News

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has retained the Arts Consulting Group (ACG), an international organization dedicated to advancing the arts and culture, to conduct in-depth discussions with internal and external stakeholders to understand the culture, philosophy, and aspirations underpinning the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). This community input will inform the strategy for EMPAC moving forward and will lead to the recruitment of the center’s next director by the end of the year. EMPAC’s founding director, Johannes Goebel, retired last year after 20 years of service.

Recently, the Albany Business Review hosted the Elevate Albany: Education and Workforce Development Summit at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). The lively conversation around the tight labor pool in the Capital Region and how to address it, in the name of economic growth, kept the audience captive.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Joe Chow, Institute Professor of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering, has won the IEEE Herman Halperin Electric Transmission and Distribution Award for “contributions to the modeling and control of large-scale power transmission systems.” IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

Today, it was announced that Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will become the first university in the world to house an IBM Quantum System One. The IBM quantum computer, intended to be operational by January of 2024, will serve as the foundation of a new IBM Quantum Computational Center in partnership with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). By partnering, RPI’s vision is to greatly enhance the educational experiences and research capabilities of students and researchers at RPI and other institutions, propel the Capital Region into a top location for talent, and accelerate New York's growth as a technology epicenter.

Just as space holds infinite mysteries, when we zoom in at the level of biomolecules (one trillion times smaller than a meter), there is still so much to learn. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Catherine Royer, Constellation Chair Professor of Bioinformatics and Biocomputation at the Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D. Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (CBIS) and professor of biological sciences, is dedicated to understanding the conformational landscapes of biomolecules and how they modulate cell function. When biomolecules receive certain inputs, it can cause the atoms to rearrange and the biomolecule to change shape. This change in shape affects their function in cells, so understanding conformational dynamics is critical for drug development.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) today announced the appointment of Rebecca W. Doerge, Ph.D., as Provost, effective August 1, 2023. Doerge joins the Rensselaer community from Carnegie Mellon University, where she is the Glen de Vries Dean of the Mellon College of Science and a member of the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ Department of Statistics and Data Science and the Mellon College of Science’s Department of Biological Sciences.

It is a scary fact that one in two women and one in three men in the United States will develop some form of cancer in their lifetime. One of the hallmarks of many cancers is the occurrence of errors during the cell division process called mitosis. Therefore, critical to enhancing treatments or perhaps even finding a cure for cancer and other diseases, is developing a better understanding of how mitosis works in both healthy and diseased cells.

At a time when LGBTQ+ rights are increasingly the subject of public discussion, it is important to consider the effect on those who share an affinity with that community. Rensselaer researchers Billur Aksoy and Ian Chadd have conducted an experiment to determine whether individuals strategically mask signals about their affinity with the LGBTQ+ community in response to anticipated discrimination.

Tribology expert John Tichy, professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering, recently participated in the fourth edition of the African Conference in Tribology (ACT 2023) in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire.

Antoinette Maniatty ’87, Ph.D., has been named head of the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering (MANE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). MANE is one of the largest academic departments at RPI, with 53 faculty members and over 1,400 students.