Advice on preventing and preparing for emergencies: Encourage students, administrators, staff members, and law-enforcement officers to communicate regularly about students who are struggling or have threatened violence. "If there is one lesson from Virginia Tech," says Charles F. Carletta, general counsel at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in New York, "it is that information sharing about potentially ill people is the critical link in preventing a major incident."

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At Uncle Sam Lanes in downtown Troy, manager Tom Walsh Jr. expects to see more Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students bowling once a new college dorm opens across the street. A few blocks away, at Hill's Stationery on Broadway, sales associate Jim Lambert said more Rensselaer students may rely on the store to photocopy papers and buy art or drafting supplies. 'We get some [students] but I think if they were closer we'd get more,' Lambert said. Both businesses are within a short walk of the Best Western Rensselaer Inn, a 154-room hotel on Sixth Avenue that will serve as the new home for about 300 Rensselaer students when it opens in August 2009.

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A doctoral student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is this year's winner of the school's $30,000 Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize. RPI says Martin Schubert _ who's studying electrical, computer, and systems engineering _ won for developing a polarized light emitting diode that could improve images on LCD screens while saving energy.

The AP wire story was picked up by several outlets, including Newsday, and the announcement was covered by the Albany Times Union and the Business Review.

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In many ways, introducing robots in the service industry might be comparable to the time when personal computers entered the office space, eliminating many basic bookkeeping and accounting jobs, says John Wen, a director of the Center for Automation Technologies and Systems at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. "A lot of people that we needed 20 years ago are no longer needed," says Dr. Wen. "However, [the personal computer] has spawned another huge industry - and I see robots doing exactly the same thing." Wen believes that, while designing robots from scratch will always require an advanced degree, eventually programming preexisting robots could become as easy as designing a webpage, making it possible for people with a high school degree to work with robots.

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“The need for robots alongside soldiers on the battlefield is critical,” said Selmer Bringsjord, the chairman of the department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He believes that the war on terrorism, for instance, requires three technologies: pervasive, all-seeing sensors; automated “reasoners”; and autonomous, lethal robots. “Today we need small machines that can see and hear in every corner,” Bringsjord said, “machines smart enough to understand and reason over the raw data these sensing machines perceive.”

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The movie includes commentary from various experts in economics and education, including physicist Shirley Ann Jackson, recipient of the al Science Board's prestigious Vannevar Bush Award in 2007. Jackson says American education is suffering a largely unrecognized "quiet crisis," in contrast to the American outcry for more math and science in schools that followed the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957.

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Greg Laymon had only seen a lunar eclipse online. So on Wednesday, the 10-year-old Arongen Elementary School student -- bubbly and excited despite the low temperatures and advanced hour -- joined about 50 others on the roof of a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute building to see the first lunar eclipse visible in the Capital Region in 3 years. 'I swear, every time I gaze up there the shadow creeps up farther!' the Clifton Park fifth-grader said. 'It's like, since when did the moon have a scorched mark? Talk about dark side of the moon.'

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You should, though, try to avoid bright lights, the kind you need for knitting, jigsaw puzzles, or other hobbies within three hours of bedtime, recommends Mark Rea, director of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. And keep computer time at night to no more than 15 minutes. Sitting in the glare from the screen for prolonged periods of time could suppress the release of melatonin. On the other hand, he says, watching TV is fine since the amount of light exposure you get sitting several feet away is minimal. In the bedroom, use room-darkening shades or curtains to block out the glare from streetlights. . . . Rea recommends getting outside for 15 minutes at the same time each day, preferably in the morning, so your body gets a clear signal that it's daytime, not night. 'It's the regularity that's key,' he says. Also, avoid sitting in a dimly lit office all day. Rea says that can confuse the body's circadian rhythm just as much as getting bright light at night.

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Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have demonstrated that liquids embedded with nanoparticles show enhanced performance and stability when exposed to electric fields. The finding could lead to new types of miniature camera lenses, cell phone displays, and other microscale fluidic devices. This study may open up a new vista for using nanofluids in microscale and nanoscale actuator device applications, said Theodorian Borca-Tasciuc, a professor of mechanical engineering at Rensselaer, who led the research project.

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The man who helped bring Albany Medical Center and Albany Medical College together will be laid to rest Saturday. Arnold Cogswell, 83, of Loudonville, died on Tuesday. Cogswell, a businessman who sat on the board of Albany Med since 1953, was one of the leaders who championed merging the two institutions in the early 1970s. The idea sparked a debate that lasted 12 years and was finally accepted in 1982. . . . Cogswell, a businessman, dedicated much of his life to volunteering for health care groups and colleges. In addition to Albany Med, Cogswell served on the boards of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Community Foundation, Albany YMCA, Albany Institute of History and Art and Albany's Hospital for Incurables Foundation.

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Researchers in New York reported this month that they have created a paper-thin material that absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits it, making it by far the darkest substance ever made — about 30 times as dark as the government's current standard for blackest black. The material, made of hollow fibers, is a Roach Motel for photons — light checks in, but it never checks out. By voraciously sucking up all surrounding illumination, it can give those who gaze on it a dizzying sensation of nothingness. 'It's very deep, like in a forest on the darkest night,' said Shawn-Yu Lin, a scientist who helped create the material at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. 'Nothing comes back to you. It's very, very, very dark.'

Read the story, which was also covered by the Wall Street Journal,  Popular Science, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Der Spiegel, the New York Sun, the Irish Times, the Seattle Times, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Kansas City Star, Physics News, and AdFreak.com.

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The latest person to join the call [for a science debate] is Dr. Shirley Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the nation's oldest technological research university. Jackson, former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has been one of the leading voices warning of what she calls a "quiet crisis" in America, which is the growing gap between our need for scientists and engineers and the capacity of this country's educational system to produce them. “Energy policy is a perfect example,” Jackson says of the need for a debate focused on science and technology. “Global energy security is the greatest challenge of our time, inextricably interlinked with our economic and national security. The exponential demand for energy worldwide -- and the link to climate change -- presents extraordinary geopolitical challenges and offers extraordinary economic opportunities, yet the United States does not have a comprehensive energy roadmap. It is essential to understand what the next President will do to put us on the pathway to global energy security and sustainability, yet there has been a surprisingly limited discussion on these issues.”

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Unfortunately, producing a green-laser semiconductor involves mixing more of the two metals in a single compound than the metals themselves care to have happen. "The indium just doesn't want to stay there," says Christian Wetzel, a physicist at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. That recipe difficulty is at the heart of the green-laser effort. Scientists have been working on it long enough to know that they have a tough material-science problem on their hands. Solving it means a mix of applied and theoretical science. Most of the researchers' time is spent in labs mixing stuff. They return to their desks just long enough to theorize about why their latest batch of goo did or didn't come out as planned.

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Officials got a preview Tuesday of what the Best Western hotel will look like after it's converted into a dormitory for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The project, announced in December, was officially unveiled during a news conference with RPI President Shirley Ann Jackson in the lobby of the now-closed hotel on Sixth Avenue. State Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, Rensselaer County Executive Kathy Jimino and Troy Mayor Harry Tutunjian also attended. When work is completed this summer, the building will provide living space for 300 RPI upperclassmen.

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There is nothing ordinary about Joe Juneau, who spent 12 years in the NHL and then quit a big post-hockey corporate job because he felt the company was capitalizing on his fame as an athlete. Juneau earned all-star honours at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., before being selected in the fourth round (81st overall) by the Boston. . . . But Juneau's proudest accomplishment was earning a degree in aeronautical engineering at RPI, the oldest technology university in the United States, according to a headline over a laminated newspaper story on a wall of Juneau's office at the Kuujjuaq Forum. Ordinary just doesn't fit a guy who is shaking up hockey in the 14 villages of Nunavik by bringing a tough-minded ethic to the game, raising the level of training, creating more ice time and making kids accountable for their school work.

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I recently took part in commencement at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.—one of America's great science and engineering schools. One by one, the announcer read the names of the Ph.D. students as each was handed his or her doctorate—in biotechnology, computing, physics, and engineering—by the school's president, Shirley Ann Jackson.

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And cutting-edge research and development of LEDs is taking place in local universities, which is likely to lead to even more commercialization of the technology. . . . Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy has its Lighting Research Center, which is doing a lot of research into LEDs. Nadarajah Narendran, an associate professor at RPI and director of research at the Lighting Research Center, said that current LED technology is four to five times more efficient than incandescent bulbs, and the goal is to make it 10 times more efficient.

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Most telecommuters praise their work arrangement. How do their noncommuting co-workers feel? Timothy Golden tackles this question in Human Relations, a professional journal. He finds that telecommuting co-workers have a negative effect on the job satisfaction of co-workers who don't telecommute. How does that play in your company? Dr. Golden, assistant professor of management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., based his conclusions on research involving 240 professionals with an average age of 37 and solid work histories.

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The First Columbia plan is not the first attempt to light Troy. In the late 1990s, residents and the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute pushed 'Watts Up,' an ambitious plan to light many of the city's downtown landmarks.'The goal was to brighten the city and build economic development by inviting people to come downtown,' said Daniel Frering, who heads RPI's graduate program in lighting and was involved in the Watts Up effort. . . . The Lighting Research Center also is designing the Hedley District plan. But while Watts Up called mostly for white lighting, the new plan is a bit more showy. In recent months, the waterside Park Place and Flanigan Square buildings have been colored red and blue, as RPI tested various lighting schemes.

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Another NSF grantee is Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which has created a program called RAMP-UP (Reforming Advancement Processes through University Professions). Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson said the program is focused on two things: "We are working to improve career progression for women from the junior faculty ranks to the senior ranks, and to expand recruitment of accomplished women at the senior level." Startup packages and access to resources will be looked at more carefully. In addition, the institute is expanding its mentoring and coaching services to better guide women faculty through the advancement process. "It starts at the departmental level, because that is where hiring starts and where the promotion and tenure process occurs," Jackson said. In addition, the "tone at the top" is important, she says. "It is essential to set clear expectations. I am very focused on the need to ensure that the processes affecting the progression of women faculty—and of all people in their careers here at Rensselaer—are fair and consistent."

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Nathan Tinker, executive director of the Manhattan-based New York Biotechnology Association, said the state already has significant research facilities, but production of newly developed drugs often happens elsewhere. Organizations like Ordway Research Institute in Albany and the recently formed New York Neural Stem Cell Institute at the University at Albany's East Campus in East Greenbush, as well as biotechnology initiatives at Troy's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and General Electric Co.'s Global Research Center in Niskayuna, have put the Capital Region on the biotech map.

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The lab rat of the future may have no whiskers and no tail - and might not even be a rat at all. With a European ban looming on animal testing for cosmetics, companies are giving a hard look at high-tech alternatives like the small, rectangular glass chip professor Jonathan Dordick holds up to the light in his lab at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The chip looks like a standard microscope slide, but it holds hundreds of tiny white dots loaded with human cell cultures and enzymes. It's designed to mimic human reactions to potentially toxic chemical compounds, meaning critters like rats and mice may no longer need to be on the front line of tests for new blockbuster drugs or wrinkle creams.

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We're currently in between the unveilings of the Capital Region's two biggest arts investments in decades. Coming a year apart and on opposite sides of the region, the $30 million expansion of Proctors in Schenectady into a multitheater performing-arts complex and the $155 million Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy are financially emphatic and physically impressive bookends to a busy year in the arts. During 2008, leading up to and beyond EMPAC's opening in October, the Times Union's Arts Events section will chronicle the regional arts scene's growth and changes in a series of stories, beginning today with a look at the economic impact of the arts.

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Describe Chris Reed, the California-dwelling entrepreneur behind a spicy ginger beer called Reed's Ginger Brew, as a hippie and you will receive a brusque response. 'Just because I have long hair and want to create a utopian society. I do not engage in intoxicants. I am more of a New-Age type than a hippie. But 'hippie natural food guy' is how others see me from a physical appearance.'His typecasting is a little unfair. After all, Mr Reed, who turns 50 this year, has some serious technical credentials, including a degree in chemical engineering from New York's highly-regarded Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. And although he once spent his days chopping up fresh ginger and boiling it on his kitchen stove, he today runs a public company that turned over more than $10m (5m, ,7m) last year.

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