Hello WPI Class of 2024! I'm so
excited to welcome you to the WPI community after
all the months of in-person and virtual college
visits, applications, anticipation and planning,
after all of the national and global uncertainty
in this unprecedented time, the start of your time
at WPI is finally here. I know the lead up to this
moment has not been a simple one, for you or for us.
I know many of you have experienced real challenge
and loss these past few months -- whether that's the
illness of a family member or missing out on your
high school graduation. I'm so sorry that you've
had to go through this at such an important time
in your lives. But in spite of the stress and the
challenges, I really hope that at this moment
joining our family here at WPI is a moment full of
hope and excitement for you all. In true WPI
fashion we have met this unprecedented time head-
on with detailed and thoughtful analysis and
planning driven by science. The signs are posted.
The cleaning stations are set. The faculty are
ready. And there are tons of fun activities and
programs both in person and virtual that are
planned for you. As you get comfortable in this
new stage of your life. For those of you who are
here with us on campus I hope you've been getting
settled in and are already getting to know some
new friends. And for those of you joining us
remotely hello from the hill. You are just as much
a part of the WPI family as those here in person.
Welcome to you all. Hey how about a big thanks for
the volunteers who have helped folks moving in
this week!  Zoom claps! I worked a shift myself
welcoming families yesterday. And I just want to
say how extremely impressed I have been with all
of you. You came prepared. Our success together in
this moment will hinge on pulling together and all
playing a part. And you are kicking butt so far
from waivers to checklists to pre-arrival testing.
You made me proud. We need to carry that
commitment together into fall. We've established
as you know a layered approach to safety and you
must play a part. We've partnered with a world
renowned Broad Institute to develop a rigorous
testing protocol. Tests are early warning system.
They're the key to finding anyone who may have
coded quickly and making sure they're being cared
for appropriately and isolated from the community
while they're contagious. The test is quick and
painless. So keeping your test appointments is so
important. Next we're going to ask you to track
your symptoms every day using an app you can
access via the WPI mobile app or Web site. Mostly
of course I expect and hope you'll feel great or
at least normal for you. But some days you may not.
We want to know every day. So added to your
schedule is a thing to do each day and then take
15 seconds to track your symptoms. And if you feel
sick. Please stay in your room and get in touch
with health services. Face coverings are designed
to protect others. We're all wearing them for
different reasons. I encourage you to think about
your loved ones and customize the button you
received. Mine says for you I wear my mask for you.
And I mean it. And follow the stickers since day
six feet apart. We've even got some new cool
Adirondack chairs spread out all over the campus.
Being outdoors whenever possible is always a good
idea. And finally and really most importantly I
ask you and your pod mates to avoid large
gatherings and parties. Anything that's not an
inside group a class or a lab that's over 10
people is really not possible right now around
campus. I've already seen so many of you doing
what's right wearing your face covering staying
socially distance getting your tests. Thank you.
These first few weeks are especially important as
we get the false started. So please please pay
extra attention to all the health and safety
protocols to give us the greatest chance of
success. Bottom line I'm so happy you're here and
I so want us all to be together. So thank you for
helping me out. OK enough covered already. Let's
talk about you. Class of twenty twenty four. How
you feeling. Kind of nervous. Kind of excited.
Maybe a little bit overwhelmed. Totally
understandable. I promise it will be. It will get
better. And to help. I have three three three
pieces of advice for you today. First priority. Go
big here at WPI. We want you to try new things
even if and in fact especially if you're not 100
percent sure you'll succeed. We will put you to
try new things take academic risks even if you
might fail. Gasp. I know. Heresy right. The key is
when you do stumble even when you fail. Learn from
my experience. Go big stumble learn pivot repeat.
Really there's no safer place to learn how to take
an intellectual leap. Even if occasionally you end
up in a heap. In fact our curriculum at WPI was
built to support this like a safety net below a
high wire act. You will never see a D or an F on a
report card at WPI. If you find a class is too
challenging you will get what we call an n r no
record and there's no record really. Think of it
as our version of a do over. Go big stumble. Learn
Hibbett repeat. In fact WPI students have always
been explorers and risk takers big thinkers and
doers. Take Robert Goddard back in nineteen oh
eight when he was a student in WGI Physics
Department. Goddard was considered a bit audacious.
Well great. Really. He was pursuing a dream he'd
had as a younger boy imagining a device that could
travel from the Earth to Mars. That was an
eighteen ninety eight when he had his dream. One
hundred and twenty two years ago and after nearly
30 years of pursuing his dream and countless
missteps and failures including in some labs at
WPI he finally saw some success on a cold
afternoon in nineteen twenty six on his aunt's
farm just a few miles from our campus. Goddard
launched the world's first successful liquid
fueled rocket. It didn't go very far. It rose only
41 feet in the air and traveled one hundred and
eighty four feet from its lock from its launch
site. Nonetheless the event signaled the beginning
of the space age. Like many pioneers Goddard
received little recognition during his lifetime.
In fact in 1920 The New York Times printed a
really harsh editorial about Goddard's ideas. Can
you imagine suggesting that he was ignorant of
elementary physics. If he was audacious enough to
imagine that a rocket could work in the vacuum of
space. Fast forward to just last year when we
celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo
moon landing made possible by Robert Goddard's
pioneering work based on his big ideas based on
his learning from adversity and resilience in the
face of crushing failure. By the way The New York
Times printed a retraction to that 1920 article in
1969. The day after the Apollo eleven astronauts
launch to the moon. Nice. In a more recent example
a point to Paul Ventimiglia a member of the Great
Class of 2012 who won five hundred thousand
dollars in the NASA centennial challenge. Read a
lot Regolith Robot competition while he was an
undergraduate at WPI. Yes he was incredibly
successful at that challenge. He was not always
successful. In fact his robot the one that won in
2009. In an earlier competition in 2008 his team
failed to even finish the robot due to time
management and execution issues. But they stuck
with it and the next year they had a much
different result. By the way Paul has continued to
crush it with his amazing team bite force
competing and winning multiple battle competitions
here discovered eCom is accepting applications for
next season. Any takers out there. By the way. Me.
I failed plenty to that analytical chemistry test
in college where I got a 37 out of 100 was a
particular low point and we didn't have the in our
system where I went to school. Oh I was on live TV
when my Mars mission crashed on the surface of the
Red Planet. That was not fun. But here I am
because I spend 24 hours sulking. Shook it off.
Learn something. Got help. And kept going. Frankly
if it had all been easy I don't think it would
feel so good. When things go great. So have I made
it crystal clear. You're talented and driven young
people. And during your time here we will push you
beyond your comfort zone. You will have an
incredible accomplishments and do things you
really currently don't think you can do. Along the
way stumbling even failing is part of learning.
Embrace it. Learn. Pivot. Move on. Find people to
lean on and support others when they're struggling.
OK. Next piece of advice. Take full advantage of
the amazing WPI plan. That's where our truly
unique project based theory practice impact
approach to learning and teaching comes from. What
it means is that you will get a jump on your
future right away. By doing as well as learning
you won't just study the world's most complex
problems. You'll use your skills and wisdom and
ability to make a positive impact in real
communities near our campus and across the globe.
For each of the past 50 years juniors have
traveled to one of our dozens of project centers
around the world. My sincere belief and hope is
that by the time it's your turn this virus will be
contained enough either through a vaccine or
highly effective treatment that you'll have the
opportunity to do project work on location in one
of these amazing places. I've had the chance to
visit more than a dozen of them since I arrived at
WPI including Panama. Bar Harbor Maine. Silicon
Valley Priest. London Thailand. China. Each
experience was amazing. The projects are students
work on are as varied as the project centers
themselves like measuring light pollution in
Acadia National Park or working on the engineering
an engineering the expansion of the Panama Canal.
Now the Panama Canal biggest engineering project
on the planet. Wow. Right here in Worcester our
students have worked on innovative approaches to
addressing food insecurity and drug addiction
making a real local impact. But the world is
different now and we all know it. So even if some
of you personally need to be remote for your
project experiences when the time comes I
guarantee you that the impact you will have will
be far from remote. Take Diana Quaye class of
twenty one. Last spring she stood in front of the
sponsor of her interactive qualifying project her
ICP. Don't worry you will start to remember these
acronyms I promise. She laid out the scope of her
works. Her group's work aimed at increasing
awareness of the growing problem of pollen
allergies in Romania. However unlike her
predecessors Diana wasn't standing a few feet away
from her project sponsor in their home country
thousands of miles from Worcester. She and her
team members at the Bucharest Romania Project
Center were instead communicating via
teleconference from their homes. A challenge for
even the most experienced of presenters. The group
implemented tips from their adviser and planned
out their final presentation with a remote status
in mind. They wanted it to be a smooth and
seamless as it would have been in person. The team
used statistical analysis to find correlations
between pollen and meteorological factors and
between pollen and chemical pollutants. Their
plants had never taken this approach. Diana is
excited that the team's findings could help
Romania further Arab biology research all across
Europe. Why was she able to do this. Because even
though the world was changing in unprecedented
ways our amazing faculty helped her and her team
discover the tools to solve critical problems.
Even from far away our students speak with such
passion about their projects and working so
closely with their student teams their sponsors
and their faculty advisors that I always want to
dive right in with them. I know you will too. So I
urge you to start thinking and planning now how
you want to approach your projects especially for
the ICMP. I know you just got here and I'm already
hoping you can go away. But this is such a vital
and distinctive part of WPI is education that I
want you to start thinking about it now. So again
be sure to take advantage of all WPI has to offer
through your educational experience the WPI plan
is time proven to give you a great experience and
prepare you for making a positive impact anywhere.
OK here's my last piece of advice. Always keep
yourself open to discovery whether you're like
Paul Ventimiglia and Bill Fantastic Robots or like
Robert Goddard and have ideas never thought up
before or you play the flute or enjoy a rousing
game of underwater hockey. Yes that is actually a
thing. You can find other like minded folks on our
campus meet them build serve act or cosplay with
them with facial coverings of course and safely
learn from them and with them. And don't limit
yourself here at WPI. You are surrounded by
brilliant funny interesting people from all over
the world from diverse backgrounds at WPI. We'd
like it that way. We know that the most profound
discoveries and innovations come from an embracing
collaboration with people to the new. We are
dedicated to building a welcoming safe and
inclusive community for all where everyone can
thrive. So share with others who you are and in
turn listen to what they have to say. Even when
the challenges your own beliefs in fact especially
when it challenges your own beliefs. That is the
very essence of what it means to be in a
university. Seize the opportunity to learn
whatever you can from whoever you can find out
what others know that you don't. This is a
learning community. Immerse yourselves in it enjoy
it and share something of yourselves with it. The
relationships you build here at WPI will not only
provide support during your time here but they
will be lasting connections that you'll carry with
you forever to find some of those new connections.
I hope each of you are planning to attend the
virtual student activities fair on texting. We
have more than two hundred and thirty clubs and
organizations you may be interested in. How about
the Cheese Club. That sounds like a good one.
Maybe the Science Fiction Society. The Lego Club
is awesome. They made a virtual Lego model of the
quad last term. Or maybe your engine stood in the
National Society of Black Engineers or
International Student Council. You can learn about
all of these and more at the virtual activities
fair. So please attend and find ways to engage
with the WPI community. It's one step towards
finding your peeps here something that's even more
crucial during this crazy time. OK so let's come
back to my three big pieces of advice. Think big.
Take full advantage of the WPI plan and stay open
to discovery. Sound easy. I guarantee you it won't
be. You will need to work hard and you will find
that our expectations of you are high. Seven week
terms fly by. You will struggle at times. We
wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't challenge
you. That's OK. It's expected and perhaps even
more expected than ever this year. Please. No you
are not alone. So when you find that you are
struggling with something be it a class or
something more personal. Please do me a favor.
Don't keep it to yourself. Students that succeed
here do so because they know how to ask for help.
We are here to help. So when you need help please
ask. All through new student orientation. You've
probably heard about the many many resources that
WPI has to support you and help you make the most
of your college experience. Be sure you take
advantage of them. And if you aren't sure where to
start your R.A. and seeI are great resources. And
I particularly want to encourage you to take
advantage of another fabulous resource. Our
faculty they want to help you succeed. They are
full of great ideas and wisdom based on their
years of experience at WPI and in the world. And
they're really wonderful people to make it your
mission to get to know them this year. So
something you may not know about me is that I
spent six years working at NASA and I am still a
member of the Mars Curiosity Rover team. Yes I am
a space nerd. Yes I am a rocket scientist. So I am
going to close doing my best impression of NASA
mission control. But before I do let me repeat
that you have my warmest wishes as you set off on
your WPI journey. I can't wait to know you all
better and celebrate your impact on the world. OK.
Back to Mission Control and inside teams. I need
your help with this one class of twenty twenty
four. You are go for launch in five four three two
one. Liftoff. Go get them everybody by.
