Professor Michael Gennert stepped down as the Head of Department of the WPI Computer Science Department in January 2011.

During his tenure as department head, Professor Gennert had several noteworthy achievements. Professor Michael Gennert launched the Interactive Media & Game Development program (BS, MS) Robotics Engineering (BS, MS, PhD) program, Learning Science & Technology (JMS, PhD), Systems Engineering (MS) and Bioinformatics program (BS, MS). Professor Gennert also started a research and teaching initiative in Security & Trust.

Professor Gennert also hired several outstanding new faculty including Professor Rob Lindeman (PhD from George Washington) in CS/IMGD, Professor Chuck Rich (PhD from MIT) in CS/IMGD, Professor Joe Beck (Phd from UMass Amherst) in Learning Sciences, Professor Joshua Guttman (PhD from Univ of Chicago) in Security, Professor Sonia Chernova (PhD from CMU) in CS/Robotics Engineering, Professor Eduardo Torres-Jara (PhD from MIT) in CS/Robotics Engineering, and Professor Mohamed Eltabakh (PhD from Purdue) in Data Management Systems.

Professor Gennert also increased external funding from $600K/year to a projected $3M in 2011.

Professor Gennert has now moved on to his new position as the Director of the new Robotics Engineering Program at WPI. The CS Department wishes Professor Gennert the very best in his future endeavors.