Worcester Polytechnic Institute
AC-10: Support for Research

WPI has established the Office of Undergraduate Research to support and promote undergraduate research at WPI. The Office of Sustainability works closely with the Dean of Undergraduate Research to advance sustainability initiatives. For example, WPI sponsors an annual Sustainability Project Competition to recognize and encourage student research projects that advance sustainability. Winners are selected in three categories: first year, undergraduate, and graduate. There is a small cash prize available for the winner of each category. There is also a competition for projects completed by first year students participating in the Great Problems Seminar (GPS) program. The vast majority of GPS projects are sustainability themed. WPI also has a established undergraduate student project centers to advance sustainability research both locally and globally.

Similar to the curricular incentives described in AC-7, the WPI Strategic Plan promotes the inclusion of Sustainability topics in research. This aspect was also made clear by the Dean of Engineering at the December, 2016 faculty retreat and in subsequent messages. WPI established a number of initiatives to advance research in a variety of areas. These included a set of cross-cutting research themes (described in more detail on the section on multi-disciplinary research) as well as the Research, Discovery and Innovation (ReDI), which highlighted WPI's research in a wide array of areas. These initiatives and forums provide an ideal vehicle to promote, advance, and incentivize WPI's sustainability-related research. (ReDI) Annual Symposium was one of these initiatives. The Office of Sustainability supports these initiatives in its role as a supporting core principle that appears in all of these themes. WPI has also introduced a "TRIAD" grant program, that provides seed grants for faculty teams from at least three disciplines, to advance creative new convergent research in cross-disciplinary research. These areas have included topics on environmental simulation and policy, environmental stressors and performance in climate change, online health information, and others.

In the last year, the Provosts Office has championed research and collaboration in several cross-cutting areas and also in several "meta" themes that can be found in all these areas: sustainability is one of those meta themes. The Institute also supports and hosts a number of organizational and research units focused on cross-disciplinary work, among them the newly established Global School, and several Centers (https://www.wpi.edu/research/centers) among them the Center for Resource recovery and Recyling, and the Water Resource Center. From the criteria for promotion: The scholarship of integration includes the critical evaluation, synthesis, analysis, integration, or interpretation of research or creative work produced by others. It may be disciplinary, interdisciplinary, or multidisciplinary in nature. When disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge is synthesized, interpreted, or connected, this integrative scholarly contribution brings new insight.

Research and Instruction Librarians work with Great Problems Seminar (GPS) Classes to teach and encourage students to learn about the complexity of sustainability issues. Our team meets with full classes and also individual project teams to discuss the social and technical literature related to sustainability. Our team also meets with every students completing an Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP) off campus. The library’s support for the GPS and IQP is fully integrated into the curriculum and covers many topics related to sustainability. The Library is a co-sponsor and host, with the Office of Sustainability, of the Annual Sustainability Project Competition, open to students at all levels of the curriculum. Positive outcomes include engagement of faculty, students, and the external community in awareness of WPI sustainability research. The library also provides open access to student projects and research at undergraduate and graduate levels through Digital WPI.

The library maintains multiple online guides to promote research and learning related to sustainability. The one particularly focused on sustainability may be found at http://libguides.wpi.edu/sustainability. Others related to sustainability are our Environmental Studies and Engineering Guide (http://libguides.wpi.edu/environmental) and our Project Based Research Guide (http://libguides.wpi.edu/c.php?g=334928). The library maintains multiple online guides to promote research and learning related to sustainability. The one particularly focused on sustainability may be found at http://libguides.wpi.edu/sustainability. Others related to sustainability are our Environmental Studies and Engineering Guide (http://libguides.wpi.edu/environmental) and our Project Based Research Guide (http://libguides.wpi.edu/1styear).The library maintains multiple online guides to promote research and learning related to sustainability.  The one particularly focused on sustainability may be found at http://libguides.wpi.edu/sustainability.  Others related to sustainability are our Environmental Studies and Engineering Guide (http://libguides.wpi.edu/environmental) and our Project Based Research Guide http://libguides.wpi.edu/1styear

http://libguides.wpi.edu/1styear; http://libguides.wpi.edu/sustainability; http://libguides.wpi.edu/environmental