12/17/2008
New Theory How Advertisers Get Inside Your Head
LiveScience
Even with the recession, people are doing their holiday shopping and ads are playing a big role in steering them toward one product versus another. A new theory suggests how the ads can work on our unconscious mind to spur purchases. Scientists have long known that when we see a product repeatedly, our initial response is to want that object, and then after lots of visual exposure to the object, through advertisements or other means, our preference for it dwindles. Now cognitive scientist Mark Changizi of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York thinks he knows why this phenomenon occurs. The bottom line is we're rational creatures, at least in this case. And the unconscious mind is constantly weighing the cost of attaining an item against that object's value or benefit.
Read the story.
Read the Rensselaer news release.
12/12/2008
RPI frat plays Santa for school
Times Union
Santa paid an early visit to School 2, accompanied by 25 helpers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The 400 pre-K through sixth-grade students at the elementary school received gifts through the Pike Presents program sponsored by the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. 'We like to do good things. We're always looking for ways to give back to the community and help people,'' said Kevin Rodrigo, the fraternity's president. The Pike members raised about $3,000 to purchase the gifts presented to the students.
Read the story.
12/09/2008
Magnetic nanotubes could advance spintronic devices
EETimes
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI, Troy, N.Y.) researchers now believe that carbon nanotubes can be used to detect such nanoscale magnetic states by changing their conductance. They demonstrated the change by embedding tiny nanoparticles of magnetic cobalt into multi-walled carbon nanotubes.The researchers furthermore claim that their findings could enable spintronics applications, nanoscale storage devices and ultra-sensitive conductance detectors. RPI professors Swastik Kar and Saroj Nayak embedded clusters of cobalt atoms measuring from one to 10 nanometers in diameter into the walls of carbon nanotubes, then showed how they could be used to detect trace amounts of magnetism in nanoscale materials.
Read the story.
Read the Rensselaer news release.
12/07/2008
College Radio Maintains Its Mojo
New York Times
A pizza box and half a dozen laptops lay open in the poster-lined basement lounge of WRPI, the radio station of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. As a soda machine hummed, students prepared to record a local metal band and debated whether reggae is fundamentally a 1970s style or ''transcends the boundaries of time.'' It was the kind of scene that has played out countless times at campus radio stations, which for generations have served as a clubhouse for connoisseurs and a training ground for the music industry. But when WRPI's student D.J.'s leave the studio, they said, they are unlikely to listen to the radio at all. ''Even when I'm in the car, I'm usually listening to my iPod and not that much to the station,'' said Blair Neal, the music director. In the age of blogs and MySpace, college radio might seem an anachronism, an analog remnant in a digital world. With young people listening to the radio less, student stations no longer enjoy the influence they had when they gave bands like R.E.M. and Nirvana an early boost to stardom.
Read the story.
12/07/2008
Robotics isn't just for geeks anymore
Times Union
Robots took over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Saturday. More than 240 middle school students, plus dozens of their families and friends, packed the school's Darrin Communication Center for the FIRST Lego League Tech Valley Challenge, a robotics competition that had the frenzied atmosphere of a high school wrestling tournament. The event was organized by FIRST, a New Hampshire nonprofit that promotes science and technology education, and The Lego Group, the Danish toy maker.
Read the story.
Read the Rensselaer news release.
