No birthday party is complete without ice cream.That’s why Stewart’s Shops is helping Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute kick off its bicentennial year with a new name for the store’s “Fireworks” ice cream flavor. The freshly dubbed “Quantum Freeze” will hit stores February 5, 2024. 

Jaehoon Choi, a Ph.D. student in the Electronic Arts Department of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, was selected as one of 10 young composers to develop and premier work at the prestigious Venice Biennale International Music Festival.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Alexander Hiland, senior lecturer in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, recently judged a unique debate competition. Students from the Bard Prison Initiative competed against the team from Harvard University in a rematch of a debate that took place eight years ago and garnered international media attention and inspired a PBS documentary. The Bard Prison Initiative provides college opportunities for incarcerated students, and its debate team actually won against the top-ranked Harvard team in that match in 2015.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will host its annual GameFest on Saturday, April 29, from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Tech Valley Center of Gravity in downtown Troy. The event, free and open to the public, includes a game expo and design competition.

In a ceremony that featured a reading by the award-winning author Gish Jen, winners for the 82nd annual McKinney Writing Contest at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute were announced on April 12.

In honor of Earth Week, a “Sustainable Community Futures Roundtable” will be held on April 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Bruggeman Conference Center in the Shirley Ann Jackson, Ph.D. Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Gish Jen, award-winning author of the acclaimed short story collection Thank You, Mr. Nixon, will speak at the 82nd annual McKinney Writing Award ceremony on Wednesday, April 12 at 7 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The event is free and open to the public.

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.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will present a performance by two-time Grammy-winning ensemble Third Coast Percussion on Saturday, January 28, at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) on campus.