One way to contribute to the Microsoft365 Storage Management project is to clean up your OneDrive.Come join us on Wednesday, October 29 from 9:00am - 10:00am ET for a live tutorial and tips on how to clean up your OneDrive storage.Please register on this Microsoft Form to attend the webinar or receive the recording. Microsoft 365 Storage Resources:These resources will help you get started on managing your Outlook and OneDrive storage.Storage Management FAQsExploring OutlookThe Inbox Cleanup Journey of an Email Hoarder by Mike HamiltonExploring OneDriveOneDrive Cleanup Companion by Mike Hamilton

Abstract: Hydrogen is an energy carrier that, if produced through decarbonized methods, can serve as a key solution for reducing emissions in hard-to-decarbonize industries such as long-haul trucking, cement and steel production, and aviation. Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cells are a class of energy conversion devices that use hydrogen as fuel. Their byproducts are water and heat. Effective water management is critical for achieving durable and reliable PEM fuel cell performance. While part of the produced water helps maintain membrane hydration, excess water must be efficiently removed from the cell. The transport phenomena associated with water removal are complex and span multiple length scales ranging from a few micrometers in the pores of the porous layers to several hundred micrometers (or even millimeters, depending on design) across the flow channels. A common feature across these scales is the dominant role of capillary effects, arising from surface tension forces, which significantly influence mass and momentum transport.This talk summarizes over a decade of research on transport phenomena in PEM fuel cells, with a primary focus on liquid water transport in different components of the cell. Particular emphasis will be placed on two-phase flow in flow channels and novel, yet simple, techniques for eliminating liquid water buildup. The presentation highlights outcomes from both experimental and theoretical investigations and briefly exemplifies how machine learning could help resolve some decades-long questions in two-phase flow pressure drop modeling.Bio: Mehdi Mortazavi is a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at WPI. His research focuses on thermo-fluids systems, where he combines experimental and theoretical approaches to uncover the physics of transport phenomena in multiphase flows. He deeply values the process of discovery through collaboration with students. His current projects involve droplet dynamics, bubble actuation for enhanced hydrogen production, and workforce development in hydrogen energy systems. He earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University in 2014 and spent two years in the HVAC industry before joining Western New England University for his first academic appointment in 2016. In 2023, he joined WPI to expand his research activities through access to advanced infrastructure and graduate student mentorship.

As part of the Department of Chemical Engineering Colloquium Series, Abraham Joy, Professor and Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at Northeastern University, will be presenting "Antibiofilm Polymers and Biomaterial Scaffolds to Address Biofilms and Wound Healing"

AbstractUnderstanding plastic deformation in metals and alloys requires observing microstructural processes as they occur — something that conventional laboratory techniques often cannot capture in sufficient detail. This talk aims to highlight why and how large-scale research facilities provide unique advantages for studying deformation mechanisms in structural materials.Using the example of nitrogen’s influence on stacking fault energy (SFE) and the resulting changes in predominant deformation modes such as dislocation slip, twinning, and phase transformations, I will discuss how (in-situ) synchrotron and neutron diffraction can directly reveal the evolution of microstructure under load.Beyond presenting scientific results, the talk will emphasize practical aspects of conducting experiments at large-scale research facilities — from experimental design and data acquisition to data analysis. The overarching goal is to demonstrate how large-scale facilities can be of help to understand materials performance.BioDr. Konstantin V. WernerUniversité Grenoble Alpes (UGA), FranceKonstantin Werner is a materials scientist whose research focuses on the relationship between mechanical properties and plastic deformation mechanisms in metallic materials. He combines computational modeling and experimental approaches to understand how microstructural processes such as slip, twinning, and phase transformations govern strength and ductility.He obtained both his PhD and MSc degrees from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), where he studied deformation behavior in advanced alloys. Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher at Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA), working on microstructural evolution in immiscible high-entropy alloy systems.Konstantin is also passionate about mentoring young scientists and promoting the use of large-scale research facilities for materials characterization, encouraging the next generation to harness cutting-edge experimental tools for fundamental and applied research. ZOOM MEETING LINK: https://wpi.zoom.us/j/93538117042

Looking for a way to make your day less stressful and more mindful...take some much-needed time for yourself and join us for Mindful Wednesdays! Drop-in meditation sessions are open to the entire WPI community, and no experience is necessary. A certified meditation teacher will offer guided meditations appropriate for both beginners as well as experienced meditators. People can join in person or via zoom.

Title:A Journey from Academia to Industry Abstract:How I ended up working on the Department of Defense projects. Sharing my past research experiences from academia to industry to DOD projects. I started my journey as a physicist set for academia but discovered other possibilities that changed my way of thinking. During the seminar I will share my decade and a half of research experiences and discuss not so conventional paths to research. I will discuss my work as a Materials Scientist for optics and photonics applications. Speaker:Alket MertiriPrinciple Member, Technical Staff, Draper Bio:Alket Mertiri is a Principal Member of the Technical Staff at Draper. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Physics and Mathematics from Boston University concentrating on condensed‐matter physics and applied mathematics. He then pursued graduate studies in Materials Science and Engineering at Boston University. His research focused on ultrafast infrared spectroscopy and photothermal microscopy, leveraging quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) and infrared detection to enable label‐free biochemical sensing and imaging. Beyond his research, Mertiri took an active role in science advocacy. While serving as President of the Boston University chapter of the Optical Society of America (OSA), he participated in a visit to Washington D.C. to meet members of Congress and advocate for sustained funding in science and engineering. Host: Professor Ulkuhan Guler

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Employee Drop In: Benefit Enrollment Help Session: Do you need assistance entering your Open Enrollment benefit elections into Workday? Do you have a question about one of the benefit plans offered in 2026? Drop in to see a member of the Benefits Team during this session to get the support and help you need to make your benefit choices before November 5th. Please note: this is an informal drop-in session and not a formal presentation.

REGISTER WHO'S COMING?Join your host Arly Dungca '08, president of the WPI Alumni Association, for an alumni gathering in Cambridge, MA! Get together with old and new friends for snacks, drinks, and WPI memories.Wednesday, October 29, 20256:00 to 8:00 PMGeppetto100 N. First StreetCambridge, MA 02141This event is sponsored by the WPI Alumni Association. Appetizers and bar service will be available. Two-hour parking is available in front of 222 Jacobs Street every day. A self-park garage located 100 yards north of Geppetto at 211 Water Street is available after 4:00 PM. ($10 with validation from the restaurant host stand; please note there is a four-hour max.)The use of public transportation is encouraged. The nearest MBTA station is Lechmere Station on the MBTA's Green Line.Space is limited - advanced registration is strongly encouraged

Live Stats

Employee Drop In: Benefit Enrollment Help Session: Do you need assistance entering your Open Enrollment benefit elections into Workday? Do you have a question about one of the benefit plans offered in 2026? Drop in to see a member of the Benefits Team during this session to get the support and help you need to make your benefit choices before November 5th. Please note: this is an informal drop-in session and not a formal presentation.

Neural Certificates for Safe Robotic System Planning and Control Abstract: Achieving safety, scalability, and high performance in complex systems, such as multi-agent systems (MAS) control, is a central challenge in many real-world robotic deployments due to its computational complexity as a large-scale constrained optimal control problem. To address this, we introduce a novel graph control barrier function (GCBF) as a core tool for large-scale distributed safe control, which guarantees safety for arbitrarily large MAS with only local observations. For MAS with known dynamic models, we present a self-supervised learning framework that can jointly learn GCBF and distributed control policies that consider actuation limits. For MAS with unknown dynamics, we discuss how to blend GCBF in multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) to achieve high-performance and safe distributed policies. Bio: Chuchu Fan is an Associate Professor (pre-tenure) in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) and Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) at MIT. Before that, she was a postdoc researcher at Caltech and got her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University. Her research group, the Realm at MIT, works on developing computational tools that integrate rigorous mathematics into machine learning and AI for the design, analysis, and verification of safe, large-scale, and complex systems. Chuchu is the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award, an AFOSR Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award, an ONR YIP Award, and the 2020 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award.

Looking for a way to make your day less stressful and more mindful...take some much-needed time for yourself and join us for Mindful Thursdays! Drop-in meditation sessions are open to the entire WPI community, and no experience is necessary. A certified meditation teacher will offer guided meditations appropriate for both beginners as well as experienced meditators. People can join in person or via zoom. Mindful Thursdays: 2:15PM to 2:35PM Center for Well-Being, Daniels Hall 102E Zoom: https://wpi.zoom.us/j/186050714 Each Friday an email will be sent out to the group called Mindfulness Tools To-Go which will include information about meditations, poems shared during the week, and mindful resources. If you have questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact Robin Benoit, rbenoit@wpi.edu

Learn more about your Medicare, Health Savings Account and long-term care benefits for today and tomorrow.

Global Asia Hub invites Dr. Andrew Erickson, Visiting Scholar Harvard Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and Prof of Strategy,China Maritime Studies Institute, US Naval War College to give a presentation discussing China's sea forces and XI seeks to use them in a time of dangerous shifting power dynamics. China under Xi Jinping has become a great maritime power, possessing the world's largest fleets numerically in every maritime category.

Be well at home while celebrating Wellness Day on November 4th. Drop by the Center for Well-Being or the lobby of Gateway 1 (60 Prescott) starting on Friday, October 31st to pick up your Wellness @ Home Kit to help de-stress and relax. Kits will be available October 31-November 4 or until we run out. Get one before they are gone! Sponsored by the CWB.

Department of Mathematical SciencesColloquiumFriday, October 31st, 202511:00AM-11:50AMStratton Hall 202Speaker: George Yin, University of ConnecticutTitle: Computational Nonlinear Filtering: A Deep Learning ApproachAbstract: Nonlinear filtering is a fundamental problem in signal processing, information theory, communication, control and optimization, and systems theory. In the 1960s, celebrated results on nonlinear filtering such the Kushner equation and the Duncan-Motensen-Zakai equation were obtained. Nevertheless, the computational issues for nonlinear filtering remained to be a long-standing and challenging problem. In this talk, in lieu of treating the stochastic partial differential equations for obtaining the conditional distribution or conditional measure, we construct finite-dimensional approximations using deep neural networks for the optimal weights. Two recursions are used in the algorithm. One of them is the approximation of the optimal weight and the other is for approximating the optimal learning rate. Convergence and rates of convergence will be discussed together with some examples. [This is a joint work with Hongjiang Qian (Auburn University) and Qing Zhang (University of Georgia).]

Department of Mathematical SciencesQIT Thinking SeminarWednesday, October 31st, 20254:00PM-4:50PMStratton Hall 207Speaker: Gabor Lippner, Northeastern UniversityTitle: State transfer via loops edgesAbstract: I will give an overview of the effect of weighted loops on quantum state transfer on graphs. I will discuss perfect, pretty good, and asymptotically strong variants, and explain the corresponding tools we introduced to analyze these situations. These tools range from Galois theory (field trace) to random walks on graphs, and often raise interesting questions in their own right

Join ODIME on Fridays from 12:00-2:00pm ET in OASIS House for milk and freshly baked cookies! For more information or accommodations, please contact ODIME at diversity@wpi.edu. All are welcome!

Join us on Friday, October 31, from 12:00–1:00 p.m. for a Lunch and Gather drop-in session in Innovation Studio 205. This gathering is an opportunity to connect with others who share your hobbies, interests, and likes.Don't forget to bring your lunch and a friend with you!Check out more Staff Council engagement opportunities here.