WTP was founded in 2002 in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) as part of a Master’s Thesis by Doug Ricket who wanted to interest more women in engineering. In 2003, Cynthia Skier took over as the director of WTP. In 2006, when there were only 2 tenured female professors in the Mechanical Engineering department, the Mechanical Engineering track was founded under the leadership of Dr. Barbara Hughey.
WTP-ME employs an “active learning” curriculum, with group problem solving and labs incorporated in the classes, giving students analytical as well as hands-on experience in subjects modeled after the introductory (2.00X) classes taken by MIT sophomores and juniors. MIT graduate students lead the teaching team which includes MIT undergraduates who faciliate group problem solving, and also live with the students in the MIT dorms.
The WTP-ME program culminates in two capstone projects: a poster project, presented by a pair of students in a public poster session at the end of Week 3 who have worked on a topic aligned with their interests, mentored by members of the MIT and alumni community. During the final week, groups of four students design and build multi-step machines for a public Rube Goldberg Challenge held on the final Thursday of the program.
The two WTP tracks ran together with 40 EECS students and 20 Mech E students per year until 2020, when the program was closed during COVID. During this break, a pair of graduate students updated the Mechanical Engineering curriculum to create the active learning experience described above, employing a flipped classroom approach, where students watch lectures online the night before and then participate in group activities and labs during class hours.
In 2021 and 2022, the programs operated virtually, with boxes of materials sent to students at home. In 2023, the Mechanical Engineering program returned to an in-person program, while the EECS program went on hiatus following Cynthia Skier’s retirement. 2023 also saw the first WTP Hong Kong program, where students from St. Paul’s Convent School in Hong Kong came to campus for a 2 week in person program.
WTP Mech E Alumni Majors
Starting in 2025, WTP is going global with a 1 week program located at Seikei University in Japan taught by Seikei undergraduate and graduate students in Japanese. The plan is to expand these 1 week programs around the world as part of our WTP Global initiative. Dr Sandra Huffman, who co-led the curriculum revision in 2020, is a collaborator on the development of WTP Global.
Over the years, the WTP 4-week program has served over 1100 students, 360 of those in the active Mechanical Engineering program. Among those WTP-ME alumni who have declared their college majors, more than 70% have opted for engineering or computer science. So far, 75 students have matriculated at MIT, with an impressive 80% selecting majors within the School of Engineering.
NOTE: WTP is not connected in any way to MIT undergraduate admissions. WTP has very different acceptance criteria than MIT. Acceptance or non-acceptance to WTP has no bearing whatsoever on a student’s chances of future acceptance by MIT.