“In the News” September 2009
Following is a selection of news media stories about Rensselaer people and programs. The stories are listed by date, with the most recent articles first. Note that some publications may require subscriptions or logins to access individual articles online. Additionally, archived links may change or be available online for a limited time.
09/30/09
Rensselaer researchers to develop and test next-generation radar systems
PhysOrg.Com
Birsen Yazici, associate professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering at Rensselaer, Polytechnic Institute, is leading a new project to develop and test radar systems comprised of hundreds of miniature sensors communicating with ground sensors, unpiloted aerial vehicles, and satellites. Such a system could allow radars to be used in crowded cities and other urban environments.
Read the story.
Read the Rensselaer news release.
09/23/09
New Cooling Technology Uses Air "Bullets" to Shoot Down Overheated LEDs
Scientific American
Christian Wetzel at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is continuing work to develop better and more efficient green colored LEDs with help from a recent funding award of $1.8 million over five years from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Read the story, which was also found in LIGHTimes Online.
09/22/09
Obama sends a smart message
Post Star
The president’s message inhis visit to Hudson Valley Community College in Troy, N.Y. was tailored to high-tech training because of his visit to a high-tech community college. And that kind of training is very important if New York is to develop as a high-tech business center, which is why the state has invested so much in the facilities and programs at Hudson Valley Community College, the nanotech center at the University at Albany and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Read the story.
09/23/09
More eyes watching the waters
Times Union
Beacon, IBM, and Clarkson University are setting up a $200 million network of permanent sensors along the entire length of the Hudson river that are expected to feed a stream of information on everything from pollution spills to fish movements. Called "acoustic Doppler current profilers," the devices emit acoustic signals which bounce back off of suspended particles. When the entire network is in place — with sensors designed and built by Clarkson, IBM and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — it is expected to stretch the 315-mile length of the river, and provide an instant at the river's overall condition.
Read the story.
09/22/09
Odessa company to add 1,000 jobs through trade agreement with China
Tampa Bay.Com
A Tampa company that has 18 employees plans to add 1,000 jobs over the next five years, thanks to a $200 million trade agreement with China. Born about 10 years ago from an idea for developing fuel cells at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., Dais Analytic opened in Pasco County in 1998, lured by tax breaks and assistance. The company specializes in nanotechnology: crafting materials that work with matter on the atomic and molecular level.
Read the story.
09/22/09
USGBC Awards Green Building Education Grants
Environmental Protection
The U.S. Green Building Council has awarded its 2009 Excellence in Green Building Education Recognition Award to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for its Center for Architecture Science and Ecology's Build Ecologies Program, along with Duke University, Philadelphia University, Iowa State University, and the University of Arkansas.
Read the story, which was also covered by the Philadelphia Inquirer.
09/22/09
Uncharted waters: Students retrofit sailboat with hydrogen power and motor up the Hudson
Scientific American
A team of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute students are traveling up New York's Hudson River this week on the New Clermont, a 6.7-meter boat outfitted with a pair of 2.2-kilowatt hydrogen fuel cells to power the boat's motor. Their journey began September 21 from Manhattan's Pier 84 and will cover 240 kilometers (at a projected speed of 8 kilometers per hour).
Read the story, which was also covered by Fuel Cell Today, Science Daily, Mother Nature Network, Gas 2.0, Tonic, and other news outlets.
Read the Rensselaer news release.
09/16/09
NCAA's Brand was the strongest figure in college sports
USA Today
Myles Brand played a little basketball and lacrosse as a freshman at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute many years ago, but he wasn't known for his athletic prowess. He was an academic, a thoughtful university leader, a doctor of philosophy, not a man of X's and O's. Yet this soft-spoken, cerebral man became the toughest guy in college sports.
Read the story, which was also covered by New York Times, Associate Press, The Indianapolis Star and a number of other media outlets.
Read the Rensselaer news release.
09//17/09
Nine International Research Teams Collaborate to Successfully Operate Multiple Biomedical Robots from Numerous Locations
Reuters
Using a new software protocol called the Interoperable Telesurgical Protocol, nine research teams from universities and research institutes around the world recently collaborated on the first successful demonstration of multiple biomedical robots operated from different locations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was among the sites.
Read the story.
09/16/09
Light at the end of the runway
Times Union
The Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is working to improve the lighting at the nation's airports, including one in its own backyard.
Read the story.
09/10/09
RPI has dream fields
Times Union
In a word, wow. The Capital Region — no, make that the entire region from West Point to Canada, and Syracuse to UMass — has no other sports complex that rivals RPI's new $92 million East Campus Athletic Village.
Read the story, which was also covered in the Troy Record.
09/07/09
40 Under Forty: Michael Holtzman
Business Review
Michael Holtzman remembers nearing graduation at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and having a tough decision to make. The startup he was working for, the now defunct ProductivityNet, was closing up. But that didn’t deter him from deciding to start Gavant Software with business partner Jon Kloptosky.
Read the story.
09/07/09
New York Delivers at Night
The Journal of Commerce Magazine
This week, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers start to work with shippers, consignees, and trucking firms in a month-long test of a program they say could cut daytime truck deliveries in Manhattan by as much as 20 percent for some companies. The program uses a key incentive — money — to convince businesses to take off-hour deliveries, in hopes they will reschedule at least a portion of the estimated 2.8 million truck trips a day in and around New York City.
Read the story.
09/06/09
Educational Crisis
The Buffalo News
In math and science, the United States has an educational crisis that is eroding what once was post-war leadership in those fields. Factor in the current push for high-quality health care — increasingly rooted in science and technology — and the problem gets even worse. American students spend on average one hour per day on homework. It is not that our brightest youngsters are lazy. As Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Ann Jackson points out, “It is a matter of distribution of time. Many of them spend 10 to 20 hours weekly practicing sports or working part-time jobs.”
Read the story.
9/4/09
Your Brain Is Organized Like a City
LiveScience.com
A big city might seem chaotic, but somehow everything gets where it needs to go and the whole thing manages to function on most days, even if it all seems a little worse for the wear at the end of the day. Sound a bit like your brain? Neurobiologist Mark Changizi sees strikingly real similarities between the two.
Read the story, which was also covered in World Science, io9, and Digital City.
Read the Rensselaer news release.
9/4/09
RPI lands NYSTAR funding
The Business Review
A New York state agency has again committed to provide funding to a technology center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, state officials announced today. The New York State Foundation for Science, Technology, and Innovation, known as NYSTAR, will provide Rensselaer with $921,000 in annual funding for up to 10 years.
Read the story, which was also covered by WCAX.
09/03/09
From NYSE chairman, cautious optimism
Times Union
Marshall Carter, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, spoke Wednesday at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In both a private interview and in his talk at a packed theater at the school's Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center, Carter was cautiously optimistic that the economy and the stock market will become steady again.
Read the story.
Read the Rensselaer news release.
9/02/09
The Annual International Collaboration & Innovation Conference begins September 15th
Examiner.com
The 2009 International Collaboration & Innovation Conference focuses on collaboration, leadership and innovation in the workplace. The best methods and processes to obtain these objectives will be discussed. The conference keynote speakers are Orlando Ashford, vice president of MMC, and Gina O’Connor, academic director and professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. Other speakers at the conference include several well-known authors on business practices and leaders from some of the world’s largest corporations.
Read the story.
