In this episode of The WPI Podcast, we explore why sticking with your money goals is harder than it seems. Alexander Smith, associate professor in the Department of Social Science and Policy Studies, explains how personal finance is deeply influenced by behavioral economics, or the psychology of decision-making. He describes how emotions and a focus on short-term goals can make it hard to follow a long-term financial plan, and how commitment devices and tapping into motivation can help. Smith outlines six essential rules for building wealth and shares why financial self-awareness is just as important as financial literacy. Aedan Bingham, a student majoring in robotics engineering and economics, also shares his findings from a research project that surveyed college students about what they know and want to know about personal finance.  The pair discusses how this research is helping to empower students with knowledge about topics including saving, investing, taxes, and credit.   Related links: Alexander Smith’s personal finance website, Follow The 6 “What WPI Students Know about Personal Finance,” by Aedan Bingham Smith discusses the impact of buy-now-pay-later financing on financial planning in the New York Times

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) has received a $3 million gift from Paul Covec ’64 to support big ideas and bold visions from WPI faculty and students. Covec’s gift, which supports Beyond These Towers: The Campaign for Worcester Polytechnic Institute fundraising initiative, establishes the Paul A. Covec ’64 Innovation and Commercialization Fund. This fund puts Covec’s values into action, leveraging his philanthropy to have an enduring and durable impact on innovation at WPI. The amphitheatre in WPI’s Innovation Studio has been named the Paul A. Covec ’64 Amphitheatre in recognition of his philanthropy and sustaining legacy at his alma mater.“Paul understands and appreciates the power of a WPI education and the impact of our research and innovation, creating value that truly matters to society,” says WPI President Grace Wang. “I am grateful for Paul’s generosity to support and accelerate the development of innovative ideas from faculty and students to reach the marketplace and make an impact.”Covec’s endowed fund will stimulate growth in promising startups and serve as a catalyst for patent research, prototyping, market research, and technology licensing that will make world-changing ideas a reality.This significant and forward-looking commitment builds on a record of success achieved by WPI’s Office of Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship. WPI faculty and students have had more than 70 patents issued since 2016 and had 62 invention disclosures between 2024 and 2025. In the last 10 years, the university’s research has resulted in 25 startups, representing 536 employees and more than $1.7 billion in capital raised. These companies are focused on such critical areas as lithium-ion battery manufacturing and recycling, carbon-negative building materials, and AI in healthcare.“These companies and the faculty, students, and alumni behind them are addressing significant challenges facing our world,” says Bogdan Vernescu, vice president and vice provost for research and innovation at WPI. “By establishing this endowed fund, Paul Covec is providing support that will enable and sustain WPI’s commercialization pipeline long into the future. We are deeply grateful for the confidence he has shown in our faculty and students.”Covec spent years in Silicon Valley as an investor and entrepreneur. He has a deep understanding of what it takes to bring an idea to market and for a new venture to launch and endure.“Education has the power to unlock potential and open new paths to opportunity, discovery, and innovation,” says Covec. “My WPI education shaped my future, and by establishing this fund, I hope to inspire and support students and faculty as they strive to create a brighter future for our global society.”Covec founded Cypress Property Management, a private real estate company in California, over 40 years ago. The company’s portfolio includes commercial properties in the office, medical, flex, and industrial categories, as well as single- and multi-family properties in markets throughout California, Oregon, and Nevada. A full-service real estate investment and management company, its services range from investment acquisitions to strategic planning, project management, leasing, and building and maintenance services.He retired in 2000 from Microbar in Santa Clara, Calif., as vice president of foreign and domestic marketing activities and sales expansion efforts in Asia. He joined Microbar, a manufacturer and designer of chemical management systems for semiconductor fabrication processes, in 1994 as a consultant and later became vice president of business development. For more than two decades prior, he held various senior level sales and marketing positions in test and measurement systems departments in the semiconductor industry for companies including Prometrix, Control Video, and Ward Davis Associates. He also served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1964 until 1968 before pursuing his MBA at Columbia University.Beyond These Towers, the most ambitious fundraising campaign in WPI’s history, positions the university to continue to transform lives, to turn knowledge into action to confront global challenges, and to revolutionize STEM through its distinctive and inclusive education, projects, and research. The campaign’s theme honors the towers of WPI’s first two buildings and enduring symbols of its guiding philosophy of theory and practice. Through the campaign, alumni and friends have supported undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and world-changing research, global programs, facilities, and a thriving campus community.To support Beyond These Towers: The Campaign for Worcester Polytechnic Institute, visit wpi.edu/+give.

In this episode of The WPI Podcast, Purvi Shah, associate professor in The Business School, explains the marketing strategies behind what you’re seeing in stores and online during the holidays. From advertising and early-season deals to nostalgia and artificial intelligence, the holidays provide a master class in marketing. Understanding it all can make you an empowered shopper with knowledge to tackle gift buying with ease. The conversation explores trends including AI tools shoppers can use to save time and money, the role of influencers, and the emotional pull of nostalgia that influences what we buy. This holiday-themed episode is the second of two during the 2025 season designed to help you shop with confidence. Our previous episode focused on the research behind gift giving. Related links: The Business School Shah explains AI tools to empower shoppers on NBC Boston Shah explains nostalgic brand love in Food Navigator USA

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (W.P.I.) Professor Yan Wang, the William B. Smith Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, has been elected a 2025 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (N.A.I.)—the highest professional distinction awarded exclusively to academic inventors.Wang is among 185 exceptional inventors selected for the 2025 class, which includes 169 U.S. Fellows and 16 international Fellows. Collectively, this year’s cohort holds more than 5,300 U.S. patents and includes Nobel laureates, National Medal recipients, and members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.A global leader in battery recycling and sustainable manufacturing, Wang is widely recognized for pioneering a hydrometallurgical process that recycles lithium-ion batteries at industrial scale. His innovations have produced 12 U.S. patents and have led directly to the creation of two companies, including the industry-leading Ascend Elements and A.M. Batteries. His work has received numerous national accolades, including the inaugural Bayh-Dole “Faces of American Innovation” award. He was also named to the N.A.I. Class of Senior Fellows in 2022.“Being elected an N.A.I. Fellow is a tremendous honor, and I am grateful for this recognition of the work my students, postdoctoral fellows, collaborators, and I have pursued over many years,” said Wang. “W.P.I. has provided an environment where fundamental research and real-world impact go hand-in-hand, enabling our technologies to move from the lab to industry and contribute to a more sustainable world.”W.P.I. President Grace Wang, a member of the N.A.I. Fellows Class of 2024, praised the recognition as a milestone not only for Professor Wang, but also for the university’s innovation ecosystem."N.A.I. Fellowship is one of the most prestigious honors an academic inventor can receive, and we are very proud of Yan Wang for this well-deserved achievement,” said President Wang. “His groundbreaking research in battery-recycling technology and innovative entrepreneurship exemplify W.P.I.’s mission to translate purpose-driven research into real-world solutions that strengthen industries, protect our planet, and improve lives.”N.A.I. Fellows represent the pinnacle of academic innovation, spanning fields such as quantum computing, A.I., bioengineering, and climate technology. Since its founding in 2012, the Fellows program has grown to include more than 2,250 distinguished inventors whose combined innovations have generated an estimated $3.8 trillion in economic impact and 1.4 million jobs.“N.A.I. Fellows are a driving force within the innovation ecosystem, and their contributions across scientific disciplines are shaping the future of our world,” said Dr. Paul R. Sanberg, F.N.A.I., President of the National Academy of Inventors. “We are thrilled to welcome this year’s class of Fellows to the Academy.”The 2025 N.A.I. Fellows will be formally inducted and presented with medals by a senior official of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at the 15th Annual N.A.I. Conference, held June 4, 2026, in Los Angeles, California.

Have you ever wondered if a gift you gave someone was something they wanted and actually would use? Have you felt the joy of receiving a gift that showed the giver really cares about and knows you? There’s a lot of emotion around gift giving and, thankfully, there’s research about it as well. In this episode of The WPI Podcast, Farnoush Reshadi, assistant professor in The Business School, discusses her research on consumer behavior and how people make gift-giving decisions. The discussion explores the research that helps explain why gift givers and gift recipients are sometimes on different pages.  This holiday-themed episode is the first of two during the 2025 holiday season to empower you when you give and when you shop. Our next episode will explore holiday marketing and the strategies you see in stores and online retail sites. Related links: The Business School Reshadi discusses gift giving research in USA Today Reshadi discusses wealth and gift giving in Yahoo!Finance

The tiny opaque tube that Yonghui Ding holds up to the light in his laboratory looks like a bit of debris from a dismantled ball point pen. Just 1 centimeter long and about 2 to 3 millimeters in diameter, the biodegradable tube is too small for the grooves and channels on its surfaces to be easily visible. Yet those microscopic textures represent an advance that Ding, an assistant professor in WPI’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, thinks may someday lead to big improvements in heart bypass surgeries. In a new paper in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials, Ding and research collaborators from Northwestern University reported that they developed a rapid 3D-printing process using biodegradable “ink” and light to produce tubular implantable scaffolds with grooves and channels. The textures created pathways for cells to migrate across the implant’s surfaces and line up with each other, a critical step in regenerating blood vessels to the heart. “The goal of this research is to regenerate arteries, not just replace them,” says Ding. “To achieve that goal, it will be important to develop grafts that temporarily provide the structure for tissue growth and enable new cells to grow into healthy and functional blood vessels.” The research aims to improve surgical treatment for one of the nation’s leading public health challenges—heart disease. The leading cause of heart attacks is blockage in the vessels supplying blood to the heart. A common surgical treatment is coronary artery bypass grafting, which involves attaching a vein or synthetic tube to reroute circulation around a blockage to restore healthy blood flow to the heart. To improve grafting procedures, the researchers have focused on building better temporary grafts. Their work has revolved around a novel process of multiscale microscopic 3D printing. Using a specialized 3D printer built in the Ding Lab, the researchers deposited layers of liquid polymer onto a flat plate to carefully build a tube, layer by layer. They also used ultraviolet light to project patterns onto the tube as it took shape. The citrate-based polymer was then cured into a flexible and biodegradable material. Patterns on the tube surfaces created routes for endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells, which are found in blood vessels, to move and line up with each other on the tube surfaces. In a head-to-head comparison, the researchers found that endothelial cells migrated and lined up better on textured scaffolds than on smooth scaffolds. In addition to Ding, WPI authors on the paper were PhD student Rao Fu; postdoctoral fellow Ni Chen; research scientist Biao Si; and Zhenglun Alan Wei, assistant professor in the WPI Department of Biomedical Engineering and an adjunct faculty member at UMass Chan Medical School. Authors at Northwestern were Guillermo Ameer, professor and director of the Center for Advanced Regenerative Engineering; Professor of Mechanical Engineering Cheng Sun; PhD student Evan Jones; and master’s degree student Boyuan Sun. The research reflects Ding’s focus on the design and manufacturing of biomaterial scaffolds for the regeneration of tissues, such as vascular and musculoskeletal tissues. He joined the WPI faculty in 2023 after serving as a research assistant professor at Northwestern, and his research has been funded by the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health. “I’m really excited about translational research that breaks ground scientifically but also has the potential to improve peoples’ lives,” Ding says. “Many people need bypass surgery, and our research could result in better grafts that lead to better health outcomes for patients.”

Imagine you’re on a roller coaster at 20,000 feet in the sky, or higher, and repeatedly enduring the sensation of your stomach dropping, all while overseeing a scientific experiment. That was the experience PhD candidate Regan Krizan had on Oct. 28 in Bordeaux, France. Krizan, a student in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, flew on a parabolic flight, sometimes known by the nickname “vomit comet,” to conduct a materials science experiment in zero gravity. “I always wanted to be an astronaut growing up, and this is about as close as I can get,” says Krizan. “I am very excited that I had this opportunity so early in my research career.” The parabolic flight travels up and down several times on a trajectory resembling an arch, providing 22 seconds of zero gravity at the apex, creating a critical element for scientific research that can’t be achieved on Earth. The experiment, which seeks to understand what happens when metal is melted, was conducted in an on-board electromagnetic levitator. Essentially, by sending electrical currents through copper coils to create an electromagnetic field, a metal sample can be made to levitate inside a chamber in zero gravity while the metal is heated to melt. This allowed Krizan and Gwendolyn Bracker, an assistant research professor in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and one of Krizan’s faculty advisors, to observe how an iron-copper alloy separates into two distinct liquids when melted, similar to how oil and water don’t mix. “We are investigating a rare case in which the fluid flow can be visually observed due to a two-phase liquid separation in the iron-copper system,” says Krizan. “Microgravity makes isolating thermophysical properties of a liquid sample possible. These conditions can only be met on the International Space Station or on a parabolic flight.” The experiment provided Krizan and Bracker with high-speed video and temperature data that will help the researchers better understand fluid flow. The pair hopes their study will lead to improved fluid flow models that can simulate how liquids flow and solidify. “The experiments on the parabolic flight are integral to validating fluid flow models to aid in data analysis for electromagnetic levitation and applying the results to the manufacturing industry,” added Krizan. For example, the models can allow for reduced trial and error and improved efficiency in making molds for casting. “Understanding how metallic melts behave is critical for manufacturing, casting, and additive manufacturing,” says Bracker, who traveled with Krizan to France and watched from the ground as her advisee and the experiment were on the flight. “Many metallurgical processes originated in historical processing and require a greater understanding of the fundamentals to improve. By building better models we can support the development of more efficient processing and production.” Krizan and Bracker’s research, in conjunction with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), was one of more than a dozen experiments on board the parabolic flight, which the European Space Agency makes available to scientific researchers. Krizan is co-advised by Bracker and Robert Hyers, the George I. Alden Chair of Engineering and head of the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. In addition to the feeling of weightlessness, Krizan and others on board experienced hypergravity during the climb and descent. “I wasn’t that scared about how the flight would affect me going into it,” adds Krizan. “I handled the physical challenge well, and it was a great experience that is so meaningful to my research.”

In this special episode of Time To StartUp, the conversation takes a meaningful turn as we sit down with Ardian Preci, the host of the podcast. For the first time, Ardian steps into the guest seat to share the story behind his entrepreneurial journey and the experiences that shaped who he is today. Throughout the episode, Ardian reflects on his early influences, the challenges he has navigated, and the key moments that pushed him toward innovation and leadership. His perspective offers a grounded, honest look at what it takes to grow as an entrepreneur — from developing resilience to embracing uncertainty and learning from every step along the way. Listeners will gain insight into:How Ardian discovered his passion for entrepreneurship The personal journey that shaped his mindset and ambitions Lessons learned from setbacks, opportunities, and community His vision for Time To StartUp and the stories he hopes to bring forwardThis episode provides an inspiring and thoughtful look at the person now guiding future conversations on the podcast. Whether you’re an aspiring founder, a student, or simply interested in hearing a compelling journey, Ardian’s story offers real value and motivation.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researchers have created a new carbon-negative building material that could transform sustainable construction. The breakthrough, published in the high-impact journal Matter, details the development of enzymatic structural material (ESM), a strong, durable, and recyclable construction material produced through a low-energy, bioinspired process. Led by Nima Rahbar, the Ralph H. White Family Distinguished Professor and head of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, the research team engineered ESM by using an enzyme that helps convert carbon dioxide into solid mineral particles. These particles were then bound together and cured under mild conditions, enabling the resulting material to be molded into structural forms within hours. Unlike traditional concrete, which requires high temperatures and weeks of curing, ESM is created rapidly and with a dramatically lower environmental impact. “Concrete is the most widely used construction material on the planet, and its production accounts for nearly 8% of global CO2 emissions,” said Rahbar. “What our team has developed is a practical, scalable alternative that doesn’t just reduce emissions—it actually captures carbon. Producing a single cubic meter of ESM sequesters more than 6 kilograms of CO2, compared to the 330 kilograms emitted by conventional concrete.” ESM’s rapid curing, tunable strength, and recyclability make it especially promising for real-world applications such as roof decks, wall panels, and modular building components. Its repairability could cut long-term construction costs and drastically reduce the volume of material sent to landfills each year. “If even a fraction of global construction shifts toward carbon-negative materials like ESM, the impact could be enormous,” added Rahbar. This innovation has potential value for industries ranging from affordable housing and climate-resilient construction to disaster relief, where lightweight, quickly produced structural materials can accelerate rebuilding efforts. Because ESM is produced with low energy and renewable biological inputs, it also aligns with global goals for carbon-neutral infrastructure and circular manufacturing.