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Introduction and Background

The concept of “theory and practice” was a guiding principle in the creation of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in 1865. This motto motivated the development of the WPI Plan in 1970, which enables students to develop their classroom skills and apply that knowledge to projects around the world (The WPI Plan, n.d.). A distinctive element of the WPI Plan is the Interactive Qualifying Project (IQP), an interdisciplinary project in which students “solve a problem or need that lies at the intersection of science and society” (Interactive Qualifying Project, n.d.). WPI’s Global School maintains project centers across the globe, which Figure E.1 displays, where students can travel to complete such projects.

As WPI’s student body and interest in international travel increases, the Global School is constantly working to expand the number of project centers available for student travel. The newly established Prague Project Center conducted its first projects remotely in 2020. As the center is in its infancy, it has not established many relationships with organizations in Prague for conducting future projects. Figure E.2 compares the growing student population to the increasing number of project centers.

Prague, the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, is rich in culture and history. In contrast with other major European cities, Prague escaped World War II with very little damage (Falvey, 2011). Since many historical buildings from a diverse range of architectural styles are still standing today, Prague has become a major tourist destination. In 2019, the city welcomed over 8 million tourists, of which approximately 80% were international visitors. This substantial amount of tourism heavily supports Prague’s strong economy.

Within Prague one can find many different types of organizations which have served as IQP partners in other project centers. One type of sponsor entity is Non-Government Organizations (NGOs). NGOs are entities that work independently from the government in order to address certain social issues. Another common type of partner organization is a museum, of which there are many in Prague. The most prominent museum is the National Museum, which manages over forty buildings in Prague and throughout the Czech Republic.

The goal of this project was to identify, inform, and establish relationships with potential partner organizations which will produce a reasonable number of projects assisting the WPI Prague Project Center in expanding opportunities available to WPI students. To accomplish this goal, the team developed three objectives: determine a set of criteria for suitable sponsors, identify potential partner organizations, and inform entity representatives of IQP details and establish relationships with organizations.

This project assisted three major stakeholder groups. The first group is the citizens of Prague who will benefit from the work of future projects. The second group of stakeholders is future WPI students who wish to complete their IQP in Prague. Finally, WPI itself is a major stakeholder in the project. The success of the Global Projects Program affects the reputation of the university. Successful completion of this project will aid WPI in expanding the number of global opportunities available to its growing student body.

Methodology

Figure E.3 displays an overview of the team’s methodology. To achieve the first project objective, the first method involved conducting interviews with eight center directors from global project centers. The team selected some locations which share a similar history to the Czech Republic, and other locations dissimilar to the Czech Republic in order to gain a broader understanding of the characteristics of a suitable project sponsor. Additionally, the team reviewed three establishment IQP reports in which teams helped to establish new project centers. After generating transcripts from the center director interviews, the team used inductive coding to develop of set of criteria for suitable sponsors based on how many interviews and reports mentioned a criterion.

To complete their second objective, the team conducted interviews with intermediate contacts connected to potential sponsor organizations. The team first interviewed Ms. Eva Illnerova who was a tour guide for the Prague IQP students during their orientation in the city. The team also interviewed Professor Marie Keller, a co-director of the Prague Project Center, who has traveled to the city yearly since 2001 to study puppetry. To supplement these interviews, the team identified potential partner entities through personal connections. Finally, the team performed online research to identify additional organizations. This online research focused on the discovery of NGOs in Prague because the interviews did not uncover many of these types of organizations. After developing a list of all the potential organizations, the team utilized the criteria from center directors and background research about common types of IQP sponsors to eliminate entities that were not suitable partners from considerations.

To achieve the third objective, the team contacted organizations from the previous objective with the goal of scheduling a meeting with a representative from the entity. The team utilized both emails and phone calls when contacting organizations. If the organization was from an intermediate contact, the team made a reference to the intermediary in the email. To explain the IQP in greater detail to entity representatives, the team developed an informational PowerPoint slide show. The presentation covered basic details about the IQP, provided examples of past projects with relevance to the organization, explained the benefits to and responsibilities of partner organizations, established elements of a good project, and illustrated a projected timeline if they were to partner with WPI. Table E.1 summarizes when the team held meetings with organizations and how many team members were present.

There was an eighth organization interested in learning more about the IQP, but due to a scheduling conflict, the team was unable to meet with them. Instead, the team facilitated the scheduling of a virtual meeting between a representative from the organization and Professor Deskins, a co-director of the Prague Project Center.

Results

The team’s coding analysis yielded nine criteria from the transcripts and establishment IQP reports. Figure E.4 displays the set of nine criteria. Professor Hersh provided a quote illustrating the importance of the criteria time commitment and project direction: “…without the sponsors commitment of time and thought, the project can go off the rails…” Professor Christopher highlighted the relevance of an educational component stating, “Students have to grow in some way, in the process… the academic experience has to be worthwhile.”

To identify potential partner organizations, the team conducted two interviews with intermediary contacts, developed personal connections with local organizations, and performed online research through the Web. Table E.2 displays a summary of all the organizations that the team identified as potential partners in alphabetical order. The list contains a total of 36 organizations including past and potential partnering entities. The team omitted several organizations due to a lack of previous projects with similar entities or inadequate project potential based on the criteria from center directors. For example, the team judged a few organizations to be too commercially oriented to fit as a suitable IQP partner. The team initially discovered 47 entities but narrowed the list down to 36. One of the organizations, Abaceda, was a current sponsor during this report, therefore the team contacted 35 of the entities listed in Table E.2.

The team collected brief descriptions of the entities’ mission and purpose, contact information, and URLs to previous IQP reports relevant to the organization. They stored this information in an Organization Profile Database. Table E.3 displays a portion of this database.

Organizations in purple are previous or current sponsors with the Prague Center. The organizations shown in gray were not currently interested in learning more about the IQP. Most of these entities stated that they did not have the capacity to partner with WPI. Organizations in blue either did not respond at all or did not give a definitive answer whether they were interested in learning more about the IQP program. Organizations shown in orange expressed interest. The organizations shown in green, Zoo Praha and CIEE, informally agreed to be a project partner next year.

The Contact Network Diagram provides a visual representation of the Organization Profile Database. The diagram is shown in Figure E.5. The contact information database in conjunction with the contact network diagram from objective three offers to the Prague Project Center site directors all the information necessary to continue establishing relations with the organizations involved.

Table E.4 details the response counts and counts of organizations interested in learning more about the IQP program. The team organized these counts by the source of contact information for each organization. Out of 35 entities, the team receive a response from 19 organizations resulting in a 54% response rate. From the 19 organizations that responded, 8 were interested in learning more about the IQP.

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