The Magazine of WorcesTer PolyTechnic insTiTuTe FALL 2017 AL journ pi RobertCRuiCkshank ’83 BaCk on the gRid, with Renewed effiCienCy Worcester Polytechnic institute Vol. 13, no. 2 | fall 2017 [contents] 16 features 16 28 [ COr Ve story] te h science of marketing Back on the grid, with renewed efficiency a shley Daisley ’12 Gets into the MinDs oF consuMers at Procter & GaMble r obert cruickshank ’83 By erin Peterson | PhotograPhy Matt FurMan By MiChael Blanding | PhotograPhy Matt FurMan 22 34 Building tomorrow’s economic renaissance n uclear engagement aM eMber oF eiGht national institutes, WPi creates ar PoWe Ful attraction keePs Diana hart ’92 in an aDVanceD ManuFacturinG hub in central Mass. the enerGy business. By Joshua ZaFFos | illustration sean loose By Joan Killough-Miller | PhotograPhy Matt FurMan Cover PhotograPhy Matt FurMan viCe President, ChieF oF stAFF amy morton editor doreen manning [email protected] AssoCiAte editors peggy isaacson joan killough-miller reseArCh editor michael dorsey ContributinG editor judith jaeger Art direCt0r 34 caryl guarino buhler Contributors andy baron michael blanding 15 andrew faught Ask the ArChivists michael kemezis Sharron kahn luttrell who waS george c. gordon? check out erin peterson what our archiviStS found out about thiS allison racicot Susan Shalhoub eSteemed community member. julia Quinn-Szcesuil colleen wamback 28 joshua zaffos 33 ProduCtion mAnAGer dianne vanacore departments turninG Point bob Sinicrope ‘71 earned hiS bS in math, PhotoGrAPhers matthew burgos but jazz waS alwayS hiS firSt love. learn kathleen dooher how he managed to play to hiS StrengthS matt furman 02 matthew healey Letters to the editor throughout hiS career. iLLustrAtors See Something you like in our pageS and want michael aiello to high-five uS? want to tell uS we miSSed the jakob hinrichs Sean loose boat on Something? Send your letter to editor 42 jon reinfur doreen manning at [email protected] and wPi insider elizabeth traynor maybe you’ll See it in our winter iSSue! worceSter native ama biney ’18 iS a team player—not juSt in academicS, but in 03 baSketball and Softball. A ConversAtion with the President laurie leShin talkS with Stephen flavin 44 and gregory fiScher about practicepoint, ACross eArLe bridGe a landmark healthcare technology initiative catch up on what you miSSed at alumni CorresPond with wPi JournAL that bringS together academia, induStry, and WPI Journal weekend and homecoming. diScover how 100 Institute Road - Boynton Hall healthcare practitionerS. our alumni are giving back to wpi in So Worcester, Massachusetts 01609 many wonderful wayS. [email protected] wpi.edu/+journal 508-831-4971 05 Submit Class Notes: [email protected] GLobAL impact 53 WPI Journal (ISSN 1538-5094) ©2017 is published quarterly by Worcester Polytechnic our focuS thiS iSSue iS greece—StudentS viSit CLAss notes Institute (WPI) in conjunction with the WPI the heart of the mediterranean to learn our flat gompei conteSt waS a fantaStic Alumni Association. Periodical postage paid leSSonS they can’t get in a claSSroom. non-profit at Worcester, Massachusetts, and SucceSS! can your claSSmateS be found additional entry offices. Issues are mailed to in thiS photo collage? (don’t forget to Send all known WPI alumni living within the U.S. in your own update to [email protected]). as a benefit of having graduated from WPI. This publication is guided by WPI’s principles 06 of free expression and accepted standards of good taste. Opinions expressed are those of the wπ signed contributors and do not represent the the wpi community iS a wonderful mix of 56 opinion or official position of WPI or its officers. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes, education, athleticS, community action, and ComPLeted CAreers Form 3579, to WPI Journal, Worcester award-winning reSearch. learn more about it in memory of alumni, faculty, and other Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609-2280. in thiS Section. memberS of the wpi community. fall 2017 | follow us @WPI #wpi journal 1 [ LEtts to Ethr E editor] Pru AiSe S or PAn uS or SimPly SHAre by Submitting your letter to editor doreen mAnning At [email protected]. A Song in HiS HeArt I am writing to let you know that my father, Robert Favreau ’52, passed away at his home in Pottsville, Pa., on June 16. Before he died, his grandson, Ryan Drasher ’04, emailed the lyrics of the WPI alma mater to his father, so that he could sing them to Bob at his bedside. Bob’s eyes lit up at the memory, as they did whenever he talked of WPI (which to him was always Worcester Tech). My father had a great life, in large part due to the education he received at WPI and the friendships he made there. My sister and I heard more than one epic tale about fun times with college friends at The Boynton! — Robin Harley trask, ScAnlon, remembered After graduating from WPI, I did my master’s in industrial engineering at URI and then my Army ROTC commitment. When I was ready to enter the real work world after my discharge in one piece, I contacted Bill Trask, who encouraged alumni to job interview. My luck was good. Engineering jobs were not plentiful in 1972 compared to 1968 when everyone I knew had Editor Doreen Manning photobombing 10 offers or more. I began a 30-year career with Robert Cruickshank ’85, at the NREL FM (Factory Mutual, now FM Global) until campus in Golden, Colo. For more fun The WPI Journal team wants starting my own consultant business in the behind-the-scenes shots, including to know what you think of world of fire protection (now retired). videos from our WPI Journal fall our university magazine! About the same time (45 years this October), features photoshoots, stop by I met my future wife, Ruthanne, who worked wpi.edu/+journal. STOp by at Tufts University for Dick Blue, who turned out to be Bill’s college roommate and was also in job wpi.edu/+journalsurvey2017 placement/career development. My wife had for a quick survey and share spoken with Bill for years in her job and finally your feedback with us. put a face with the name at one of the WPI reunions we attended (probably our 10th). In the last couple of years, Bill and Father Pete [Rev. Peter J. Scanlon], who married us, have passed. They were both the type of individual a young person needed to be available for guid- ance as one ventures into his or her future life. — Kenneth Gminski ’68 CORRECTION: In our Summer 2017 issue, our Global Impact story on Costa Rica should have been credited to writer Sharron Kahn Luttrell Letters may be edited for length and clarity. 2 wpi journal wpi.edu/news/wpijournal | fall 2017 President Leshin taLks about PracticePoint with GreGory Fischer and stePhen FLavin [ a conversation with the president] t PracticePoint at WPI is a landmark healthcare have all the elements to bring together an will help people stay healthier, longer, all technology initiative that brings together exciting initiative. within their own homes. We need places to test those concepts out. And it’s not just academia, industry, and healthcare practitioners LL I think it’s going to be amazing, because in a central point of research, development, and it’s going to provide a place where people the devices, right? It’s understanding how real-world testing. President Leshin spoke with can try things out, test new things. I love to get the data safely, securely; it’s all about two key members of the PracticePoint initiative— your story, Greg, about trying to test surgical making sure they’re hacker-proof as well, right? PracticePoint director Gregory Fischer (center), robots inside MRI scanners at Brigham and associate professor of mechanical engineering and Women’s Hospital at 3 a.m. What were some GF Absolutely. This is about designing security robotics engineering and director of WPI’s Auto- of the challenges you faced in trying to test into these devices from the ground up. these things? mation and Interventional Medicine Robotics LL This was a great win for WPI. Tell us a bit GF When you’re putting together a medical Research Laboratory, and VP of Academic and about the funding, and where it’s coming device, it requires iterative development. So Corporate Engagement Stephen Flavin (below, from. left)—to help our readers understand just how you need to be able to get into these clinical care scenarios, do your testing, get back and SF We worked with the Massachusetts important this enterprise is for WPI. perform engineering changes and modifica- Technology Collaborative and secured a $5 LL PracticePoint is really all about the idea tions, and then return to the clinical million capital grant to help build out this of cyber-physical systems in health and settings. It can take days, weeks—even facility at WPI’s Gateway Park. In addition to medicine. So to start, let’s explain to months—between these experiments. So, the MTC, we have core founding partners everybody … what are cyber-physical systems? we’re excited about the idea of interweaving and complementary partners—like UMass GF Well, we’re excited, as this aligns very these point of practice care scenarios with Medical School and MITRE—and our anchor well with our robotics engineering program. engineering, R&D, and manufacturing partners at GE Healthcare, who have If you think about robots, there’s sensors, facilities that are co-located. committed $2.5 million over two years to there’s actuators, there’s intelligence; and LL So there’ll be certain kinds of environ- help get this initiative off the ground.