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Worcester Polytechnic Institute, a pioneer in a higher-education learning model that is proving to be essentially AI-proof, will introduce a new framework for educators concerned about preparing students to learn and thrive in an AI-shaped world. The new framework, Impact by Design, will be shared this week at the Society for Experiential Education’s 55th annual conference, themed “Experience Matters: 55 Years of Impact, Innovation, and Community,” being held in Savannah, Ga.  The impact of AI on education  Across higher education, there is real debate about the role of artificial intelligence in learning: Is it simply a technology tool? A shortcut? A disruptor? Many worry it is a way for students to get answers without gaining knowledge. AI can produce answers in a few seconds, a temptation for a student looking to just get a grade. But that shortchanges students by giving them answers without the context or the experience of developing ideas and knowledge themselves. Today, more than ever, students need to understand how to ask questions and weigh perspectives as they gain the ability to understand problems and create solutions in real-world settings.  So how can educators give students the experiences they need to truly grow and develop their knowledge and skills?  How to “AI-proof” higher education  For more than 50 years, WPI has centered its education on a project-based model whereby students work through complex questions, assess various factors, nuances, and perspectives, and develop ways to demonstrate and apply their growing knowledge to answer the questions.   Based on WPI’s vast research and practice with project-based learning, the university’s renowned Center for Project-Based Learning developed the Impact by Design framework to help instructors consider not only what students will produce, but how they will learn, work with others, and demonstrate their growth along the way.   Recent reports from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and Massachusetts Institute of Technology underscore the timeliness of this new framework: The National Academies calls for active, student-centered learning and identifies project-based learning as a way to deepen disciplinary engagement, while an MIT committee report highlights how AI is challenging traditional assignments and assessment and emphasizes the value of social learning.WPI’s Impact by Design framework’s design principles give educators the tools to:  Ground projects in real-world problems or questions  Value people and process, as well as the final product  Connect theory and practice  Make the purpose of assignments clear  Build connectedness, psychological safety, and appropriate challenge  Give students ownership of their learning  Explore multiple perspectives

We use terms like “cutting edge” and “groundbreaking” to describe WPI’s approach to science, technology, engineering, and math education. But do we need to understand the past in order to develop a better future?  People have debated that question for hundreds, if not thousands, of years—since long before the Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science was even a glimmer in John Boynton and Ichabod Washburn’s eyes.  A fitting way to answer the question here at the most immersive STEM university in the United States is to turn to a foundational STEM axiom: To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction. When considered in tandem with WPI’s focus on future innovation, Newton’s third law of motion says it’s not only helpful, but necessary, to consider what came before. Kircher’s illustration of his theory of the Earth’s volcano system Believing that the history of science is a vital part of the future of science is what recently inspired a retired engineer from Hudson, Mass., to donate some rare books and journals to the Gordon Library’s Archives and Special Collections. The donation earlier this year from Owen Gallagher included two monographs from 17th-century polymath Athanasius Kircher and five volumes of the journal American Electrician dating from 1890 to 1901 that contain articles on early hybrid vehicle technology.  One of the donated books, Mundus Subterraneus, is believed to be the earliest known geology textbook, according to Emily Ping O’Brien, head of archives and special collections and digital collections librarian at WPI. A German Jesuit priest, Kircher is reported to have descended into the crater of Vesuvius, in southern Italy, while researching the book.  “There is a fascinating cut-away illustration of the Earth showing what Kircher thought the volcano system looked like,” O’Brien says. “Students can decide for themselves whether these ideas were fantastical or ahead of their time.” (See the photo gallery below for additional images.) Direct experience with historical texts can help researchers gain a fuller understanding of their topic, she adds. “We want people, especially our students, to see firsthand how early ideas were formed, and how those ideas were the beginning of the study of the sciences.”   Adding context For Dashiell Elliott ’27, MS ’27, taking that kind of long-term perspective has deepened his understanding of and interest in topics he’s studied at WPI.  During A-Term of his first year, he took Theoretical Calculus III with Joseph Fehribach, a professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Whenever Fehribach teaches that course or Calculus IV—both of which touch on the origins of calculus—he invites students to the Special Collections Reading Room to see an original copy of Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica. The offer piqued Elliott’s interest. Newton’s third law of motion, in the original Latin “Professor Fehribach makes a point of bringing up history in his classes because it adds context,” Elliott says, noting that he’d been surprised to learn that WPI has a copy of Newton’s masterpiece. “I knew a little bit about the history of the formalization of math, and I wanted to learn more because Principia is just a neat part of history.” When Newton was writing the first edition in the late 1600s, “calculus was still in its infancy, and he wasn’t sure he believed it, so he actually did calculations in such a way as to avoid using calculus,” says Fehribach. Even though the text of the book is in Latin and the main focus—despite the title—is on physics and not math, he adds, Newton used theorems and proofs that look very familiar to math students today.  “And if someone in the group can read Latin, I take them to the page where Newton writes down his three laws of motion. They are pretty much verbatim what you learn today,” Fehribach says. “Nothing in there has really changed.” Case in point: To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction (as mentioned above).   Spanning disciplines Not many people are aware that WPI’s library contains rare books, but Principia and Mundus Subterraneus are only two of the almost 8,000 volumes in its Special Collections. The Robert D. Fellman Collection on Charles Dickens, which is more widely recognized, features not only first editions of all of Dickens’ novels but also original serial installments of several works, including A Tale of Two Cities, Hard Times, Great Expectations, and Bleak House.  Part of the Robert D. Fellman Collection on Charles Dickens The full collection of rare books is more extensive and spans hard sciences and humanities in a way that is uniquely WPI. In addition to a 16th-century book on metallurgy and mining, for example, there’s a 1476 collection of writings by Pope Gregory I. That volume—one of the oldest in WPI’s collection—was published just a couple decades after the printing press revolutionized European society by allowing books to be produced and replicated en masse.  By today’s standards, even those print runs were small: Only 1,250 copies of the third edition of Principia were ever printed. WPI has one of them thanks to a gift in 1916 from the widow of Levi Conant, a longtime faculty member who served as head of the math department and interim president of the university.  Just because the books are rare, though, doesn’t mean they should sit on a shelf and be forgotten, says O’Brien.  Gallagher, who donated the Kircher books, agrees. “We don’t want them to gather dust,” he says. “Read them!”  And as he considers his education at WPI, Elliott appreciates that he’s had the opportunity to do so during his time here. Reflecting on what he’s gotten out of doing so, he naturally turns to WPI’s own history. “In a way, it feels like the theory and practice,” he says, referencing the English translation of the university’s motto: Lehr und Kunst. “You need to do some things—and then you need to back up those things by knowing the theory behind them.”

A new recycling approach developed by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) researchers could help make battery waste a valuable source of high-performance materials. In a study published in Advanced Energy Materials, one of the leading journals in the field, a team led by Professor Yan Wang, the William B. Smith Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, converted mixed battery waste into upcycled materials for both the cathode and anode and found that the resulting pouch cells outlasted cells made with commercial counterparts. As lithium-ion battery use grows, so does the pressure on supplies of critical materials and the volume of discarded batteries. Many current recycling methods focus on recovering cathode materials, and mixed battery waste can be difficult to process into products with high value. Wang’s team developed an approach that upgrades both cathode and graphite materials recovered from battery waste. What happens when both cathodes and anodes are recycled and upgraded? The researchers converted mixed, low-nickel cathode materials into a high-performance cathode called NMC622. They also purified and modified recovered graphite to make battery-grade anode material. Tests found improved lithium-ion transport and cycling stability in the cathode and better interfacial kinetics and durability in the graphite anode. Can recycled battery materials outperform commercial alternatives? The team then assembled full pouch cells using only the upcycled cathode and anode materials. The cells had fewer side reactions and approximately twice the cycle life of cells using commercial materials, retaining 70% of their capacity after 2,590 cycles. What are the environmental and economic benefits of this recycling process? The researchers also assessed the process’s potential economic and environmental benefits. Their analyses indicated that it could use more than 95% of waste materials, increase profitability by 22.9%, and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 27% and energy consumption by 29.4% compared with the reference recycling route. What could this mean for the future of circular battery manufacturing? The findings point to a path beyond recovering raw materials from used batteries: turning complex waste into components that can be used to make high-performance batteries. That could support more circular battery manufacturing while reducing the resources and energy needed to produce new materials. How is WPI advancing more sustainable battery technologies? Wang and his team at WPI have led extensive research into new ways to recycle and upgrade battery materials. His group has developed approaches to recover valuable materials from used electric vehicle batteries and to improve battery safety and sustainability through advances in recycling and battery design. Read more about WPI’s battery recycling research and other advances led by Wang’s team at: https://wp.wpi.edu/eel/.