Campus.News: Features

Construction of the new electronic media and performing arts center and the new center for biotechnology and interdisciplinary studies will take another step forward Thursday, June 14, when Troy's City Planning Commission reviews Rensselaer's application for site plan approval.

The campus community is invited to the meeting that will be held at 7 p.m. in Troy's City Hall.

The Planning Commission will consider the site plan and will determine whether or not the initiative will require an environmental impact statement (EIS) in accordance with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR).

The concept calls for construction of two major buildings, a boiler plant, changes in campus traffic flow, and a parking garage.

"The purpose of the meeting is for the City Planning Commission to understand what, in general, we propose to do. This begins the process," said Claude Rounds, vice president for administration.

If, as expected, the plan receives a "positive declaration" (a finding that the project will have a significant environmental impact), the commission will likely accept lead agency status for administering the SEQR process, pending approval by the State Department of Environmental Conservation, Rounds said.

All issues to be addressed in the EIS will be identified in a "scoping session" held at a later time. The issues could include such things as air quality, storm water runoff, traffic flow, physical appearance, and public health and safety, Rounds said.

The public will be involved significantly in the review process that will include public hearings on both the draft EIS and the final EIS.

Srinivas Akella, assistant professor of computer science, was awarded a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation to develop software that will eventually allow industrial robots to do what they've never done before: manipulate flexible objects.

Akella will receive $399,700 from the NSF over the next five years to develop algorithms for the robotic manipulation, motion planning, and design of articulated, or hinged, objects such as cardboard packaging cartons folded from flat blanks and "pop-up" MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) devices. The goal is to enable simple robots to fold and assemble complex 3-D objects from two-dimensional blanks. Currently, robots are limited to manipulating rigid objects.

"Humans use their hands and fingers and can make accommodations for changes in the shape or size of a cardboard box, for example," Akella said. "A robot isn't as sophisticated or flexible in accommodating change. But robots have an advantage in that they don't get repetitive stress injuries."

Akella is developing algorithms to enable industrial robots to accomplish complex manipulation tasks. By using software and interchangeable hardware, standard assembly-line robots can be flexible to changes in product packaging. Akella's techniques would reduce manufacturing costs and time required for new products.

Akella's research may also enable batch fabrication of 3-D pop-up MEMS devices. MEMS devices are typically fabricated from silicon as planar elements. The challenge lies in automating the creation of 3-D micro-optical and microrobotic devices using microhinges to pop these elements out of the plane. Akella is developing design and simulation tools for the automatic manipulation and motion planning of such devices.

In addition to involving undergraduates in this research and developing new courses in robotics and geometric algorithms, Akella is initiating a robotics program using Lego kits with the Junior Museum to interest schoolchildren in science and engineering.

The Ties That Bind: First-Year Students Will Take Part in Weeklong Welcome Program

Prior to the start of classes in late August, the Class of 2005 will participate in a new program created by the Office of the First-Year Experience to enhance the first-year experience of incoming freshmen.

Titled "Navigating Rensselaer & Beyond," the five-day series of welcome events includes outdoors, historical, and cultural activities, and community service opportunities, all aimed at building lasting ties among new students.

Students will be preassigned activities based on their interests, according to Lisa Trahan, dean of the first-year experience.

Those participating in one of the cultural and historical options, called the "Tour d'ArtPI," will visit three museums within an hour's drive of campus: Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Arts, Clark Art Institute, and Williams College Art Museum.

Students participating in the community service activities will have a choice, among other things, of building a play unit for children at either Frear Park or Beman Park in Troy, or assisting with clean-ups at the Poestenkill Gorge and Oakwood Cemetery.

Among the options in the outdoors category are full-day trips to the Silver Bay Association on Lake George or Camp Sloane in Lakeville, Conn. The program also includes an optional two-night overnight experience at either site.

"Rensselaer has a history with Silver Bay dating back to the 1950s," says Trahan. "Students there participated in an orientation program similar to the one we offer on campus in July. They learned about Rensselaer's traditions and became acquainted with faculty and one another in an Adirondack setting."

A kick-off barbecue will mark the official start to the program on Aug. 21, when all incoming students are expected to be situated in their residence hall rooms. The program continues through the start of classes on Aug. 27.

University presidents, provosts, dean, professors, and others from around the world met last week in Lake George and on the Rensselaer campus for the annual meeting of the Global Engineering Education Exchange (Global E³), an international program designed specifically for undergraduate engineering students.

"The overarching goal of Global E³ is to educate the global engineer," said Lester Gerhardt, associate dean of engineering and a principal initiator of the program. "Fewer than 1 percent of the 15 million U.S. students in higher education go abroad and an even smaller percentage are engineering students. Because 96 percent of humanity lives outside of the U.S., that number has to increase," explained Gerhardt, who is founding and current chair of the Global E³ executive committee.

The program currently has more than 80 member universities worldwide, including 28 in the U.S. More than 30 Rensselaer students have participated in the program since its inception in 1995. The number of total students from around the globe is about 200, which doubles the figure from last year.

Students in the program can opt for one or two semesters abroad and can combine either of those choices with an internship at a company in the host country. For the 2001-2002 year, four students will go to Hungary, Denmark, and Austria. In addition, one student from Austria will come to Rensselaer.

"Global E³ also attracts a high percentage of women," said Gerhardt. "Women constitute about 20 percent of undergraduates in U.S. engineering programs, but in Global E³, women comprise up to 45 percent of participants, particularly in the spring semesters."

The program is centrally administered by the Institute of International Education (IIE) and is sponsored by ABB. Funding has come from the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, AT&T, and Ford Motor Company.

The Office of Alumni Relations at Rensselaer will receive two Circle of Excellence Awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

The awards will be presented July 2 at the CASE International Assembly in San Francisco. Alumni-relations awards will be given in 17 categories. Rensselaer and UCLA are the only universities to be honored in more than one category.

One of the national awards recognizes Rensselaer's new, comprehensive program to recruit and recognize alumni volunteers. The CASE award will be given in the New Program Initiatives category.

The second award recognizes the creation of an alumni affinity group that brings together Rensselaer graduates who practice in the fields of patent law, intellectual property, and licensing. The CASE award will be given in the Campus/ Constituent Groups category.

"We are honored to receive this recognition from CASE for our efforts to create the value-added relationships that alumni seek from their alma mater," said David Bohan '82, director of alumni relations at Rensselaer.

CASE membership includes more than 2,900 colleges, universities, and elementary and secondary schools in the United States and 44 other countries, making it the largest nonprofit education association in terms of institutional membership in the world.

Rensselaer at Hartford Holds 44th Commencement

President Jackson addressed 573 graduates and their guests at the 44th Commencement exercises at Rensselaer at Hartford June 2. Among the members of the Class of 2001 were four married couples, one father and daughter, two Rensselaer at Hartford staff members, and 13 students receiving their second advanced degree from Rensselaer.

Special awards presented included the Distinguished Alumnus Award, Outstanding Student Awards, and the Computer Science Seminar Awards.

Rensselaer at Hartford began as the Hartford Graduate Center in 1955, at a time when rapidly changing technologies in the aircraft and defense industries were creating a critical shortage of engineers and other professionals in the Greater Hartford area. H. Mansfield Horner, then chairman of the United Aircraft Corporation (now United Technologies Corporation), approached Livingston Houston, then president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with a proposal to provide local, graduate instruction to these working professionals. Rensselaer accepted Horner's invitation and introduced to the Connecticut River Valley the same academic standards that had secured its own nationally acknowledged stature and reputation. The Hartford Graduate Center merged with Rensselaer in January 1997 and became a branch campus known as Rensselaer at Hartford.

Two undergraduate information technology (IT) students have founded the first national IT Honor Society and have named it Gamma Nu Eta in honor of Gregory N. Hughes, the former vice provost of IT at Rensselaer.

"IT is unique and by nature is interdisciplinary," explained Hoffman, who serves as vice president. "Other organizations tend to be purely technical and specific to one discipline. We wanted to create a society that would incorporate the diverse components that make up IT; management, impact on society, applications to industry."

Hughes, who led the development of the IT program at Rensselaer, has been a "particular inspiration and mentor to the members of the original class of IT students," said Hoffman. "It seemed only appropriate that we dedicate the organization to him."

According to Loomis, who is president, the organization has begun a five-year accreditation process through the Association of College Honor Societies. Like other honor societies, membership in Gamma Nu Eta is contingent upon a minimum of a 3.25 grade point average and a rank within the top 15 percent of a student's class. A service component will include volunteer work at local businesses, public organizations, and schools.

Since the program began in 1997, enrollment in IT at Rensselaer has exploded. The Office of Enrollment Management reports that 73 students in the Class of 2005 have enrolled in IT—that's 8 percent of the student population and it makes IT the third largest discipline on campus, following engineering and science.

For information about the society or for a membership application go to www.gammanueta.org

Earth and Mars are converging at a rate of 22,000 miles per hour, and their closest encounter, this month, will present amateur astronomers with a rare opportunity to view the red planet in exquisite detail.

"Get away from the light pollution of the cities. Find a dark, open field with few trees obscuring the horizon, and look south," said Nicolle Zellner, a graduate student in astronomy and director of public observing at the Hirsch Observatory at Rensselaer.

On June 21, just 42.3 million miles will separate the Earth and Mars—the nearest they have approached in 12 years. You won't need a telescope to see Mars, which already outshines everything except Venus, the Moon, and the Sun. Mars will rise at sunset and set at sunrise.

When weather permits, you can observe the Red Planet low in the sky, about 21 degrees above the southern horizon. With the naked eye Mars will appear as a bright red dot. With binoculars it will resemble a shining red disk. With a telescope, Zellner said, you should be able to discern some features of the Martian landscape.

Mars will grow brighter as it approaches opposition on June 13. Astronomers call the phenomenon "opposition" because Mars and the Sun will appear on opposite sides of our sky, an arrangement that occurs every 26 months.

If the orbits of both planets were perfectly circular, the distance between them would be smallest at the moment of opposition. Earth's orbit, however, is slightly elliptical, and the Martian orbit is even more so. Thus, our closet approach to Mars will not occur until eight days after opposition, on June 21.