General Acronym Listing by Letter

P
PA Peer Advisor
 
PA Program Assistant
  other notes: used by the Frontiers Program
 
PAC President's Advisory Council
  pronunciation: P-A-C, not "pack"
 
PAC Peer Academic Coaching
  pronunciation: Pack
  Web address: http://www.wpi.edu/offices/arc/pac11284.html
 
PAC Public Access Computers
  pronunciation: 'pack' or 'pack-Terminals'
  other notes: the term is used most often by Gordon Library
 
PAG President's Administrative Group
 
PANSAT Power metallurgy and Navigation Satellite
  pronunciation: 'pan-sat'
 
PBA Presidential Board of Appeals
  other notes: the final appeal available in the campus judicial system
 
PBE Rho Beta Epsilon
  other notes: robotics engineering honor society
 
PBM Policy and Benefits Manual
 
PDE Pi Delta Epsilon
  Greek letters: ΠΔΕ
  other notes: media honor society
 
PDF Portable Document Format
  pronunciation: PDF File
  other notes: file format used by many offices on campus for form delivery, written *.pdf
 
PDML Production and Machine Dynamics Laboratory
  Web address: http://www.me.wpi.edu/MFE/PMDL/
 
PDO Printing and Duplicating Office
  other notes: uncommon as an acronym
 
PEDS Performance Evaluation of Distributed Systems
  pronunciation: 'peds'
  other notes: CS research group
  Web address: http://www.cs.wpi.edu/Research/PEDS/
 
PEG Parenting Exchange Group
  pronunciation: 'peg'
  other notes: replaces Parents Of Preschoolers
  Web address: http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/HR/PEG/
 
PEL Permissible Exposure Level
  other notes: referred to in the CHP
  Web address: http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/Safety/Laboratory/hygiene.html
 
PERA Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics Department
  pronunciation: Athletics
  other notes: formerly PE and PEA, academic department
  Web address: http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/PE/
 
PFT Physical Fitness Test
  other notes: ROTC term
 
PGD Phi Gamma Delta
  Greek letters: Fiji
  pronunciation: Fiji
  other notes: Social fraternity. The letters phi, gamma, and delta aren't permitted to be spelt out. (i.e., ΣΑΕ or ΦΣΚ. Use of the letters is restricted to certain places including the chapter house and tombstones.
  Web address: http://users.wpi.edu/~phigam/
 
PH Physics Department
  Web address: http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Depts/Physics/
 
PHC Panhellenic Council
  pronunciation: 'pan-hell'
  other notes: written PanHel
  Web address: http://users.wpi.edu/~panhel/
 
PhD Doctor of Philosophy
  other notes: an advanced degree
 
PI Principal Investigator
  other notes: IRB term
 
PIC Planning and Implementation Committee
  other notes: subcommittee of the SPSC
 
PICO PIne's message COmposer
  pronunciation: 'pee-co'. less common: 'pie-co"
Research shows that although the correct pronunciation based on the acronyms origin would be "Pie-co," the overwhelming majority of users - at WPI and elsewhere - call it "pee-co," including the developers of the program.
  other notes: written Pico at WPI
  Web address: http://www.washington.edu/pine/
 
PIEE Partnerships Implementing Engineering Education
  Web address: http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/PIEE/
 
PILOT Payment In Lieu Of Taxes
  pronunciation: 'pilot'
  other notes: Referred to in the Nov. 2, 2004 FAP minutes
 
PINE Program for Internet News and Email
  pronunciation: 'pine'
  other notes: written Pine at WPI
  Web address: http://www.washington.edu/pine/
 
PKT Phi Kappa Theta
  Greek letters: ΦΚΘ
  pronunciation: 'cap'
  other notes: social fraternity
  Web address: http://users.wpi.edu/~pkt/
 
PLA Peer Learning Assistant
 
PLC Project-based Learning Community
  other notes: not PBLC
 
PLTW Project Lead The Way
  Web address: http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/K12/Adult/educators.html#pltw
 
PLU Phi Lambda Upsilon
  Greek letters: ΦΛΥ
  other notes: chemical engineering honor society
 
PME Pi Mu Epsilon
  Greek letters: ΠΜΕ
  other notes: math honor society
 
PMP Professional Master's Program
 
PMRC Powder Metallurgy Resource Center
  other notes: part of BEI, Mooris 'Butch' Boorky PMRC
  Web address: http://www.wpi.edu/Academics/Research/PMRC/
 
PMVL Polaroid Machine Vision Laboratory
 
PO Payroll Office
  other notes: uncommon as an acronym
  Web address: http://www.wpi.edu/Admin/Payroll/
 
PO Purchase Order
 
POC Professional Officer Course
  other notes: ROTC term
 
PoP Professor of Practice
 
PPD Project Presentation Day
  Web address: http://www.wpi.edu/News/PPD/
 
PPDA Participant Public Display of Affection
  other notes: a Frontiers term
 
PPE Policies, Procedures, and Elections
  other notes: A committee of the Student Government Association
  Web address: http://sga.wpi.edu
 
PPE Personal Protective Equipment
 
PQP Pre Qualifying Project
  pronunciation: 'ID Twenty-Fifty'
  other notes: used interchangeably with ID2050
 
PRC Program Review Committee
  other notes: This committee of the IGSD reviews proposed custom majors from undergraduates.
 
PRC Program Review Chair
  other notes: Member of individual academic departments responsible for reviewing progress of candidates for degrees.
 
PRL Pavement Research Laboratory
  other notes: CEE research lab
  Web address: http://pavement.wpi.edu/
 
PRP Phased Retirement Plan
 
PS Phi Sigma
  Greek letters: ΦΣ
  other notes: biology honor society
 
PSK Phi Sigma Kappa
  Greek letters: ΦΣΚ
  pronunciation: PSK
  other notes: social fraternity
  Web address: http://users.wpi.edu/~psks/
 
PSM Planned Server Maintenance
  other notes: Good excuse for not attending an event.
 
PSS Phi Sigma Sigma
  Greek letters: ΦΣΣ
  pronunciation: Phi Sig or Phi Sig Sig
  other notes: social fraternity for women
  Web address: http://users.wpi.edu/~pss/
 
PT Physical Training
  other notes: ROTC term
 
PTO Parent Teacher Organization
  other notes: Mass Academy term
 
PTS Pi Tau Sigma
  Greek letters: ΠΤΣ
  other notes: mechanical engineering honorary society
 

About This Site | Instructions | Update | WAD in the News | Disclaimer

The WPI Acronym Dictionary
© 2002-2010 William L. Herbert '05