Fire Protection Engineering

Faculty

A. Simeoni, Professor and Department Head, Ph.D., University of Corsica; modeling, simulation and experiments of wildfires, heat and mass transfer, fire fighting and land management.
N. A. Dembsey, Professor; Ph.D., University of California, 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, and engineering forensic tools.
K. A. Notarianni, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University; Fire detection and suppression; high-bay fire protection; fire policy and risk; uncertainty; performance-based design; engineering tools for the fire service.
M. T. Puchovsky, Professor of Practice, Associate Department Head, Industry Liaison; design and analysis of fire protection systems, application of regulatory codes and standards, automatic sprinkler systems, fire pumps, water supplies, water and chemical-based suppression, detection and alarm, smoke control, means of egress, building construction, standardized product testing, performance-based design, litigation support.
A. Rangwala, Professor, Ph.D., University of California, San Diego; combustion, flame spread on solid fuels and compartment fire modeling, dust explosions, risk assessment of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) transport and storage, industrial fire protection.
J. L. Urban, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley; Ignition, combustion, flame spread over solid fuels, wildland fire, thermal sciences, computational modelling of fundamental fire phenomena, hazards of hot-work and welding, flame imaging and flow visualization.

Associated Faculty

L. Albano, Associate Professor; Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Performance of structural members, elements, and systems at elevated temperatures; structural design for fire conditions; simplified or design office techniques for fire-structure interaction; relationship between building construction systems and fire service safety.  
J. Liang, Professor, Ph.D., Brown University, 2004. Nanostruc­tured materials, material processing, material characterization.

Adjunct Faculty

C. Wood
R. Solomon

Emeritus Faculty

R. W. Fitzgerald, Professor Emeritus
D. A. Lucht, Director Emeritus
R. Zalosh; Professor Emeritus

Research Interests

WPI is a recognized world leader in 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. WPI faculty and their students create new knowledge that informs and shapes regulatory policy, building design, product manufacturing, and product performance standards.

Specific research interests:

• Fire and materials
• Combustion and explosion protection
• Computational fire modeling
• Fire detection and suppression
• Fire and smoke dynamics
• Wildland and wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires
• Regulatory policy, risk, and engineering framework
• Firefighter safety and policy

Programs of Study

The fire protection engineering graduate 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 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, design, or testing), or in the more theoretical and research-oriented sphere.

Graduate Programs

The Fire Protection Engineering Department at WPI offers several graduate programs of study:

• Master of Science in Fire Protection Engineering (thesis or non-thesis tracks)
• Combined BS/MS in Fire Protection Engineering
• PhD in Fire Protection Engineering
• Graduate Certificates in Fire Protection Engineering

The admissions requirements can be found in the description for each degree or certificate program.

Online-programs of study & part-time students

The Graduate Certificate and non-thesis master of science degree track may be taken either entirely online or on-campus.

Practicing engineers or others already ­employed and wishing to advance their technical skills may enter the master of science or graduate certificate programs as part-time students or take off-campus courses.

Follow the link to learn more about WPI's online graduate programs.

Graduate Theses

Master’s and PhD Theses require research to be performed on-campus.

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 while maintaining their student status. Internships are generally full time for one year and provide the student a chance to try out various areas of practice, generate income, gain knowledge and experience, and make valuable lifetime contacts. No Graduate Credit is earned during an internship. A minimum of 9 graduate credits in FPE must be earned prior to participation in an internship. All Internships must be related to FPE.

Explosion Protection Engineering (XPE)

Admission Requirements

Students will be eligible for admission to the program if they have earned an undergraduate degree in Fire Protection Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Mechanical Engineering or a related field from an accredited university consistent with the WPI graduate catalog. Students with a degree in Physics and Mathematics are also eligible. Admission will also be open to qualified WPI students who opt for a five-year Bachelors-Master’s program, with the undergraduate major in above or related fields. Admission decisions will be made by the XPE Graduate Program Committee based on all of the factors presented in the application. Students applying to the M.S. Degree in XPE are expected to have a bachelor's degree in related areas in Engineering or Science. A strong applicant who is missing background coursework as needed for course requirements may be admitted, with the expectation that he or she will take and pass one or more undergraduate courses in this area of deficiency either during the summer prior to admission or within the first semester after admission. These remedial courses will not count towards meeting the M.S. degree requirements. The determination of what course or courses will satisfy this provision will be made by the XPE Faculty Advisory Committee, which consists of faculty members from the participating departments at WPI. No GRE scores are needed. An English language test may be required for international students. See international student admission requirements for more information

Transfer Credit

A student may petition for permission to use graduate courses taken at other institutions to satisfy XPE graduate degree requirements. A maximum of 9 graduate credits, with a grade of B or better, may be satisfied by courses taken elsewhere and not used to satisfy degree requirements at other institutions. Petitions are subject to approval by the XPE Graduate Committee, and are then filed with the Registrar. Transfer credit will not be allowed for undergraduate-level courses taken at other institutions. In general, transfer credit will not be allowed for any WPI undergraduate courses used to fulfill undergraduate degree requirements; however, note that there are exceptions in the case of students enrolled in the BS/MS program. No class can be triple counted. A student with one or more WPI master’s degrees who is seeking an XPE master’s degree from WPI may petition to apply up to 9 prior credits toward satisfying requirements for the subsequent degree. Petitions are subject to approval by the XPE Graduate Committee. Students who take graduate courses at WPI prior to formal admission to the XPE graduate program may petition to apply up to 9 graduate credits to fulfill the XPE graduate degree requirements. Once again, petitions are subject to approval by the XPE Graduate Committee

Sample Plans of Study

4 semester option (Thesis)

3 semester option (Non Thesis)

4 semester option (Non Thesis)

Faculty

This is a joint program administered by the Fire Protection Engineering, Aerospace Engineering Chemical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering comprising faculty members who are interested in Explosion Protection graduate education and research and who hold advanced degrees. The three programs will share director and associate directors, with the FPE department being the host department for the program.

Research Laboratories

UL Fire Protection Engineering Performance Lab at Gateway Park

The UL Fire Protection Engineering Performance Lab consists of a 190-square-meter floor space with a 9.2-meter-high ceiling, enabling researchers to construct and experiment on test specimens up to two stories tall. The laboratory features a 6-meter by 6-meter exhaust hood located 6 meters above the lab floor. This space is ideal for testing open burning fires (e.g., liquid fuel pan fires), medium-scale compartment fires, exterior façade fires, and more. It can also be used to replicate certain external exposure fire conditions (e.g., structure exposure in wildland-urban interface fires). The laboratory can support data acquisition through devices such as heat flux gauges and thermocouples.

The Performance Lab serves as both a teaching and research facility. The lab is used for course lab demonstrations, undergraduate Major Qualifying Projects (MQPs), graduate theses, and sponsored research projects.

Honeywell Fire Protection Engineering Fundamentals Lab at Gateway Park

The Honeywell Fire Protection Engineering Fundamentals Lab contains two cone calorimeters (iCone classic and a customizable cone calorimeter for research), a FM Global Fire Propagation Apparatus, a Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA), differential scanning calorimeter, fourier-transform infrared spectrometer, and an Intelligent Laser Applications GmbH 75-megawatt fixed optical path length fp50-shift LDA system supported by an automatic traversing system, which can be used to make accurate velocity measurements. The lab also contains ovens, various tools, and hooded bench space. These pieces of apparatus enable researchers to conduct a wide range of small-scale experiments and tests.

The Fundamentals Lab serves as both a teaching and research facility. The lab is used for course lab demonstrations, undergraduate Major Qualifying Projects (MQPs), graduate theses, and sponsored research projects.

Combustion Laboratory

The WPI Combustion Lab was established in 2010 with the aim of advancing our understanding of fundamental explosion and combustion dynamics. The lab features state-of-the-art experimental equipment for investigating a range of phenomena, including laminar and turbulent burning velocity of dust flames (via the Hybrid Flame Analyzer), explosion venting, self-heating (using a hot plate and oven), ignition (using the Cone Calorimeter), and evaporation and combustion of oil slicks in a wave tank.

What sets the WPI Combustion Lab apart is the range of unique experimental platforms designed and constructed within the lab. These platforms support MQPs (Major Qualifying Projects), graduate theses (for MS and PhD students), and industry research. Whether you're a student or a researcher, the WPI Combustion Lab provides an ideal environment for conducting cutting-edge research in combustion and explosion dynamics.