Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream by Joshua Davis will be the Community Read for the upcoming academic year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

GameFest, the annual student game development showcase hosted by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will be held on Saturday, April 30 at 2 p.m.

Winners for the 81st annual McKinney Writing Contest at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute were announced on April 6 in an in-person ceremony that featured a livestreamed reading by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead.

Colson Whitehead, author of The New York Times bestsellers The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys, will speak virtually at the 81st annual McKinney Writing Award ceremony on Wednesday, April 6 at 7 p.m.

Kathy High, Professor of Video and New Media at Rensselaer, has created an online series to explore the intersection of bioArt and biotechnology. In collaboration with the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, the Arts department and the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and NATURE Lab, a project of The Sanctuary for Independent Media, the one-hour lunchtime presentations, BioArt Talks @CBIS, will begin on March 25.

The latest artwork created by Matthew Goodheart, an assistant professor of music composition in the Department of Arts in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has opened at Harvestworks on Governor’s Island in New York City.

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer will be the Community Read for the upcoming academic year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Nathan Meltz, senior lecturer in the Department of the Arts in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was recently awarded the Prix Invitation Presse Papier for his collective entry in the 12th Biennale internationale d'estampe contemporaine de Trois-Rivières in Quebec.

James Hendler, the Tetherless World Professor of Computer, Web, and Cognitive Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been named chair of the Technology Policy Council for the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Composer, improviser, and sound installation artist Matthew Goodheart, an assistant professor of music composition in the Department of Arts in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, will release his latest album on Friday, June 25.