Troy, N.Y. — Ning Xiang, chair of the graduate program in architectural acoustics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has developed a new technique to streamline and expedite the process of measuring acoustics, which can be used to calculate previously unattainable measurements of sound propagation. The research was done in collaboration with John Daigle, an electrical engineering professor from the University of Mississippi.

TROY, N.Y. — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has been named one of 10 partner institutions on a national environmental engineering research project — the Collaborative Large-scale Engineering Analysis Network for Environmental Research. Called CLEANER, the goal is to advance scientific and engineering knowledge to address the challenges of complex, large-scale, human-stressed environmental systems, such as managing and protecting water supplies, restoring altered ecosystems, preserving endangered species, and tracking harmful agents.

Troy, N.Y. — A Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute engineer is headed to New Orleans as part of an expert team investigating levee failures in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The researchers, who are funded by a special exploratory grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), plan to take lessons from the disaster and apply them to the design of levee systems across the country.

Troy, N.Y. —  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson will serve as honorary chair for the National Women’s Hall of Fame 2005 Induction Weekend, Oct. 7 and 8, in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

Troy, N.Y. — A team of researchers led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has been awarded a five-year, $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to work on improving the prediction of bone fracture risk by developing a new way to measure bone quality.

Troy, N.Y. — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson announced that Stacey Franklin Jones, D.Sc., Dean, School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at Benedict College in Columbia, S.C., one of forty American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows, is spending the 2005-2006 academic year as a visitor to Rensselaer’s campus.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has announced that it is taking legal action against college students around the country, including from Rensselaer, for allegedly providing access to copyrighted materials via the Internet. We have not been advised that any litigation has been initiated against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute by the RIAA.

Troy, N.Y. — The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y., has been selected by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to join its “Centers of Excellence” program.

Monthly lectures to be videoconferenced to new partners at Cornell University’s Center for Life Science Enterprise, Syracuse Technology Garden Incubator, and CNY MedTech