Troy, N.Y. — More than 300 area students and their families came to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute today to participate in the seventh annual Black Family Technology Awareness Day. The workshops, designed to spur young people’s interest in pursuing careers in science and engineering, were hosted by Rensselaer’s Office of Institute Diversity.
Troy, N.Y. — Carlos Varela, assistant professor of computer science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been awarded a Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Varela will use the projected five-year, $400,000 grant to design and implement computer programming technology for use in solving complex scientific problems through high-performance grid computing.
Troy, N.Y. — Aleksandar Ostrogorsky, professor of mechanical, aeronautical, and nuclear engineering and professor of materials science and engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been named a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Designation as a fellow, the highest grade of membership within ASME, recognizes significant contributions to the engineering profession.
Troy, N.Y. — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute today announced the appointment of Alan Cramb, Ph.D., as dean of the School of Engineering, and the John A. Clark and Edward T. Crossan Professor of Engineering. Cramb, whose career spans both industry and academia, is professor and head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.
Rensselaer researchers collaborate to produce educational animation for K-3 students
Troy, N.Y. — Chang Ryu, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been awarded a Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Ryu will use the projected five-year, $445,000 grant to explore new and improved techniques for separating and analyzing polymers, which are widely used as plastics. Ryu works with polymers in nano-sized pores to better understand the chemistry of these materials in the nanoscale environment.
Troy, N.Y. — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson today announced the appointment of John A. Minasian, Ph.D., as Vice President and Dean at Rensselaer at Hartford. Minasian, who has had a successful career in the information technology industry, as an entrepreneur, and as an educator, comes to Rensselaer from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) where he leads the education for working professionals programs.
Troy, N.Y. — Seeking to improve and accelerate drug discovery, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and University of California at Berkeley have developed a new technique to rapidly analyze the toxicity of compounds at early stages in the drug discovery process. The researchers designed a new technique that uses a human enzyme chip called the MetaChip, or metabolizing enzyme toxicology assay chip.
Institute contributing $30,000 and organizing additional support Troy, N.Y. — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute officials have announced a $30,000 contribution to the tsunami relief efforts in South Asia, and invited members of the campus community to join in supporting humanitarian efforts in the region.
TROY, N.Y. — Research on a new class of nanostructured materials used to reduce vibrations in mechanical equipment and electronic devices, being developed by a team of scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will be featured in Nature Materials.