Project-based Course Offerings

Get a jump start on your project work at WPI—and delve into issues of global importance—by taking a Great Problems Seminar (GPS). These popular interdisciplinary courses are offered exclusively for first-year students.

Each GPS consists of two linked courses that are taught by two professors from different disciplines. In the first term you will explore many facets of a great problem, such as air pollution, access to clean water, or disease control. In the second term you will work in a team to produce a solution and share it with the WPI community.

GPS topic examples include:

  • Climate Change
  • Extinction: Who will survive?
  • Heal the World
  • Humanitarian Engineering
  • Ignorance is NOT Bliss
  • Livable Cities
  • Seeking Sustainability
  • Power the World
  • Recover, Reuse, Recycle
  • Shelter the World

Learn more about these GPS courses. View a record of GPS course credit.

Meet our faculty.

GPS Faculty

View the video below to hear first-hand from students about the value of the GPS experience.