WORCESTER, Mass. – Worcester Polytechnic Institute's 17th president was inaugurated Friday, almost a year after taking over at the university.

Grace Wang was formally installed in a ceremony. The inauguration theme was “Impact Driven: Honoring Tradition, Innovating the Future," which the school said reflects the spirit of celebrating the university’s 159-year history and sets a course for a visionary future for the WPI community.

Wang said before the ceremony that her goal is to continue building WPI into an empowering and inclusive STEM institution where people can push boundaries and explore solutions.

"This has to be the place that we enable new ways of thinking, new ways of doing, and I believe WPI has been and will grow to be a technology and talent hub for our region, where we really bring the technologies into the marketplace, help our regional economy and in many ways, enable the STEM talent,” said Wang.

Prior to WPI, Wang served at the Ohio State University as executive vice president for research, innovation and knowledge, and as a professor of materials science and engineering.