At 1:32 a.m. Eastern time, the NASA rover Curiosity safely touched down on the surface of Mars after a journey of more than 300 million miles and a harrowing descent from orbit, complete with parachutes, rockets, and the perilous “sky crane manuever.” As a member of the science team for Curiosity, Rensselaer Dean of Science Laurie […]
Given the technical challenges that stand in its way, the “holodeck” (as envisioned on Star Trek:The Next Generation) may not actually arrive until the 24th century. But that’s not stopping a group of Rensselaer researchers with the under—construction Emergent Reality Lab (one of them a former Star Trek producer) from exploring how the elements of a good holodeck program […]
I’m Michelle Riedman, a civil engineering (structures) graduate student working with Professor Christopher Letchford and Professor Michael O’Rourke. We are currently conducting a research project for the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) entitled “Determining the Remaining Fatigue Life of In-Situ Mast-Arm Traffic Signal Supports.” Harry White is the NYSDOT project manager while my […]
As part of the celebration surrounding last week’s announcement that physicists had discovered the Higgs boson particle—a subatomic particle which is theorized to imbue elementary particles with mass—the Albany Times Union interviewed Rensselaer’s own Professor of Physics Jim Napolitano about the finding. In the article in which he is quoted, Napolitano helped explain the importance of […]
June 22 marked a special milestone for scientific and medical research on the Rensselaer campus, with the opening of the New York State-funded Rensselaer Center for Stem Cell Research. The new facility is located in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS). New York State Department of Health Commissioner Nirav Shah and Rensselaer President […]
Here’s a question: If we assume that if I win the lottery I will be poor. And I win the lottery. Am I poor? Logically, the answer is “yes.” It’s not an intuitive answer, but the conclusion does follow the assumptions. This premise—that the conclusions must follow the assumptions—is the basis of “deductive reasoning,” a skill taught […]
This will be my last post on The Approach. Thank you to all of our readers who have taken this little research blog and helped it to grow into what it is today. I leave Rensselaer for a new position, but I will now join the members of our loyal readership to keep tabs on […]
Congratulations to the Class of 2012! More than 1,600 Rensselaer gradates crossed the stage stage this morning, at the university’s 206th Commencement. I’m sure it won’t be long before we’re reading about all of their amazing successes and innovations!
Riccardo Bevilacqua is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer, who recently received a prestigious award and grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. We ask Riccardo about his work: Q: You’re interested in building self-assembling space robots. Tell me a little bit about it. A: [...]
(Below is an opinion piece by our own Jonathan Dordick on the need for personalized medicine. Dordick is the Howard P. Isermann Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Director of our Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. This winter he spoke at World Economic Forum in Davos about pharmaceutical safety and development. He shares [...]