Among my favorite research projects at Rensselaer are two – the Jefferson Project at Lake George, and the Image Based Ecological Information System (IBEIS) – that use data and computation to understand and protect our environment. So my interest was piqued when I heard researchers involved with the two projects were planning a collaboration. […]
On a windy day on Lake George, when the surface is whipped into white-caps, you might wonder: where is all that water going? The answer, in astonishing detail, is within our grasp as a network of sensors is deployed throughout the watershed as part of the Jefferson Project at Lake George, a partnership between Rensselaer […]
A group of middle school students from the Greater Amsterdam School District got a taste of college life as part of a program offered by the Center for Initiatives in Pre-College Education this summer. The students spent a week on campus learning how to build and program robots and working together to put their robots […]
Great communication about science neatly and elegantly explains immensely complex concepts (think: Neil DeGrasse Tyson at his best) in language that non-scientists can understand and relate to. Great communication about science is also really difficult to do. Science is messy, complex concepts are interconnected, and knowledge is constantly growing and changing. The nature of a […]
Rensselaer researcher Carlos Varela has developed a computer system that detects and corrects faulty airspeed readings, such as those that contributed to the 2009 crash of Air France flight 447. Their approach to detecting errors could make autopilot systems safer and could also be applicable in many systems that rely on sensor readings. Varela spoke […]
On Thursday, July 24, Wiseman and fellow Astronaut Steve Swanson will be speaking live with the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee from the International Space Station. Watch the conversation live at 11 a.m. or follow it on twitter using the hashtag #LiveFromSpace. In just 140 characters NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman is bringing his 167,000 […]
(Rensselaer doctoral candidate Andrew Zonenberg explains how his research led him to create the “world’s smallest comic strip” by using focused a ion beam to carve the drawings onto a strand of his girlfriend’s hair in this great guest post.) As a doctoral candidate — working in with Professor Bülent Yener, director of the Data Science Research […]
Student game designers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and other schools including Champlain College and Rochester Institute of Technology gathered at EMPAC Saturday to showcase a vast array of video games they had designed at the 10th annual GameFest. This was my first GameFest and I was so impressed by the sheer number of games on […]
How many individual zebras are represented in this collage of 10 photos? If we were looking at human faces, most of us would have little trouble differentiating between multiple photos of the same person, and photos of different people. But when it comes to wildlife, people are easily stumped. Not so for computers. If the […]
Rick Mastracchio, a 1987 graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a NASA astronaut currently aboard the International Space Station, took questions from Rensselaer students Friday. The event was coordinated with Mastracchio’s three alma maters – Rensselaer, UConn, and University of Houston-Clear Lake. Six students from each institution were selected to ask Mastracchio questions and the […]