Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is a private university located in Worcester, Massachusetts, in the United States.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute was founded in 1865 as the Worcester County Free Institute of Industrial Science by John Boynton and Ichabod Washburn, two prominent Worcester industrialists. Stephen Salisbury II, Emory Washburn, George Frisbee Hoar, Phillip Moen, Seth Sweetser, David Whitcomb, and Charles O. Thompson were also instrumental in the founding of the school. The collaboration between Boynton, who wanted to teach science, and Washburn, who wanted to teach vocational skills, led to the university's philosophy of "theory and practice." Funding and land grants for the university were given by Stephen Salisbury II, who was an influential merchant and later served as the first president of the Institute's board of directors. Though Boynton died before the first class entered in 1868, and Washburn died shortly afterwards, their contributions to WPI in its infancy are memorialized by Boynton Hall and Washburn Shops, the first two buildings on the campus.

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