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When most people think of crystals, they picture suncatchers that act as rainbow prisms or the semi-transparent stones that some believe hold healing powers. However, to scientists and engineers, crystals are a form of materials in which their constituents – atoms, molecules, or nanoparticles – are arranged regularly in space. In other words, crystals are defined by the regular arrangement of their constituents. Common examples are diamonds, table salt, or sugar cubes. 

High school students in upstate New York have their pick of colleges and universities within driving distance, and some choose to head to nearby states such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, or New Hampshire. However, many students choose Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), a technological research institution with a global reach that also happens to be local.

Beginning at 9:30 a.m. on May 20, 2023, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will award a total of 1,988 degrees — 152 doctoral degrees, 390 master’s degrees, and 1,446 bachelor’s degrees — to 1,957 students, some of whom have earned multiple degrees. Approximately 1,500 students will attend the ceremony.

A team of researchers led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Trevor David Rhone, assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, has identified novel van der Waals (vdW) magnets using cutting-edge tools in artificial intelligence (AI). In particular, the team identified transition metal halide vdW materials with large magnetic moments that are predicted to be chemically stable using semi-supervised learning. These two-dimensional (2D) vdW magnets have potential applications in data storage, spintronics, and even quantum computing.

With graduation season in full swing, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) is hosting the Lavender Graduation and Garnet D. Baltimore Students of Color Graduation ceremonies to celebrate the cultural diversity of the Class of 2023 graduates.

We all remember 2020. At the grocery store, toilet paper shelves were empty. Cleaning supplies and disinfectants were treasured finds. Rattled consumers, concerned that they would run out of essential items, swiftly stockpiled products until they disappeared from shelves. In the media, it was referred to as “panic buying.”

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute doctoral student Dongge Zhou, in the Lally School of Management, has received important and noteworthy recognition for her research.

There are more than 80,000 sheep and lambs living on over 2,000 farms in New York State. Their wool has many uses including clothing, carpets, furniture, bedding, insulators, fertilizers, and more. However, about 10-15% of wool is wasted during the sorting and cleaning processes. Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are aiming to turn that waste into a new profit source for farmers, and produce an eco-conscious, high-performance yarn in the process.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute doctoral student Riley Barton has been selected as one of 87 outstanding graduate students in the United States by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program (SCGSR).

Recently, more than 30 undergraduate students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute gathered at the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies to share their findings with the community.