NEW: WPI on ‘Cutting Edge’ with New $3M Science Grad Program

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

GoLocalWorcester News Team

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $3 million to Worcester Polytechnic Institute to launch a new graduate program in Biofabrication.

The five-year award will help pay stipends to graduate students working toward their PhD. The program will combine innovative approaches such as interdisciplinary research, engineering and industrial and international experiences as students study the broad field of Biofabrication. The field uses cells, proteins and other biological materials as building blocks for therapies, healing and tissue regeneration.

Programs Improved

“We are pleased to receive this important award from the NSF's flagship program for cutting-edge, interdisciplinary graduate education,” said Eric Overström, WPI's provost and senior vice president. "I want to congratulate the principal investigators, Dean of Engineering Selçuk Güçeri, and everyone responsible for developing this outstanding initiative. The new Biofabrication program will draw on our significant strengths in life sciences and bioengineering education and research, our leadership in global problem solving, and our institutional commitment to infusing our graduate programs with an entrepreneurial spirit to help prepare the innovative, globally engaged science and engineering workforce our nation needs."

The award is part of the NSF’s flagship Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program for Interdisciplinary Graduate Education.

Collaborative Effort

Faculty members in WPI’s Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center and its School of Business will collaborate to direct the new program, with the shared goal of training students – WPI IGERT fellows – to think like entrepreneurs and approach science and engineering with a greater understanding of what it takes to move a discovery or technological advnce from the laboratory to the marketplace.

“Using biological tools to investigate and alleviate disease is the new frontier," said Terri Camesano, professor of chemical engineering at WPI and principal investigator for the new program. "This unique program will help our graduate students see the greater context of their research, and inspire them to translate their discoveries into innovative solutions that improve people’s lives.”

Creating Problem Solvers

In addition to course work and mentored laboratory research projects, WPI's IGERT fellows will participate in curriculum modules and team projects designed to develop their collaboration and innovation skills. They will work together on interdisciplinary teams to identify an unmet medical need and develop a potential solution.

“In addition to being great problem solvers, today our graduates need to be great opportunity-seekers," said Frank Hoy, Paul R. Beswick Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in WPI's School of Business and a co-principal investigator for the WPI IGERT program. "Whether they choose academic careers or find themselves in private industry, we want them to be able to see what others do not see in terms of how their science and engineering can be applied to help consumers. That’s the entrepreneurial mindset we hope to infuse in this program.”

Students in the new program will also have to complete either a three-month internship with a company in their field, or a three-month international experience to better understand the technological and cultural drivers of innovation around the world. WPI has established collaborations with universities in China, Italy, Ireland, and the United Kingdom to facilitate IGERT projects.

During their third year of the program, the IGERT Fellows will have access to WPI's Competitive Innovation Incentive Fund, which has been established as part of the NSF award. Student teams will develop and present a specific proposal for funding to advance their chosen project. Awards of up to $20,000 from the fund may be used for prototyping, pilot studies, provisional patent filings or other activities needed to validate their solutions or move their project toward commercialization.

Co-principle investigators Ki Chon, professor and head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Glenn Gaudette and Kristen Billiar, associate professors of biomedical engineering, will help direct the new program.