(A group of Rensselaer architecture students are putting their education to work in the annual CANstruction competition to benefit local food pantries. Fourth-year architecture student Tyler Hopf wrote this post explaining the students’ goal and asking for your support. The above image shows one of the entries from last year’s event.) Each year, CANstruction—a non-profit [...]
Since my early days studying complex organic molecules in college to today as I sort through myriad sources of information on news websites, blogs, and elsewhere, I have often forced myself to step back and examine the “big picture” to obtain a better understanding of an important topic. A recent lecture on climate change here [...]
Kim Lewis is a professor in the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, who recently received a prestigious NSF CAREER Award. We ask Kim about her work: Q: Your research has a strong focus in molecular and nano electronics. Why are you interested in helping perfect these mini machines? A: I strongly believe that [...]
Ever wonder what would happen if you attached video cameras to a weather balloon, hit “record,” and then launched it up, up and away? Some engineering students here at Rensselaer were wondering the same thing, so they tried it. They found their answer, and it’s captured in the above video. Now, this is not necessarily [...]
In the short video above an adorable little monkey is eating marshmallows. What is exceptional about this little monkey is not his love of sticky sweets, but the way he is grabbing them. This particular monkey has tiny, freckle-sized sensors in its brain. The electrical signals from these sensors are allowing the monkey to control [...]
Ryan Gilbert is a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, who recently received a prestigious NSF CAREER Award. We ask Ryan about his work: Q: You’re endeavoring to create new biomaterials that can be used to treat spinal injuries. How did you get interested in this topic? A: At Case Western Reserve University, my [...]
Here’s an obvious statement: science and engineering research topics can be challenging to understand. When you drill down deep into a discipline, the concepts, lingo, and implications can get very esoteric very quickly. Now here’s something you may not have previously thought about: as trying as it is to understand certain research topics, it’s even [...]
Congratulations are in order for chemical engineering professors Steven Cramer and Shekhar Garde, who recently had their research featured on the cover of the Journal of Physical Chemistry B. The paper, which features beautiful scientific imagery and renderings, combines Cramer’s prowess in chromatography with Garde’s mastery of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. In the paper, Cramer [...]