Campus News: Week of August 20, 2001

Planning Commission Sets Public Hearing and Comment Period on Rensselaer Construction

The Troy City Planning Commission has set Tuesday, Sept. 11, as the date for a public hearing on the Institute's Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), which was submitted by Rensselaer as required by the State Environmental Quality Review. The public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. at City Hall.

The Planning Commission also established a 39-day period for public comment beginning Aug. 17and ending Sept. 24.

The DEIS addresses potential environmental impacts that may result from a Rensselaerproject of proposed construction that includes the building of a biotechnology research center on Fifteenth Street, an electronic media and performing arts center on the hill above Eighth Street, a 500-car parking garage along College Avenue, a boiler plant, an electrical substation, and a chiller facility.

At a meeting Thursday, Aug. 16, the Commission passed a resolution that deemed the DEIS complete enough for public review.

The DEIS lists all known and potential impacts of the construction projects and outlines possible actions to mitigate those impacts.

A copy of the DEIS is immediately available for review at the following places:

• Troy City Hall Planning Office, 3rd floor
  
• Troy City Clerk's Office, City Hall
  
• Troy Public Library
  
• Campus Planning Office, Peoples Avenue and Eleventh Street

By Aug. 23, copies will be available at Folsom Library and at the Visitors Information Center on Fifteenth Street at the pedestrian bridge.

Members of the Rensselaer community are encouraged to review the document and present comments at the public hearing or in writing to the Planning Department at City Hall.

After the public comment period, the City Planning Commission will submit all comments to Rensselaer. The Institute will then revise the document and submit a Final EIS (FEIS). After accepting the FEIS, the City will decide which mitigating measures it will require.

Balfour Book Examines Architecture of New York City

In a landmark book on the architecture of New York City, Alan Balfour, dean of architecture, takes us on a journey through the built environment of New York City and then documents the city's most significant new buildings—and those yet to be completed.

In World Cities: New York (Wiley & Sons), Balfour describes New York as "the quintessential city of the 20th century." He offers the belief that architecture is "the most permanent residue of the profound culture of a city."

Balfour's story of New York begins with its structured grid system, a conscious effort by planners to create order out of the area's expanding population. The grid formed the personality of the city, making it "the most ideological of cities created by the Enlightenment—created to form a ruthless rational order whose reality would forever be in a state of becoming," Balfour says.

This "state of becoming" is in evidence today as buildings, most notably in Times Square, are covered with skinlike technology that transforms them into giant television screens. Balfour believes this technology, which can alter a building's appearance or significance in the blink of an eye, will change the rules of architecture in ways not yet imagined.

To purchase the book, visit http://www.wiley.com/Corporate/Website/Objects/Products/0,9049,1799825,00.html.

Rensselaer Plan Update: School of Science

The School of Science, in accordance with the vision outlined in the Rensselaer Plan, has broadened its mission to include the already robust information technology program as well as ambitious initiatives in biotechnology.

"This is an exciting time to be dean," said Dean of Science Joseph Flaherty. "The president has transferred administrative oversight of the IT program to the School of Science. We will all have to work hard to preserve the interdisciplinary spirit of the teaching and research programs, and I intend to ensure that the five schools will contribute," said Flaherty, who is also the Amos Eaton Professor of Computer Science.

The integration of IT into the School of Science is among the first-year highest priorities, and a search is under way for a new associate dean for information technology.

The school will work closely with the IT and Biotechnology Constellation Search Committees to find distinguished faculty in the key areas of future chip technology, pervasive and distributed intelligent computing, multiscale computation, tissue engineering, metabolic engineering, and integrated systems biology.

Strategic hiring of faculty and administration is a first-year highest priority, with 12 faculty positions in the School of Science being recruited. These include the chairs of the Biology and Computer Science Departments, and the Darrin Professor of Mathematical Sciences. There will also be an internal search for the department chair of mathematical sciences.

In keeping with the Institute's focus on the first-year experience of students, faculty, and staff, the science portfolio includes initiatives to encourage mentoring. All departments will develop interest-building courses comparable to the pacesetting Passion for Physics course.

"We seek to increase our research portfolio. That means more funding, both public and private, but it also means an increase in both the quantity and quality of our graduate students and postdoctoral scholars," Flaherty said. "Nevertheless, recruiting outstanding faculty in strategic areas is our most pressing challenge."

Editor's Note: Last year, the president created the cabinet position of chief information officer to recognize and promote the importance of information strategies for the Institute. As part of the Performance Planning process, Computing & Information Services has been reorganized into the Division of the Chief Information Officer (DotCIO), which consists of the following departments: Academic & Research Computing; IT Operations; Networking & Telecommunications; Integrated Administrative Computing Solutions; Communications and Collaboration Technologies; Research Libraries; and Strategic Planning & Institutional Research.

Rensselaer Plan Update: Division of the Chief Information Officer

"Information is the lifeblood of any research university," says Chief Information Officer John Kolb '79. "In order for the Institute to achieve its commitments to the Rensselaer Plan, it must make strategic use of its information resources and infrastructure."

With responsibility for developing new information systems and reinvigorating existing ones, the Division of the Chief Information Officer will enable faculty, staff, and students to work in a highly coordinated environment.

The division's performance plan calls for developing a strategic view of the Institute's current information infrastructure to make more efficient use of IT resources. The ultimate goal is to guarantee an information environment that is responsive, reliable, and available.

Continual upgrades of the Institute's network backbone and its extension into research buildings are paramount, says Kolb. Improving off-campus access and upgrading the servers that handle e-mail and other Internet functions are also a high priority. Academic and Research Computing will continue to provide general academic and research computing support and serve the mobile computing initiative.

"The overall efficiency of the Institute is tied to its ability to effectively manage information flow," says Kolb. His portfolio therefore, calls for implementation of a data-warehousing project and the continued improvement in service and reliability of administrative software such as Banner.

Kolb emphasizes the need for an online research library for the 21st century. "Our faculty require 24/7 access to the latest resources."

The new Collaboration and Communication Technologies department will work with the campus community to facilitate the use of tools for electronic communication and collaboration.

2005 Class Portrait

The incoming Class of 2005 has 1,138 first-year students. This year, Rensselaer received the largest number of applications since 1986, and accepted the smallest percentage of applicants since 1985.

In addition, this year's class represents the largest-ever international undergraduate enrollment, with 75 students coming from countries other than the U.S.

The Class of 2005 is diversified and steeped in artistic talent: 144 are actors, 103 are singers, one student attended clown camp. One student performed as a backup percussionist to country superstar Shania Twain, another has played violin since he was 3-and has played in Carnegie Hall for the past two years. In the mix is an English Morris dancer. The English folk dance is thought to have originated in 15th-century Spain.

A number of Junior Olympian athletes also make up the class: One young woman is a fencer and participated in the 2000 Junior Olympics, another student qualified for swimming and one qualified for bowling.

"In short, we have a diverse, interesting class with a tremendous amount of pizzazz, and an added international presence. It reinforces our belief that, in these days, a university must have global reach in order to have global impact," says Teresa Duffy, dean of enrollment management.

Other notable '05 facts:

• 61 percent were in the top 10 percent of their high school class and the average SAT score was 1308-an all-time high.
• 114 call themselves cyberspace gurus.
• 48 are "legacies" (children or grandchildren of Rensselaer alumni).

Let the Sun Shine! Photovoltaic System Helps Power Voorhees Computing Center

A photovoltaic (PV) system with 32 PV panels has been installed next to the Voorhees Computing Center. The innovative system moves with the sun and provides approximately 2 kilowatts of electricity to the VCC. (That amount would power one to two houses.)

The main purpose of the system is for education and research, according to David Borton, adjunct associate professor of mechanical, aeronautical, and nuclear engineering who is overseeing the project. The PV system will be used in the Solar Devices course, and will likely be of interest to those in the Embedded Controls,since the tracking device uses the same computer as the class. It will also be used for research on newer and more sophisticated PV cells, Borton says, and provides opportunities for a variety of student projects and research.

During the recent heat wave, when Rensselaer's cost for electricity was five to 10 times higher than normal, the PV system was continuously reducing the Institute's electric demand. Through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the tracker qualified Rensselaer for a $5 per watt rebate given to encourage electric demand reduction during the record-setting heat wave.

Solar Age Technologies' Peter Kask was the engineer of record for the tracker. Campus Planning and Facilities Design staff, including Steve Moise and Jeremy Magliaro, were involved in the project.

Gurley Purchases Historic Rensselaer Surveying Instrument

Gurley Precision Instruments in Troy now has a Telescopic Solar Surveyors Transit made in the early 1900s by W. & L. Gurley of Troy and Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. of Rochester. The instrument was purchased from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

This piece of equipment is a standard Gurley Surveyors Transit with a Saegmuller Telescopic Solar Attachment to determine the north-south line using the sun. Saegmuller's attachment was actually a telescope, which was more precise than the pinhole method used by Gurley at the time. It was not until 1912 that Gurley began making its own telescopic solar transit.

According to William Skerritt '70 (pictured above), an engineer at the New York State Department of Transportation who was instrumental in coordinating the purchase, this transit was used to survey public lands during America's western expansion and could have been used as far away as Alaska.

The Surveyors Transit is housed in the Gurley Building on Fulton Street where Gurley has a small museum of antique equipment. Martin Gordinier, director of marketing, accepted the piece from George List, chair of civil and environmental engineering. The museum is open to the public; please call 518-272-6300 to ensure staff availability.

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