News

Colloquium held in Lucca, Italy, on Sept. 19

Developed as a practical system for assessing outdoor lighting performance, the OSP method can be used with any commercial lighting software. Using this software, the designer establishes a calculation “box” following the natural division between a public and private space, the property line.

In the minutes, hours, and days following a disaster, first responders must have the proper electricity, water, and access to roadways they need to do their job.  A new six-year, $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will allow researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to investigate how different civil infrastructures within a city or county — such as roadways, water and power utilities, hospitals, banks, or law enforcement — interact with each other and with the natural environment after a disaster. 

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission awarded two grants totaling $850,000 to boost nuclear engineering education, research, and workforce development at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The competitive grants, awarded in early August, will support two new nuclear engineering professors as well as graduate student research.

Most animals have sideways-facing eyes that allow for a panoramic view of nearly all that’s around them, both in front and behind.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has risen in its rankings among all national universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report list of “America’s Best Colleges,” weighing in at 41st, up from 44th last year. This is the ninth year in a row Rensselaer has been counted among the top 50 universities in the nation.

Eight years ago the first graduates of the master’s program in information technology (IT) at Rensselaer entered the work force. Today, they work at some of the top Fortune 500 companies and straddle the important divide between the business and technical side of international companies. Now, the success of the master’s program in IT and its graduates has drawn the attention of one of the top IT publications, Computerworld magazine.

Ravi S. Kane, professor of chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has won the 2008 Young Investigator Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers’ Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum.