News

TROY, N.Y. – Millions of dollars are spent fortifying dams to withstand earthquakes — but it may not be necessary.  New research being conducted at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is examining whether or not that spending actually contributes to public safety. “The Army Corps of Engineers has spent hundreds of millions of dollars retrofitting some dams which may not need to be retrofitted,” said Tarek Abdoun, a chaired professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rensselaer who is leading this research with support from the National Science Foundation.

Graduate programs in game design are coming to the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute next year. The new degrees, which include a master’s and Ph.D. in critical game design, will be offered beginning in the fall semester of 2020.

Scientific Graphics & Visuals—a course offered during the final session of The Arch—taught art, science, and engineering students the analytical, technical, and artistic skills needed to communicate a complex topic visually.

John Wen, the head of the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was recently honored at an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) workshop on advances in the fields of control and smart automation, an area in which Wen has made significant contributions.

Sandipan Mishra, associate professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been selected for the 2019 Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME) Dynamic Systems and Control Division (DSCD).

As Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute prepares to transition to a new and improved security app, the existing RPI Guardian app will no longer function as of September 1, 2019.

The Center for Career and Professional Development at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has been strategically building partnerships with companies throughout the United States and globally to create a wide array of opportunities for students to pursue as part of The Arch at Rensselaer. A notable and well-established employer partner is GlobalFoundries, an American semiconductor foundry with corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley.

As part of the inaugural class participating in The Arch at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, rising junior Geetika Verma ’21 has secured an away opportunity with Johnson & Johnson in Southern New Jersey.

Humans 3.0: The Upgrading of the Species by Peter Nowak has been selected as the 2019-2020 “Community Read” at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The book, chosen by a committee of representatives from the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) and Student Life, explores how innovation and technology have impacted society and the human species.  

Lighting Research & Technology is the leading international peer-reviewed journal that publishes original research on the subject of light and lighting. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, a study was published exploring the journal’s bibliometric characteristics since its first issue in 1969. The research team found that Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was the most productive institution and also the most cited institution over the past 50 years.