News Archive

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) was awarded two of 11 new technology projects from the Advanced Robotics and Manufacturing (ARM) Institute. The new investment totals more than $7.9 million across the 11 projects. ARM selects projects that address critical needs within the manufacturing sector and aims to combine resources and research of industry, academia, and government to advance critical manufacturing technologies.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Michael Amitay, James L. Decker ’45 Endowed Professor in Aerospace Engineering and director for the Center for Flow Physics and Control (CeFPaC), was elected as a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. The society is the only international professional body working to advance aeronautical art, science, and engineering around the world. With more than 25,000 members and corporate partners, the society is dedicated to moving research forward in the aerospace aviation and space communities through information sharing.

Steven Cramer, the William Weightman Walker Professor of Polymer Engineering and a professor in the Isermann Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering for “scientific and technological advances leading to new chromatographic materials, processes, and predictive tools for the purification of biopharmaceuticals.”

Food access is one of the largest social problems in the United States. The challenge of accessing healthy foods is especially pronounced in communities of disadvantaged populations. Research led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) proposes to develop a local food cooperation (LFC) program that integrates a state-level food hub network to enable the coordination of multiple regional food hubs, and regional farm to institution programs that address regional food insecurity and inequity.

A team of researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute led by Helen Zha, assistant professor in the Isermann Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, has been awarded a $745,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to explore sustainable alternatives to the synthetic textiles used in “fast fashion.”

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) will hold its 24th annual Black Families Technology Awareness Day on Saturday, February 4. The event, free and open to the public, is designed to introduce historically underrepresented students in grades K-12, their families, and educators to educational and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Fudong Han, Priti and Mukesh Chatter ’82 Career Development Chair in Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering, has been awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award for Electronic Transport in Sulfide-Based Lithium Solid Electrolytes. The NSF CAREEER award is presented to junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through research and education, and the integration of these endeavors in the context of their organizations’ missions.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) was awarded $740,000 for research and education from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The project is led by Professor Jie Lian, Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at RPI, and Prof. Shanbin Shi's co-PI project from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech).

In an article published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Dr. Deepak Vashishth and Joan Llabre, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, presented evidence of a link between Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, and diabetes. While recent evidence showed loss of bone mineral density with Alzheimer’s disease, this is the first study to demonstrate the effects of the Alzheimer’s disease phenotype on bone quality and link changes in bone and amyloid formation in the brain.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has a long history of training the next generation for career preparedness. With signing of the $250 billion CHIPS and Science Act, the U.S. need for career preparedness has never been greater. The new BYOND – Build Your Own NanoDevice — curriculum at RPI is an interdisciplinary program that invites students from the School of Engineering and the School of Science to work side by side in the lab and classroom. The increasing demand for nanotechnology and semiconductors creates a need for more advanced cleanroom operations. At RPI, the Micro and Nanofabrication Clean Room (MNCR) facility within the Center for Materials, Devices, and Integrated Systems (CMDIS) is offering the BYOND program for undergraduate students to start building a foundation and training for this career path. 

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) have been awarded one of 12 grants for space biology research that will advance NASA’s understanding of how organisms respond, acclimate, and adapt in space. These projects will all support NASA’s human space exploration project. 

Shifting customer shopping habits, exacerbated by the recent pandemic, have forced retailers to reimagine the way goods and services are handled. “Omni-channel services” — such as buy online and pickup in store, in-store returns, ship from store, and home delivery — have shifted the in-store logistics once done by shoppers to retailers.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) have published research in Molecular Pharmaceuticals predicting how proteins interact in drug development. The research, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is in collaboration with Amgen and University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. In the paper, researchers use a mathematical model to predict the viscosity of solutions of proteins to be used as drugs. This is critical in drug development as the viscosity determines the method of delivery — needle or IV.

In a perspective article published today in Nature Machine Intelligence, researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) Drs. Ge Wang, Pingkun Yan, and Chuang Niu presented “Medical Technology and AI (MeTAI)” in the metaverse that promises to develop new intelligent health care. This represents a multidisciplinary collaboration among academic and clinical researchers with University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University, Stony Brook University, industrial leaders from GE Healthcare and Canon Medical Research, and regulatory experts at the FDA and Puente Solutions.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will launch the Douglas A. Mercer ’77 Innovation and Exploration Laboratory at 10:30 a.m. on November 9 at the Russell Sage Dining Hall. Affectionately called the Mercer XLab, the facility aims to facilitate innovation in pedagogy and multiply learning opportunities by fostering interconnection among students and faculty. Mercer, a longtime supporter of his alma mater, originally made possible the Mercer Student Exploration Laboratory. Now, thanks to a $2 million gift, the laboratory is expanding in scope.

A team of researchers led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Edwin Fohtung, associate professor of materials science and engineering, has combined expertise in mathematics and condensed matter physics with technological advances to discover new properties of magnetic ferroelectric materials.  

Systems engineers and social scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) have been awarded $1.85 million by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the Future of Work program.

Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), through biomolecular research and testing, have discovered a potential topical therapeutic to treat monkeypox. 

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a “blanket” diagnosis applied to individuals with vastly differing behavioral as well as co-occurring medical conditions.  Using very large medical-record data sets, researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) have found that, not only can children be broken into subgroups based upon those co-occurring conditions, but that those subgroups are also associated with differing maternal prenatal risk factors. The research is published today in the journal Autism Research.

Rensselaer Professor Jie Lian has been awarded $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the Nuclear Energy University Research Program (NEUP) to conduct research and develop new materials that will make advanced nuclear reactors more resilient and economically efficient. Dr. Lian, the principle investigator of the project, will be joined by collaborators Rahul Rahul, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Suvranu De, Florida A&M University-Florida State University; Lu Cai, Idaho National Laboratory Program; Patrick Shower, GE Global Research Center; and Eric Brown, U.S.