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Campus
News: Week of November 6, 2000
Wilfredo
Colón Honored at White House
 Wilfredo
"Freddie" Colón, an assistant professor of chemistry
doing research in the growing field of biotechnology at Rensselaer,
has received a prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for
Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from the National Science Foundation.
Colón
was one of 20 outstanding young NSF awardees honored at a White
House ceremony on Oct. 24. Another 40 scientists were named PECASE
winners by the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense,
Energy, and Veterans Affairs; NASA; and the National Institutes
of Health.
Colón
was one of 20 outstanding young NSF awardees honored at a
White House ceremony on Oct. 24.
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Researchers
chosen for the PECASE award are selected from among those who
have already received an NSF Career Award, aimed at young faculty
members actively engaged in research and education. Colón
was honored earlier this year with a $450,000, four-year NSF grant
to study the mechanism of protein folding.
"I am
very honored to be considered among the top young scientists in
the country. I am very grateful to God, my family, and all those
who have guided and mentored me along the way. I am very excited
about being at Rensselaer at this stage of my career, and look
forward to the full implementation of the Rensselaer Plan and
the growth of life sciences on this campus," Colón
said.
The PECASE
award is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on
outstanding scientists and engineers who are in the earliest stages
of establishing their independent research careers. This is the
fifth year of the awards. Colón joined the faculty at Rensselaer
in 1997.
11/6/00
President
Reports That Rensselaer Plan Implementation Is Well Under Way
Implementation
of the Rensselaer Plan is moving ahead at an accelerating rate,
President Shirley Ann Jackson said during a town meeting held
in the Armory on Thursday, Nov.2.
"The
Plan contains more than 140 'we will' statements, and they are
coming to pass. You are seeing things happen," Jackson said.
"I'm
more than ever committed to the electronic media and performing
arts center, and I expect groundbreaking by early 2002. I
would expect groundbreaking for the biotechnology center by
late 2001 or early 2002."
—Shirley Ann Jackson—
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The president
updated the campus community on the progress being made in achieving
goals identified as "first-year highest priorities."
Those priorities include construction of a center for biotechnology
and interdisciplinary studies and for an electronic media and
performing arts center; the creation of constellations in biotechnology
and information technology; and a thorough evaluation of the first-year
experience of students, faculty, and staff at Rensselaer.
"I'm
more than ever committed to the electronic media and performing
arts center, and I expect groundbreaking by early 2002. I would
expect groundbreaking for the biotechnology center by late 2001
or early 2002," Jackson said.
During the
evening, President Jackson and members of the cabinet responded
to more than 50 questions from graduate and undergraduate students
on issues ranging from sexual diversity to undergraduate research
and training for teaching assistants. Several questions were called
in or e-mailed by persons watching the feed on the Web or by campus
cable.
Since the
Board of Trustees approved the Rensselaer Plan in May, each school
and administrative division has devised its own Performance Plan
—the next step in realizing the goals of the Plan.
The president
said she is also reviewing Rensselaer's policies on intellectual
property with Art Sanderson, vice president for research, and
Charles Carletta, secretary of the institute and general counsel.
The president
noted that fund raising was up 20 percent over last year, reaching
a record total of $43 million in 1999-00. Research funding increased
15 percent.
11/6/00
Recommendations
Presented for Enriching First-Year Experience
The First-Year
Experience Task Force has completed the final draft of its report
on restructuring student orientation and enriching the overall
experience of first-year students.
The need
to improve the experience of first-year students has been a matter
of considerable importance to President Jackson and is a first-year
priority of the Rensselaer Plan.
"The
work of the First-Year Experience Task Force allows us the
opportunity not only to improve the experience for new students,
but also to stimulate thinking outside the box about how best
to advance the overall quality of student life."
— Eddie Ade Knowles—
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Among the
recommendations by the task force, chaired by Rick Hartt '70,
is to establish an Office of the First-Year Experience. Reporting
directly to the vice president for student life, the office would
work with all campus departments to establish the most effective
programs for all first-year undergraduate, transfer, and graduate
students. An
advisory committee, comprising students, faculty, and staff, would
provide the new office with feedback and insight about orientation
programs.
"The
work of the First-Year Experience Task Force allows us the opportunity
not only to improve the experience for new students, but also
to stimulate thinking outside the box about how best to advance
the overall quality of student life," said Eddie Ade Knowles,
interim vice president for student life, who appointed the task
force last spring.
Other recommendations
include:
- Design
a Web site for first-year students, which would include topic-oriented
student chat groups, links to faculty and administrative units,
and information regarding campus and off-campus services.
- Offer
optional outdoor, wilderness experiences as a post-orientation,
pre-fall activity.
- Create
exhibits that celebrate Rensselaer's history and modern-day
accomplishments of faculty, staff, and students. The exhibits
would also depict the natural and cultural resources of the
greater Capital Region.
- Redesign
Freshman Convocation to include increased faculty and staff
participation and make it a more traditional, academic ceremony
with the entire class present.
The Task
Force report will be reviewed by Knowles and President Jackson.
Approved recommendations will be incorporated into the Performance
Plan phase of the university's strategic planning process.
11/6/00
Tien
to Receive Major Educational Innovation Award
 James
Tien '66, professor and chair of decision sciences and engineering
systems and professor of electrical, computer, and systems engineering,
will be awarded the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers' (IEEE) Educational Activities Board Major Educational
Innovation Award at their Nov. 15-19 meeting in Tampa, Fla.
The award includes a plaque and $1,000.
The
award recognizes individuals who have distinguished themselves
for outstanding innovation in an educational field appropriate
to the mission of the IEEE. Generally one award is presented
annually, although this year there are two.
Tien
is being recognized for his efforts in guiding the interdisciplinary
department of decision sciences and engineering systems to national
prominence; it is unique among engineering departments. Additionally,
as acting dean of engineering, he promulgated the concept of
the Multidisciplinary Design Lab (MDL), which is now under construction
in the high bay of the Jonsson Engineering Center.
Tien
served as acting chair of the department of electrical, computer,
and systems engineering and twice as acting dean of engineering
at Rensselaer. He is currently treasurer of the IEEE Publication
Activities Board, and past president of the IEEE Society on
Systems, Man, and Cybernetics. He is a fellow of IEEE and a
member of INFORMS and IIE. He was recently the recipient of
the prestigious IEEE Joseph G. Wohl Outstanding Career Award
and an IEEE Third Millennium Medal.
11/6/00
Researchers
in microelectronics at Rensselaer are developing three-dimensional
chip architectures and optical, microwave, and even plasma wave
communications on chips to solve problems industry will face
more than a decade into the future.
They
believe the 3-D chip will be necessary because the size
of an atom and the basic laws of physics make it impossible
to continue shrinking features on computer chips.
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John
F. McDonald and Ronald J. Gutmann, professors of electrical,
computer, and systems engineering, and Jian-Qiang "James"
Lu, assistant research professor, lead the 3-D effort. They
believe the 3-D chip will be necessary because the size of an
atom and the basic laws of physics make it impossible to continue
shrinking features on computer chips.
If
wafers are placed side-by-side, comparatively long metal wires
must be used to carry messages from transistors on one chip
to those on another. If the chips are stacked vertically, shorter
wires are needed. Lu likens the 3-D approach to building an
integrated circuit (IC) skyscraper.
"In
this technology, one makes two or more layers of the processor
on different wafers, then laminates them in pairs, perhaps face-to-face,"
McDonald explains. "These laminated pairs can then be treated
as single wafers with two layers of circuitry on them and further
bonded as pairs again. This can result in up to four layers
of intimately connected circuits that have extremely short wires
for some of the critical paths."
Gutmann
says one 3-D approach would be to place a vertical chip, an
active backplane, along one side of the layers. This backplane
could carry conventional, microwave, or optical signals, freeing
up space on chips in the stack and leading to interconnect multiplexing
and wireless communication capability.
Rensselaer
just received and installed a state-of-the-art wafer bonder
and a precision wafer aligner from Electronics Vision Group
(EVG), Inc. The aligner allows the researchers to achieve micron
level alignment between both the top and bottom wafers and is
key to ongoing 3-D chip research.
11/6/00
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