In this masterclass episode, host Dr Jovan Tan sits down with Prof. Jennifer Rudolph — a political historian at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) — to explore a question that challenges our assumptions about innovation education: what role do the humanities play in building great innovators?

The answer, it turns out, is everything.

WPI is no ordinary university. For over 50 years, it has pioneered project-based learning (PBL) — a radical curriculum in which students tackle real-world, open-ended problems with no single correct answer, and in which every undergraduate must complete three major projects before graduating. It is precisely this culture of ambiguity, hands-on inquiry, and interdisciplinary collaboration that makes WPI the ideal home for Jennifer's unconventional mission.

When WPI sent its first pilot group of eng ...