, along with G Visionary, intuitive, genuine: words biology professors Robert Gegear and Elizabeth Ryder, will look at how dynamic spectrum access (DSA)– used to describe Bill Grogan. WPI’s based vehicular networks can use bumblebee logic first dean of undergraduate studies for gathering the most nectar to program “cognitive was best known for his leadership radios” that can select the optimal frequency for in crafting and implementing the communication in the car’s current location. WPI Plan. The Presiding Genius of the Place, released on Alumni Weekend, KEEP IT PRIVATE chronicles his singular career and With vehicle-to-vehicle conversations will come his lasting impact on WPI—and the increased security concerns, Wyglinski predicts. future of technological education. access to the city through one “The average car possesses 50 to 100 embedded The book can be purchased at the WPI of the most sustainable forms computers, each controlling such systems as fuel bookstore or at wpi.edu/+groganbook. of transportation,” says injection, automatic transmission, and power locks Ackerman. Tests show that and windows.” He and his team of undergraduate biking between the main and and graduate students have been investigating how lower campus is 40 percent today’s road vehicles can be electronically hacked, faster than driving—and that’s exposing potential vulnerabilities that can affect without factoring in time spent the safety of the human occupants, and devising searching for a parking spot! techniques to counteract them.

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 15 PHOTO STEVEN KING DECADES OF DINNERS In April the WPI community gathered at the WHAT’S THE MOST POPULAR DISH AT THE that has not changed in all the years I’ve Goat’s Head Pub to congratulate Chartwells chef GOAT’S HEAD? Most definitely chicken been here. John Hayes on six decades of service. Just a few tenders and fries. weeks after his retirement celebration, friends HAVE ANY PARTICULAR STUDENTS STOOD OUT and coworkers were saddened to hear of his WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED ABOUT COLLEGE DURING YOUR TIME AT WPI? No, because I death on May 20. Hayes began his career in KIDS AND THEIR APPETITES? In my earlier enjoyed all of them. That would be like picking August 1956 cooking in the Morgan Dining Hall. years, there weren’t as many choices as there a favorite child! When he moved to Founders Hall in 1987, he are now, but in my later years, expectations sealed his status as an invaluable culinarian on grew and students wanted more variety— HAVE YOU KEPT IN CONTACT WITH ANY OF campus, preparing literally millions of meals and healthy choices that tasted great. THEM OVER THE YEARS? No ... once Commence- for hungry students. ment comes, they leave to begin their lives, and When we completed this interview, the WHAT CAN YOU SAY ABOUT THE “TYPICAL” then I look forward to the next year. 83-year-old was in high spirits, heading off KID AT WPI? Students here have always been to his home woodshop to complete a few very well behaved and extremely polite. The long-awaited projects. university attracts the best of the best and

16 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 AIAA AWARD The 2016 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Student Papers Conference, an annual research competition designed to give students a chance to have their work reviewed and critiqued by practicing professionals, was held on campus April 22–23. Attended by the likes of Penn State, RPI, Wentworth, Drexel, and many others, the conference awarded top prizes to two teams of seniors from WPI’s Aerospace Engineering Program. Bottom: “Design and Test of a Radio- Frequency Electrothermal Thruster” by Abigail Cervelloni, Jared Kepron, Ian Limon, and Christian Zelaya (advised by John Blandino) won 1st Prize in the Undergraduate Category; Top: “Autonomous Quadrotor Naviga- tion and Guidance” by Jonathan Blythe, Krzysztof Borowicz, and Allysa Hollander (advised by Raghu Cowlagi) won 2nd Prize in the Team Category.

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 17 [ Wπ ]

BRINGING KNIGHTS TOLIFE We grow up with fairy tales of A digital version of a 400-year- knights and dragons in our old swordplay manual lets heads, and the enchantment visitors flip through all the pages endures with the retelling of old on screen, while standing before tales and the creation of new the glass case that contains the ones—from superhero comics real thing. [Forgeng’s English to Star Wars movies. “The icon translation of Die Kunst des of the knight in shining armor Fechens (The Art of Combat) was is deeply encoded in our recently published.] They can awareness,” says adjunct play a mini-game that uses professor of humanities and woodcuts from the manual arts Jeffrey Forgeng. Fascinated as graphics, and try out the by knights since he was a small techniques by fencing against boy, Forgeng forged a career as an opponent. By downloading a scholar and curator, bringing an interactive “audio experi- the riches of a bygone age to ence,” they can stand within a new generation of fans. the limestone walls of an actual As curator of the Worcester French monastery from the 12 Art Museum’s John Woodman century and share an adventure Higgins Collection (acquired with the monks who lived there. from the former Higgins “The objects in this collection Armory Museum), Forgeng have a lot of depth and complex- works with WPI students on ity, if you want to study them at projects that use 21st century an adult level,” says Forgeng. technology to showcase “But you don’t have to have a centuries-old artifacts in PhD to get excited. It’s not unique ways. “Arms and armor about learning facts. It’s about are not meant to sit there,” engaging the mind and firing he points out. “They’re meant the imagination. What a great to move.” WPI projects have thing for kids to cut their created a wealth of video games, intellectual teeth on.”

film vignettes, and interactive Screenshots from Art of Combat, game iPad displays that give visitors created by Mi Tian ’15, Christopher Ellen ’16, Joshua O’Connor ’16, and Caitlin “Charlie” a new perspective on these Bickle ’17, with code finalized by Patrick rare artifacts. Long ’17. The game debuted at the Worcester Art Museum exhibit this spring.

18 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 [ TURNINGpoint ]

GEORGE AGHJAYAN ’88 says he fit right in at WPI with those comfortable around numbers. In retirement from a career in both insurance and structured finance, he turned his analytical tendencies toward his Armenian heritage, in a mission to ensure that his people’s culture, history, and genocide will not be forgotten. He is co-founder of the Armenian Genealogy Conference.

My grandparents were survivors of the Armenian Genocide. So, I always had a strong sense of justice for the crimes committed against the Armenian people. In 1996 I joined my aunts and uncles on a trip to western Armenia, what is today Turkey, and experienced firsthand the continued destruction of Arme- nian culture and the attempt to deny all evidence of the existence of a people. In 2011 I returned for the reopening of an Armenian church in the town where one of my grandmothers was born. After numerous trips, I couldn’t remain on the sidelines any longer. One component in denial of genocide is the pre-genocide demographics of the victims. This is where my professional background proved useful. I began researching and occasionally publishing on the pre-genocide demographics of the region. This is the core of my work: documenting the Armenian population and cultural sights in Western Armenia. I make use of the archives for Ottoman census records, do field research, and meet with Armenians who remain on the land. I have seen the situation in Kurdish-populated areas become much worse since my initial visit. Since the Turkish elections last year in which I served as a monitor, the peace process with the Kurds has broken down and the government has initiated military operations. Any criticism of President Erdogan is met with imprisonment. That reopened church has been confiscated by the government; its future is unknown. During the genocide, many young women and children were forced to convert to Islam. Attractive girls were also forced to marry, often into the very families that had murdered their parents. I, and others, try to expose their plight. Just last year, through DNA testing, I was able to locate the family of my great-grandmother’s sister. She had been taken during the genocide, and my parents did not even know my great-grandmother had a sister left behind. PHOTO KATHLEEN DOOHER PHOTO KATHLEEN

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 19 BY CATE COULACOS PRATO | PHOTOGRAPHY ERIC HASON Specialist The Alexia Rantala’09 can’t remember when traveling internationally and helping people weren’t part of her life

BY CATE COULACOS PRATO | PHOTOGRAPHY ERIC HASON

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 21 I thInk very much lIke an engIneer. What engIneers is the are solution?always askIng,

From the time she was little, whose parents were living but Alexia Bililies Rantala helped out couldn’t take care of them. Rantala in the family business, Alternative fell in love with the kids, but some Leisure Company, which provides days the experience broke her travel and recreation for special heart. The worst were visiting needs children and adults. She days, when she’d help the children helped however she could on the get dressed up only to watch them trips, from opening hotel doors, wait for parents who never arrived. to cooking, to teaching clients “I thought, there must be how to ski. something else for these kids. I “That was my life—helping wanted to make a difference for people,” she says. “I wanted to them,” she says. help people, especially children As she prepared to return to the in difficult situations.” United States, Rantala considered So it’s no surprise that the colleges with programs—law, energetic 30-year-old, now a international studies, and Spanish— special education specialist at that would help her pursue her Harlem Village Academies in goal. Of all the schools that had New York City, has built a career accepted her the year before, only helping children around the one had all three: WPI. world. What’s unusual for “It was a fluke,” she laughs. someone just seven years out of “But I believe that everything college, though, is how much she happens for a reason.” has accomplished. Rantala has Rantala says she feels she was worked for international educa- not only destined to be at WPI, tional organizations in emergency but to work with her advisor, preparedness programs in South Bland Addison, professor of Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, history in the Humanities and across the world.” graduation, Addison encouraged and East Africa (Ethiopia and Arts Department. At their first Rantala recalls, “I would come her to apply for the Rotary Djibouti), as well as in Liberia meeting she says, he quickly came up with crazy ideas and he’d say, Ambassadorial Scholarship to help during the Ebola crisis. to understand her and her goals, ‘Let’s do it!’ He helped me make pay for her postgraduate studies. Her trajectory began with a gap and advised her on how to use my WPI experience what I wanted The award provides recipients year after high school. She applied WPI’s resources as a stepping and needed it to be. He changed with $24,000 toward a one-year to several colleges, including WPI, stone to the next phase of her life. my life.” master’s degree program any- deferring without making a “I was very struck by her Although she didn’t study where in the world, so long as it decision. But unlike some teens engagement with what needed engineering, “I think very much involves helping people. A Google who choose lighter gap-year to be done to improve the world, like an engineer. Engineers are search led her experiences, she headed to Costa particularly for children,” says always asking, ‘What is the to the Master of Disaster Manage- Rica, where she worked for six Addison. “She wanted a course of solution?’ And you need that skill ment program at the University month in two children’s homes. study that would be demanding in emergency work. You don’t of Copenhagen. These homes, similar to and also put her in touch with the have time to belabor a point. While there, she attended a talk orphanages, took in children large issues that were sweeping As Rantala approached on education and emergencies by

22 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 RANTALA WITH HER CLASS AT THE HARLEM VILLAGE ACADEMIES IN NEW YORK CITY.

passion for emergency work and example of the Arts and Humani- her knowledge and experience, ties program’s goal: to make Rantala returned to Save the students aware “that most of the Children U.S. world is not as technologically Her first assignment was in equipped as we are, nor do they Liberia during the Ebola crisis. have the comforts we have. But She was among the first interna- through their education, they can a representative of Save the took a job with Finn Church Aid, tional organization staff members play a role in improving less Children. She eventually interned the second largest international on the ground from Save the fortunate people’s lives,” he says. at Save the Children in Denmark. provider of humanitarian aid. Children. One of her responsibili- In her career, Rantala has also Upon graduation she accepted a She served as a consultant on ties was to advise the Ministry of learned that “education is the two-month internship in Washing- crisis preparation and response Education on protocols for key.” Even during the Ebola crisis, ton, D.C., but it didn’t last that before she took a post as a reopening schools as the crisis she says that teaching people how long. After two weeks, the regional education coordinator, subsided and what to do when to avoid disease and how to keep organization offered Rantala a job developing and providing children presented symptoms. children learning during the time working on hurricane recovery education and assistance to “It was scary there,” she recalls. the schools were closed were just programs with child care facilities displaced, refugee, and emer- “Even the doctors and other as important as medical help. in Texas. gency-affected groups in Nairobi professionals were scared, “Everyone deserves education,” She continued to work with Save and throughout East Africa. which put the rest of us even she says. “That’s the cause I believe the Children until she and the When her fiancé landed a job at more on edge.” But, she says, in, and that’s the field I will stay man who would later become her the United Nations, the couple “I would absolutely do it again.” in. It’s the only way we will change husband moved to Finland. She moved to New York. With her Addison says Rantala is an the world.” J

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 23 a Widened lens

How an IQP in Namibia inspired Donal Boyd ’13 to pursue a career behind the camera

By Andrew Faught | photography donal boyd a Widened lens

How an IQP in Namibia inspired Donal Boyd ’13 to pursue a career behind the camera

By Andrew Faught | photography donal boyd Jökulsárlón, a glacial lake dotted Folklore has it with glowing blue icebergs. that trolls tried to dig a channel to In another workshop he will host separate the rest of Iceland from its this summer, “Legends of the northwest reaches, the flat-topped Icelandic Light,” Boyd will lead 10 mountainous region known as the photographers on a cross-country Westfjords. Trolls are a notoriously tour and teach them to take photosensitive lot, and the plan landscape photos using the iPhone went awry when one of them app PhotoPills. The program helps couldn’t get home before day- photographers determine the exact break. She turned to stone at first time the sun and moon rise and light, and Iceland remained intact. set—critical in Iceland, where the That’s good news for photogra- northern latitude makes for daily pher Donal Boyd. Since last lighting variances. summer, he’s chronicled the For Boyd, it’s all about getting Westfjords’ bounty of brooks, the perfect shot. flowers, and Arctic foxes. Cheap That’s not always an easy airfare and a flight of fancy got proposition. Iceland straddles him to Iceland. Now he can’t see the Arctic Circle, whose fickle himself leaving. climes are the stuff of weather “This is a place I was always forecaster nightmares. meant to be,”he says. “You’ll have sun that spills onto Boyd wasted little time making the landscape for five minutes, and an imprint on his adopted home. then it rains, and then it’ll be He launched his own business, sunny again,” Boyd says. “So you International Photography have these in-between moments Adventures, through which he when you’ll have super-intense leads tourists on expeditions that light on rain-soaked grass and range from half a day to 10 days. shores. I’m really inspired by those Based in the capital city Reykjavik, unique moments. You have to be he is more often than not afield patient, though. Those moments in the Icelandic countryside. don’t always come, and half the In August, Boyd will co-lead an time it’s too rainy to shoot.” Arctic fox photo workshop to the Boyd’s life is all about the moment. Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, Friends say he exults in discovery where the cat-sized mammals and making connections, with traipse over a landscape bursting both people and the natural world. with nearly 260 species of flower- “Whenever we’ve traveled ing plants and ferns. Many of together, we always seem to come his clients learn about Boyd via away with new friends, whether Facebook and Instagram. we’ve been there for five minutes The nature reserve is only or five days,” says Patrick Ford ’13, accessible by boat. Once he and the a self-described “shy kid” who group arrive, he says, “we will stay gravitated to the gregarious Boyd in a custom-made cabin and spend when they shared a freshman three full days separated from the chemistry class. “He’s one of the rest of the world.” Other tours have most interesting people I’ve ever ventured to east Iceland and met, that’s for sure.”

26 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016

WPIA_FEATURES_Summer2016_20-43B_PRINTER.indd 26 7/28/16 12:36 AM WPIA_FEATURES_Summer2016_20-43B_PRINTER.indd 27 7/28/16 12:36 AM For formative purposes, Boyd’s journey started in Worcester. He credits his days at WPI, and particularly his IQP in Namibia, with infusing him with a desire to see and find inspiration in the world at large. He does it through the lenses of his Canon EOS 5D Mark III and Sony Alpha Mirrorless digital cameras. Ford, who recently earned a master’s degree in technology and policy from MIT, was with Boyd for the Namibia trip, during which the pair spent two months evaluating the efficacy of a solar/diesel off-grid power plant. The students and their project teammates then offered suggestions for managing and expanding the plant. In his free time, Boyd and his cameras took off in search of chromatic expression. “That was one of the most profound events of my life,” he says of the Africa trip. “Through WPI I was able to get to a place in the world that I knew absolutely nothing about—kind of like Iceland— and it totally changed my perspective on everything. It gave me a different under- standing of what I was even thinking I should do in life.” Boyd first started taking photos as a high school freshman growing up in Raynham, Mass. “My parents always had cameras, and I played around with them,” he says. “It was a way for me to be able to express myself.”

28 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 His interest grew after meeting a professional photographer in Easton, Mass., who taught him the technical nuances of the craft. Boyd has never stopped clicking. Two of his images— one depicting WPI’s Earle Bridge on a foggy night—have been featured in National Geographic’s online “Your Shot,” which showcases the work of non-staff photographers. A print of the Earle Bridge image, which depicts a man in a trench coat and a fedora in mid-step over the span, hangs in the university’s admissions office. It also appeared on the inside front cover of the Spring 2014 issue of the WPI Journal. One of Boyd’s most influential mentors is Diran Apelian, Alcoa-Howmet Professor of Mechanical Engineering at WPI. As he does with all his students, Apelian challenged Boyd to pursue his dreams, and do so with a critical global mindset. “Donal has a soul that is pure, kind, and very aware of the world in which we live,” Apelian says. “His role is to help mankind and the world be better. I know those sound like just words, but he actually walks the talk. That’s unusual in a young man.” Part of Boyd’s efforts to make the world better is to leave a light footprint. “It’s of the utmost importance to respect nature in Iceland— and in the rest of the world, of course—and there should be no exceptions made when trying to

WPIA_FEATURES_Summer2016_20-43B_PRINTER.indd 29 7/28/16 12:37 AM photograph its beauty,” he says. into something of a global citizen. Apelian, too, has a passion for In the last 18 months, he’s voyaged photography. He minored in the to four continents, spending time subject at MIT, and 36 of his photos, in Brazil, South Africa, China, United titled “A Life’s Journey,” were Arab Emirates, and Turkey. exhibited at the Gordon Library in But it’s Iceland that has stuck 2008. Apelian has nothing but with him. plaudits for Boyd’s aesthetic. In a nation of just 332,000 inhabitants “His photographs are amazing, (among whom live a scant 30 profes- and they’re getting better and better,” sional photographers), Boyd has he says. “Donal has a wonderful eye come to look the part of a native son. for composition. It’s balanced, it’s He regularly dons a lopapeysa, a compelling, and it captivates you. traditional sweater made from the He captures things with an eye wool of Icelandic sheep. He isn’t keen, that’s special.” however, on partaking in another Like many a freshman on the path national pastime: ingesting hákarl, or to self-discovery, Boyd enrolled at fermented shark meat. Doing so has WPI with one half-serious notion. come to be seen as an act of bravura, “I’m embarrassed to say, but I went one widely documented on YouTube. into chemical engineering with the Instead, he enjoys feasting on mindset of wanting to brew beer,” gas station ice cream during his he says. photographic explorations; it’s Suds aside, “I liked the project-based sometimes the only sustenance for learning at WPI,” he adds. “I wasn’t miles around: “I always have to get the going to be learning about one thing Dairy Queen–style chocolate dip or for a very long time. I got to experience licorice dip. Icelanders love licorice.” a lot of things in a short amount of From there, it’s on to the Westfjords, time, and I got to work with a bunch his destination of choice in this home of different people. That’s really why I away from home. decided on the school, because I knew “When I’m out there, I feel over- that I could get that experience.” whelmed in a good way,” Boyd says. Boyd says his STEM background, “Moments are happening in this with its emphasis on planning and absolutely enormous place of beauty, organization, has translated well to and I’m the only person there. I’m photography. seeing something that no one else is “Without WPI, I wouldn’t be the seeing, and I’m able to capture it. It same photographer that I am today feels really cool.” because I wouldn’t have an understand- Relocating to Iceland was a leap of ing of how all of the pieces fit to- faith for Boyd, who didn’t think he gether,” he says. “I am here in Iceland was mature enough to make such an because a lot of things had to happen. ambitious move. Now that he’s I had to organize and adjust and meet there—more mature and a bit more people, and I don’t think I would have confident when it comes to Icelandic had the ability to do something like phrases and pleasantries—he says his this had I not had that kind of technical life and photos have taken on crystal- background.” line purpose: “I really hope to inspire While he holds dual American and someone to try to create something Irish citizenship, Boyd has morphed new every single day.”. J

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 31 [ WPIinsider]

KATIE PICCHIONE ’16 PHOTO STEVEN KING

HONORABLE MENTIONS: FOISIE SCHOLAR • ELLEN KNOTT AWARD RECIPIENT • CHARLES O. THOMPSON SCHOLAR • NEWMAN CLUB MEMBER • SALISBURY PRIZE RECIPIENT • ROTARACT CLUB FOUNDER • ENGINEERS WITHOUT BORDERS USA, WPI CHAPTER PRESIDENT • CRIMSON AND GRAY AWARD WINNER • OMICRON DELTA KAPPA EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER • WASH- BURN SHOPS PLA AND LAB MONITOR • CNC JOB TRAINING LAB INSTRUCTOR

32 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 Katie Picchione ’16 is a perfect example of a WPI Insider. The creator of an MQP that bridged the disci- plines of Mechanical Engineering and Society, Technology, and Policy, Picchione reached milestones of success throughout her four years on campus, including multiple honors. NABEEL TOKATLI ’18 She says she’s surprised by some of the Major: Aerospace Engineering recognition she’s received, because she’s Hometown: Worcester, Mass. surrounded by equally deserving students. “I think it comes down to the fact that I love Involvement: finding connections between the various, often • Sigma Phi Epsilon, fraternity disparate, activities I participate in, and that • Football Team is where I cultivate my passions,” she says. • Student Government Association, senator Common themes she cites as interests are • Sound Logic, student a cappella group teaching, improved quality of life, critical thinking, and multifarious perspectives. “I consider “Thanks to the generosity of alumni and myself a lifelong learner, and it’s rare that I’m parents, my dream of becoming an aerospace not excited by the prospect of learning, doing a engineer is coming true. One day, I hope to give project, or starting something new.” back to WPI and support future students and Her initial draw to WPI was its interdisciplinary their dreams.” approach to education. “I decided to pursue engineering in large part because technology and social impact are closely tied. The WPI Plan’s emphasis on the humanities, arts, and social sciences helps students develop holistic approaches to technological development.” Picchione considers her IQP in Costa Rica one WPI is built on a long and proud tradition of philanthropy. of the highlights of her undergraduate education. When you give to the WPI Annual Fund and become part of this After two months of organic farming study with tradition, you support students like Nabeel and Katie. the Costa Rican Ministry of Agriculture and Live- stock, she and her teammates evaluated a training Whether it’s in the aeronautics lab, on the football eld, at a program to teach farmers about organic pesticide global project center, or through scholarship support, your gift and fertilizer techniques. “It was an incredibly directly impacts the student experience. immersive experience where we learned about and experienced the farmers’ way of life,” she says. “I developed a deep appreciation for organic agriculture—for attaining balance between the land, the animals, and soil nutrients—and Make your gift today and start your WPI legacy. people’s livelihoods and communities.” She also traveled with WPI’s Engineers With- Online: wpi.edu/+give out Borders team to Guatemala four times, and Phone: 1-877-WPI-FUND considers her time with EWB an integral part of Mail: WPI Annual Fund, 100 Institute Rd., Worcester, MA 01609 her education. “Not only have I been able to apply (please make checks payable to WPI) the problem solving and critical thinking skills learned in my classes in a real, meaningful way, but I have learned to overcome challenges, from gender bias to language barriers to logistical contingencies to technical errors,” she explains. “EWB has fostered my passion to use technology and education to help people attain a better quality of life.” With the next step of a master’s in MIT’s Technology and Policy Program, Picchione represents the pinnacle of what one can achieve inside WPI.

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 33 ory he S T TS Behind T TS Behind The S Ta

34 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 Jeff Bennett ’94 How a passion for numbers turned into a new language of sports

BY TED FLANAGAN | PHOTOGRAPHY KATHLEEN DOOHER

The road to winning four Emmys and helping usher in a new billion-dollar sports analytics industry began with Jeff Bennett’s part-time job in a tiny closet filled with orphaned sports highlight tapes at ESPN’s Connecticut headquarters. Bennett, now ESPN’s vice president of stats and analytics, has led the best of professional lives as his personal and professional passions merged seamlessly into a kind of vacuum he was privileged to fill as he saw fit.

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 35 Birth of a Network city of Willimantic, Conn., Betamax and was catalogued by Once upon a time, sports news on Bennett—a young sports fanatic barcode in this incredible library. television was simple. There were with a penchant for numbers and Back then they would re-use the three local channels and each a near-obsessive need to memorial- tapes, so we would have to decide broadcast the news at 11 p.m. for a ize Wiffle ball games in stacks of which games were important to half hour, devoting a few minutes data—was unknowingly charting keep—which highlights we needed to sports news toward the end. the course of his future career, in a to hang onto.” Highlights were sparse and field that barely existed at the time. He says the job helped him build delivered by loud men in loud “My childhood was grounded a reputation at the network as blazers who covered only the in sports statistics,” Bennett hard-working and knowledgeable important stats: how far Yaz hit that remembers. “I learned from the within a wide variety of sports. last homerun, how many touch- backs of baseball cards. I kept the Early on at ESPN, Bennett set a goal downs Steve Grogan threw on records of backyard Wiffle ball for himself. Sunday and to whom, how many games and Strat-O-Matic games, “My dream job was researcher on three-pointers Larry Bird drained then translated them all to my Baseball Tonight,” he says, referring in the last Celtics game. Commodore 64. Not long ago, to ESPN’s tentpole nightly baseball But in the early 1980s, an upstart we found reams of score sheets program. It was a goal he achieved sports network improbably in my mother’s attic.” in 2000 after four years in a similar headquartered in Bristol, Conn., That passion for numbers led overnight role for SportsCenter. began changing how America— him to pursue a degree in applied Bennett’s work in that role was and, eventually, the world—did mathematics at WPI (“My high some of the most satisfying of his sports, altering forever the way school calculus teacher would career; the satisfaction included fans experienced games on TV. probably be surprised to know four Emmys that he shared for his It was also the dawn of an era I majored in math,” he jokes). contributions to SportsCenter. when an elite group of sports Bennett was a member of the At the same time, the network’s observers began chronicling a WPI wrestling team, something growing roster of shows needed hidden game located beneath he remembers with immense real-time statistics, trivia, and the veneer of who did what and pride. “I’m proud of my small similar spontaneous bits of when. It was a world where the role on some championship ephemera that sated the viewers’ stories were told with numbers. teams,” he says. new thirst for information. Certain sports statistics—for In 1994, while doing a post- It was a digital idea in a decidedly example, RBIs and the ERA in graduation stint as a furniture analog world. Researchers were baseball and yards thrown per mover, he heard about a job in the expected to add depth and context game by a quarterback—had long then-unhallowed halls of ESPN; he to games and highlights via been valued above others and landed the part-time position as an numbers and statistics, all without adopted in the vernacular of the archivist for the network’s iconic Google or the Web, which were sports argument as self-evident SportsCenter program. It was an both in their infancy. truth worthy of prima facie auspicious time to join ESPN, which The pace was unrelenting. The acceptance. These highlights were was just beginning a steep upward job of a researcher is, at least in the thrust of the story being told. trajectory, as a corporation and as part, to give the on-air talent The arrival of ESPN brought the a cultural touchstone. interesting things to say. It’s about sports highlight to a heretofore But while the network may have making connections on the fly, and unknown prominence, and led been leaping ahead, the technology then packaging those connections some on the fringes of sports— Bennett found in his workplace in visually interesting ways on the observers willing to question the was decidedly retro. slimmest of deadlines, usually live status quo—to wonder if they’d “It’s a job that doesn’t exist and with no safety net. been following the wrong stats anymore,” Bennett says. “It was a “Every day you came in and had all along. three-person department, and we to be original,” he says. “Baseball is Around the same time and not were in charge of the tapes used by completely unpredictable, and you far from Bristol, in the small mill SportsCenter. Everything was on needed to think about interesting

36 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 things to say before people even transformation of sports statistics realized they were interesting, from just something to argue while trying to be one hundred about at the bar or over Thanks- percent accurate.” giving dinner into a narrative Bennett approached the job device, a new kind of lens through much like a jazz musician, riffing which athletics can be viewed. off the ebb and flow of the live And it all begins with numbers broadcasts, and knowing that —statistics that, as Bennett says, “pretty much anything I wanted go deeper. to get on the air, I could get on “We’re always looking for the air.” deeper data,” he says. “Deeper data One of his proudest achieve- slices that tell you more about the ments was the popular and why. We want to deliver more long-running Did You Know? than what traditional box scores segment on SportsCenter, a daily tell you, but in a truly deeper way. sports trivia question culled from It should be more than just a Bennett’s vast trove of data and meaningless slice of information.” sports information. Ever since Michael Lewis’s book “It was exciting because you’d Moneyball (and the movie based hear people talking about some- on it starring Brad Pitt) brought thing I’d gotten onto the show.” the arcane world of sabermetrics On Baseball Tonight, he special- to the mainstream, sports ized in bringing perspective to statistics have increasingly the games by feeding stats to the encroached on the viewing various hosts while the broadcasts experience. They have been were live—no easy feat, consider- used to bring perspective to an ing the stats themselves are a endeavor—the sporting event— kind of holy writ for ardent fans. that traditionally has had little Bennett now works primarily to offer. in a management role, finding Indeed, appreciating the the people to do the creative modern sports broadcast requires things he once brought to live learning a new language. television. But he clearly relishes In baseball, sportscasters now the memory of those bygone days. toss around terms like OPS “In a lot of ways, I feel like I’ll (on-base plus slugging) and WAR never be better at anything than (wins above replacement). The I was at that,” he says wistfully. former is a measurement of a player’s ability to get on base and also hit for power, while the latter Deeper Data (which has implications on more It probably isn’t too surprising than one sport) represents a that Bennett, whose family started player’s value over a hypothetical and owns Willimantic radio average replacement; it’s meant to station WILI (1400 AM), would quantify a player’s contribution to find a way to combine his love of the team. Hockey has begun sports, numbers, and broadcast- tracking puck possession and ing into a career. unblocked shots. What he couldn’t have planned, Bennett and his team are though, was the congruence responsible for two of the most of his career search and the important additions to sports

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 37 analytics in recent And why not? years: the Total A recent study by market research firm Quarterback Rating ReportsnReports.com found that sports (TQBR) in football, and analytics, of which Bennett’s group is on the the Basketball Power leading edge, was a $125 million-per-year Index (BPI). industry in 2014. TQBR is a mathemat- By 2021, that figure is expected to be $4.7 billion. ical nod to the fact It’s a far cry from Bennett’s days as a re- that not all quarter- searcher, when he depended on printed media back plays are equal. guides and reference books and his ability to A 50-yard completion quickly navigate them. in the last seconds of These days, the statistics that scroll during a lost game is not games, that are included in highlight packages, necessarily superior and that fuel the company’s multitudinous to a five-yard touch- fantasy sports offerings, are driven by algo- down pass that wins rithms, bringing a high level of automation to the game at the end ESPN’s offerings. of regulation. TQBR is But the backbone of the enterprise is still the a means of offering staff of full-time researchers (augmented by ad perspective, a way to illustrate that some plays hoc help during especially hectic periods) who are better than others. It’s a tool for cutting fill the group’s computer terminals during live through the hype of a QB who may have gaudy ESPN STATS & INFORMATION GROUP (SIG) sportscasts and other shows. The team monitors EMPLOYEES: FULL-TIME, but largely irrelevant stats. 135 online databases and analyzes statistics reported 82 PART-TIME The BPI measures team strength. By integrat- from outside services in real time, trying to ing game-by-game efficiency, the difficulty of the MAIN SIG JOBS: (RESEARCHER, STATS anticipate the on-air talent’s needs so they can 4 schedule, pace, and day of rest—among other ANALYST, BOTTOMLINE EDITOR, SPORTS seamlessly deliver the perfect factoid or just the ANALYTICS SPECIALIST) factors—it calibrates to what degree a particular right graphic. Moment by moment, they test the team exceeds or lags the league average at any waters for a narrative hook that will add value TWITTER FOLLOWERS: given point in the season. and interest to the broadcast. It’s an artistic @ESPNSTATSINFO 1.38M Today’s sports broadcasts, no matter the @ESPNDATOS (SPANISH-LANGUAGE) K blend of math, psychology, and high-wire act, 138 platform (television, tablet, online streaming), all performed at high speed. HOURS LIVE SPORTSCENTER STAFFED: are wrapped in an analytical package of im- Bennett and his group are always on the 6,500 PER YEAR mense sophistication and responsiveness. And Bennett says ESPN will continue to lookout for new ways to collect the data they STATISTICAL GRAPHICS CREATED FOR STUDIO bring its analytics prowess to those broadcasts, need to better tell the story. SHOWS: PER YEAR 60,000 wherever they migrate—a not-unimportant Among the most promising innovations are wearable player-tracking devices that will help NEWS ALERTS ON BOTTOMLINE: point, considering that ESPN’s finances have the researchers better understand how a player’s 3,500 PER YEAR taken a hit as part of the wider erosion of cable television’s economic model. actions away from the ball—or puck—contribute PUBLIC METRICS CREATED: 10 “It’s a tricky time,” he concedes. “There’s a lot to his or her success, or failure. (EXAMPLE: TOTAL QBR, FPI, BPI) of disruption right now. In the cable industry, “Among other things, this will help us recognize

CALCULATED DISTANCE (IN FEET) OF there’s some subscriber loss, but at the macro whether a player made the right play,” he says. MLB HOME RUNS IN 2015: 1,969,159 level, we’re so much more than cable TV. “Analyzing gets more toward fit, and spacing— (ABOUT 373 MILES) We’re looking to adapt, bring more value to that kind of thing. Did Bird make the right the contract. Statistics offerings are a huge pass? Was Kobe making a harder shot than SEASON SIMULATIONS OF THE REMAINING part of that.” the other players?” SCHEDULE FOR THE NFL, NBA, AND CFB: 10,000 TIMES A DAY So even as more and more consumers cut the At the end of the day, Bennett knows his stats cable, Bennett says ESPN will be able to meet and information group needs to offer a kind of EVENTS SUPPORTED WITH LIVE DATA them wherever they go. intelligence, no matter where the ESPN flag flies FOR ALL ESPN PLATFORMS: 15,000 “We’re a platform-agnostic sports information (cable, digital, online). PER YEAR service,” he says. “Storytelling with insight and “People coming to us want us to be smart and creativity. That’s what my team does.” different. That’s what they expect.”J

38 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 W P I N A E

E R. T F R. A.

The NAE’s 2016 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education honors the passion and persistence of WPI faculty leaders who have nurtured and enriched our landmark project-based learning model. Launched in 1970 by great minds who dared to uproot tradition, the WPI Plan places real-world experiences at the center of the curriculum with coursework in a supporting role. Today, WPI’s model thrives and our graduates ourish. And now, through the Center for Project-Based Learning, we share our expertise, guiding a new generation of educators to reimagine higher education. Together. wpi.edu/+projectbasedlearning.

D A A H R V K W Alcoa-Howmet Professor, Professor, Associate Professor, Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering; Mathematical Sciences; Electrical and Computer Engineering; Chemistry and Biochemistry; Director, Metal Processing Institute Dean, Undergraduate Studies Dean, Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies

G M. M.

Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education spring 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 37 Jinny Ferl ’83 Has Designs on the Galaxy

By Joan Killough-Miller | Photography John Mollura SewingSpace “I WOULDN’T GO to seam materials, how many stitches per inch, what machine INTO SPACE IN to use, what webbing we attach, SOMETHING MADE how much load it can carry, and ON A SEWING how many times components can be cycled before they stretch out MACHINE!” Those are the and don’t work anymore.” In fact, words of the man who designed the SSA is part of a larger system, NASA’s AX line of rigid fiberglass and must be designed to function spacesuits in the 1960s.* In fact, the flawlessly with the life support Apollo suits worn on NASA’s moon system. JINNY FERL ’83 missions were made on sewing Ferl joined the crew at ILC in 1988, machines, by a company famous as space work was picking up again HAS DESIGNS for stitching latex and Dacron into after the hiatus that followed the Playtex girdles and bras in the Challenger disaster. With the job ON THE GALAXY 1950s. Today that same firm is offer came a question: “So, do you working on the latest generation want to work on gloves, or do you of spacesuits being designed for want to do everything else?” She exploring Mars—suits that combine chose “everything else,” but her hard and soft elements. BY JOAN KILLOUGH-MILLER | PHOTOGRAPHY JOHN MOLLURA work has come to include complex The perception that “softgoods” glove projects—as well as budgets, design is not hard engineering lives hiring, and approvals. on, says Janet “Jinny” (Guerrin) Ferl. On-the-job training began on the She has been designing space suit plant’s production floor, where Ferl assemblies (SSA) at ILC Dover in learned each process that goes into Delaware (formerly International constructing a multilayer space suit, Latex Corp.) for almost three and progressed through final decades. Ferl leads the Dover team acceptance testing. “At that time who, along with SSA engineers from we had a high production rate, and ILC’s Houston location, supplied key different floors for sewing, heat- components of the Z-2 planetary sealing, dipping, and molding,” she walking suit to NASA last year. says. “When I started, there was one “The Z-2 is the most advanced suit computer for the whole engineer- that anyone’s delivered since the ing group, and it was basically used EMU (Extravehicular Mobility Unit) just for word processing.” used on the Space Shuttle and now Back then, paper patterns were on the International Space Station made by hand, with a pencil, rulers, (ISS). It has a lot of pedigree and and a set of curves. Some of those testing behind it,” she says. famous seamstresses from the “Aw, you’re just sewin’ a rag,” Apollo era were still there, sewing Ferl drawls, affecting contempt for away on specially adapted machines. softgoods work. “People think that “I heard all the stories from the because it’s fabric, it’s less of an Apollo engineers, and I got the engineering feat than pumps and benefit of all that experience,” says batteries and wires and fans.” Ferl. “It was a heady time to learn.” Although she likes to unwind Today the patterns are digital and with quilting and needlepoint, most cutting—both laser and clothing astronauts for the wheel—is automated. Ferl notes demands of today’s space missions that a few materials still have to be is a rigorous business. “We inspect cut and sewn by hand, such as the every stitch that we put in. And delicate nylon chiffon that lies we put a lot of thought into that against the astronaut’s skin to form thread, and how to specify it, and the innermost layer of the liquid how to test it to make sure it’s going cooling garment. to work every time. We look at how

* Hubert “Vic” Vykukal, quoted in Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo, by Nicholas de Monchaux, from a 2007 interview with the author summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 41 FERL IN THE PATTERN ROOM AT ILC DOVER, WHERE HER DESIGNS COME ALIVE.

vendor ceases manufacturing a the softgoods become hard. The Houston and Delaware teams M chosen fabric, it can be tough to bearings and patterned softgoods work to fit rare individuals whose For Ferl, “everything else” runs come up with—and validate—a are what provide pressurized hand configurations don’t match the gamut from selecting substitute. Some of Ferl’s critical mobility. an existing glove size (there are materials that protect against publications have un-sexy titles, It takes talent to make spacesuits about 60 sizes). The process begins heat, radiation, and MMOD like “Minimizing the Effects in sizes that work for everyone. with interviews to identify the (micrometeoroid orbital debris), of Material Obsolescence on “It’s always easier to make things issues. Casts are made and scanned to configuring a system of Constellation Space Suit System bigger, but small is hard,” Ferl with 3-D software to build a digital interchangeable parts to accom- Design” and “Considerations notes. Her work has enabled many model, layer by layer. The model is modate the many body sizes that for Flight Certification of Space- female astronauts to take part in then “unwrapped” to create a flat work on the ISS. (It’s not feasible suit Assemblies.” EVAs (extra vehicular activities). pattern that can be cut from cloth. for NASA to send up a custom suit Getting dressed in space is “NASA is very sensitive about this,” Ferl recently worked with fitted for each astronaut.) Beyond complicated, so a lot of thought she says. “Nobody set out to astronaut Peggy Whitson on the obvious considerations of goes into “don/doff” systems. exclude women, it’s just that customized gloves for her safety and functionality lies a host With ILC’s earlier two-piece when you try to get smaller, you upcoming mission as part of of important, but less glamorous designs, Ferl explains, “First you run out of real estate. The life Expedition 50/51 on the ISS. “As issues, such as cargo weight, cost, shimmy up into the upper support system is huge. And soon as she got the gloves, she and durability. torso—then you put on your gloves can be very challenging, loved them,” says Ferl, who “NASA keeps asking us, ‘Can’t pants.” The Z-2 is an innovative because they need to incorporate traveled to NASA’s Johnson Space we just keep that up there another rear-entry design with an integral a certain amount of hardware Center in Houston and witnessed year?’” Ferl says. “And we have to life-support “backpack” that and fabric while still providing underwater testing. She watched say, ‘This thing is 19 years old. latches to the vehicle’s exit hatch. dexterity in the fingers and wrist.” Whitson emerge triumphant from Would you wear your coat after The components are made of Ferl especially enjoys the custom the Neutral Buoyancy Lab. “I’ve 19 years?’ We’re doing some pretty multiple softgood layers and have glove projects, which bring her never seen anybody smile so advanced engineering in terms of to fit together with bearings and face-to-face with working brightly. It made all the difference materials and structures.” When a disconnects. When pressurized, astronauts. Engineers from ILC’s in the world to her. She’s going to

42 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 because, over the decades, Ferl has products we’re making.” On a few observed less enthusiasm for space occasions, she’s been able to get exploration. “My impression is that inside a suit herself and put it it’s almost taken for granted. Our through its paces. “I don’t have the astronauts used to be American kind of suit time some of our other heroes, and now people don’t engineers have. I’ve done some even know who they are. Once, I neat walking, crawling, and would go into a classroom and ask, sidestepping when we were looking be able to do an EVA without the flammability, and off-gassing to ‘Who wants to be an astronaut?’ at lower torso mobility. It takes challenges of poorly fitting gloves make sure that when you put and hands would shoot up all over some training to get good at it.” and the risk of hand damage. these things up there in that small the room.” Today kids are more The importance of testing never Our engineers did a great job of closed environment, it’s not going likely to dream of designing escapes her. “A crew member is listening to her comments and to smell like new carpeting and videogames or working in green going to get into that suit. People responding with good choices. make people sick.” energy, she notes. depend on it for their life and for The work is very artistic; it’s not Not all choices that go into a suit Ferl wasn’t shooting for the space the critical work they do. We’ve got just engineering.” are driven by science. Ferl was an industry when she studied BME at to make sure that it functions advocate of NASA’s move to let the WPI, but her education was still on flawlessly, over and over.” public vote on the appearance of target. “WPI taught me about Ferl learned to stand behind her the Z-2 suit. Five years earlier, NASA teamwork, project work, and work in her first job, doing product H N chose a lime-green trim for ILC’s experimentation. I couldn’t approval at the FDA. “If I made a Z-1 suit, which was quickly dubbed imagine going to a school where bad decision, a lot of people could Even when the suits are perfect for the Buzz Lightyear look. “People you sit in a classroom and go suffer. It came with a lot of the astronauts, they need to survive either loved it or hated it,” she says. through a whole semester of just responsibility.” Today, her expertise transport in the commercial “Some people objected that it was reading a book and doing prob- in “just sewing rags” surrounds carriers that now supply the ISS. bringing spacesuits down to the lems. The project work and the astronauts in suits strong enough “A rocket is not a rocket is not a level of cartoon characters.” For the quick turnaround were absolutely to protect the beating heart inside. rocket,” says Ferl. Verifying the Z-2 suit competition, Ferl pushed right for me. It prepared me for the “You have to develop a certain right packing material to accom- for a collaboration with design way this industry works, and the confidence,” she says. “That comes modate variations in temperature, students at Philadelphia University. way products are designed and through knowing the product, and vibration, and load can be difficult. “They taught us a lot about style,” developed and tested. being able to communicate what In addition, “Every material that’s she jokes. “Engineers are not “I’m a hands-on person,” she you know. And once you get there, sent to the station—from the known for their sense of fashion, adds. “I still like to get out to do the you can sleep better at night.” J astronauts’ clothing to bathroom right?” testing and get my hands on the tissue—has to be tested for toxicity, Involving the public is important

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 43 SAVE THE DATE e Women Saturday, November 12, 2016 The Women of WPI Annual Conference ofWPI Additional details coming summer 2016

The mission of The Women of WPI is to connect, support and THE WOMEN OF WPI STEERING COMMITTEE engage WPI alumnae. Its purpose is to... Laura Amodeo '06 • further the role of women as leaders and active participants in Emily Anesta '05 the university and within our extended communities. Sarah Antolick '15 Kara McCarty Chmielewski '91 • promote personal and professional growth. Paula Fragassi Delaney '75 • celebrate the achievements and successes while fostering Rachel Delisle '96, '06 future generations. Anne McPartland Dodd '75 • provide opportunities for women to share ideas and be Joyce Kline '87 inspired by one other. Alison Leflore '09 Brianna Sheldon '15 Sue Giroux Sontgerath '88 Victoria Valentine '00 Kathy Kruczek Vignaly '84 Jami Walsh '97 Samantha Wentzell '11

Dear Alumni: special reception where they received their Women of WPI pins. I was thrilled to see As I complete my first year as president, I’ve many of them proudly wearing their pins taken some time to reflect on the Alumni on their commencement gowns. Another Association’s fantastic year filled with firsts. event is being planned for Saturday, Nov. 12. Our first global chapters have been formed Save the date, alumnae! in Hong Kong and Panama, with several Some new traditions are in the works: more in the early stages of development. Efforts continue to establish the WPI Hall of The Association has designated an alumni Fame to promote WPI and its most success- board member as an international liaison. ful alumni. The first Legacy Day was held in Students are presenting their international February, raising awareness with current IQPs to alumni where the projects were students by sharing stories of how each of completed. It’s a clear indicator of the global us has the opportunity to create a legacy aspect of the Association, which now has through our contributions of time, talent, alumni in more than 100 countries. and treasure—and tagging our stories with GOLD (Graduates of the Last Decade) has #mywpilegacy. been so active with its social and profes- Let’s not forget Alumni Weekend, rich sional development events that we’ve with activity and opportunity to reconnect increased programming to better serve the with old friends and make new ones. The group. With sell-out crowds at the winter traditions of the Reunion Parade, 50-Year social and “Cubicle to the Corner Office” Associates celebration, Class Reunions, and events, a summer social and other program- Alumni Awards were all in play. A special FROM THE ming are being planned. shout-out goes to the Class of 1966 – winners The university has also seen many firsts of the coveted Class of ’17 Attendance Cup ALUMNI —new accolades, rankings, and awards—all with 21 percent of classmates here to increasing the value of our degrees and our celebrate. PRESIDENT pride in our alma mater. For the first time, How about this for a legacy? The great our graduate and undergraduate classes Class of 1956 was recognized for the largest were large enough to hold two commence- class gift, of $43.6 million. The competition ment ceremonies. Over 700 graduate was steep with a total of $52.8 million in degrees and 900 undergraduate degrees gifts from reunion classes. I am humbled were conferred on May 12 and 14, respec- by the generosity our alumni continue to tively. I had the honor and pleasure of display. You are amazing! welcoming these new members to the WPI As always, I am thrilled to have you as Alumni family. I am confident they will part of the WPI family. As I told the new represent us incredibly well and make us graduates: “You will always have a home on proud to call them fellow alumni. the Hill. You can always come Home.” So, The Women of WPI has been officially mark your calendars—Homecoming is just recognized as an affinity group within the around the corner, Oct. 7–8. I hope to see Association. The first event with WPI’s first you there. If you have feedback or ideas you woman president, Laurie Leshin, as the want to share, feel free to reach out to me keynote speaker was held in November. In at [email protected]. March we were honored to host a networking evening with a special presentation by All the best, Helen Vassallo ’82, professor of management in the Foisie School of Business. In the days leading up to Commencement, the women Rachel M. Delisle ’96, ’06 MBA of the Class of 2016 were welcomed during a

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 45 HOMECOMING 2016 October 7 & 8 wpi.edu/+homecoming

46 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 [ ALUMNIweekend]

ith more alumni and friends participating in Alumni Weekend than ever before, the Hill was the place to W be June 2–5, 2016. Whether roasting marshmallows at the fire pits on the Quad, enjoying some Building and Brews with Swivel-Snaps co-creator Brian Klauber ’96, dancing the night away at Stroll, Shuffle and Shake, taking a chance at Wagers in the Wedge, or getting nostalgic with all the WPI traditions— the Reunion Parade, Alumni Luncheon and Awards Ceremony, 50-Year Associates Dinner, class dinners, and more—it was a weekend of friendship, fun, and all things WPI.

ALUMNI WEEKEND PHOTOS BY JOE DOLEN, HEATHER FULLER, AND CHARLES STERNAIMOLO

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 47 [ DONORimpact] HLEEN DOOHER PHOTO KAT

TRUSTEES OF THE GEORGE I. ALDEN TRUST: FROM LEFT, DOUGLAS MEYSTRE, CLERK; WARNER FLETCHER, CHAIR; GAIL RANDALL, VICE CHAIR; JAMES COLLINS, TREASURER

project-based learning where with faculty and students hard creativity, collaboration, and at work, sharing knowledge, innovation will flourish. excitement, and new discoveries,” ALUMNI RAISE When WPI alumni were invited says President Leshin. “We believe by the Alden Trust to raise $9 that this will truly be a hub of million in 18 months for the gift activity where any WPI commu- $9 MILLION of an additional $3 million from nity member, and especially our the Trust, they didn’t hesitate. faculty and students, will find TO MEET THE CHALLENGE That $12 million is now added like-minded creative, smart, to the $6 million previously raised engaged, and energetic people With the successful completion In a remarkable show of to support the building through working on ways to better our of the George I. Alden Trust philanthropy and support for if...The Campaign to Advance world.” Challenge, WPI alumni and WPI’s mission and vision, alumni WPI, the university’s most recent WPI students live and breathe donors recently showed loud and met the Alden Trust Challenge to campaign that raised $248 million theory and practice, the founda- clear just how much WPI’s fund the Foisie Innovation Studio, against a $200 million goal. tions of project-based learning. distinctive approach to project- guaranteeing future generations “We hope to see the lights on No one knows better than alumni based learning means to them. of students a physical home for around the clock, so to speak, the life-changing impact of

48 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 [ ALUMNInews]

projects, which for years have donors in a new way, around a often been completed in less common goal for an exciting than ideal spaces (like kitchen purpose,” says Leshin. “We held tables or dorm floors). our first-ever Giving Day, which #MYWPILEGACY “The Alden trustees were very engaged not only alumni, but pleased to see that alumni also faculty, staff, and students.” WHAT’S YOUR WPI LEGACY? responded at all levels,” says The Alden trustees appreciated Warner Fletcher, chair of the the Foisie Innovation Studio’s George I. Alden Trust, established simultaneous connection to WPI’s On Feb. 16, campus community Rubin ’74—was bustling with by WPI’s first professor of history and future. “Of all the members celebrated WPI’s long activity as students, faculty, mechanical engineering and things within the larger ‘if…’ tradition of philanthropy, and and staff had their photos taken now one of Worcester’s most campaign, this facility was closest reflected on what their own with Gompei, contributed to the venerable philanthropic institu- to the academic thrust of the philanthropic legacies may Senior Class Gift, enjoyed grilled tions. “WPI certainly put the pedal institution from its founding be—now and in the future. The Gompei’s Goat Cheese sand- to the metal to meet the terms and its reaffirmation when WPI Rubin Campus Center—honoring wiches, and participated in the of this challenge.” adopted a project-based curricu- the legacy of trustee emeritus and broader discussion about Soon work for an Interactive lum 40 years ago,” says Fletcher. former Board chair, the late Steve #mywpilegacy. Qualifying Project, a Major “This facility is critical to fulfilling Qualifying Project, or a humani- WPI’s mission.” ties and arts project will be done The Trust’s endorsement in a dedicated, common space. and confidence boosted the In addition, the Foisie Innovation fundraising effort for the facility. Studio will house a center for “The Alden Trust has long been innovation and entrepreneurship, a generous and enthusiastic classrooms for the Great Problems supporter of WPI,” says Leshin. Seminar, a robotics lab, maker “It brings a level of respect and space, and a Global Impact Lab. authority around philanthropy “The Foisie Innovation Studio that inspires others to give. will be the home for project-based Its leadership was a tremendous learning,” says William McAvoy, inspiration to many of our vice president for university trustees, as well as other commu- advancement, “but it isn’t the nity members, to dig a little building itself, but what’s going deeper. The Alden Trust’s support to happen inside the building of the project gives it a certain that really has motivated people.” ‘stamp of approval.’ That external As a community, WPI presented validation of the project is very a unified front. Prior to the important.” challenge grant, $6 million was The potential is almost palpable. raised from 250 donors. Since “It’s about the work our students the challenge began, alumni do every day,” says McAvoy. “It’s PHOTO AUBREY VALLEY PHOTO AUBREY stepped up and 1,300 donors— about the impact that work has some first-time donors and some on students now, and then the who hadn’t donated in years— impact WPI’s students will make brought in the necessary funds when they go out into the world. to ensure success. It inspires great optimism for “The Alden Trust Challenge gave the future.” us a unique opportunity to engage

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 49 [ ALUMNInews]

FROM LEFT, MCGEE, TERRAVECCHIA, LESHIN, AND RAMOS 2016 SCHOLARSHIP DINNER

Scholarship recipients Gianna Terravecchia ’16 LEAH FASTEN PHOTO BY and Carolina Ramos ’17, along with keynote RETIRED CHEMICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSOR YI HUA (ED) MA speaker Thomas McGee ’64, assured guests at this year’s Scholarship Dinner that generous BY CHELSEA LOWE donor support enables WPI students and MA SCHOLARSHIP alumni to do great things … greatly. “I will help Chue-San Yoo entered WPI in 1983 with little stop air pollution and ensure clean air for money and lots of anxiety. But a reassuring generations to come,” said Terravecchia, leaving word from then-department head and HONORS no doubt in the room that is exactly what she chemical engineering professor Yi Hua (Ed) will do. President Laurie Leshin welcomed the Ma helped forge the course of his academic— LEGACY and, ultimately, professional—career. A generous scholarship donors and their worthy recipients to the elegant and meaningful Now Yoo ’85 (MS), ’88 (PhD), himself the celebration. She offered deep gratitude to the recipient of a chemical engineering fellow- Yoo explains. “If I couldn’t make it in the donors, words of inspiration to the students, ship, is repaying his professor’s kindness first year, I would be forced back to under- and an enthusiastic recap of the university’s through a $250,000 scholarship donation in graduate level.” Ma’s honor. PHOTO BY JOE DOLEN PHOTO BY exciting current events. Challenging for any student, the situation “Although I graduated from the best presented worse worries for Yoo, who had technical institute in Taiwan (a five-year “made [his] way through school pretty much program after junior high, but no BS degree) relying on various charity funds and scholar- and was a certified professional chemical ships,” after illness rendered his hardworking engineer, WPI granted me a ‘conditional’ father bedridden. admission to graduate school—meaning that “I worked very hard earning barely enough I would be placed on probation academically,” to cover my flight expenses and tuition for

50 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 [ ALUMNInews]

the first year at WPI. The money I had Ma’s lifelong commitment to research on my first day was not even enough to and doctoral education. S put me through sophomore year.” Discussions are underway with 2016’ On registration day, Yoo nervously other alumni donors, and Ed and Maria REMENDOUS entered Ma’s office for the department donated land to be sold for the fellow- T head’s signature (then needed for ship’s benefit. Bean says total contribu- TWELVE registration). Ma explained “conditional tions to the Yi Hua (Ed) and Maria Ma admission,” then added: “Don’t worry, Graduate PhD Fellowship Fund in ALUMNI AWARD RECIPIENTS I read your application file and am sure Chemical Engineering are expected REFLECT ON THEIR ALMA MATER you can make it.” to reach $1 million. “His words encouraged me immensely Susan Roberts ’92, department head and got me through good and tough of chemical engineering, says, “I think WE ALL KNOW THAT WPI HAS IMPRESSIVE ALUMNI. times at WPI,” Yoo said. so many alums are enthusiastic about BUT A FEW STAND OUT—often for their continued Unbeknown to Yoo, Ma knew his this fellowship because they understand connection to the university, our students, and student’s former school, National Taipei the impact both Ed Ma and the broader the Plan that they have set out to achieve after Institute of Technology, “quite well, doctoral community in chemical graduation. This year, when the 2016 Alumni because my uncle was the head of [its] engineering have had on their successes.” Award recipients were announced, the Journal chemical engineering department for The fellowship aligns directly with the asked each recipient, “What makes you feel many years,” the longtime WPI professor WPI Strategic Plan and has the potential most connected to WPI?” says. Ma had even met some of his to significantly elevate the PhD program uncle’s students during his high school in chemical engineering and the broader years in Taiwan, and “was very impressed WPI community. MATTHEW BEATON ’01 with their accomplishments.” “I was fortunate to have had Ed Ma ICHABOD WASHBURN YOUNG ALUMNI AWARD Yoo ended up doing so well in his first for the chemical engineering mathemat- FOR PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT year, Ma says, “that I got a three-year ical analysis course,” Roberts recalls. Many of my experiences and lessons learned at fellowship support for him from another “I remember distinctly his ability to WPI have stayed with me throughout both my WPI Chinese chemical engineering relate mathematical analyses to professional and personal life. The WPI culture graduate. My recollection was that [Yoo] real-world problems in chemical promotes critical thinking and applications of logic paid back his fellowship a few years later engineering.” She adds with a smile, that have been very useful throughout my life. by donating a three-year fellowship.” “He also drilled into me the importance I’ve stayed connected through the construction of Yoo continued to fulfill his early of boundary conditions.” the recent solar decathlon project, having regular promise. He now serves as senior director Ma, who has won numerous awards interactions with WPI professors and staff through of the electron beam operation division and made a name for himself developing collaboration on topics relevant to priority and the 450mm program at Taiwan metallic membranes designed to separate initiatives of the Baker–Polito administration. Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. hydrogen natural gas and coal gas while [Beaton is Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and He holds 65 U.S. patents, and has pub- obtaining carbon dioxide with sufficient Environmental Affairs.] lished more than 40 technical papers purity for sequestration, says, “I had and a book; he received the National chances to go to other places, but chose Management Excellence Award from to stay because I enjoyed the WPI RACHEL DELISLE ’96, ’06 MBA Taiwan’s president in 2009. environment,” especially “teaching and JOHN BOYNTON YOUNG ALUMNI AWARD FOR Last October, when President Leshin research. WPI provided a great place to SERVICE TO WPI and a WPI delegation, including Ed and do both.” What makes me feel most connected to WPI is his wife, Maria, traveled to Taiwan, several In an email to Bean, Ma said, “It is the family I’ve built there. From the moment I of Ma’s former students—aware that the truly gratifying to hear from a student stepped on campus, my family started gaining new professor was planning to retire after that I’ve made a difference [in] what members—from friends, to professors, to the staff. nearly 50 years—“expressed an interest in he was able to accomplish.” Twenty years later, it’s still true. As I meet and doing something at WPI that would honor Yoo says, “I am thankful for Professor connect with current students and new members his legacy,” says Karen Bean, executive Ma’s encouragement and those great of the WPI community, my family just keeps director of advancement, strategies and days at WPI. I am sure, with this funding, getting bigger. special projects. It was decided that PhD WPI can nurture more outstanding (Continued on page 52) support was most appropriate due to quality PhDs.”

summer 2016 | follow us @WPI #WPIjournal 51 DONALD DOSSA ’96 the Panama Canal, as well as efforts WILLIAM KICZUK ’81 staff. It’s truly a special community, PhD to upgrade Kaven Hall. ROBERT H. GODDARD AWARD FOR and I’m fortunate to continue to be ROBERT H. GODDARD AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING PROFESSIONAL a part of it. OUTSTANDING PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT ACHIEVEMENT RICHARD HOOKER Upon graduation I moved to Texas My deepest connection to WPI is WPI AWARD FOR DISTINGUISHED and my connection back to WPI was ERICA CURRAN with my PhD thesis supervisor, SERVICE through others I met who shared MASON ’96 Professor Ram-Mohan. He guided I served as regional president of SAE WPI’s unique educational experi- JOHN BOYNTON YOUNG ALUMNI me through the process and gave from 1969 to 1992. I worked with ence. When I moved back to New AWARD FOR SERVICE TO WPI insightful advice when I ran into all our chapters in New England; England, I became better connected I feel most connected to WPI problems with the research, but he however, the one I became most through various education and through my relationships with the also knew when to let me run my involved with was the chapter at research programs I participated in current staff, faculty, and students. own course. We had a unique WPI. I felt a strong connection not jointly with WPI. My connection Having a physical presence on schedule of meeting at his house just as an SAE, but as a civil/fire has grown through the people I’ve campus has been important to me, one evening each week to pursue protection engineer involved worked with as part of WPI’s and I feel much more connected difficult problems. It has been 20 professionally at an engineering diversity advocacy board. now than during the early years years since I received my PhD but school. This made a strong bond after graduating when I didn’t we stay in touch. After we discuss with our local chapter that has spend time at WPI. I’ve also had the physics and computing problems, lasted over 40 years and continues KATHY LOFTUS ’86 opportunity to attend several we talk about our families and to this day. I also had the good ROBERT H. GODDARD AWARD FOR alumni events in Boston, which children. It’s more than about fortune to help start the WPI OUTSTANDING PROFESSIONAL have been a great way to meet other being peers; it’s about friendship, alumni IFC (interfraternity council), ACHIEVEMENT alums and keep current with what’s as well. now known as the Greek Alumni Through the years I’ve stayed happening at WPI. Council. Because of my chapter at connected through strong friend- WPI and the various activities I have ships and attending regional JOSEPH DZIALO ’76 been a part of, I really feel con- meetings, such as the New England ZVI SZAFRAN ’76 ROBERT H. GODDARD AWARD FOR nected to WPI. In fact, I have a Roundtable on Federal Renewable ROBERT H. GODDARD AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING PROFESSIONAL certificate given to me by my Energy Policy. I’ve also guest OUTSTANDING PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT fraternity Chapter at WPI which lectured during Earth Day, have ACHIEVEMENT My connections to WPI are states that I graduated from WPI! worked with students on their As each year goes by, I realize more principally with other alumni. freshman Great Problems (Big and more how the people who For example, one of my roommates Ideas) projects, and have served designed the WPI Plan really got it, at WPI, Paul Varadian ’75, became STUART KAZIN ’61 as a judge. I’ve worked with the and were ahead of their time. I’ve a business colleague of mine when HERBERT F. TAYLOR ALUMNI AWARD Mechanical Engineering External incorporated various ideas from the I joined P&G after graduation. FOR DISTINGUISHED SERVICE TO WPI Advisory Group—faculty and staff Plan everywhere I’ve been. I always We are still friends today. Similarly, I have been heavily involved with to increase STEM and WPI aware- knew I got a good education at WPI, Dave LaPré ’75 was one of my first WPI for over 10 years—first with ness to young women. More but I’ve come to learn that it was bosses at P&G. We enjoyed success the Alumni Association as chair of recently, I’ve worked with the even better than I thought. and had fun working together. the Annual Fund for four years and Sustainability Advisory Committee then as a WPI trustee for the past and the Board of Advisors of six years. It has been a wonderful WPI’s Center for Sustainability in AHMED ALBAITI ’96 MICHAEL GRILLI ’66 experience, since I really enjoy the Business. I enjoy seeing the received the ICHABOD WASHBURN HERBERT F. TAYLOR ALUMNI AWARD people. I am also very impressed development of the institution YOUNG ALUMNI AWARD FOR FOR DISTINGUISHED SERVICE TO WPI with WPI’s accomplishments and through the years, and I thoroughly OUTSTANDING PROFESSIONAL I am most connected to WPI when its future direction. enjoy watching the interaction of ACHIEVEMENT. I am involved in events to enhance the students with their mentors, the school, such as alumni events at fellow students, and faculty and

52 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 submit your class notes to [email protected] [ CLASSnotes]

1945 Charles Morse continues to happily exist at the BayWoods condominium senior residence in Annapolis, Md., he tells us. “Wonderful to hear from any remaining classmates at chasmorse@ aol.com or 410-268-6296.” 1946 After WPI, Don Girard started his career at Trane Company in La Crosse, Wisc. “From there I was assigned to the Syracuse, N.Y., office, and later became general manager for the Central New York District. Next I was reassigned to Trane’s Caribbean Office in San Juan, serving the developing pharmaceutical industry. After that I invested as a materials supplier to the pharmaceutical industry in Puerto Rico. Our Virgin Islands vacations began during life in Syracuse—we purchased a beachfront condominium at Cowpet Bay. I began scuba diving in the Virgin Islands, and ’58 have made over 75 ocean dives, never meeting a shark during underwater blizzard that put two feet of snow badlands of the western United States photography of fish, corals, and from Richmond, Va., to NYC and and to Argentina on fossil expeditions. 1958 shipwrecks. Many dives with my wife beyond. Stopped in Southampton, Pa., The Class of and son, who often said, “We saw your to see classmate and fraternity brother sharks.” I have remained in Puerto Rico, Bill Nagel and his wife, Jeanne. It was 1954 ’58 was well and enjoyed golfing at Dorado Beach one of the few times we have been able William Schoenemann writes, “Bonnie represented at Resorts—but now the golf clubs are to get together.” While in Worcester, and I have been happily ensconced in WPI Red Sox Day retired. I have been blessed by my wife, Dave had a chance to tour WPI’s an active S.F. Bay–area independent Betty, and son, Greg—and with four Gateway Park facilities at 85 Prescott living facility for over two years. Kind of in Fort Myers. grandchildren, and now four great- Street. “I was awed with the innovation nice to have everything done for you Pete Ottowitz, Bill O’Neil, grandsons. And health.” in converting those old mill buildings and be near three of our daughters. Still Bob Jenkins, Stan Graveline, into something so perfect as lab space playing duplicate bridge and traveling Don Abraham, and Roger Jolicoeur for graduate students. You need to within this hemisphere. Collected reunited to watch the Red Sox play. 1951 see them to realize the value in countries for a while and now count Roger Wye writes, “Recently celebrated education WPI has given its students. 110 we’ve visited. It’s a great experience the conclusion of two decades of Once you see this building you will be to communicate and share experiences 1959 delightful living on Hilton Head Island more impressed with what the college with people who live their own dreams Moe Amin writes, “As of the end of the in South Carolina. Also found can do to raise the talents of WPI in their worlds.” first week of January 2016, I am fully classmate, fraternity brother, and old graduates.” retired from the firm of Sargent & friend Ken Mayo to still be charging Lundy Engineers, where I worked since Thomas Hollocher, a retired Brandeis full-speed ahead.” 1955 1979. I did consulting for them from biochemistry professor, was profiled in Robert Holdenvenzon (né Holden) 1966 through 1971, when Gloria and I the Sudbury (Mass.) Town Crier’s “Meet writes, “I am applying as an at-large were in Iran. We are now enjoying Your Neighbor” column. After almost 1953 delegate for Bernie in July.” retirement, and are happy about it.” Dave Hathaway writes, “Our winter four decades spent teaching he getaway this year was to the south for collaborated with his son, a geologist, on Bob Bober reports, “I am working on 17 days, with 3,500 miles of driving to the fossilization of scat and dung from 1956 an MQP involving bees with professors see 31 people. With only two days of Mesozoic era. He has published more “Still living in Haverhill, Mass.,” writes Holly Ault and Eben Cobb in WPI’s ME light rain in Florida, we missed the than 100 papers and traveled to the Howard Brown. department. A beekeeper friend of

submit [email protected] 53 [ CLASSnotes ]

mine and I outlined a problem of lifting heavy beehive boxes. The students came to Jim’s apiary and learned about bees. They undertook a design and presented it at a Worcester County Beekeepers Association meeting in January. They are now in the construction phase.” 1960 Richard Brewster is living in Tianjin, China, working as project engineer on a new-build 37,000-ton hospital ship. He expects to be there, on and off, for about three years. He reports that he and his wife live in a pleasant fourth-floor apartment overlooking a golf course, with tall buildings in the distance. “This is a ‘volunteer’ position,” he writes, “with only flights and lodging paid. We are enjoying getting used to living in a large Chinese city. We have a spare bedroom, so contact us if you want to visit!” The photo shows Richard with one of the 240 blocks that will eventually be part of the ship.

Sang Lee says he’s “retired and enjoying life,” after serving as advisor ’60 on global education for Handong Global University in Korea, where he promoted networking with universities on the golf, soccer, and math teams at Schools That Launch Careers by Going richard Brewster in other countries. He now lives in the his school. He will be a freshman at Beyond the Classroom. “A selling point greater Chicago area. Purdue University this fall, majoring in for prospective students,” he notes. is building a aeronautical engineering. His sister, floating hospital. Anna, who participates in the school Daniel Pender is an otolaryngologist 1961 band and volleyball, will be a sopho- (ear, nose, and throat) based in David St. Onge writes, “My wife, Ann, more in high school this fall. Manhattan, and has been operating at material strength of the inner ear and I keep very busy in our community “Our son, Jeffrey, lives in Newport Columbia University’s medical center membranes. In certain individuals volunteering. I am active in Shriners, Beach, Calif., and has a daughter, Kate, for many years. “I currently serve as these membranes burst, causing meeting weekly with a unit called who is 17 months old and learning president of the New York Otological disabling vertigo in a condition known Craftsmen that prepares our Shrine something new every day. Thanks to Society,” he writes. “My wife is a as Meniere’s disease. I recently lectured building for various activities from modern technology, we get to share psychiatrist and a trustee of the on the topic at the University of dinners to the Circus. Ann and I have these happenings. Ann and I have been American Psychiatric Association. We Vermont and am presenting a paper been working the Circus concession attending Tech Old Timers, where we have four children: Tassili has a PhD in at Harvard in May.” See Dan’s Letter to stands for several years now. We enjoy have had some excellent programs in political science and is just graduating the Editor on p. 2 for his memories of traveling and are currently looking the Higgins mansion. I also am a from law school; Niamey is a general WPI and classmate Bob Behn. forward to a cruise to Bermuda with director on the WPI alumni board.” surgeon who trained at Penn; Malindi our Shrine Nobles in June. graduated from Bryn Mawr and the University of Geneva and is now a real 1964 “Our daughter, Jennifer, has a son, 1963 estate entrepreneur in Paris; our son, George Spires and his wife, Linda, David, who graduated from Charleroi Larry Escott picked up on a full-page ad Paris, holds a PhD from the Courant returned from a nine-week Mediterra- (Pa.) High School on June 2. He has been in the New York Times that lists WPI as Institute for Mathematics and works nean cruise in time for Christmas last taking AP courses, building robots, and one of the colleges featured in a new in the financial industry. My current year. “God willing, an Alaskan cruise working on his Eagle rank. He has been book—Colleges That Create Futures: 50 research interests center on the in June ’16,” he vows.

54 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 1965 California State led. Of course, WPI took Arnie Antak (who was my grad school wife, Alison (married 40 years), and control and also officially launched the roommate at URI) at our son Stephen’s, enjoying my hobbies (still a ham radio Commencement 2016 included a robotics degree–granting program. The wedding. He has left his lake house in fan, thanks to w1yk). I still have my tribute to Phil Ryan, who retires this future is bright. This year, again, WPI New Hampshire for Sarasota, Fla., so we IHEE card!” summer after serving 17 years on the hosts the NASA national Sample Return don’t see each other as often now. I do WPI Board of Trustees, including two (Mars) Challenge on campus. I’m proud see fraternity brother Brian Belanger years as chairman and a year as WPI’s to be part of the WPI family. Aloha.” ’66 (who also went to URI), when we 1972 interim president. President Laurie visit my wife’s family in Arizona. David Greenhalgh writes, “Having worn Leshin thanked him for his support “At my 50th high school reunion the harness and pulled the cart for 43 when she took office in 2014. 1967 back in 2014, I saw my freshman-year years following graduation, I retired in “I could not have asked for a better Sara and Ron Jolicoeur are enjoying roommate Neil Durkee. He splits his 2015 and haven’t looked back. My partner, mentor, and boss in my first retirement and their new year-round time between upstate New York and career covered military service, private two years at WPI,” she said, “and WPI home in Brewster, Mass. Florida. I’ve known Neil since Duggan industry, engineering and construction, could not ask for a more devoted Junior High days. Steve Stadnicki and public service. Every career choice supporter.” traveled back from California to also was an education. It’s amazing how 1968 attend this event.” See Ken’s Letter much knowledge the human brain 1966 Ken Battle writes, “I am still working to the Editor (p.2) for his memories absorbs. In retirement, it’s about the full-time at Jacobs Engineering in New of Professor Carlton Staples, motorcycles. I cover about 20,000 miles Philip Blackman writes, “I was happy Jersey; I was born an engineer and I Bill Grogan ’46, and Father Pete each year on a variety of long-distance to fly from Hawaii to join our class for will pass on as one, too. My wife and I Scanlon, who married him and and local trips and love all of them, Reunion #50 and the celebration of the are planning to move from South Jersey Ruthanne back in 1972. although travel in the northeast can be life and legacy of Bill Grogan. In 2005 to our lake house in the Finger Lakes a bit rambunctious. When I grow up Bill and I, while together at a President’s (Cayuga) in the next year. That will cut Ed O’Hara writes, “Retired for two years. (after age 70), I’ll decide how to settle Circle event, pitched a change in focus my work hours a bit, but not much. Debbie and I plan to split our time down. Right now, home is Dahlgren, for WPI robotics. We advocated that Hair is 100 percent gray now, but the between Naples, Fla., and New Jersey.” Va.—when I’m here.” WPI step into the national cash prize ’84 Ferrari 400i is in better shape, due competitions Congress had just to my upkeep. Emails welcomed at Anthony Tim Longo writes, “I have been authorized. Then-president Dennis [email protected].” 1970 giving private piano and music lessons Berkey backed the plan, conditional Steve Johnson writes, “I spent the first in Fairfield County, Conn., since 2007, that I pay the entry fee, for WPI to take Kenneth Gminski writes,“Having 25 years of my career helping to develop and have recently created a fundraising on “The DARPA Grand Challenge.” read the previous Class Notes section air pollution control technologies for campaign based around my song “I I lobbied the majority of department without a contribution from the Class coal-fired power plants. The next Have Angels” to support the Innovative heads, and also built an alliance of 1968—the 100th WPI graduating quarter-century was spent helping Advanced Cancer Research Foundation between the long-established Society of class (Remember “’68 is Great!” during these plants adopt new technologies for (iacrfoundation.org). This unique and Automotive Engineers and the newer freshman hazing?), I figured I should more cost-effective emission controls. wonderful organization passes on 100 Robotics Club under a student-led team. contribute. Turned 70 in May; it’s time Now many of these coal-fired boilers are percent of all donations to fund The students became activists for WPI to finally retire in N.H. after a 30-year being retired (due to public pressure pediatric cancer research. My song has to offer an undergraduate robotics career with Factory Mutual (now FM and the availability of cheap gas to been recorded by one of its founders, degree–granting option and now there Global) and on my own as a consultant burn), and so am I. So far the transition Linda Adams, whose son survived a very were many willing faculty listening. in the fire protection business for 15 involves fun with grandkids and the rare form of bone marrow cancer and is “I built another DARPA contest team, years. My wife still has a full-time job possibility of helping to develop new now 19 years old and healthy. My song not associated with a college, to watching our two grandsons, while our technologies for a carbon-constrained can be performed at events and the complement and backstop WPI efforts daughter teaches high school Spanish. world.” recording can be played and used by as we pursued the only electric vehicle For me, 2015 was a rough year, having making a donation to the IACRF. entry and experimented in a global been diagnosed with a very rare Contact me at [email protected] information exchange from Hawaii. lymphoma (150 people a year in this 1971 or at 203-933-4462 to learn more.” In 2008 my similar lobby effort and country get the same news) and Joe Carter notes, “Am stepping down finance initiative accumulated undergoing six rounds of double as chair of ENT at MetroHealth Brian Savilonis writes, “Finishing my laboratory space and faculty and chemo after the initial type didn’t Cleveland, now that the last child has 35th year at WPI; received Board of student participation in the NASA succeed. This cancer is treatable but graduated college. All three now Trustees’ Award for Community Regolith Excavation Challenge. This not yet curable. My condition is under employed! Plan to continue working Service this April. Still lacing up my was coupled with a push I generated control, so far. part-time, but no more night call. Plan running and race walking shoes; still to shift the NASA Centennial Challenge “Saw classmate and fraternity brother to spend more time with my lovely getting slower!” program to be college led, not

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1973 Gray Matter Systems we honor Steve’s doing a bit to reduce our impact on the 1978 dedication to customers. … We also climate. Betsy and I raised two The genius of Dean Kamen is on Christopher James spoke at Western honor his sense of adventure and fun. wonderful daughters. One recently display at the Museum of Science in Washington University recently, in a … Most of all, we honor his incredible became a nurse practitioner, shortly Boston, in a permanent exhibit called lecture titled “How Can China Achieve business values of fairness and honesty.” after having married an oral surgeon. “Innovative Engineers,” designed to Blue Skies and Prevent Further Rises in The piece concluded, “We feel good The other daughter says she works bring long-overdue attention to the Greenhouse Gas Emissions When It Is about where we are and where we’re against ‘survival of the fittest,’ as she is engineering leaders who solve everyday Building New Coal Plants?” He advises going and that’s all because someone outreach director for a harm-reduction/ challenges both large and small. Visitors on environmental issues as principal at believed in us. We wish we had said this needle exchange program in NYC. My can read about the inventors’ RAP (Regulatory Assistance Project), a sooner—thanks, Steve.” wife and I missed the 2015 Homecom- backgrounds, learn about their various non-partisan team of energy experts ing at WPI as we were at a wedding in paths to success, then test their skills in who help energy and air regulators and Vermont, but we did stop by the the museum’s Design Challenges NGOs navigate power-sector policy, 1976 campus last fall. I was amazed to see program, which involves solving an regulation, and markets. Mark Deutsch writes, “I retired from what remained the same, as well as the engineering puzzle using provided T-Mobile late in 2015 and thought it many changes since I went to college. I materials. David Morascini of New London, Conn., time to catch up people from my class hope to be able to make it to an alumni has taken out papers to run in the 2016 on my life. I worked mostly in several gathering by our 50th reunion.” presidential election, on the platform industries: manufacturing, retailing, 1974 “World peace now. If not now, when?” and telecommunications. My longest Jean-Claude Masangu Mulongo is a Grey Matter Systems posted a tribute In an interview with The Day, he stretch was with wireless service former governor of the Central Bank of to the late Steve Rubin on its blog, acknowledged that while some people providers, where I was involved in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and thanking Rubin for his support of the may call him crazy, “I speak from my creating new products and services, as has served as president of the G24 of the company. President and CEO James heart and soul. How long have people well as launching them. I moved out to International Monetary Fund, deputy Gillespie posted a photo of his son in been begging for world peace?” Seattle after business school and met governor for the DRC at the World front of the Rubin Campus Center taken my wife there. I have been blessed to be Bank, and president of the African during their recent college tour, noting married to her for over 30 years now. Central Banks Association. His op-ed, that the trip to Worcester caused him to 1979 Outside of the work I have done, I get “Hey, candidates: Don’t forget about flash back to a person important to the “My best times were at WPI,” writes the most joy in playing and singing Africa,” appeared on the Politico blog in founders’ lives and the company. “At Carlos Maltos. music, being a community leader, and February.

56 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 [ CLASSnotes ]

Phil Rubin has recently taken a 1984 leadership role in the private equity– Karen Brock Amoah is VP of sales and held Icynene Inc., a supplier of spray marketing at SEKISUI SPI. In a recent foam insulation. Phil writes that he profile on the “Runway Girl Network” was considering retirement, but was aviation industry news blog, she praised so impressed with the Icynene product her project-based education at WPI for that he elected to join their team. teaching her about teamwork, He and his wife, Lynn, live in Park City, deadlines, and decision making. Noting Utah, where they just completed the ’83 that she’s always been “the minority in construction of their new home. Phil Joel Kearns writes, “After managing the room” in the plastics business, she can be reached [email protected]. Joel Kearns the Orion Multi-Purpose Vehicle says she’s learned to respect her Program’s European Service Module returns to NAsA emotional intelligence—and to trust Integration office for more than 18 data—thus employing both sides of her 1980 space Flight months, I have returned to my nature to advantage. Cox Automotive Inc. appointed Mark systems. permanent job as deputy director of O’Neil to the newly created position the Space Flight Systems Directorate Just after St. Patrick’s Day, Joan of chief operating officer, overseeing amplifier circuits, and possesses a at NASA Glenn Research Center.” (Marter) Morra (’87 MS MTE) shared its Software, Media, Inventory, and broad knowledge of related systems a fabulous photo of a double rainbow Financial Services groups. His mission and subsystem implementation. He has arching over the Quad. “My daughter is to change the way the world buys, published several articles on microwave Brian Klaubert and Emily (Class of 2019) took it from her sells, and owns cars through digital amplifiers and associated applications. window in Morgan Hall on March 18,” marketing and solutions for consum- his wife, Nola, run she wrote. “One day past the lepre- ers, dealers, manufacturers, and the The Timken Company appointed Christian Brothers chaun’s pot of gold, but clearly a very overall industry. Michael Connors as vice president positive sign for Worcester and WPI!” of global marketing. He joined the Automotive. They have company as a manufacturing engineer owned and operated three full service 1982 in 1983. Timken produces bearings, repair shops in metro Atlanta since 1985 Scott Mathews writes from Jet transmissions, gearboxes, belts, chain, 2002. They were recently recognized Cantor Colburn attorney William Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech, where and related products, and offers by media outlet CNBC as America’s Cass spoke at the Inside 3D Printing he is group supervisor, Mechanical powertrain rebuild and repair services. Star Franchisees 2016 for the state of Conference & Expo in Seoul, South Integration Engineering, in the Georgia. They were selected from more Korea, in June 2016. His practice Spacecraft Mechanical Engineering Patricia (Hester) Holden writes, “After than 28,500 individual franchisees, includes IP and product liability Section. “Things are busy as ever in a stint of 10+ years at EMC, I have now representing 364 franchise brands, litigation. An avid aviator, he blogs Pasadena, getting the next flotilla of started contracting and really enjoy it. and recognized as one of 50 entrepre- on aviation law and technology at robotic spacecraft built. Coming up: Learning new things, meeting new neurs across the country. cassreport.com. Mars2020, Europa Clipper, and Asteroid people is all good stuff!” Rendezvous and Retrieval Mission ’83 Ken Chenis is chief architect at ACI (ARRM). In addition there are two Worldwide, developing electronic instrument payloads: Surface Water and banking and payment software. He Ocean Topography (SWOT), and NASA/ has worked with WPI MQP students in ISRO SAR (NISAR), and several payloads the areas of fraud detection, scalable for the International Space Station that feature computation, and multidimen- will observe Earth’s climate and sional threat analysis. In a story in environment are also going full WPI’s Arts & Sciences newsletter, Ken steam. Exciting times at JPL!” reported that ACI also benefited from the work and has seen a significant increase in student interest in the 1983 company during WPI career fairs. Scott Behan is senior marketing manager with Qorvo’s High Power RF Jon Kaplan writes, “I have been Systems group. He has more than 30 working in the field of bicycle and years of experience in high-power pedestrian planning and design for amplifier design and applications, over 20 years now. I got my start in that holds several patents and pending field with the Oregon DOT, and now I patents in high-power microwave am the Bicycle and Pedestrian Program

submit [email protected] 57 [ CLASSnotes ]

manager for the Vermont Agency of 1989 for Pastors, her self-help guide to medicine at Uniformed Services Transportation. I live in Randolph, Vt., surviving the demands of the ministry. University of the Health Sciences in WPI’s Office of Sustainability invited with my wife and three kids. Our oldest She was inspired to write it after seeing Bethesda, Md. Jeffrey Goldmeer to speak on will be starting at UMass Amherst in so many leaders—including herself— alternative fuel solutions to the the fall. The two projects I am most seeking balance in their lives. “I wanted Matthew Ronn writes, “I am now challenges of power generation. His excited about currently are Complete to demonstrate that self-care wasn’t just director of infrastructure services presentation examined the many Streets, a planning and design concept a nice-to-do endeavor, but was truly a at Harvard T. H. Chan School of options for generating electricity and where roads are meant to work for all critical strategy for greater effectiveness Public Health.” the factors that add complexity to transportation modes, and Road Diets, in leadership,” she says, explaining that choices, including local geographic Tim Root (MS EE) is chief technology where overly built roads are reconfig- all leaders, not just spiritual ones, need and weather conditions, grid stability, officer and executive vice president ured to calm traffic and make space to take time apart. “We need times of back-up fuel requirements, environ- of new business development for for bicycles.” dormancy in order to be restored and mental regulations, as well as capital Revolabs®, a provider of audio solutions renewed.” Having served as a senior, and operating costs. Jeff is manager of for unified communications, enterprise solo pastor for eight years, Jackson gas turbine combustion and fuel collaboration, and professional audio 1986 knows firsthand the challenges of solutions at GE Gas Power Systems, applications. He recently participated Marge (Motyka) Shinkle was on pastoral ministry. She currently serves responsible for strategic development in a panel titled “Audio Networking the winning Blue Sox team with on the WPI Board of Trustees and is of gas turbine products and combus- – Protocols, Standards, and Next Steps” manager Butch Hobson and coach the executive director of the American tion technologies for emerging fuel at BVE 2016 in London to discuss the Rico Petrocelli at the inaugural Baptist Ministers Council. applications around the globe. He holds latest developments in audio Red Sox Women’s Fantasy Camp 11 patents related to power generation, networking. Tim has more than 13 at JetBlue Park in January 2016, combustion technology, and advanced years of executive-level experience in hitting over .500 and nominated 1990 instrumentation, and has written over media and telepresence for the video for a Gold Glove award. The Sixth Flag Inc., founded by CEO 50 conference papers. communications and security markets. Pete Kofod, was included in the “Cool Vendors in Endpoint Computing, 2016” at red Sox women’s Debora Jackson won an Illumination report by Gartner. “We are honored to Book Silver Award for Spiritual Practices Fantasy Camp be selected by Gartner,” says Kofod. 1991 for Effective Leadership: 7Rs of Sanctuary Burritt Haag is a specialist in bariatric “We believe it validates our vision of surgery, practicing with Pioneer Valley delivering a true cloud orchestrated Surgical Associates in Springfield, Mass. ’86 and delivered Desktop-as-a-Service, He offers a variety of weight loss and we will continue to raise the bar procedures, including the ORBERA by adding groundbreaking capabilities, non-surgical intragastric balloon. He extending a solution that is simple, received his medical degree from secure, easy to manage, and that won’t Thomas Jefferson Medical College in break the bank.” He notes that the Philadelphia, and completed his ability to securely deliver Windows- surgical training at St. Lukes–Roosevelt based applications to a distributed Hospital in New York City, followed by and dynamic work force continues an advanced laparoscopy fellowship at to challenge technology leaders, and Hackensack University Medical Center. says that from its inception, The Sixth Flag has recognized this need.

The Washington Post turned to infectious 1992 disease expert Kyle Petersen for advice Jennifer (Wiley) Marrs wrote a chapter on traveling to Rio for Carnival or the on Fluid Power that was included in Olympics. In the article, Kyle cautioned Machinery’s Handbook, 30th Edition, pregnant women, and advised insect published in March 2016. repellant for others as protection Donald Peterson, dean of the College of against Aedes mosquitos, which spreads Science, Technology, Engineering, and the Zika virus. Kyle’s medical service in Mathematics at Texas A&M University- Peru was the subject of a cover story in Texarkana, was inducted into the the Fall 2015 issue of the WPI Journal. A American Institute for Medical and captain in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps, Biological Engineering’s College of he now serves as associate professor of

58 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 achieve requirements across six donald peterson professional categories and earn endorsement by their ASQ section. is a dean at Rachel, who works for KARL STORZ texas a&M. Endovision in Charlton, Mass., was recognized for outstanding professional ’92 contributions in practicing Lean Six Sigma and quality management; for training and mentoring; and for being Fellows. “There is probably no greater an active leader of the Six Sigma Forum honor for a scholar than to be and currently serving as president of recognized by peers in this way,” says the WPI Alumni Association. Texas A&M president Emily Cutrer. “It is an honor for our university and our community that we have such an 1998 outstanding and internationally Mic Kearns is project executive and recognized scientist to lead our regional director for Shawmut Design STEM programs.” and Construction, the company Daniel Sabin was recently elevated to managing the demolition of Alumni fellow by the Institute of Electrical and Gym and the construction of the Foisie Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He was Innovation Studio and Residence Hall. recognized for leadership in power As a WPI alum—and as someone who quality database management and has taught graduate-level courses and analysis software. Dan works as a supervised MQP teams—Kearns sees principal engineer and software potential opportunities to involve architect with Electrotek Concepts students in the project, and says that in Beverly, Mass. Shawmut plans to work with WPI’s Marblehead (Mass.) Arts Association away in 1989. “I didn’t know your Department of Civil and Environmental during the winter holiday season. He husband,” Chris told her, “but using his Engineering. “The rare opportunity to 1993 held several oil painting demos that radio and seeing his photo on the wall create a building on the Quad is a Shira McWaters is the new public works filled the gallery with interested artists of the Ham Radio Club room, I feel like once-in-a-lifetime thing,” he told the director for Oak Ridge, Tenn. and art lovers alike, the Association’s I know him a little.” Erica donated the Daily Herd online newsletter for the website reports. “A majority of his works radio after her husband’s death, and WPI community. “It’s a personal from the exhibit were sold, including a Chris noted that that it helped get his privilege… a personal point of pride.” 1994 couple of his unfinished pieces from license and gain an important skill for Sandor Becz was named vice president the informal demonstrations.” his job as a captain. “Small world,” says of engineering for Hydroid Inc. in June Erica. “WPI pops up everywhere, with 2000 2015. “Hydroid is the market leader in warm memories of time spent there.” After numerous layoffs, Susan McNeill autonomous marine robotic systems, 1995 Spuhler (MS OIT) founded Westford including underwater vehicles and Chris Pistel ran into longtime WPI Pilot House to help other professionals launch and recovery systems,” he librarian Erika Majmudar while 1996 deal with long-term unemployment. In writes. He lives in Pocasset, Mass., with captaining the Cap’n Kids on an Justin Carter writes, “Got married to addition to assistance with job searches, his wife, Michelle, and sons, Connor educational fishing cruise on Nantucket Amy on Oct. 3, in San Antonio. Will be she has rallied volunteers to provide her and Spencer. Bay. Erica, now retired, was out for the in Alaska in June and unable to make clients with everything from haircuts day with three generations of her the Reunion. My best to everyone.” and dry cleaning, to advice on resume After earning an MBA from Bentley family. Chris recognized her and writing, foreclosure prevention, and College, Anthony Padula turned back greeted her with a hearty “Welcome how to obtain state benefits. “This is to his first love—oil painting. He began to my boat.” The two shared memories 1996 absolutely necessary for people out studying with a teacher in 2008 and of late nights in Gordon Library, where Rachel (Butland) Delisle (’06 MBA) there that are professionals,” Spuhler had his first solo show in 2011. His Chris used to study until midnight. completed the rigorous process to be told the Lowell Sun. “People are so work includes still lifes, portraits, and He also reminisced about learning to named an ASQ (American Society for embarrassed and depressed.” In the figures, focusing on light and shadow. operate a ham radio on a set that Quality) fellow. She was recognized at article she referred to her work as love, His recent solo exhibit, “Quietly,” was belonged to Erica’s husband, ECE ASQ’s World Conference on Quality and compassion, and caring, saying, “It’s shown in the Parlor gallery at the professor Harit Majmudar, who passed Improvement in May. Members must just helping your fellow man.”

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2002 Rachel (Bowers) LeBlanc (’08 MS, ’13 MBA) is executive director of Corporate and Professional Education at WPI. She is currently serving a three-year term with the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), as ’08 director of marketing and communications. She says her WPI experience will serve her well at INCOSE. “In my various 2004 2006 Lynn Worobey roles at WPI, I gained experience that Frank Gerratana (’05 MS CS), principal Tyrone “TJ” Mellon (’16 MBA) married has helped me understand marketing, at Fish & Richardson, has been named finished up his master of business the importance of good communica- a 2016 “Up & Coming Lawyer.” His administration in May. He and his Ben Schmidt tion, and how all of the functions practice focuses on computer software fiancée, Tasleem Samji, are engaged in May. interact. I believe INCOSE will continue and hardware, electronics, and medical to be married in August. engineering business, Sustainable to grow and provide thought leadership devices. He helps start-ups and Chris Werner writes, “After five years Comfort, to join two friends in the to a variety of industries, improving established companies develop and at Apple as a product design engineer endeavor. Their goal was to preserve the their effectiveness and allowing them to manage their patent portfolios, and (iPod and Apple Watch), I am looking integrity of the 160-year-old space and achieve more; and for WPI, the future is does pro bono work for the American forward to what lies ahead in my utilize its unique elements, including bright. I have seen this university move Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts new role as manager of Apple Watch original brick walls and an aged parquet from a best-kept secret to a recognized and many other organizations. product design.” ceiling. They see the restaurant as a leader in higher education. It is Gerratana received his JD from combined representation of historic amazing to see the progress. Every day, American University Washington Worcester and the revitalization and I am impressed with the work being College of Law in 2008. growth of the city. done by our students, faculty, and staff. 2007 Erik Ross shares, “Scraped the GPA Sam Feller (@Awkward Engineer) is And, I know that the momentum we Kui Ren (PhD ECE) requirement at Notre Dame by the skin promoting his latest product, the was named a have built will continue to propel WPI of my teeth. First time being a “epically nerdy” Voltmeter Clock, by fellow of IEEE. He was recognized for down a path of creating more value successful underdog. There are a couple appealing for product placement his contributions to security and and impacting more lives.” other WPI alums in the PhD program. from some of his idols: Jamie and privacy in cloud computing and We are all getting a little long in the Adam from Mythbusters, Mike Rowe wireless networks. At 37, Kui is among 2003 tooth, and I am so glad I sharpened from Dirty Jobs, Bill Nye the Science the youngest IEEE fellows to be elected these fangs at WPI.” Guy, Star Trek’s George Takei, and Neil in years. He is director of the Ubiqui- Anne Francis writes, “On April 23, deGrasse Tyson. “Their shows and what tous Security and Privacy Research 2016, I married Thomas Hickey, a 1995 they stand for have always appealed to Laboratory (UbiSeC Lab) at the graduate of Massachusetts Maritime the nerdy engineer in me,” he writes. University of Buffalo, conducting Academy in Boston. We celebrated the 2005 Pamela (Giasson) Lynch was elected “Likewise, I think the clock hits on a research in cloud and outsourcing day with many of my WPI friends, Junior League of Boston’s president, bunch of points that will resonate security, wireless and wearable system including Kurt ’02 and Shauna with them.” Support the campaign by security, and human-centered (Malone) Onofrey ’02, Colin Matthias effective July 1, 2016. The 1,000-mem- sending a tweet from his website, computing. His work has been ’03, Elizabeth (Zabe) Premo ’03, ber, women-led, nonprofit organization builds the skills of girls through awkwardengineer.com. supported by the NSF, U.S. Department Katrina (Salamon) ’04, Ben Privett ’04, mentoring and development programs, of Energy, U.S. Air Force Research and Jon Abad ’05. Tom and I reside in growing a pipeline of confident strong Bert LaValley has taken on a new role as Laboratory, and Amazon Web Service, Boston’s South End with our dogs. In women leaders. Pamela and her co-owner and CFO of Deadhorse Hill, a among others. other news, in May 2015 I graduated husband, Tom Lynch IV, traveled to new restaurant and café on Worcester’s from Boston University with my MBA Morocco on a service trip through Main Street. The name comes from the with a dual concentration in Leadership Junior League in March. Professionally, steep incline on Stafford Street, where 2008 and Organizational Transformation and Brian Duncan she is the director of engineering at early settlers’ horses would collapse was promoted to Strategy and Innovation. I currently Pellion Technologies, a next-generation trying to scale the hill. The location is associate director of operations work at Care.com as the director of battery startup company. the former Bay State House hotel, where engineering for Starwood Hotels business systems and applications.” the Worcester Automobile Club held and Resorts. He is based at the the Dead Horse Hill Climb in the early company’s corporate headquarters 1900s. Bert left his sustainable home in Stamford, Conn.

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Jeremy Lebowitz (’09 MS FPE) is an allowing researchers to effectively both graduates of WPI’s IMGD program. associate engineer at the Boston office visualize biological tissues in 3-D, as Our wedding will be in August 2015 of Rolf Jensen & Assoc. His experience opposed to the traditional slicing-based 2017—seven years after we met as Ahmed Abojaradeh was part of a panel includes projects in industrial and 2-D visualization approach. They Greek society members helping move discussion on “Linking Communities laboratory facility design, code founded the company with one of Tom’s boxes on Freshman Move-in Day!” of Faith: Building Love and Compassion consulting, and explosion protection. fellow doctoral students at Rutgers, in an Age of Mistrust,” held at the Michael Johnson, who serves as CEO. Unitarian Universalist Church of Mary Kate Toomey writes, “2015 was 2014 Worcester. He fielded questions about a big year! I finished my MBA at Subaiou Zhang performed on campus Keith Bacon (MBA) is co-founder of Islam and about growing up as a UMass Amherst’s Isenberg School of in January with her Boston-based SOAJS (soajs.org), an enterprise open mistrusted minority in Arizona. Management, bought a house in string ensemble, The Loki Quartet. source APassS (Application Platform as a “Islam has been in the United States for Dedham, Mass., adopted a second dog, She is currently pursuing a PhD in Service). He says, “SOAJS is a coherently centuries,” he told the audience, and became engaged to my now fiancé musical arts at Boston University. horizontally integrated solution that pointing out that the first Muslims Tom Daly Jr. (UMass Amherst ’07 BS, “My experience at WPI is at the empowers enterprises with the ability here were slaves. “Islamaphobia was WSU ’15 MS). In January I started a new foundation of what I am doing now. to digitize their technology ecosystem there before 9/11. It just didn’t have position as manager, redevelopment There was something special in the to improve internal and external a name.” and asset management, with AvalonBay education we received there,” she told product delivery and achieve greater Pat “Rowan” Roughan, founder of Communities in the Boston office.” WPI’s Daily Herd. Subaiou is married ROI, quality, standardization, and speed. Starcap Games, was interviewed by to Brant Carter ’10. I’m also founder and CEO of RedPepper. Lynn Worobey married Ben Schmidt GameSkinny on the release of the io. We focus on innovative research May 7; the couple honeymooned in company’s tabletop card game, design specializing in technology Italy. WPI guests flanking the newlyweds “Now Everyone Get the F%$# Out.” 2011 for environmental and aerospace (p. 60): Deb Dexter, Teri Hannon Caputo In the interview, he traced the game’s On Jan. 16, 2016, Katie King married applications and services.” He adds, ’06, Tiffany Holmes ’07, Meg Holmes origins back to four years of partying Ian French in a ceremony officiated by “WPI was a great experience. I keep ’05, Tim Buck ’07, Cassie Buck ’07, Jill experiences at WPI. “I was the jerk her brother. Following the ceremony, in touch with most of our class and Goldstein ’08, Amanda Olore ’08, housemate who threw a house party the couple and their close friends have been brainstorming on a few Michael Richard ’08, Dericc Orso ’09, while my roommate had a final to enjoyed a night of karaoke, dancing, other projects with them.” Elizabeth Stewart ’08, Vincent Kan ’08, and cake. “Love,” she notes, “is going study for,” and the roommate’s Justine Roberts ’08, Liza Tuttle ’08, TJ to your husband’s track meet the day Kelsi Callahan began working after outraged outburst sparked an idea, Liguori ’13, Tom Page ’09, Mary Kate after your wedding.”. graduation as a lab assistant at Precision he said. Rowan claims that almost every Toomey ’08, Amanda Young ’09, Sergiou Bioservices in Frederick, Md. In June item and image in the game relates Cherenzia ’04, Sabrina Carmichael ’09, 2015, she accepted another position to a real story from his college years. and Nicole DeCampo ’08. 2013 with Thermo Fisher Scientific in the Living Art LLC is a growing venture same town, and now has the title of started by Omri Flaisher, Anthony Scientist 1. In her spare time, Kelsi Kelsi callahan 2009 Hassan, David Liston, and Andrew enjoys playing trombone in the Numerous media outlets, including Turgeon ’14 to green up your digs. Montgomery Village Community Band. is scientist 1. the Denver Post, carried an AP article The foursome has created the living quoting Marco Kaltofen (’15 PhD CE) “Wall Garden”—a fully automated, Marissa Capua spent 10 days working ’15 on the EPA’s announcement that traces vertically growing, aeroponics unit that with Habitat for Humanity in Anchorage of two compounds once used in nonstick resembles a picture frame,” according this spring. “I know I’ve helped to make cookware coatings, firefighting foam, to their press materials. The idea an impact on the community here in and other products have been detected germinated when Liston was suffering Anchorage, but I never could have in three Colorado water systems. Marco from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), imagined how much of an impact remains at WPI as an affiliate research and wanted to multi-task the light from it has had on me,” she says. engineer in the physics department. his therapy lamps. The Wall Garden Morgan Stanton (PhD CH) is a nurtures the soul while providing fresh postdoctoral researcher at the Max herbs, vegetables, and flowers. There’s Planck Institute for Intelligent 2010 also an integrated “Internet of Things” Systems in Stuttgart, Germany. She Visikol Inc., co-founded by chief science app to remotely monitor water level recently published “Complex polymer officer Tom Villani and chief operating and adjust lighting levels, plus tutorials nanostructures with solvent annealing” officer Nick Crider, has received a and recipes for all the stuff you grow. $500,000 commitment from Founda- on the Soft Matter Blog. Read more tion Venture Capital Group. They are Jill Sauer writes, “I’m delighted to about her research on Google Scholar, developing a versatile clearing agent share that Patrick Knight ’12 and I got or follow her on Twitter: @morg368. that renders tissues transparent, engaged this past Christmas. We are

submit [email protected] 61 “I had chances to go to other places, but chose to stay because I enjoyed the WPI environment, especially teaching and research. WPI provided a great place to do both. It is truly gratifying to hear from a student that I’ve made a di erence in what he was able to accomplish.”

Ed Ma Retired professor of chemical engineering, ALDEN Director of WPI’s Center for Inorganic Membrane Studies SOCIETY

Professor Ma and his wife, Maria, recently made a wonderful gift of real estate to WPI. By doing so, they were able take advantage of the applicable charitable tax deduction and meet their philanthropic goals of supporting WPI students through the Yi Hua (Ed) Ma and Maria Ma Graduate PhD HAVE YOU INCLUDED WPI Fellowship Fund in Chemical Engineering. in a will or trust? in a life income gift? as a bene ciary of life insurance, IRA, or other retirement account?

Let us know and we’ll welcome you into the Alden Society. Membership is about giving you recognition NOW for your plans to support WPI in the FUTURE. To join, visit plannedgiving.wpi.edu.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Contact Donna K. Stock Assistant Vice President of Leadership Giving 888-974-4438 [email protected] [ COMPLETEDcareers]

Simon’s career began at DuPont, WARREN SMALE ’94 where she helped develop the of Montclair, Calif., died Feb. 23, polymer that became Orlon. Later, 2016, at the age of 43. A sales at the Oak Ridge National consultant for CarMax, he was Laboratory in Tennessee, she fatally injured as a passenger in conducted research on triple a car crash that occurred while fission and isolated a new isotope taking a customer for test drive. of calcium. Her interest in fire He is survived by his partner, safety was kindled during her Shengjie (Titus) Jiang; his father, work at the National Advisory Dennis Smale; his stepmother, Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, Shirley Smale; his mother, Karen the precursor of NASA), where she Lewis; and his brother, John Smale. advanced the field of combustion A former SGA president and theory with research on the member of the Student Alumni properties and propagation of Society, Smale left his mark on DOROTHY MARTIN flames. Her honors include The WPI as a founding father of the at the celebration of life that was SIMON, WPI’s first female Society of Women Engineers WPI chapter of Lambda Chi Alpha held at the LCA house in April. trustee, died March 25, 2016. She Achievement Award and inclusion fraternity. He aided in fundraising It was decades deep.” was 96. A distinguished research on Businessweek’s list of 100 Top and construction of the house at “Warren brought people chemist and an early advocate of Corporate Women for 1976. 30 Dean Street, and remained together like no one I have ever performance-based fire safety, she In 1956 Simon joined AVCO involved as an advisor. He served known,” Delisle notes. “Always furthered the academic discipline Corp., where she rose to vice his alma mater as an admissions the life of the party, and brought with her gifts to the Dorothy M. president for research and volunteer, chair of his Class Board people into the party, so outsiders Simon Endowed Fund for Fire development, becoming the of Directors, and a member the were drawn in. He was the single Safety Studies at WPI. She received company’s first female corporate Alumni Council. In 2009 the biggest influence on me becoming an honorary doctor of science officer. She retired in 1984 to university honored his devotion a student leader, which led the degree from WPI in 1971, was found her own consulting firm, with the John Boynton Young way for me becoming an alumni appointed a trustee in 1973, and Simon Associates, which she Alumni Award for Service. leader. If it weren’t for him I served for 12 years. operated from her home in “He was a great advocate for would not be where I am today.” Chapel Hill, N.C., until 1993. WPI, says Alumni Association A scholarship has been estab- She was predeceased by her president Rachel Delisle ’96. lished in Smale’s honor through husband, Sidney L. Simon. “His engagement could easily be his fraternity. Contributions may seen in the breadth of class years be sent to The Pi Zeta Fund, c/o represented in his social media WDS Scholarship, 2885 Sanford Ave. following and in the attendance SW #35874, Grandville, MI 49418.

MILT ROSS ’40 CE KENNETH WAKEEN ’55 EE, PHI KAPPA THETA LEE SOLAROLI ’68 ME, SIGMA ALPHA EPSILON The WPI community also notes the passing of former RUSS PARKS ’41 CE, PHI GAMMA DELTA LANNY REMILLARD ’56, PHI SIGMA KAPPA ALAN ZABARSKY ’70 EE staff members Scott Allen, MICHAEL HUTNIK ’44 ME, PHI KAPPA THETA JOE WAHL ’56 CHE, PHI SIGMA KAPPA PAT LAFAYETTE ’72 CE, THETA CHI Peggy Bahn, Linda Lewandowski, LAG LAGERHOLM ’44 CE, PHI SIGMA KAPPA DAVE HOSKINSON ’57 ME, LAMBDA CHI ALPHA ROBERT MACNUTT ’72 SIM and David Deck; and friends of WPI Charlotte Backlund, MAL GORDON ’48 CHE, ALPHA EPSILON PI WAYNE PENDLETON ’57 EE, SIGMA ALPHA EPSILON GERRY PETIT ’74 ME, SIGMA PI Frances Smith, and CHARLES LOVERIDGE ’48 CE, PHI GAMMA DELTA ROBERT WEIS ’57 CE, MS CE EDWARD WYSOCKI ’81 ME, TAU KAPPA EPSILON Joan McQuillan. AL RIGGS ’48 ME, PHI SIGMA KAPPA ROBERT KELLEY ’59 NOYES BLAKE ’87 SIM ED WILCOX ’49 ME, PHI SIGMA KAPPA ALFRED WANDREI ’60 MNS SHIRLEY DIPASQUALE ’90 MM ROBERT BUDD ’50 CH MIKE ANDERSON ’64 ME, SIGMA PHI EPSILON THOMAS KING ’93 CE, ALPHA TAU OMEGA KEN BAKER ’52 CHE, SIGMA ALPHA EPSILON RICK DOWNE ’64 EE, SIGMA PHI EPSILON JIM MCGINLEY ’06, ECE, MA ECE ROBERT HOWELL ’52 ME, SIGMA ALPHA EPSILON PETER SHANLEY ’67 ME, THETA CHI TAHIR KUCUKEL ’09 CE FRANCIS REYNOLDS ’52 ME, PHI KAPPA THETA GEORGE GAMACHE ’68 CE, MS CE, PHI KAPPA THETA PETER TOLMAN ’55 BOB GILLIES ’68 MNS [ COMMENCEMENT2016 ]

FOR THE FIRST TIME, conferred on (from left, with GRADUATE STUDENTS President Leshin) David Schwaber HAD A CEREMONY OF ’65 retired president of Monarch THEIR OWN THIS YEAR, Rubber Company; Warner Fletcher, with 740 master’s and doctoral WPI trustee emeritus and officer degrees awarded on May 12, two of Fletcher, Tilton, Attorneys at days before undergraduates Law; and the speaker, Reshma received their diplomas. “This is a Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls critical and important moment in Who Code, a national nonprofit our history,” President Leshin said, organization that teaches comput- commending the growth of the ing skills to girls in grades 6 university’s graduate programs— through 12 to encourage more in size, diversity, and international young women to pursue computer recognition. An honorary science–related studies and doctorate in science was conferred careers. “You’re building incredible upon commencement speaker things that make a difference in France Córdova, director of the this world,” she told the Class National Science Foundation (NSF). of 2016. “When we teach teenage “Although I loved physics since I and education across all fields of the moon, and one day it will take girls to code, they become change was a young girl, I was discouraged science and engineering. An us farther. And your dream, too, agents, determined to make their from it by teachers and parents,” admirer of one of WPI’s most graduates, will take you far, and it communities a better place. It’s Córdova told graduates. She went famous alumni—Robert Goddard, will be fueled by your imagination.” this combination of social on to earn a PhD in the field and Class of 1908—she concluded, conscience and technical skills became NASA’s chief scientist and, “Goddard did not believe that ON MAY 14, MORE THAN 900 that we need in today’s college later, head of the NSF, the largest anything was impossible. He had a BACHELOR’S DEGREES WERE graduates. It’s this combination federal agency supporting research big dream. That dream took us to AWARDED, with honorary degrees that I see in you.”

64 wpi journal wpi.edu/+journal | summer 2016 TOGETHER WE MET THE CHALLENGE!

We raised $9 million, and the Alden Trust has given another $3 million to the Foisie Innovation Studio.

The $12 million contributed through you and the Alden Trust is now added to $6 million previously raised to make The Foisie Innovation Studio a vibrant center for collaborative learning and transformative projects.

THANK YOU FOR THE IMPACT YOU MADE WITH YOUR GIFTS TO THE ALDEN TRUST CHALLENGE.

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