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Campus News: Week of September
4, 2001
President
To Host Town Meeting
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| President
Jackson answers questions from students at last September's
town meeting. |
Campus members
are urged to attend a Town Meeting hosted by President Jackson
on Thursday, Sept. 13, from 4 to 6 p.m. in Room 308 of the Darrin
Communications Center. Titled "State of the Institute: Excellence
in the First-Year Highest Priorities," the presentation will
include updates on plans for a new biotechnology and interdisciplinary
studies building and an electronic media and performing arts center.
Refreshments will be served.
Those of
you from off campus, or those who cannot attend the event, are
encouraged to watch the live stream at http://asms.rpi.edu/townmeeting.
A
Biotechnology Solution to Sticky Mussels
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Georges
Belfort and Ananthakrishnan Sethuraman, a graduate student
who recently joined the project.
Photo: Thomas Griffin |
Researchers
at Rensselaer have found a link between the protein that acts
as glue in mussels' feet and the molecular makeup of the surface
to which they adhere. Understanding this relationship has applications
for the development of non-stick surfaces for marine environments,
as well as for biomedical procedures and drug development.
Georges
Belfort, professor of chemical engineering, and his graduate student,
Brian Frank, used Mytilus edulis foot protein of saltwater
mussels and seven different polymer surfaces to test for adsorption.
They discovered that if the polymer's surface energy—which
is a measure of how likely it is to attract or repel objects—was
lower than that of the mussel protein, then the mussels would
not stick well. If it was higher, they would.
"If
you know the surface energy you can quickly determine how
well the surface will adsorb protein. Using this technique
will make it easier to develop non-stick paints for boats,
materials for catheters, and even filters for protein separation
in drug making."
— Georges
Belfort—
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According
to Belfort, using surface energy to determine adhesion could be
more cost effective than testing many different surfaces. "If
you know the surface energy you can quickly determine how well
the surface will adsorb protein. Using this technique will make
it easier to develop non-stick paints for boats, materials for
catheters, and even filters for protein separation in drug making,"
said Belfort.
Belfort
believes that adhesion mechanism of the saltwater mussel used
in his work could be similar to other mussel species. If so, the
same method for developing non-stick surfaces could be employed
to combat damage from the zebra mussels to boats, docks, and other
underwater surfaces. This would be good news for New York state
waterways where the fight against zebra mussels is ongoing.
Two
Students Receive Prestigious Fulbright Scholarships
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| Photo:
Thomas Griffin |
Two
graduate students, Dean Nieusma and Elizabeth Press, have been
awarded prestigious Fulbright student grants. They are the first
Rensselaer students to receive the awards, which were recently
announced by the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright
Foreign Scholarship Board.
"A Fulbright Scholarship is the pinnacle of achievement
for any student," said President Shirley Ann Jackson. "Two
of our students representing Rensselaer as Fulbright Scholars
is outstanding. Dean and Elizabeth embody the excellence and brilliance
of our graduate researchers at Rensselaer. We congratulate them
on this exciting opportunity."
Two
graduate students, Dean Nieusma and Elizabeth Press, have
been awarded prestigious Fulbright student grants. They are
the first Rensselaer students to receive the awards.
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Nieusma, a doctoral candidate in science and technology studies,
will conduct a nine-month ethnographic study of technology design
practices in Sri Lanka.
"I'm particularly interested in design work targeted to
the needs of economically marginalized peoples as an alternative
to consumer-driven design, which is the predominant model in the
U.S.," says Nieusma. "People can't afford for these
inventions to fail, they're obviously going to be socially invested
in them."
For example, he might study how villagers build a water turbine
from raw materials to turn a nearby waterfall into an energy source.
Press, a graduate student in the Master of Fine Arts program,
will spend one year in the Dominican Republic. She will teach
at-risk students basic video editing skills in a project she devised,
called "Video Connections."
Students from the Dominican Republic will express themselves
in video essays and exchange them with those made by students
at The Ark, a technology-training program in Troy's Taylor Apartment
Complex. The two groups will interpret, translate, and respond
to each other's videos.
"Using art, especially video art, as a form of expression
gives children an opportunity to explore and express their feelings
of social conditions," says Press. "Creating a respectful
dialogue between cultures and countries can create a climate in
which peace can grow."
Rensselaer's Fulbright committee includes William Jennings, interim
dean of the graduate school; Gary Gabriele, dean of undergraduate
education; and Dennis Gornic, assistant dean of the graduate school
and Fulbright program adviser.
Hold
the Date for Fall Fest
The second annual Fall Fest, a free community event sponsored
by Rensselaer, will be held Saturday, Sept. 15, 2-8 p.m. at the
Approach on 8th Street.
The
second annual Fall Fest, a free community event sponsored
by Rensselaer, will be held Saturday, Sept. 15,
2-8 p.m. at the Approach on 8th Street.
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Among the performances featured during the afternoon festival
will be Odetta, Chris Thomas King's 21st Century Blues, Luther
"Guitar Jr." Johnson, the Boston Horns, and the Jazz
Ensemble.
Child entertainment will include mimes, clowns, face painting,
and dish twirlers. The Junior Museum also will have an open house.
Also part of the festivities will be the Physics Magic Show, headed
by Philip Casabella, associate chair of the Physics Department.
Fall Fest celebrates what President Shirley Ann Jackson has dubbed
"communiversity," Rensselaer's commitment to connect
the university with the local community
Rensselaer
Plan Update: Government and Community Relations
 Working
with other portfolios to position Rensselaer as a leader in shaping
federal and state research and technology agendas is a major goal
in the Office of Government and Community Relations' 2002 performance
plan, says Vice President Larry Snavley.
"The
core enterprise of Government and Community Relations is public
policy advocacy that shapes government agendas, and generates
resources to support the Rensselaer Plan's strategic research
and education initiatives," Snavley says.
The office is in the process of hiring a director to coordinate
an enhanced community-relations program and expand local outreach.
The new director, who will work with local officials and community
groups, will become an integral part of Rensselaer's efforts to
advance the new biotechnology building and the electronic media
and performing arts center.
Snavley's
office also is working to identify programmatic and infrastructure
funding opportunities in federal and state government that support
institutewide biotechnology, information technology, and electronic-media
initiatives. In addition, the office is seeking funds to help
underwrite the costs of first-year experience programs and campus
diversity efforts.
The
office is working with other portfolios to increase Rensselaer's
presence in Washington, and bring to campus selected policy makers
from the Administration and Congress. During the next six weeks,
representatives from NASA, the National Institutes of Health,
and the Department of Defense will visit Rensselaer. The establishment
of a Washington office also is being explored.
Acting
on Rensselaer's commitment to "communiversity," Government
and Community Relations will continue to generate government funds
for major research, infrastructure, and economic development projects
in the Capital Region, such as the I-90 Connector.
In
addition, the office is working with national and state associations
to help shape financial-aid policy and revitalize student support
in science end engineering.
A
Week To Remember
Rensselaer's newest students, the Class of 2005,
took part in a series of events Aug. 21-26 designed to introduce
them to the campus, the surrounding community, and most importantly,
to each other.
Students took part in a variety of wilderness, cultural/historical,
and community service activities, including tours of local art
institutions, leadership training, and musical and theatrical
activities. A "Communiversity Welcome Festival" was held in downtown
Troy for new and returning members of the Rensselaer community.
Center
for Academic Transformation Awards $2 Million in Grants for Enhancing
Courses With Technology
Ten
colleges and universities across the country will receive $2 million
in grants from the Pew Grant Program in Course Redesign from the
Center for Academic Transformation at Rensselaer. The grants were
announced by Center Executive Director Carol Twigg. Full descriptions
of the projects can be found at www.center.rpi.edu/pewgrant/rd3award.html.
This is the third and final round of a three-year, $6 million
grant cycle funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, bringing the
total number of projects funded to 30. The purpose of the program
is to encourage colleges and universities to redesign their approaches
to instruction using technology to achieve cost savings as well
as quality enhancements.
The 10 institutions will receive grants of $200,000 each for
course redesign projects with the potential to impact significant
student numbers and generate substantial cost savings. The focus
is on large-enrollment, introductory classes.
"Information technology allows us to rethink all aspects
of how we teach and how students learn," says Twigg. "By
using IT to support a reconfiguration of a full course rather
than a single class, we can make radical improvements in both
the quality and cost of how we teach. The key to these redesigns
is the commitment to collaboration and coordination among all
faculty teaching the course. Once that commitment is made, IT
enables instructional resources to be collaboratively developed,
captured, stored, shared, and continuously revised."
Below is a list of the 10 institutions receiving the grants,
and corresponding links to more information about each school's
project:
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