News

TROY, N.Y. — Partha Dutta, a professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, envisions a not-so-distant future where even the most remote parts of the world would have access to clean and renewable energy. His vision wouldn’t require a large power grid or expensive technology. Instead, he believes it could be accomplished using simple mirrors, local resources, and the sun. “I call this ‘engineering for a better world,’ which means that you have to use affordable, accessible, and adequate resources,” Dutta said.

As part of the inaugural class participating in The Arch at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, senior Anthony Mannino ’20, a physics major with a minor in economics, secured a fall semester away research opportunity at Boston University’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.

Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, the president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will be featured on an episode of “Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.” that will premiere on February 4, 2020.

A newly identified compound is a promising candidate for inhibiting the production of amyloids, the abnormal proteins that form toxic clumps, called fibrils, inside the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease. As published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Chemical Communications, the compound — known as “C1” — uses a novel mechanism to efficiently prevent the enzyme gamma-secretase from producing amyloids.

The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), the Association of Research Libraries, and EDUCAUSE have announced that Francine Berman, the Edward P. Hamilton Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been named the 2020 recipient of the Paul Evan Peters Award, which “recognizes notable, lasting achievements in the creation and innovative use of network-based information resources and services that advance scholarship and intellectual productivity.”

Studying the effectiveness of nuclear waste storage over time is an essential, but difficult, task. If it were to be done in real time, the research would take hundreds of thousands of years.  In an article published this week in Nature Materials, a multidisciplinary team that includes Jie Lian, a professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, described what researchers learned when they simulated nuclear waste storage conditions over long stretches of time. Using their findings, the researchers also suggested strategies for improving the U.S. storage plan.

The Rensselaer Model Railroad Society is beginning the move into its new home at 258 Hoosick Street in Troy this spring semester. The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute student club, which was founded in 1947, is internationally renowned for its model railroad layout featuring detailed, historically accurate miniature versions of communities from Troy, New York, to the Canadian Border.

Georges Belfort, an Institute Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Marlene Belfort, an adjunct professor of biology and chemical and biological engineering at Rensselaer, recently received honorary doctorates from the University of Cape Town in South Africa — the latest in a long list of honors and accomplishments for the couple.

TROY, N.Y. — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is among the best places in the country to pursue an undergraduate degree in game design or animation, according to recent rankings from Animation Career Review.

TROY, N.Y. — In an article published recently in Microgravity, a Nature journal, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute demonstrate a unique method for studying the mechanisms behind the formation of amyloid fibrils associated with diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.