Adam Epstein '05

Earlier this week I had the chance to tour East Hall, WPI’s newest residence facility. East Hall, as you may guess, is located on the eastern side of our campus, down the hill, adjacent to Founders Hall to the north. The building is still under construction but scheduled to be completed and open for student residence by the beginning of next academic year in August. Our tour was led by Neil Benner, the project manager from the construction management company Gilbane. Even without furniture, flooring, and many finishings, the building is very impressive!

East Hall will be able to house 232 students in apartment style living arrangements. Each apartment will house four students in a configuration of either four single rooms or two single rooms and one double room. There is also a shared living space, full kitchen, and compartmentalized bathroom in each unit. The compartmentalized bathroom setup allows the residents to use any of the parts simultaneously since they are separated.

East Hall will contain many amenities which will make it not only a great place to live but also a great place to work and play. Each floor of East hall will house a Tech Suite which is an open workspace that can be used by teams of students to work on projects (or probably play games and watch YouTube) with great technology resources. Already used in the Library, Tech Suites are very popular, and the new ones in East Hall will be state of the art with large flat screen displays or LCD projection. Also on the first floor of the building will be several music practice rooms and a fitness center. Did I mention East Hall will be air conditioned?

East Hall will be the second LEED certified green building at WPI (the first is Bartlett Center). I learned that at this point of the construction, East Hall would meet requirements to be certified at the silver level, but the project team is striving to reach the gold level. Among the elements involved in the sustainability of East Hall are a green roof (members of the WPI community recently planted the vegetation that will eventually be atop the roof), automatic temperature sensors and controls, lots of windows for natural lighting, and extensive reuse and recycling of materials during construction.

Two other parts of the overall project are also important: There will be a 192-space parking garage adjacent to East Hall, and between the parking garage and the building will be a courtyard with plantings and sitting areas. Both of these will provide opportunities for the residents and the entire community.

East Hall will be available to upperclass students, and without the building even being complete, it is already booked full for next academic year—I can see why! Some photos of the East Hall construction below.

Saturday was a magnificent day for the 140th Commencement! The morning started with steady rain, but the forecast called for the rain to cease by 9 a.m. That’s exactly what happened, and the sky completely cleared by the time of the ceremony! In fact, I got some sunburn sitting for the first hour of the ceremony.

There were some particular events and items that made this Commencement one I will remember. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Robert Goddard’s graduation from WPI. His name was mentioned numerous times at the Baccalaureate ceremony on Friday and Commencement on Saturday. President Berkey wrote a piece for the Commencement program reflecting on Goddard and his contributions to society, and student speaker Michael Richard also mentioned Goddard.

Among the honorary degree recipients was Woodie Flowers. His involvement with the FIRST robotics program has strong ties to WPI. Also honored was Richard Lyman, former president of Stanford University, whose father was a WPI alumnus.

The 2008 Commencement speaker was Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric Company. GE employs hundreds of WPI alumni with several dozen new graduates preparing to begin their careers with the company. Jeff’s speech was entitled Let’s Get to Work, and he told graduates that the world needs less talk and more action to address and solve problems. Providing some comic relief, Jeff incorporated some WPI history and facts into his speech mentioning the rope pull, reciting the cheer (he said it was from memory, but I didn’t buy it), and nicely incorporating WPI’s motto of theory and practice. Adding to the celebration, President Berkey announced on Saturday a $100,000 grant from GE to support WPI’s global project center in Cape Town, South Africa!

I have included some photos of the ceremony below (click to enlarge). Congratulations to all 1,089 graduates!

Here I am at WPI before sunrise in preparation for today’s Commencement exercises. A small group of people arrived for a 5 a.m. (short) discussion about whether the ceremony should be inside or outside; without much thinking it was an easy call to make for outside.

Promptly at 10:53 a.m. the bells will chime indicating that Professor Peter Christopher, the winner of the Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Teaching, will begin leading the processional across Earle Bridge towards the quad. Michael Richard will give an address to his classmates, and Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of General Electric Company, will deliver the Commencement address. A live Webcast will begin shortly before 11 a.m. on the Commencement Web site.

I’ve got some time to kill between now and then. A recap with photos will follow next week.

This evening I am heading to Boston for the opening of the flagship Boston Apple Retail Store. Apple fans know that the openings of these stores are truly events, and fans will line up hours in advance (in fact they are probably already there)! The opening is at 6 pm; I am hoping to get there as soon as I can after work, but I’m sure I’ll end up at the end of a significant line.

I’m going to be sending photos and updates about the store opening to Matt of The iLife (theiLife.com). I came across The iLife earlier this year when one of the staff members in Admissions mentioned to me that she was reading Matt’s application to WPI, and he included in it that he started and runs this site devoted to Apple information. The staff here knows that I am a fan of Apple products, and I’ve been following the site since. Even better: Matt was accepted to WPI and will be attending this fall as a member of the Class of 2012!

Check out The iLife’s coverage of the Boston Apple Store opening!

This Saturday marks the 140th Commencement of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Some readers may know that the Institute was founded in 1865, so why wouldn’t this year actually mark the 144th Commencement? The answer is not quite as simple as you might think.

Although WPI was founded in 1865 then as the Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science, the first classes were not held until 1868. At that time the course of study lasted three years with the first Commencement being held in 1871. With that information the current Commencement would be the 138th.

A friend and classmate of mine investigated this perceived discrepancy in numbering a few years ago and discovered the reason for the accelerated numbering. For two years during World War II, 1943 and 1945, WPI accelerated the course of study and graduated students twice per year in order to send the young men to fight in the war. Thus the two additional Commencement exercises which brings the total this year to 140.

During the summer, WPI is packed with summer programs ranging from day workshops for teachers to athletic campus to summer academic enrichment programs for all ages! If you (or your son or daughter) are looking for something to do this summer, consider our many summer programs.

Here in Admissions, we are particularly fond (because we run them!) of the Frontiers and Launch programs. These programs both give high school students interested in areas of science, math, engineering, and technology the opportunity to interact with WPI faculty members, WPI students, and the WPI campus in a pre-college setting.

• Frontiers
• Frontiers is a residential program now in its twenty-sixth year of existence with nearly 150 rising high school juniors and seniors spending two weeks living and learning on WPI campus. Frontiers participants study an academic major in science, engineering, math, or technology and a minor in communication, humanities, or arts. The program emphasizes hands-on projects and teamwork allowing participants to explore and engage their findings in real world situations.
• Outside of the classroom, the participants have the opportunity to get to know the other participants from all over the country and world in social activities, trips, events, and the residence halls. Past activities have included capture the flag, a trip the Boston Museum of Science, a hypnotist, Frontiers Idol, and movie nights. Participants are also always starting pick-up games of frisbee, basketball, and other sports on our fields and in our athletic facilities.
• Frontiers 2008 will run from July 13–25. For more information, a full list and description of academic areas of study, and to apply, visit the Frontiers Web site at wpi.edu/+frontiers or e-mail frontiers@wpi.edu.
• Launch
• Launch is a summer day program for rising high school freshmen and sophomores who are interested in and want exposure to biology, chemistry/biochemistry, interactive media and game development, or robotics. Like Frontiers participants, Launch students will work with WPI faculty and students on projects exploring cutting edge techniques in their field of study.
• Launch 2008 will run from August 4–8. For more information and to register, visit the Launch Web site at wpi.edu/+launch or e-mail launch@wpi.edu.

Other summer academic programs include WUNDERS, Strive, Camp Reach, Tech Days, and the Venture Camp. If your summer is not already planned and jam packed, we’d love to have you on our campus!

I have been pretty quiet on the blog front this past week, but this week I’ll be focusing on Commencement which is this coming weekend at WPI. Meanwhile, some of the other blogs have also been a bit quiet, but with good reason. If you haven’t yet seen them, check out:

• Ed’s blog: Ed is the Director of Admissions, but he has been quiet because just a week ago today he and his wife welcomed a son, Sean Edward! I’m sure he has other things on his mind than writing his blog. :) Congratulations Ed!
• Jeremy’s blog: Jeremy is a junior (well, senior now) at WPI who just completed his Interactive Project in Denmark. He always finds himself doing interesting things and meeting interesting people in interesting places. Check out his view of his project experience!
• Jen’s blog: Jen is also a rising-senior who just completed her Interactive Project in Australia. She’s been quiet since she has been traveling and is now back home in the US. We discovered Jen’s blog midway through the term, and included it on our site since it was so interesting and impressive!

For us in the Admissions Office and of course the students since classes are over, it definitely feels like summer! I have not had nearly the amount of calls, e-mails, visitors, or urgent items for the past few days. But just because it feels slower doesn’t mean there is nothing happening or to do. I’ll be posting in the next week about some upcoming events and summer opportunities including Commencement and summer programs at WPI. If you’re reading, I’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Today is the day. It’s the common reply date for all of you seniors out there who are making that decision on where to head to college in the fall.

If you’ve decided that WPI is the place for you, congratulations and welcome to our Class of 2012! If you’ve decided that WPI is not the place for you and you’ll be attending another institution, congratulations on your acceptance here and we wish you the best of luck wherever you end up! If you are still undecided and waiting until the last moment, you can take a last look at our Admissions and admitted student Web site, leave questions here in the comments, or check out the information in our Facebook group.

If you are going to enroll at WPI, be sure to submit your deposit in the mail postmarked today or on the online enrollment form by midnight tonight!

Congratulations to everyone, and welcome to WPI!