Fire Protection Engineering
Programs of Study
Fire protection engineers specialize in applying modern technology to the solution of firesafety problems. The successful fire protection engineer must know something about building construction and industrial processes; must interact with and be somewhat competent in other design professions including architecture and electrical, mechanical, civil and chemical engineering. In addition, the firesafety aspects of human behavior, business, management and public administration are important aspects of practice.
The fire protection engineering program at WPI adapts previous educational and employment experiences into a cohesive Plan of Study. Consequently, the program is designed to be flexible enough to meet specific and varying student educational objectives. Students can select combinations of major courses, non- major courses, thesis and project topics that will prepare them to proceed in the career directions they desire. The curriculum can be tailored to enhance knowledge and skill in the general practice of fire protection engineering, in fire protection engineering specialties (such as industrial, chemical, energy or power), or in the more theoretical and research-oriented sphere.
Practicing engineers or others already employed and wishing to advance their technical skills may enter the program as part-time students or take off-campus courses via WPI's Advanced Distance Learning Network. The master's degree may be completed on a part-time basis in less than two years, depending on the number of courses taken each semester.
WPI offers both master's and doctoral degrees as well as the advanced certificate and graduate certificate in fire protection engineering.
Combined B.S./Master's Program
High school seniors and engineering students in their first three years can apply for this five-year program. This gives high school graduates and others the opportunity to complete the undergraduate degree in a selected field of engineering and the master's degree in fire protection engineering in five years. Holders of bachelor of science degrees in the traditional engineering fields and the master's degree in fire protection engineering enjoy extremely good versatility in the job market.
Graduate Internships
A unique internship program is available to fire protection engineering students, allowing them to gain important clinical experiences in practical engineering and research environments. Students are able to earn income by alternating work with on-campus classroom and laboratory activities. With departmental permission, students may take courses during the fulltime work cycle. For more information on internships please contact the Department of Fire Protection Engineering.
Department of Fire Protection Engineering
The Center for Firesafety Studies serves as a crossroads for bringing together talents from many disciplines to focus on fire and explosion safety problems. The department features formal degree and certificate programs in fire protection engineering, continuing education for the practitioner, and research to uncover new knowledge about fire behavior and fire protection methods.
Degree Requirements
For the M.S.
The program for a master of science in fire protection engineering is flexible and can be tailored to individual student career goals. The fire protection engineering master's degree requires 30 semester hours of credit. Both a thesis and non-thesis option are offered.
For the Ph.D.
Ph.D. students must complete a minimum of 90 semester hours of graduate work after the bachelor's degree (or 60 semester hours after the master's). This includes at least 15 semester hours of fire protection engineering course credits and 30 hours of dissertation research.
Doctoral students must successfully complete the fire protection engineering qualifying examination, a research proposal and public seminar, and the dissertation defense.
Fire Science Laboratory
This laboratory facility supports experimentation in fire dynamics, combustion/explosion phenomena, detection, and fire and explosion suppression. The Fire Propagation Apparatus, cone calorimeter, standard flame spread apparatus, infrared imaging system, phase doppler particle analyzer and room calorimeter are also available, with associated gas analysis and data acquisition systems.
The wet lab area supports water-based fire suppression and demonstration projects.
Serving as both a teaching and research facility, the lab accommodates undergraduate projects as well as graduate students in fire protection engineering, mechanical engineering and related disciplines.
Fire Modeling Laboratory
The Fire Modeling Laboratory specializes in computer applications to fire protection engineering and research. Research activities include computational fluid dynamics modeling of building and vehicle fires, and flame spread model development.
Admission Requirements
High school graduates applying for the Combined B.S./Master's Program must meet normal undergraduate admission criteria and submit a two-page essay articulating their interest in the field. Applicants for the master's or certificate programs should have a B.S. in engineering, engineering technology or the physical sciences. Applicants with no FPE work experience should submit a two-page essay articulating their interest in the field. GRE scores are required for all international students and strongly recommended for all others.
Students with science degrees and graduates of some engineering disciplines may be required to take selected undergraduate courses to round out their backgrounds. Applicants for the doctor of philosophy in fire protection engineering should have strong academic backgrounds in any of a host of engineering or science disciplines, and should submit samples of scholarly writing.
Research Interests
Faculty research interests cover a wide range of topics in fire protection engineering and related areas. Research is directed toward both theoretical understandings and the development of practical engineering methods.
Specific capabilities and interests include computer modeling, fire performance of structural systems, fire detection and suppression, fire and smoke dynamics, wildfire phenomena, firesafety design methods for buildings and marine applications, explosion phenomena, failure analysis, risk assessment, material composites and regulatory reform.
Faculty
- K.A. Notarianni
- Professor and Department Head; Ph.D. Carnegie Mellon University
- L. Albano
- Associate Professor; Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Structural engineering, integration of design and construction, fire performance of structures, performance-based design
- J. R. Barnett
- Professor; Ph.D., WPI; mathematical modeling and computer simulation of fires in buildings, ships and transit systems with an emphasis on heat transfer in structures, the use of computers in fire investigation and fire reconstruction
- N. A. Dembsey
- Associate Professor; Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley; fire properties of materials and protective clothing via bench-top scale experimentation, compartment fire dynamics via residential scale experimentation, evaluation, development and validation of compartment fire models, performance fire codes, engineering design tools, engineering forensic tools
- R. W. Fitzgerald
- Professor; Ph.D., University of Connecticut; structural aspects of firesafety, building analysis and design for firesafety, marine firesafety, building codes, real estate development, fire department operations, risk management
- H. Y. Kim
- Affiliate Professor
- W. K. Kim
- Affiliate Professor; M.S. FPE, WPI
- D. A. Lucht
- Director Emeritus; B.S., Illinois Institute of Technology; building codes and regulatory reform, building firesafety analysis and design, professional practice
- B. J. Meacham
- Adjunct Assocciate Professor
- F. Noonan
- Associate Professor; Ph.D., University of Massachusetts; operations management, decision/risk analysis, environmental management
- Milosh T. Puchovsky
- Adjunct Assistant Professor
- B. J. Savilonis
- Professor; Ph.D., State University of New York; biofluid mechanics, fire modeling, fluid mechanics, heat transfer
- J. P. Woycheese
- Assistant Professor; Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley; fire, smoke, and brand modeling, teaching technology from development of multimedia collections to visual representation of concepts and experimental data, fire protection systems, including water mist-fire interactions, aging of water mist droplets, and dry pipe system evaluation, fire detection systems, focusing on voice communication and detector response, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, and engineering analysis
- E. S. Yoon
- Affiliate Professor; Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, MIT
Last modified: May 22, 2007 09:55:40