ATRENSSELAER

		NEWS BRIEFS Rensselaer on the Move Earthquake Effects on Pipeline Systems Rensselaer is partnering with Cornell University to test the effects of earthquakes on underground pipeline systems used for water, electric power, gas and liquid fuel, telecommunications, transportation, and waste. The four-year project is funded by a $2 million National Science Foundation Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation research grant. Through the use of physical modeling and simulation, the research team will test welded steel pipe and polyethylene pipe to improve the safety and reliability of critical underground infrastructure by improving future design and construction methods, according to Michael O’Rourke, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rensselaer and co-principal investigator on the critical lifelines research team. Molecularium™ Show Wins Domie Award “Molecularium: Riding Snowflakes,” (TM) a state-of-the-art computer-generated animation for digital dome theaters designed to spark the interest of young children in the atoms and molecules that constitute our world, won the Domie Award for Best Show Excerpt at DomeFest 2005 at the LodeStar Astronomy Center in Albuquerque, N.M. “DomeFest is all about innovation, about pushing envelopes of storytelling, design, art, technology and techniques for the exciting and seamlessly unlimited medium we call ‘FullDome,’” said David Beining, DomeFest 2005 chair and LodeStar director. The Molecularium project was conceived by Linda Schadler, Rensselaer professor of materials science and engineering. It was developed as a major effort of the education and outreach program of Rensselaer’s National Science Foundation-funded Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center for Directed Assembly of Nanostructures. LRC Launches Ph.D. Program Rensselaer’s Lighting Research Center has established a new doctoral program, in response to increasing interest in a program that offers the highest academic credential in lighting. The Ph.D. in architectural sciences with a concentration in lighting is one of the first interdisciplinary doctoral degrees offered by a major university in the field of architecture. The new degree will allow students more time to concentrate on in-depth research in lighting, and will include formal courses in such areas as the physics of light, lighting technology, design, research design, and human factors of lighting.

Nanotechnology
Tiny Brushes Have Big Impact
Researchers at Rensselaer have created a line of brushes whose bristles, made from carbon nanotubes, are so small that a thousand of them could fit inside a strand of hair.

Class of 2009
Well-Rounded Scholars
A Rensselaer undergraduate team has won the 2005 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Award in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling, besting competitors from Harvard University, MIT, and others.

Campaign Update
Change the World Challenge Begins
Entrepreneur Sean O’Sullivan ’85 has donated $1 million to create the “Change the World Challenge,” an initiative to support entrepreneurship education and stimulate ideas to improve the human condition. The program was officially launched Sept. 17 with the first round of $1,000 awards presented to five Rensselaer students.

Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center
EMPAC 360 Dazzles Crowd
Rensselaer’s Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) marked the midpoint between groundbreaking and opening with a sunset performance around the site on Sept. 8. A crowd of approximately 2,000 — including students, faculty, staff, families, and members of the Troy community — attended the evening presentation that featured local, national, and international performers.

Lighting Research Center
Redefining Roadway Lighting Guidelines
The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer has been awarded a contract from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP), a division of the National Research Council’s Transportation Research Board (TRB), to redefine national roadway lighting guidelines. The three-year, $800,000 project is designed to improve the operational efficiency of roadway lighting and reduce automobile crashes.

Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering
Easing Seizures
Rensselaer researchers are developing a tiny, highly efficient heat spreader to be used in a new device to be implanted in the brains of patients who suffer from severe epileptic seizures. The implant device is designed to detect and arrest epileptic seizures as they begin by cooling a small region of the brain, thereby effectively blocking the erratic electrical activity.

Fuel Cell Research
Developing Leaders
As part of its continued expansion of energy research, Rensselaer has launched a $4.8 million novel interdisciplinary program to train doctoral students in fuel cell science and engineering. The program is supported by a $3.2 million, first-of-its-kind fuel cell research education grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) combined with a $1.6 million investment by Rensselaer.

Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy
Mapping the Milky Way
Heidi Newberg, associate professor of physics, applied physics, and astronomy, is chairing the science working group of a new project focused on mapping the Milky Way Galaxy’s structure and stellar makeup and compiling data on its origins and evolution. The recently announced Milky Way survey project, the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE), is one of three new projects included in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II (SDSS-II), a three-year extension of a scientific undertaking that will complete the largest survey of the universe.

Chemical and Biological Engineering
Students Compete in Car Challenge
Five Rensselaer chemical and biological engineering undergraduates traveled to Glasgow, Scotland, to compete in the International Chem-E-Car Challenge on July 10. The Rensselaer team was one of three U.S. teams in the competition, which included a dozen teams from universities around the world.