FRONTIERS

Frontiers is a summer program in science, mathematics and engineering conducted by WPI for students about to enter their final year of high school. The purpose of the program is to allow students to explore their academic interests (in physics or any of 9 other disciplines) in a relaxed setting, while at the same time getting a taste of college life.

I conduct the Physics portion of the Frontiers program. The academic program consists of a blend of many different activities: informal lectures, multimedia presentations, hands on laboratory experiments, and tours of research laboratories. As one example, students might learn about the physical principles underlying imaging in a morning presentation and follow this up with a visit to an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) facility in the afternoon. Or they might learn about atomic structure in the morning and do a spectroscopy lab in the afternoon.

The program is flexible and designed to cater to a variety of tastes. The hands-on afternoon sessions allow participants to undertake a variety of less structured activities. Nor is it all academics. There's our famous luncheon party followed by an afternoon of (physics-related!) fun and games.

Frontiers 2009 runs from July 13 to July 24. I extend a warm welcome to all of this year's participants and look forward to seeing on opening day (i.e. Monday the 13th), since I will be unable to join you for dinner Sunday evening. Tip: do bring along your calculators, as you will need them. You don't have to bring along a laptop unless you really want to.