Campus News: Week of October 2, 2000

Kolb Named Chief Information Officer

John Kolb '79 has been named to the new, cabinet-level post of chief information officer at Rensselaer. In making the appointment, President Jackson noted that Kolb will provide leadership for strategic planning in the acquisition, use, and growth of Rensselaer's campuswide information resources to support education, research, and administrative operations.

"John Kolb is particularly well-suited to lead us in developing the long view of how universities in general and Rensselaer in particular will be using knowledge technologies in research, education, management, and community life," Jackson said. "His considerable experience will enable us to understand what our needs will be in talent, training, hardware, and software, and what it will take to prepare for those needs in advance."

Having served most recently as dean of Computing and Information Services, Kolb has been part of the Rensselaer community in a variety of responsibilities for more than 20 years. He received both his bachelor's and his master's in electrical engineering from the Institute and has served as an adjunct assistant professor, manager of operations for the Center for Interactive Computer Graphics, director of Engineering Computing Services, and as assistant dean and head of the Core Engineering Programs in the School of Engineering.

Under Kolb's leadership, Rensselaer has achieved celebrated excellence in information infrastructure. That leadership has been heralded in Yahoo, the Time/Princeton Review guide to The Best College for You, and other national publications. He also helped to lead the campus in developing a successful laptop computer program.

Kolb has worked with various campus units to help secure multimillion-dollar grants and gifts of computer equipment from IBM, Intel, NSF, and other sources.

Kolb helped to develop Rensselaer's pioneering program in interactive learning and its pacesetting bachelor's degree program in IT. He was a co-winner of the 1995 Boeing Outstanding Educator Award and received the Rensselaer Alumni Award for Admissions in 1994.

Kolb is president of the board of trustees of the Junior Museum and is a member of the board of both NYSERNet.Org and NYSERNet.Net, which provide high-speed networking to the university research community in the state. He is also a member of the board of directors of both the East Greenbush Soccer Club and the Wycoff Association of America, dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Dutch history and heritage.

Kolb is the author of numerous papers and presentations to EDUCAUSE, the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and other organizations and conferences.

10/2/00

Daylong Venture Forum Scheduled for Oct. 4

The Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship, Paul J. Severino '69, and Rensselaer President Shirley Ann Jackson will host a daylong Venture Forum designed to introduce students,faculty, and staff to the role of venture capital in the process of creating companies, building major businesses, and generating economic growth. The Venture Forum—on Wednesday, Oct. 4, in the Heffner Alumni House—will pair Rensselaer experts in entrepreneurship with some of the biggest names in high-tech business.

Topics include matching technology with markets, approaching the venture capital community for financing, and building a management team. Severino will deliver the keynote address and moderate the panels. Jackson and Senator Joseph Bruno will address participants at the luncheon.

Panelists include:

• Severino, who was founder and chairman of Bay Networks Inc. and was named Inc. magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year in New England in 1993.
• Mukesh Chatter '82, who was chosen by Red Herring magazine as one of the country's Top 10 entrepreneurs in 1999. Chatter is the CEO of Axiowave, and former founder, president, and CEO of Nexabit Networks Inc.
• Marty Schoffstall '82, co-founder and chief technology officer of PSINet, founding director of Go2Net, co-founder and former chairman of the Commercial Internet Exchange (CIX).
• Michael Marvin, founder of Exponential Investors. Marvin is chairman of MapInfo, a $70 million company that is the world leader in global information systems, located in the Rensselaer Technology Park.
• Nina Saberi, founder and general partner of Castile Ventures.
• Russell Planitzer, managing principal of Lazard Technology Partners.
• Mary Bayly Skevington '79, vice president of marketing, Flow Management Technologies

"This is an opportunity for students, professors, researchers, and budding entrepreneurs to gain a better understanding of what it takes to transform ideas and research technology into a company," said Severino, a venture investor and Rensselaer trustee. "Building successful startup companies doesn't just happen. There are approaches entrepreneurs can take that will set the tone for success."

The closing panel will feature Rensselaer experts Mark Rice '71, Greg Hughes '67, Bill Stitt '63, and Bela Musits '75, who will focus on the importance of entrepreneurship to Rensselaer.

To register online, go to www.mgmt.rpi.edu and click on Venture Forum 2000, or contact Jeanne Stefanik at ext. 8398.

10/2/00

Multimedia Installation Blurs Line Between Virtual and Reality

Kathleen Ruiz's new multimedia installation challenges video gamers to bring people back to life rather than gun them down. In doing so, Ruiz, assistant professor of electronic arts, says she's challenging the fine line between the virtual and the real. Her work is on display at Woodstock Artists Association in Woodstock, N.Y., through Oct. 16.

"The installation comments on the observation of violence in computer games and the emotionality of their users," Ruiz says. "It also inspires dialogue and offers new alternatives for interacting in virtual environments. We can use 3-D narratives that express more of the human condition-poetic, personal, satirical, comical, etc … We can use the technology to express other things than simply killing each other."

Using a computer console, viewers sit on a toy chest and aim a gun at objects on the screen. The gun hits a dead woman who comes back to life, or targets a missile, which then turns into a flower or butterfly-objects that symbolized peace, love, and "flower power" of the 1960s peace movement. The game is accompanied by the sound of harps and other soothing music.

The installation also includes mural-size photos, culled from a series of photographs Ruiz took of computer game participants. The photographs create a cinematic illusion of guns firing that catch the viewer in an imaginary crossfire. A nearby video depicts participants, sweating and grimacing, engrossed in virtual games of death and war.

10/2/00

Feeser Honored by ASCE

Larry J. Feeser, professor of civil engineering, has been elected an honorary member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). This is the highest honor that members of the civil engineering profession can bestow upon their peers, and just six were selected this year.

Feeser, who is also a fellow of ASCE, is honored for "the advancement of engineering education and practice as the father of the integration of interactive computer graphics into engineering curricula." Feeser configured the necessary hardware, software, and physical facilities for this landmark initiative that was subsequently replicated by universities throughout the world. In addition, as part of a research project for the Federal Highway Administration, he produced the first-ever computer animation to simulate driving on highways that had been designed but not yet constructed.

He also oversaw the design of facilities, and led efforts to generate operating funds, for the $30 million New York State Center for Industrial Innovation (CII) at Rensselaer.

Feeser previously served as chair of the civil engineering department, associate dean of engineering, and vice provost for computing and information technology at Rensselaer. He spent a year at the Swiss Federal Institute of technology in Zurich as an NSF Fellow and two years as a Ford Foundation Teaching Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University.

He is a member and former president of the New York State Society of Professional Engineers, and is immediate past chair of the Engineering Foundation, a department of the United Engineering Trustees, which fosters interaction among the major engineering societies.

10/2/00

"AQ" Matters More Than "IQ," Says Management Professor

In the entrepreneurial food chain, AQ — one's ability to persevere in the face of adversity — may matter more than IQ, according to Gideon Markman, assistant professor of management in the Lally School of Management and Technology. In other words, the ability to overcome what appear to be insurmountable business and technological difficulties is probably more important than the idea or the opportunity itself.

Markman tested the AQ of a group of 200 patent inventors, building on the work of Paul Stoltz, author of Adversity Quotient. All the participants in the study invented patentable technology. What Markman found was that entrepreneurial inventors who used their patents to start companies had higher AQs than those who didn't use their patents for that purpose.

Additionally, the higher a patent inventor's AQ, the more financially successful they were. Markman says that measuring AQ could be a crystal ball for venture capitalists and corporate entrepreneurship; AQ measures can be used to screen and identify technical people who will successfully champion new business units.

"Prospective entrepreneurs are presenting investors with new, complex, and sometimes highly uncertain technologies," Markman says. "And while VC's may assess the technology, industry, and market with some accuracy, they are rather uncertain on how to assess an entrepreneur's potential. Measuring a technical inventor's AQ may substantially improve backers' investment portfolios."

"These people do not consider themselves victims of adversity, but rather rise to any obstacle or challenge put in their way," Markman says. "To them adversity is a speed bump, not a mountain. They don't just identify opportunities, they successfully nurture and harvest them."

10/2/00