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Fifty teams of students from area high schools and around the world will compete at the 2023 New York Tech Valley FIRST ® Robotics Competition at MVP Arena March 31 through April 1, 2023 from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. Inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute hosted the first regional event in 2014 and has been a major sponsor ever since.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will present a performance by two-time Grammy-winning percussionist Jack DeJohnette on Friday, April 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) on campus. The event is free and open to the public.

While bank collapses, FTX’s demise, and Sam Bankman-Fried’s legal proceedings are making headlines, top fintech researchers and financial services industry leaders will gather at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to examine such issues as financial crime, blockchain interoperability, and risk.

“One side can start the polarization and keep it going forever, but it takes two sides to stop it. That’s why it easily arises, but it’s so difficult to end,” Boleslaw Szymanski said. Szymanski is the Claire & Roland Schmitt Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and director of the Network Science and Technology Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Luigi Vanfretti, professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will present research conducted with the help of students at the IEEE PES Grid Edge Technologies Conference and Exposition, to be held April 10-13, 2023 in San Diego.

The Rensselaer Astrophysical Society invites the public to explore the wonders of the cosmos. After a pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, public viewings at the Hirsch Observatory will resume on Saturday, March 11.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Moussa N’Gom, assistant professor of physics, applied physics, and astronomy, has devised a method to make communications between satellites and the ground more effective no matter the weather. In research recently published, N’Gom and his team used ultrafast, femtosecond lasers to cut through the clouds and rain that commonly cause losses in free-space optical communication (FSO).

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has partnered with SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, to initiate a new lighting conference dedicated to the advancement and use of 3D printing for the manufacture of lighting components and systems. The conference will be held as part of SPIE Optics + Photonics 2023, the leading multidisciplinary optical sciences and technology meeting, August 20-24, 2023, in San Diego, Calif.

The first doctoral degree in computer science ever earned at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was in 1969. The sixth was presented to Margaret Kahles Guyder in 1972, and it was also the first ever earned by a woman.

Whether it’s Flo from Progressive or the Geico gecko, the average TV viewer may not give much thought to commercials outside of whether they’re entertaining or not. However, there is a rather complex science behind what commercials you see and when you see them.