News

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will host the Hudson Valley FIRST® LEGO® League Championship from 8:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.on Saturday, February 10, 2024 at Darrin Communications Center 308. FIRST® LEGO® League Challenge is for children ages 9 to 14. Since the beginning of the school year, the teams have been building programming LEGO® robots and conducting a research project to identify and solve a real-world problem related to an annual theme. This year, the teams are imagining and innovating new ways to communicate art across the globe. Founded in 1989 by inventor Dean Kamen, FIRST® is a global nonprofit organization that prepares young people for the future through a suite of life-changing youth robotics programs that build skills, confidence, and resilience.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students interested in exploring the cosmos and learning about the universe’s origins have two new faculty members with whom to learn and conduct research. This year, Rensselaer’s Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy welcomed Yong Zheng, Ph.D., and Victor Robles, Ph.D., as assistant professors.

At its National Convention in December, the national service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega awarded two awards to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Epsilon Zeta chapter.

Jihoon Chung, a doctoral candidate in the Built Ecologies program at the Center for Architecture, Science, and Ecology (CASE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will spend the next eight months conducting research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). There, Chung will study under the tutelage of Tianzhen Hong who is leading an occupant behavior research project as a principal investigator (PI) at LBNL to integrate occupant behavior models and tools with building performance simulation.

Two researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have been distinguished as some of the most highly cited by Clarivate. Humberto Terrones, Ph.D., is the Rayleigh Endowed Chair Professor of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy. Fudong Han, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and Priti and Mukesh Chatter ’82 Career Development Chair in the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Trevor David Rhone, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, has been invited to participate as a Scialog fellow by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. Scialog “supports research, intensive dialogue, and community building to address scientific challenges of global significance.” About 50 early career faculty are invited to participate as fellows for each Scialog.

A new light and sound installation titled “Reverberating Light,” featuring sound by Jonas Braasch, Pauline Oliveros, and Zack Layton, has opened in EMPAC Studio 1. There will be a reception on Friday, December 15, beginning at 6 p.m.

Jian Shi, Ph.D., associate professor in both the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), has been selected for the Simons Foundation's Pivot Fellowship. 

President Marty Schmidt ’81 and his wife, Lyn, invite the Capital Region to join them for RPI’s free Annual Holiday Concert, which will take place on Sunday, Dec. 10, at 3 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) on RPI’s campus.

The Rensselaer Cybersecurity Collaboratory, the cybersecurity lab at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), was ranked #1 in the nation in the fall 2023 Cyber Power Rankings out of more than 500 colleges and universities throughout the nation.