The Bucharest Project Center Team
Project Center Directors and Founders
Rodica Neamtu, PhD
Associate Teaching Professor
Computer Science department
Data Science, Neuroscience
Contact: rneamtu@wpi.edu
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I see embedding project-based learning into cross-cultural experiences as a great step towards raising awareness to the problems faced by our global society and engaging our students in solving these problems. Co-directing a project center in Romania allows me to contribute to building a strong connection between the two cultures that I am deeply anchored in. I am committed to help our students explore other cultures, understand the issues that they are facing, and become part of impactful initiatives to mitigate them. Advising project teams is one of the most engaging and rewarding aspects of my work.
Bogdan Vernescu, PhD
Vice Provost of Research
Professor of Mathematical Sciences
Contact: vernescu@wpi.edu
Website: https://wp.wpi.edu/vernescu/
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I have always been a firm believer that our global projects program has a positive impact on our students and on local communities around the world. Thus I wanted to contribute to expanding and diversifying WPI’s footprint and to providing the opportunity for more students to have this experience.
At the same time during the three decades after the fall of the communist regime, Romania has made progress in its transition to democracy, to a free market economy, to institutionalizing civil and human rights and building its civil society. Its socio-economic status, still in transition, can provide students with an interesting perspective, and many of the relatively young organizations can benefit from our students’ contributions.