New School of Engineering Website Showcases Breadth and Depth of Research, Student Activities, and Other Projects Aimed at Solving Engineering Grand Challenges

The School of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute today launched a new web portal, Better World Engineering. The site showcases the efforts of students, faculty, and researchers at Rensselaer who endeavor to understand and solve today’s most pressing global challenges.

The new site, with a strong focus on educational and research projects related to sustainability, emerging communities, humanitarianism, and the global impact of engineering, is located at: http://eng.rpi.edu/bwe

“We are proud to launch this new site around the theme of ‘Better World Engineering,’ which is guiding so much of what we are doing in the School of Engineering at Rensselaer. This new site promises to be an exciting and widely viewed new ‘portal’ into our many activities,” said David Rosowsky, dean of the School of Engineering at Rensselaer. “Our students, faculty, and staff are working together to address some of the most pressing challenges we face in energy, food, water, human health, and sustainability. We hope this new site will help us to continue to attract the best students to Rensselaer, a place where they really can change the world.”

“This new site will highlight the many School of Engineering teaching, research, and service activities that are addressing critical problems and focusing on sustainable solutions,” said Linda Schadler, associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Engineering and professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “We also see Better World Engineering as a social meeting place for campus community members with common interests.”

Better World Engineering features student projects at Rensselaer with a focus on sustainability, the environment, and innovating local solutions to global challenges. The site provides information about students in the club Engineers Without Borders, who are planning a trip to a remote town in Panama to develop and deploy a water purification system. Other student projects include the Institute solar racing team, in addition to the members of the Engineering for a Sustainable World club at Rensselaer who have developed novel solar power systems to improve the situation of an impoverished Haitian school and jumpstart a new dairy industry in rural Peru.

The site also highlights novel classroom projects, such as Rensselaer students working in the O.T. Swanson Multidisciplinary Laboratory to develop new technologies and systems for tracking leopards through the South African ecosystem. The project, a collaboration with Stellenbosch University in South Africa, seeks to understand the migration and hunting patterns of leopards; it is expected to result in a decrease in the killing of farm animals by leopards, as well as a decrease in leopard trapping and killing by farmers.

Along with faculty research projects, the new site features profiles of faculty members. Additional features include profiles of key engineering research facilities, research centers, and programs, such as interdisciplinary programs in design and innovation.