Worcester Polytechnic Institute announced that Steve Koppi has been appointed executive director of the university's Career Development Center. Koppi, who took his post at the CDC on May 1, comes to WPI from Mount Holyoke College, where he served as director of its career development center.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute and The University of Massachusetts Medical School have established a new strategic affiliation to foster joint research and educational programs that improve healthcare delivery. The five-year affiliation agreement creates a partnership between WPI's Healthcare Delivery Institute (HDI) and UMMS to bring clinical, scientific, engineering and business management expertise to bear on a range of complex challenges facing the healthcare system. The new affiliation was announced March 20, 2013, at an HDI symposium. As a first step, both WPI and UMMS will appoint members to a joint leadership coordinating committee that will begin to plan, facilitate, and ultimately oversee targeted faculty research collaborations and graduate educational programs. The HDI/UMMS program will also include professional education and career development components, such as physician leadership training in specified areas.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has established a project center on the island of Nantucket, where student teams will be able to pursue in-depth research in museum studies, energy use and conservation, sustainable agriculture, and other issues facing the community. The new center was built upon the successful completion of nine pilot projects on the island over the past two years, which addressed issues as diverse as alternative energy, public awareness of Lyme disease, and the use of cell phone technology for self-guided tours of historic properties. The Nantucket site brings WPI's global project center total to 27, on five continents, and expands the reach of the university's project-based curriculum to help serve community needs closer to home. As a requirement for graduation from WPI, students must complete two projects in addition to their course work. Undertaken in the junior and senior years, these projects provide WPI students with opportunities to apply classroom and lab-acquired knowledge to solve real-world problems. Student projects are managed either on or off campus and often take place at sites that are facilitated by the university's Global Perspective Program. The junior year project, known as the Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP), facilitates student teams that tackle societal issues related to science and technology. Through this program, students address local issues, develop an understanding of other cultures, and see, firsthand, how they make a real impact on their host community. The senior year brings the Major Qualifying Project (MQP), through which students work in teams to define a problem and then develop novel and creative solutions. The establishment of the new center in Nantucket is built upon the success of several pilot projects on the island.