News

TROY, N.Y. — Three teams of budding student entrepreneurs from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Union College will vie to win the final round of Rensselaer’s $50,000 Tech Valley Collegiate Business Plan competition on May 3. The competition will be held on Rensselaer’s campus in the Center for Industrial Innovation, room 4050, beginning at 6 p.m. The competition is sponsored by Rensselaer’s Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship at the Lally School of Management & Technology.

Troy, N.Y. — More than 300 11th grade girls from the Capital Region and across New England will participate in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s “Design Your Future Day” (DYFD) on Saturday, April 21. The event is designed to engage students in activities to inform and excite them about career opportunities in engineering, science, architecture, and technology.

Winning idea competition submissions deal with health, energy, and sanitation issues Troy, N.Y. — Three student submissions were recently honored as winners of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s “Change the World Challenge” idea competition for spring 2007. Created in 2005 by Rensselaer alumnus Sean O’Sullivan ’85, the competition is intended to support entrepreneurship education and inspire ideas to improve the human condition by providing a $1,000 cash award for ideas that will make the world a better place. 

Troy, N.Y. — To determine how top schools rated in 11 different business specialties, BusinessWeek turned to the experts: the students. As a companion to the magazine’s 2007 rankings of undergraduate business programs, staffers asked 80,000 business majors at 123 schools to rank their programs on a scale of one to five in different academic categories. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Lally School of Management & Technology came in at number two in the nation in the area of corporate strategy. 

Troy, N.Y. — With a major grant from the Office of Naval Research, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are collaborating with four other universities to address a hot topic in today’s military: how to keep modern ships cool in extreme environments.

Troy, N.Y. — Acclaimed novelist Edward P. Jones will present awards to winners of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s McKinney Contest writing competition on April 18 at 8 p.m. Jones also will read selections from his own work at the event, which is co-sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute. 

Troy, N.Y. — Michael Shur, the Patricia W. and C. Sheldon Roberts ’48 Chaired Professor in Solid State Electronics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been promoted to fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). Shur is being recognized for his “individual responsibility, sustained achievements, and exceptional professionalism.” IET is the largest professional engineering society in Europe and the second largest of its kind in the world.

Troy, N.Y. — In celebration of National Architecture Week, world-renowned classical pianist John Kamitsuka will perform a benefit recital to fund scholarships for architecture students in the Roman Studies Program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The special program of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert will take place April 14 at 7 p.m. at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. The event is presented by Rensselaer’s School of Architecture and the American Institute of Architects Eastern New York Chapter (AIAENY). 

Troy, N.Y. – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute recently garnered approval from the New York State Education Department to offer a doctoral degree in electronic arts. Now one of only a handful of universities in the United States to offer a Ph.D. program in this emerging field, the Institute will begin admitting students in fall 2007.

Troy, N.Y. – Twenty-five students have been inducted into the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Phalanx honor society. Phalanx honors student leadership and celebrates those who have “worked to better the standing of Rensselaer both on and off campus.” New members are selected — or “tapped” — by the student members of Phalanx.