Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Encyclopedia
Stephen Van Rensselaer
established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton
as the school's first senior professor and appointed the first board of trustees. The school opened on Monday, January 3, 1825 at the Old Bank Place, a building at the north end of Troy. Tuition was around $40 a semester. The fact that the school attracted students from as far as Ohio and Pennsylvania is attributed to the reputation of Eaton. Fourteen months of successful trial led to the incorporation of the school on March 21, 1826 by the State of New York. In its early years, the Rensselaer School resembled a graduate school more than it did a college, drawing graduates from many older institutions.
During this period, the Rensselaer School, renamed the Rensselaer Institute in 1832, was a small but vital center for technological research. The first Civil Engineering degrees in the United States were granted by the school in 1835, and many of the best remembered civil engineers of that time graduated from the school. Important visiting scholars included Joseph Henry
, who had previously studied under Amos Eaton
, and Thomas Davenport, who sold the world's first working electric motor
to the institute. In 1847, alumnus Benjamin Franklin Greene
became the new senior professor. Earlier he had done a thorough study of European technical schools to see how Rensselaer could be improved. In 1850 he reorganized the school into a three-year polytechnic institute with six technical schools. In 1861 the name was changed to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The severe conflagration of May 10, 1862, known as "The Great Fire" destroyed over 507 buildings in Troy and gutted 75 acres (303,514.5 m²) in the heart of the city. The "Infant School" building that housed the Institute at the time was destroyed in this fire. In response, the campus left the downtown for the hillside which offered potential for expansion.
RPI enjoyed a period of academic and resource expansion under the leadership of President Palmer Ricketts
. Named President in 1901, Ricketts liberalized the curriculum by adding the Department of Arts, Science, and Business Administration, in addition to the Graduate School. He also expanded the university’s resources and developed RPI into a true polytechnic institute by increasing the number of degrees offered from two to twelve; these included electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, biology, chemistry, and physics. During Rickett's tenure, enrollment increased from approximately 200 in 1900 to a high of 1700 in 1930.
Another period of expansion occurred following World War II
. The "Freshman Hill" residence complex was opened in 1953 followed by the completion of the Commons Dining Hall in 1954, two more halls in 1958, and three more in 1968. The year 1961 saw major progress in academics at the institute with the construction of the Gaerttner Linear Accelerator, then the most powerful in the world, and the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center. The current Student Union building was opened in 1967.
The next three decades brought continued growth with many new buildings (see 'Campus' below), and growing ties to industry. The "H-building", previously used for storage, became the home for the RPI incubator program, the first such program sponsored solely by a university. Shortly after this, RPI decided to invest $3 million in pavement, water and power on around 1200 acres (485.6 ha) of land it owned 5 miles (8 km) south of campus to create the Rensselaer Technology Park
. In 1982 the New York State legislature granted RPI $30 million to build the George M. Low Center for Industrial Innovation
, a center for industry-sponsored research and development.
In 1999, RPI gained attention when it was one of the first universities to implement a mandatory laptop computer program. 1999 also saw the arrival of President Shirley Ann Jackson, a former chairperson for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
. She instituted the "The Rensselaer Plan" (discussed below), an ambitious plan to revitalize the institute. Many advances have been made under the plan, and Jackson has enjoyed the ongoing support of the RPI Board of Trustees. However, her leadership style did not sit well with many faculty; on April 26, 2006, RPI faculty voted 149 to 155 in a failed vote of no-confidence in Jackson. On October 4, 2008, RPI celebrated the opening of the $220 million Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center
. That same year the national economic downturn resulted in the elimination of 98 positions across the Institute, about five percent of the workforce. Campus construction expansion continued, however, with the completion of the $92 million East Campus Athletic Village and opening of the new Blitman Commons residence hall in 2009.
With nearly two centuries of history and a high tech future in store, the Princeton Review remarks, “Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is simultaneously the oldest technological school in the country and the most modern school of technology in the U.S. It’s like George Jetson meets Archimedes.”
. The surrounding area is mostly residential neighborhoods, with the city of Troy lying at the base of the hill. The campus is bisected by 15th Street, with most of the athletic and housing facilities to the east, and the academic buildings to the west. An iconic footbridge spans the street, linking the two halves. Much of the campus features a series of Colonial Revival style structures built in the first three decades of the 20th century. Overall, the campus has enjoyed four periods of expansion:
, a building on the National Register of Historic Places
. Located at the base of the hill on the western edge of campus, it is currently the home of the Social and Behavioral Research Laboratory.
President Palmer Ricketts supervised the construction of the school's "Green Rooftop" Colonial Revival buildings that give much of the campus a distinct architectural style. Buildings constructed during this period include the Carnegie Building
(1906), Walker Laboratory (1907), Russell Sage Laboratory (1909), Pittsburgh Building (1912), Quadrangle Dormitories (1916–1927), Troy Building (1925), Amos Eaton Hall
(1928), Greene Building
(1931) and Ricketts Building (1935). Also built during this period was "The Approach" (1907), a massive ornate granite staircase found on the west end of campus. Originally linking RPI to the Troy Union Railroad station, it again serves as an important link between the city and the university.
After World War II
, the campus again underwent major expansion. Nine dormitories were built at the east edge of campus bordering Burdett Avenue, a location which came to be called "Freshman Hill." The Houston Field House
(1949) was reassembled, after being moved in pieces from its original Rhode Island
location. West Hall
, which was originally built in 1869 as a hospital, was acquired by the Institute in 1953. The ornate building is an example of French Second Empire architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1973. Another unique building is the Voorhees Computing Center (VCC). Originally built as St. Joseph’s Seminary chapel in 1933, it was once the institute's library, until the completion of the Folsom Library
in 1976. Interestingly, the new library, built adjacent to the computing center, was designed to match colors with the church, but is very dissimilar architecturally; it is an excellent example of the modern brutalist
style – a style that has invited comparisons with a parking garage
. The university was unsure of what to do with the church, or whether to keep it at all, but in 1979 the institute decided to preserve it and renovate it into a unique place for computer labs and facilities to support the institute's computing initiatives and today serves as the backbone for the institute's data and telephony infrastructure.
The modern campus features the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center (J-ROWL) (1961), Materials Research Center (MRC) (1965), Rensselaer Union (1967), Cogswell Laboratory (1971), Darrin Communications Center (DCC) (1973), Jonsson Engineering Center
(JEC) (1977), Low Center for Industrial Innovation (CII) (1987), a public school building which was converted into Academy Hall (1990), and the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
(2004). Although rarely used by students, tunnels connect the Low Center, DCC, JEC, and Science Center. A tenth dormitory named Barton Hall was added to Freshman Hill in August 2000, featuring the largest rooms available for freshmen.
On October 4, 2008, the university celebrated the grand opening of the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center
(EMPAC) situated on the west edge of campus. The building was constructed on the precipice of the hill, with the main entrance on top. Upon entering, elevated walkways lead into a 1,200 seat concert hall. Most of the building is encased in a glass exoskeleton, with an atrium-like space between it and the "inner building". Adjacent to and underneath the main auditorium there is a 400-seat theater, offices, and three studios with 40 feet (12.2 m) to 60 feet (18.3 m) ceilings.
In October 2007, tentative plans were announced by President Jackson for a major addition to the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center, which would add 100000 square feet (9,290.3 m²) to 120000 square feet (11,148.4 m²) of lab space. Design mock-ups showed a new adjacent building built next to the Science Center, with a glass-enclosed atrium spanning the space between the old building and the new. The plans were further elaborated on by Jackson at the 2008 Town Meeting. It was announced that under the plan the Hirsch Observatory
would be renovated as well. Vice President Claude Rounds said the budget had not been worked out in full but the project should cost somewhere between $70 to $75 million. Since 2008, no further official announcements on the project have been made and the status of the project is unknown.
In 2008 RPI announced the purchase of the former Rensselaer Best Western
Inn, located at the base of the hill, along with plans to transform it into a new residence hall. After extensive renovations, the residence hall was dedicated on May 15, 2009 as the Howard N. Blitman, P.E. ’50 Residence Commons. It houses about 300 students in 148 rooms and includes a fitness center, dining hall, and conference area. The new residence hall is part of a growing initiative to involve students in the Troy community and help revitalize the downtown. RPI owns and operates three office buildings in downtown Troy, the Rice and Heley buildings and the historic W. & L.E. Gurley Building. RPI also owns the Proctor's Theater
building in Troy which was purchased in 2004, with the intention of converting it into office space. Due to the historic nature of the building, there was resistance by the Troy community and RPI has not done any redevelopment. Advocates are hoping to restore the building back to its original use.
and a distance learning center in Groton, Connecticut
. These centers are used by graduates and working professionals and are managed by the Hartford branch of RPI, Rensselaer at Hartford
. At Hartford, graduate degrees are offered in Business Administration, Management
, Computer Science
, Computer and Systems Engineering
, Electrical Engineering
, Engineering Science, Mechanical Engineering
, and Information Technology
. There are also a number of certificate programs and skills training programs for working professionals.
RPI also has a location in Malta, New York
for graduates of the Navy Nuclear Power Training School (NNPTS) who work at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory
's (KAPL) Kesselring
Site Operation in nearby West Milton
. Faculty from the Troy campus provide the teaching. Students enter with one year's worth of coursework and in two to three years graduate with a BS in Nuclear Engineering, Engineering Physics, or Engineering Science.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has five schools: the School of Architecture, the School of Engineering, the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, the Lally School of Management & Technology
, and the School of Science. The School of Engineering is the largest by enrollment, followed by the School of Science, the School of Management, the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and the School of Architecture. There also exists an interdisciplinary program in Information Technology
that began in the late 1990s, programs in prehealth and prelaw, Reserve Officers' Training Corps
(ROTC) for students desiring commissions as officers in the armed forces, a program in Cooperative Education
(Co-Op), and domestic and international exchange programs. All together, the university offers around 140 degree programs in nearly 60 fields that lead to bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. In addition to traditional majors, RPI has around a dozen special interdisciplinary programs, such as Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences (GSAS),
Design, Innovation, and Society (DIS), Minds & Machines, and Product Design and Innovation (PDI). RPI is a technology-oriented university; all buildings and residence hall rooms have hard-wired high speed internet access, most of the campus buildings have wireless, and all incoming freshmen have been required to have a laptop computer since 1999. In 2004, Forbes
ranked RPI #1 for having the "most connected campus."
Nationally, RPI is a member of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
(NAICU) and the NAICU's University and College Accountability Network
(U-CAN).
With the arrival of the current president, Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, came the "Rensselaer Plan" announced in 1999. Its goal is to achieve greater prominence for RPI as a technological research university. Various aspects of the plan include bringing in a larger graduate student population and new research faculty, and increasing participation in undergraduate research, international exchange programs, and "living and learning communities." Financially speaking, the plan uses half its money for research
, a quarter for scholarships, and a quarter for campus platforms, such as athletic facilities. So far, there have been a number of changes under the plan: new infrastructure such as the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
and Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations (CCNI) was built to support new programs, and application numbers have increased. In fact, in the three years between 2005 and 2008 application numbers doubled from 5,500 to 11,000. According to Jared Cohon
, president of Carnegie Mellon University
“Change at Rensselaer in the last five years has occurred with a scope and swiftness that may be without precedent in the recent history of American higher education.” Although the number of doctoral students has increased, the plan has not increased the overall number of graduate students. The number of graduates on the Troy campus has dropped from a high of 2,617 in 1999 to 1228 in 2007, a decrease of more than 50%. These pages show a decrease from 1839 in 1999 to 1228 in 2007, a decrease of 36% (Hartford students were not included in the 1999 figure).
The ability to attract greater research funds is needed to meet the goals of the plan, and the university has set a goal of $100 million annually. As of 2006, research expenditures have reached $90 million per annum. The university recognizes the relatively small size of its endowment
compared to its competition (cf. Case Western Reserve U., University of Rochester, etc.). To help raise money the university mounted a $1 billion capital campaign, of which the public phase began in September 2004 and was expected to finish by 2008. In 2001, a major milestone of the campaign was the pledging of an unrestricted gift of $360 million by an anonymous donor, believed to be the largest such gift to a U.S. university at the time. The university had been a relative stranger to such generosity as the prior largest single gift was $15 million. By September 2006, the $1 billion goal has been exceeded much in part to an in-kind contribution of software commercially-valued at $513.95 million by the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE). In light of this, the board of trustees announced a new goal of $1.4 billion by June 30, 2009. The new goal was met by October 1, 2008.
. The same source ranks RPI 24th for "Best Value" in undergraduate education. In 2005, the School of Engineering was ranked 16th in the nation for undergraduates, and 34th in the nation for graduates. Four of the graduate engineering programs are ranked in the top 20 (electrical engineering, materials science and engineering, industrial engineering and mechanical engineering), seven of 11 are ranked in the top 25, and all are ranked in the top 40 in the nation. In 2006 U.S. News put the graduate applied mathematics program at 20th.
The Newsweek
/Kaplan
2007 Educational College Guide named Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute one of the 25 "New Ivies", a group of 25 schools described as providing an education equivalent to schools in the Ivy League
.
The Lally School of Management and Technology’s entrepreneurship programs ranked 21st in the nation, and its technological entrepreneurship program was ranked sixth by Entrepreneur Magazine
. The Lally School's corporate strategy program was ranked eleventh in the nation by BusinessWeek
magazine.
The Electronic Arts program is one of the highest ranked departments at RPI. For four years in a row U.S. News ranked the iEAR program 8th in the nation: 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. The Master of Fine Arts in multimedia/visual communications program was ranked 6th in 2008 and 2009 by U.S. News.
In 2008 a new ranking called America's Best Colleges released by Forbes.com placed RPI at 49, and then at 42 a year later in 2009. In 2009 Forbes.com and Payscale.com reported that among US colleges, RPI had the 9th highest average starting salary and 13th highest average mid-career salary for graduates, based on actual earnings information. The 2008 THES - QS World University Rankings
ranks RPI at 174 among the top 200 universities worldwide for overall academics, and number 50 among the top 50 universities for technology. The 2010-2011 Times Higher Education rankings show RPI moving up to 104 among the world's top 200 universities. The Global University Ranking, which utilizes a combination of major international ranking systems, ranked RPI in the range 74-77 in 2009.
RPI has established six areas of research as institute priorities: biotechnology
, energy and the environment
, nanotechnology
, computation and information technology
, and media and the arts
. Advances in these fields have the potential to effect dramatic transformations in 21st century society.
RPI is home to the United States' first on-campus business incubator, which has helped start over 180 companies in its lifetime, with a survival rate of about 80%. One of the largest companies to have originated in the incubator is MapInfo
, a major publisher of mapping and geographic information systems software. Others incubator success stories include Vicarious Visions
, a well known maker of video games, and CORESense, Inc., a leading provider of multi-channel retail software. RPI operates the Rensselaer Technology Park
, which is home to over 50 technologically oriented companies. The 1250 acres (505.9 ha) park is about 5 miles (8 km) south of the campus along the Hudson River. Park tenants collaborate with faculty and students on research projects and hire students for internships, co-ops, and employment.
Some notable research centers operated by RPI are the Terahertz Research Center, Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
, Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center, New York State Center for Polymer Synthesis, Darrin Fresh Water Institute, Center for Automation Technologies and Systems, and the Lighting Research Center.
The Lighting Research Center (LRC) is the leading university-based research center devoted to lighting, offering the world's only M.S. degree in lighting. Since 1988 it has built an international reputation as a reliable source for objective information about lighting technologies, applications, and products. The LRC provides training programs for government agencies, utilities, contractors, lighting designers, and other lighting professionals.
RPI conducts nuclear research at the 60MeV Gaerttner Linear Accelerator
(LINAC) Laboratory. The LINAC is used primarily for the testing of materials, but there is also ongoing research in neutron generation
and other technologies. The lab made the news with discoveries regarding bubble fusion
and portable pyroelectric fusion
devices. Other important research facilities include the geotechnical centrifuge, used for civil engineering simulations, and RPI's array of six subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic wind tunnel
s.
In May 2006, RPI announced a partnership with IBM and New York State to create the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations, a supercomputing center to be used for nanotechnology research. As of June 2008, the $100 million center is North America's most powerful university-based supercomputing center and the 22nd most powerful supercomputing center of any kind in the world.
In the 2008–2009 academic year, RPI's enrollment included 5,534 resident undergraduate, 1,055 resident graduate, 722 graduate students on the Hartford campus and 71 distance learning graduate students. The institute attracts students from every state and 92 foreign countries. Among class of 2014, 80% were in the top 10% of their high school class. The average high school GPA of the class of 2013 was a 3.9 and the average SAT score was 1420. The acceptance rate dropped between 2005–11 and in 2011 was 37.1%. The yield rate (percentage of admitted students who attend) was 27.3% in 2008.
Around 17% of students received the RPI medal/scholarship in high school, which is a merit scholarship of $15,000 a year. Altogether about 90% of students receive either need-based or merit-based financial aid.
As is common among universities, the male-to-female ratio does vary between schools and individual majors. One of the stated goals of the Rensselaer Plan is to "reflect the diversity of the global community" in the student body, which includes encouraging more women to enroll.
, men's and women's ice hockey compete at the Division I level in ECAC Hockey. The official nickname of some of the school's Division III teams was changed in 1995 from the Engineers to the Red Hawks. However the hockey, football, cross-country, tennis, and track and field teams all chose to retain the Engineers name. The Red Hawks name was, at the time, very unpopular among the student body; a Red Hawk mascot was frequently taunted with thrown concessions and chants of "kill the chicken!" In contrast, the official hockey mascot known as The Puckman has always been very popular. The Puckman is an anthropomorphic hockey puck with an engineer's helmet.
During the 1970s and 80s, one RPI cheer was:
The school features a competitive Division I ice hockey
team, the Engineers, who won NCAA
national titles in 1954 and 1985. Depending on how the rules are interpreted, the RPI men's ice hockey team may have the longest winning streak on record for a Division I team; in the 1984-85 season it went undefeated for 30 games, but one game was against the University of Toronto
, a non-NCAA team. Continuing into the 1985-86 season, RPI continued undefeated over 38 games, including two wins over Toronto. Adam Oates
and Daren Puppa
, two players during that time, both went on to become stars in the NHL. Joe Juneau
, who played from 1987 to 1991, also spent many years in the NHL. Graeme Townshend
who also played in the late 1980s, had a brief NHL career. He is the first person of Jamaican ancestry to play in the National Hockey League
.
The hockey team plays a significant role in the campus's culture, drawing thousands of fans each week to the Houston Field House
during the season. The team's popularity even sparked the tradition of the hockey line, where students lined up for season tickets months in advance of the on-sale date. Today, the line generally begins a week or more before ticket sales. Another tradition since 1978 has been the "Big Red Freakout!" game held close to the first weekend of February. Fans usually dress in the schools colors Red and White, and gifts such as tee-shirts are distributed en masse. In hockey the school's biggest rival has always been the upstate engineering school Clarkson University
.
team won the national championship
in 1952. The lacrosse team also represented the United States in the 1948 Olympics
in London. Ned Harkness
coached the lacrosse and ice hockey teams, winning national championships in both sports.
. RPI Football had their most successful season in 2003, where they finished 11-2 and lost to St. Johns (Minn.) in the NCAA Division III semi final game.
The Houston Field House is a 4,780-seat multi-purpose arena located on the RPI campus. It opened in 1949 and is home to the RPI Engineers men's and women's ice hockey teams. The Field House was recently renovated starting in 2007 as part of the major campus improvement project to build the East Campus Athletic Village. The renovations included locker rooms upgrades, addition of a new weight room, and a new special reception room dedicated to Ned Harkness. Additionally, as part of the renovations, solar panels were added installed on the roof to supply power to the building through a government grant.
As part of the Rensselaer Plan, the Institute recently completed a major project to improve its athletic facilities with the East Campus Athletic Village. The plan included construction of a new and much larger 4,842 seat football stadium, a basketball arena with seating for 1,200, a new 50-meter pool, an indoor track and field complex, new tennis courts, new weight rooms and a new sports medicine center. The Institute broke ground on August 26, 2007 and construction of the first phase is expected to last two years. The estimated cost of the project is $78 million for phase one and $35–$45 million for phase two. Since the completion of the new stadium, the bleachers on the Class of '86 football field on the central campus have been removed and the field has become an open space. In the future the new space could be used for expansions of the academic buildings, but for now members of the campus planning team foresee a "historic landscape with different paths and access ways for students and vehicles alike".
The students of RPI have created and participate in a variety of student-run clubs and organizations funded by the Student Union. The Union is unusual in that it is entirely student-run and its operations are paid for by activity fees. About 170 of these organizations are funded by the Student Union, while another thirty, which consist mostly of political and religious organizations, are self-supporting. In 2006 the Princeton Review ranked RPI second for "more to do on campus."
Phalanx is RPI's Senior Honor Society. It was founded in 1912, when Edward Dion and the Student Council organized a society to recognize those RPI students who have distinguished themselves among their peers in the areas of leadership, service, and devotion to the alma mater. It is a fellowship of the most active in student activities and has inducted over 1300 members since its founding.
Greek organizations are popular with about 30 social fraternities and 5 sororities. There are two coed fraternities, Psi Upsilon, a social fraternity, while the other, Alpha Phi Omega, is a service fraternity
. As such, about a third of men are in fraternities and about a fifth of women are in sororities. See the List of RPI fraternities and sororities.
RPI has around twenty intramural sports organizations, many of which are broken down into different divisions based on level of play. Greek organizations compete in them as well as independent athletes. There are also thirty-nine club sports.
Given the university's proximity to the Berkshires, Green Mountains, and Adirondacks, the Ski Club and the Outing Club are some of the largest groups on campus. The Ski Club offers weekly trips to local ski areas during the winter months, while the Outing Club offers trips on a weekly basis for a variety of activities.
The Rensselaer Polytechnic
is the student-run weekly school newspaper. The Poly prints about 7000 copies each week, and distributes them around campus. Although it is the Union club with the largest budget, The Poly receives no subsidy from the Union, and obtains all funding through the sale of ads. There is also a popular student-run magazine called Statler & Waldorf.
RPI has an improvisational comedy group, Sheer Idiocy, which performs several shows a semester, as well as a sketch comedy troupe, Experimental Error. There are also several music groups ranging from a cappella
groups such as the Rensselyrics, the Rusty Pipes, Partial Credit and Duly Noted, to several instrumental groups such as the Orchestra, the Jazz Band, and a classical choral group, the Rensselaer Concert Choir.
Another notable organization on campus is WRPI
, the campus radio station. WRPI differs from most college radio in that it serves a 75 miles (120.7 km) radius including the greater Albany
area. With 10 kW of broadcasting power, WRPI maintains a stronger signal than nearly all college radio stations and some commercial stations. WRPI currently broadcasts on 91.5 FM in the Albany area.
The RPI Players is an on-campus theater group that was formed in 1929. The Players resided in the Old Gym until 1965 when they moved to their present location at the 15th Street Lounge. This distinctive red shingled building had been a USO hall for the US Army before being purchased by RPI. The Players have staged over 275 productions in its history.
and convocation
, also played and sung by the Pep Band
at hockey and football games. It was published in the first book of Songs of Rensselaer printed in 1913.
Since 2008, Dr. Jackson's administration has led an effort to form the CLASS Initiative ("Clustered Learning Advocacy and Support for Students"), which requires all sophomores to live on campus and to live with special "residence cluster deans".
The transition to this program began in early 2010 among some resistance from some fraternities and students who had planned to live off campus.
Several notable 19th century civil engineers graduated from RPI. These include the visionary of the transcontinental railroad, Theodore Judah
, Brooklyn Bridge
engineer Washington Roebling
, George W. G. Ferris (who designed and built the original Ferris Wheel
) and Leffert L. Buck
, the chief engineer of the Williamsburg Bridge
in NYC.
Many RPI graduates have gone on to change the world with their inventions. Famous among these inventors are Allen B. Dumont
('24), creator of the first commercial television; Keith D. Millis
('38), inventor of ductile iron
; Ted Hoff
('58), father of the microprocessor; Raymond Tomlinson ('63), often credited with the invention of e-mail; inventor of digital camera Steven Sasson
and Curtis Priem
('82), designer of the first video graphics processor and co-founder of NVIDIA
.
In addition to NVIDIA, RPI graduates have also gone on to found or co-found major companies such as John Wiley and Sons, Texas Instruments
, Fairchild Semiconductor
, PSINet
, MapInfo
, Adelphia Communications, Level 3 Communications
, Garmin
, and Bugle Boy
. Several RPI graduates have played a part in the US space program; graduate George Low
was manager of NASA for the Apollo 11 project and served as president of RPI. Alumni astronauts include John L. Swigert Jr., Richard Mastracchio
, Gregory R. Wiseman
, and space tourist Dennis Tito
. There are also several political figures from RPI, including federal judge Arthur J. Gajarsa
, director of DARPA Tony Tether
, MA-1
representative John Olver
and Senators Mark Shepard
(VT) and George R. Dennis
(MD). Notable hockey players include Stanley Cup winner and former NHL All Star Mike McPhee
(1982), two-time Calder Cup winner Neil Little
(1994), former NHL All Rookie Joé Juneau
(1991), and former NHL All Stars Adam Oates
(1985) and Daren Puppa
(1985).
Other notable alumni include physics Nobel Prize winner Ivar Giaever
(1964); director of Linux International Jon Hall (1977); president of the NCAA Myles Brand
(1964); adult stem cell pioneer James Fallon
; director Bobby Farrelly
and David Ferrucci the lead researcher in IBM's Watson/Jeopardy! project.
Stephen Van Rensselaer III
Stephen Van Rensselaer III was Lieutenant Governor of New York as well as a statesman, soldier, and land-owner, the heir to one of the largest estates in the New York region at the time, which made him the tenth richest American of all time, based on the ratio of his fortune to contemporary GDP...
established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton
Amos Eaton
Amos Eaton was a scientist and educator in the Troy, New York area.Eaton attended Williams College; after graduating in 1799 he studied law in New York City and was admitted to the state bar in 1802. He practiced law in Catskill, New York until 1810, when he was jailed on charges of forgery...
as the school's first senior professor and appointed the first board of trustees. The school opened on Monday, January 3, 1825 at the Old Bank Place, a building at the north end of Troy. Tuition was around $40 a semester. The fact that the school attracted students from as far as Ohio and Pennsylvania is attributed to the reputation of Eaton. Fourteen months of successful trial led to the incorporation of the school on March 21, 1826 by the State of New York. In its early years, the Rensselaer School resembled a graduate school more than it did a college, drawing graduates from many older institutions.
During this period, the Rensselaer School, renamed the Rensselaer Institute in 1832, was a small but vital center for technological research. The first Civil Engineering degrees in the United States were granted by the school in 1835, and many of the best remembered civil engineers of that time graduated from the school. Important visiting scholars included Joseph Henry
Joseph Henry
Joseph Henry was an American scientist who served as the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, as well as a founding member of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science, a precursor of the Smithsonian Institution. During his lifetime, he was highly regarded...
, who had previously studied under Amos Eaton
Amos Eaton
Amos Eaton was a scientist and educator in the Troy, New York area.Eaton attended Williams College; after graduating in 1799 he studied law in New York City and was admitted to the state bar in 1802. He practiced law in Catskill, New York until 1810, when he was jailed on charges of forgery...
, and Thomas Davenport, who sold the world's first working electric motor
Electric motor
An electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Most electric motors operate through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors to generate force...
to the institute. In 1847, alumnus Benjamin Franklin Greene
Benjamin Franklin Greene
Benjamin Franklin Greene was the third senior professor and first director of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.He was born in Lebanon, New Hampshire on October 25, 1817. He graduated from Rensselaer in 1842. He taught mathematics at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland from 1843-46. He...
became the new senior professor. Earlier he had done a thorough study of European technical schools to see how Rensselaer could be improved. In 1850 he reorganized the school into a three-year polytechnic institute with six technical schools. In 1861 the name was changed to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The severe conflagration of May 10, 1862, known as "The Great Fire" destroyed over 507 buildings in Troy and gutted 75 acres (303,514.5 m²) in the heart of the city. The "Infant School" building that housed the Institute at the time was destroyed in this fire. In response, the campus left the downtown for the hillside which offered potential for expansion.
1900-present
| Enrollment History: | |
|---|---|
| 1825: 10 students | |
| 1850: 53 students | |
| 1900: 225 students | |
| 1910: 650 students | |
| 1925: 1,240 students | |
| 1945: 1,604 students | |
| 1950: 3,987 students (dormitory construction on "Freshman Hill") | |
| 1965: 5,232 students | |
| 2009: 7,656 students | |
RPI enjoyed a period of academic and resource expansion under the leadership of President Palmer Ricketts
Palmer C. Ricketts
Palmer Chamberlain Ricketts was the ninth president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He served as president for 33 years and oversaw a period of major expansion and development of the university....
. Named President in 1901, Ricketts liberalized the curriculum by adding the Department of Arts, Science, and Business Administration, in addition to the Graduate School. He also expanded the university’s resources and developed RPI into a true polytechnic institute by increasing the number of degrees offered from two to twelve; these included electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, biology, chemistry, and physics. During Rickett's tenure, enrollment increased from approximately 200 in 1900 to a high of 1700 in 1930.
Another period of expansion occurred following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The "Freshman Hill" residence complex was opened in 1953 followed by the completion of the Commons Dining Hall in 1954, two more halls in 1958, and three more in 1968. The year 1961 saw major progress in academics at the institute with the construction of the Gaerttner Linear Accelerator, then the most powerful in the world, and the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center. The current Student Union building was opened in 1967.
The next three decades brought continued growth with many new buildings (see 'Campus' below), and growing ties to industry. The "H-building", previously used for storage, became the home for the RPI incubator program, the first such program sponsored solely by a university. Shortly after this, RPI decided to invest $3 million in pavement, water and power on around 1200 acres (485.6 ha) of land it owned 5 miles (8 km) south of campus to create the Rensselaer Technology Park
Rensselaer Technology Park
The Rensselaer Technology Park is a technology park in North Greenbush, New York, USA operated by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. As of 2009 the park has over 70 tenants representing a diverse range of technologies and employing over 2,400...
. In 1982 the New York State legislature granted RPI $30 million to build the George M. Low Center for Industrial Innovation
George M. Low Center for Industrial Innovation
The George M. Low Center for Industrial Innovation, otherwise known as the Low Center or CII, is a major industry-funded research center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.-History:...
, a center for industry-sponsored research and development.
In 1999, RPI gained attention when it was one of the first universities to implement a mandatory laptop computer program. 1999 also saw the arrival of President Shirley Ann Jackson, a former chairperson for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 from the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and was first opened January 19, 1975...
. She instituted the "The Rensselaer Plan" (discussed below), an ambitious plan to revitalize the institute. Many advances have been made under the plan, and Jackson has enjoyed the ongoing support of the RPI Board of Trustees. However, her leadership style did not sit well with many faculty; on April 26, 2006, RPI faculty voted 149 to 155 in a failed vote of no-confidence in Jackson. On October 4, 2008, RPI celebrated the opening of the $220 million Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center
Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center
The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center is a multi-venue arts center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, which opened on October 3, 2008.The director of EMPAC is Johannes Goebel...
. That same year the national economic downturn resulted in the elimination of 98 positions across the Institute, about five percent of the workforce. Campus construction expansion continued, however, with the completion of the $92 million East Campus Athletic Village and opening of the new Blitman Commons residence hall in 2009.
With nearly two centuries of history and a high tech future in store, the Princeton Review remarks, “Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is simultaneously the oldest technological school in the country and the most modern school of technology in the U.S. It’s like George Jetson meets Archimedes.”
Campus
RPI's 275 acres (111.3 ha) landscaped campus sits upon a hill overlooking historic Troy, New York and the Hudson RiverHudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
. The surrounding area is mostly residential neighborhoods, with the city of Troy lying at the base of the hill. The campus is bisected by 15th Street, with most of the athletic and housing facilities to the east, and the academic buildings to the west. An iconic footbridge spans the street, linking the two halves. Much of the campus features a series of Colonial Revival style structures built in the first three decades of the 20th century. Overall, the campus has enjoyed four periods of expansion:
Climbing the Hill, 1824–1905
RPI was originally located in downtown Troy but gradually moved to the hilltop that overlooks the city. Very few buildings from this time period remain. The only building from this time period still located on the RPI campus is the Winslow Chemical LaboratoryWinslow Chemical Laboratory
The Winslow Chemical Laboratory was a laboratory of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus in Troy, New York, United States, which finished construction in 1866. It is named in honor of the 5th President of RPI, John F. Winslow, who donated half of the construction cost...
, a building on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. Located at the base of the hill on the western edge of campus, it is currently the home of the Social and Behavioral Research Laboratory.
Ricketts Campus, 1906–1935
Carnegie Building
The Carnegie Building is the current home of the Cognitive Science Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. It is one of the western-most buildings on the campus and as such provides scenic views overlooking the city of Troy and the Hudson River...
(1906), Walker Laboratory (1907), Russell Sage Laboratory (1909), Pittsburgh Building (1912), Quadrangle Dormitories (1916–1927), Troy Building (1925), Amos Eaton Hall
Amos Eaton Hall
Amos Eaton Hall is the current home of the at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. It is named for Amos Eaton, the co-founder and first senior professor of Rensselaer. Amos Eaton Hall is the only building on the campus referred to by both first and last name...
(1928), Greene Building
Greene Building, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
The Greene Building is home of the School of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute . Named for Benjamin Franklin Greene, it has its own library for use by the architecture students. The second floor contains a gallery for students’ work, the basement third, and fourth floors contain...
(1931) and Ricketts Building (1935). Also built during this period was "The Approach" (1907), a massive ornate granite staircase found on the west end of campus. Originally linking RPI to the Troy Union Railroad station, it again serves as an important link between the city and the university.
Post-War Expansion, 1946–1960
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the campus again underwent major expansion. Nine dormitories were built at the east edge of campus bordering Burdett Avenue, a location which came to be called "Freshman Hill." The Houston Field House
Houston Field House
Houston Field House is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. It is the second oldest arena in the ECAC Hockey League behind Princeton University's Hobey Baker Memorial Rink.It is also the nations third oldest hockey rink behind Northeasterns...
(1949) was reassembled, after being moved in pieces from its original Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
location. West Hall
West Hall (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
West Hall is a building on the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute campus in Troy, New York, United States. It is currently home to the Arts Department at RPI...
, which was originally built in 1869 as a hospital, was acquired by the Institute in 1953. The ornate building is an example of French Second Empire architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1973. Another unique building is the Voorhees Computing Center (VCC). Originally built as St. Joseph’s Seminary chapel in 1933, it was once the institute's library, until the completion of the Folsom Library
Folsom Library
The Richard G. Folsom Library is a research library constructed in the brutalist style located on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. It is named after Richard Gilman Folsom, the President of the Institute from 1958–1971. The Folsom Library offers a variety of services to...
in 1976. Interestingly, the new library, built adjacent to the computing center, was designed to match colors with the church, but is very dissimilar architecturally; it is an excellent example of the modern brutalist
Brutalist architecture
Brutalist architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement.-The term "brutalism":...
style – a style that has invited comparisons with a parking garage
Multi-storey car park
A multi-storey car-park is a building designed specifically to be for car parking and where there are a number of floors or levels on which parking takes place...
. The university was unsure of what to do with the church, or whether to keep it at all, but in 1979 the institute decided to preserve it and renovate it into a unique place for computer labs and facilities to support the institute's computing initiatives and today serves as the backbone for the institute's data and telephony infrastructure.
Modern Campus, 1961–present
Jonsson Engineering Center
The Jonsson Engineering Center , is home to the School of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. It is named for J. Erik Jonsson and was dedicated on 7 October 1977....
(JEC) (1977), Low Center for Industrial Innovation (CII) (1987), a public school building which was converted into Academy Hall (1990), and the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
The Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies is a research facility at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute . The building is located on 15th street between RPI’s Playhouse and Academy Hall, next to the Center for Industrial Innovation...
(2004). Although rarely used by students, tunnels connect the Low Center, DCC, JEC, and Science Center. A tenth dormitory named Barton Hall was added to Freshman Hill in August 2000, featuring the largest rooms available for freshmen.
On October 4, 2008, the university celebrated the grand opening of the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center
Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center
The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center is a multi-venue arts center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, which opened on October 3, 2008.The director of EMPAC is Johannes Goebel...
(EMPAC) situated on the west edge of campus. The building was constructed on the precipice of the hill, with the main entrance on top. Upon entering, elevated walkways lead into a 1,200 seat concert hall. Most of the building is encased in a glass exoskeleton, with an atrium-like space between it and the "inner building". Adjacent to and underneath the main auditorium there is a 400-seat theater, offices, and three studios with 40 feet (12.2 m) to 60 feet (18.3 m) ceilings.
In October 2007, tentative plans were announced by President Jackson for a major addition to the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center, which would add 100000 square feet (9,290.3 m²) to 120000 square feet (11,148.4 m²) of lab space. Design mock-ups showed a new adjacent building built next to the Science Center, with a glass-enclosed atrium spanning the space between the old building and the new. The plans were further elaborated on by Jackson at the 2008 Town Meeting. It was announced that under the plan the Hirsch Observatory
Hirsch Observatory
The Hirsch Observatory is an astronomical observatory at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. It is located on the roof of the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center and is used by members of the Rensselaer Astrophysical Society as well as astronomy students in laboratory exercises. It is...
would be renovated as well. Vice President Claude Rounds said the budget had not been worked out in full but the project should cost somewhere between $70 to $75 million. Since 2008, no further official announcements on the project have been made and the status of the project is unknown.
In 2008 RPI announced the purchase of the former Rensselaer Best Western
Best Western
Best Western International, Inc. is the third largest hotel chain, with over 4,195 hotels in nearly 80 countries. The chain, with its corporate headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona, operates more than 2,000 hotels in North America alone. Best Western has a marketing program involving placement of free...
Inn, located at the base of the hill, along with plans to transform it into a new residence hall. After extensive renovations, the residence hall was dedicated on May 15, 2009 as the Howard N. Blitman, P.E. ’50 Residence Commons. It houses about 300 students in 148 rooms and includes a fitness center, dining hall, and conference area. The new residence hall is part of a growing initiative to involve students in the Troy community and help revitalize the downtown. RPI owns and operates three office buildings in downtown Troy, the Rice and Heley buildings and the historic W. & L.E. Gurley Building. RPI also owns the Proctor's Theater
Proctor's Theater (Troy, New York)
Proctor's Theater is located on Fourth Street in Troy, New York, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and is a contributing property to the Central Troy Historic District, added to the Register in 1986.It was built in 1914 for vaudeville performances by...
building in Troy which was purchased in 2004, with the intention of converting it into office space. Due to the historic nature of the building, there was resistance by the Troy community and RPI has not done any redevelopment. Advocates are hoping to restore the building back to its original use.
Other Campuses
The Institute runs a 15 acres (6.1 ha) campus in Hartford, ConnecticutHartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
and a distance learning center in Groton, Connecticut
Groton, Connecticut
Groton is a town located on the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 39,907 at the 2000 census....
. These centers are used by graduates and working professionals and are managed by the Hartford branch of RPI, Rensselaer at Hartford
Rensselaer at Hartford
Rensselaer at Hartford is the Hartford, Connecticut branch of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, NY. Until 1997, it was known as the Hartford Graduate Center. The primary focus of the institution is still to offer graduate-level education for working professionals...
. At Hartford, graduate degrees are offered in Business Administration, Management
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
, Computer Science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, Computer and Systems Engineering
Computer engineering
Computer engineering, also called computer systems engineering, is a discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer systems. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design, and...
, Electrical Engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
, Engineering Science, Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
, and Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
. There are also a number of certificate programs and skills training programs for working professionals.
RPI also has a location in Malta, New York
Malta, New York
Malta is a town in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The town is in the central part of the county and is south of Saratoga Springs. The population was 13,005 at the 2000 census.- History :The town was first settled before 1865....
for graduates of the Navy Nuclear Power Training School (NNPTS) who work at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory
Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory
Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory is a research and development facility dedicated to the support of the US Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. KAPL is a government-owned, contractor operated laboratory run by Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corporation for the United States Department of Energy. KAPL is...
's (KAPL) Kesselring
Kesselring
Kesselring is a German surname of:* Albert Kesselring , German field marshal* Fritz Kesselring , Swiss elektric engineer* Joseph Otto Kesselring , American writer* Jürg Kesselring , Swiss neurologist...
Site Operation in nearby West Milton
West Milton, New York
West Milton is a hamlet in Ballston Spa, Saratoga County, New York. It lies at an elevation of 440 feet ....
. Faculty from the Troy campus provide the teaching. Students enter with one year's worth of coursework and in two to three years graduate with a BS in Nuclear Engineering, Engineering Physics, or Engineering Science.
Academics
Lally School of Management & Technology
The Lally School of Management and Technology was founded in 1963 as part of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Its current mission is "To develop technically sophisticated business leaders who are prepared to guide their organizations in the integration of technology for new products, new...
, and the School of Science. The School of Engineering is the largest by enrollment, followed by the School of Science, the School of Management, the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and the School of Architecture. There also exists an interdisciplinary program in Information Technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
that began in the late 1990s, programs in prehealth and prelaw, Reserve Officers' Training Corps
Reserve Officers' Training Corps
The Reserve Officers' Training Corps is a college-based, officer commissioning program, predominantly in the United States. It is designed as a college elective that focuses on leadership development, problem solving, strategic planning, and professional ethics.The U.S...
(ROTC) for students desiring commissions as officers in the armed forces, a program in Cooperative Education
Cooperative education
Cooperative education is a structured method of combining classroom-based education with practical work experience. A cooperative education experience, commonly known as a "co-op", provides academic credit for structured job experience...
(Co-Op), and domestic and international exchange programs. All together, the university offers around 140 degree programs in nearly 60 fields that lead to bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. In addition to traditional majors, RPI has around a dozen special interdisciplinary programs, such as Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences (GSAS),
Design, Innovation, and Society (DIS), Minds & Machines, and Product Design and Innovation (PDI). RPI is a technology-oriented university; all buildings and residence hall rooms have hard-wired high speed internet access, most of the campus buildings have wireless, and all incoming freshmen have been required to have a laptop computer since 1999. In 2004, Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
ranked RPI #1 for having the "most connected campus."
Nationally, RPI is a member of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
Founded in 1976, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities is an organization of private US colleges and universities...
(NAICU) and the NAICU's University and College Accountability Network
University and College Accountability Network
The University and College Accountability Network provides information for prospective students and their parents to compare American private colleges and universities across a wide variety of characteristics. Users can search for participating institutions and compare important data and...
(U-CAN).
Rensselaer Plan
Research
Research can be defined as the scientific search for knowledge, or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method...
, a quarter for scholarships, and a quarter for campus platforms, such as athletic facilities. So far, there have been a number of changes under the plan: new infrastructure such as the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
The Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies is a research facility at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute . The building is located on 15th street between RPI’s Playhouse and Academy Hall, next to the Center for Industrial Innovation...
and Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations (CCNI) was built to support new programs, and application numbers have increased. In fact, in the three years between 2005 and 2008 application numbers doubled from 5,500 to 11,000. According to Jared Cohon
Jared Cohon
Jared Leigh Cohon is the eighth President of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.He holds a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology,...
, president of Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
“Change at Rensselaer in the last five years has occurred with a scope and swiftness that may be without precedent in the recent history of American higher education.” Although the number of doctoral students has increased, the plan has not increased the overall number of graduate students. The number of graduates on the Troy campus has dropped from a high of 2,617 in 1999 to 1228 in 2007, a decrease of more than 50%. These pages show a decrease from 1839 in 1999 to 1228 in 2007, a decrease of 36% (Hartford students were not included in the 1999 figure).
The ability to attract greater research funds is needed to meet the goals of the plan, and the university has set a goal of $100 million annually. As of 2006, research expenditures have reached $90 million per annum. The university recognizes the relatively small size of its endowment
Financial endowment
A financial endowment is a transfer of money or property donated to an institution. The total value of an institution's investments is often referred to as the institution's endowment and is typically organized as a public charity, private foundation, or trust....
compared to its competition (cf. Case Western Reserve U., University of Rochester, etc.). To help raise money the university mounted a $1 billion capital campaign, of which the public phase began in September 2004 and was expected to finish by 2008. In 2001, a major milestone of the campaign was the pledging of an unrestricted gift of $360 million by an anonymous donor, believed to be the largest such gift to a U.S. university at the time. The university had been a relative stranger to such generosity as the prior largest single gift was $15 million. By September 2006, the $1 billion goal has been exceeded much in part to an in-kind contribution of software commercially-valued at $513.95 million by the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE). In light of this, the board of trustees announced a new goal of $1.4 billion by June 30, 2009. The new goal was met by October 1, 2008.
Faculty
The number of faculty has been steadily growing since the implementation of the Rensselaer Plan in 1999. Among them are members of the National Academies, a Nobel laureate, and 40 NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award winners. As of 2006 there are 400 full-time and 81 part-time faculty, yielding a student faculty ratio of 14:1. Well-known faculty include:- Selmer BringsjordSelmer BringsjordSelmer Bringsjörd is the chair of the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is also a professor of Computer Science and Cognitive Science. He conducts research in Artificial Intelligence as the director of the Rensselaer AI & Reasoning Lab...
- artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
researcher - Jonathan DordickJonathan DordickJonathan S. Dordick is the Howard P. Isermann Professor of Biochemical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. In 2008 he became director of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies.-Background:...
- leader of a group doing biochemical engineeringBiochemical engineeringBiochemical engineering is a branch of chemical engineering or biological engineering that mainly deals with the design and construction of unit processes that involve biological organisms or molecules, such as bioreactors... - Ivar GiaeverIvar GiaeverIvar Giaever is a physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 with Leo Esaki and Brian Josephson "for their discoveries regarding tunnelling phenomena in solids". Giaever's share of the prize was specifically for his "experimental discoveries regarding tunnelling phenomena in ......
('64) - Nobel Laureate 1973 and physics professor emeritus - James HendlerJames HendlerJames Hendler is an artificial intelligence researcher at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA, and one of the originators of the Semantic Web.-Background and research:...
- computer scientistComputer scientistA computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
and author - David MusserDavid MusserDavid Musser is a professor of computer science at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, U.S.He is known for his work in generic programming, particularly as applied to C++. His research with Alexander Stepanov led to the creation of the C++ Standard Template Library...
- one of the primary persons behind the C++C++C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
Standard Template LibraryStandard Template LibraryThe Standard Template Library is a C++ software library which later evolved into the C++ Standard Library. It provides four components called algorithms, containers, functors, and iterators. More specifically, the C++ Standard Library is based on the STL published by SGI. Both include some... - Leik MyraboLeik MyraboLeik Myrabo is an aerospace engineering professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute who has demonstrated the feasibility of using ground-based lasers to propel objects into orbit; possibly reducing orbit-flight costs by a factor of 1000.-Research:...
- known for designing and testing laser "lightcraft" propulsion systems - Pauline OliverosPauline OliverosPauline Oliveros is an American accordionist and composer who is a central figure in the development of post-war electronic art music....
- musician and composer of electronic art music - Robert ResnickRobert ResnickRobert Resnick is a well-respected physics educator and author of physics textbooks.He was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 11, 1923 and graduated from the Baltimore City College high school in 1939. He received his B.A. in 1943 and his Ph.D. in 1949, both in physics from Johns Hopkins...
- textbook author and physics professor emeritus - Sal RestivoSal RestivoSal Restivo is a leading contributor to science studies and in particular to the sociology of mathematical knowledge. His current work focuses on the sociology and anthropology of mind and brain, and the sociology of god and religion. He has also done work in the sociology of social and sociable...
- pioneering researcher in the ethnography of science and social studies of mathematics; founding member and former president of the Society for Social Studies of Science - Neil RolnickNeil RolnickNeil B. Rolnick is an American composer and educator living in New York City.Rolnick's compositions have appeared on 16 records and CDs...
- former head of the Arts Department, and founder of iEAR studios - Michael ShurMichael ShurMichael Shur is the Patricia W. and C. Sheldon Roberts '48 professor of solid state electronics and an electrical engineering professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.-Background:...
- well-published solid state electronicsSolid state (electronics)Solid-state electronics are those circuits or devices built entirely from solid materials and in which the electrons, or other charge carriers, are confined entirely within the solid material...
researcher - Boleslaw SzymanskiBoleslaw SzymanskiBoleslaw Karl Szymanski is a Professor at the Department of Computer Science and the Founding Head of the Center for Pervasive Computing and Networking, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He's known for multiple contributions into computer science, including Szymanski's Algorithm.-Current Work:Dr...
- IEEE FellowIEEE FellowAn IEEE member is elevated to the grade of IEEE Fellow for "unusual distinction in the profession and shall be conferred by the Board of Directors upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest"...
and a foreign member of Polish Academy of SciencesPolish Academy of SciencesThe Polish Academy of Sciences, headquartered in Warsaw, is one of two Polish institutions having the nature of an academy of sciences.-History:... - Igor VamosIgor VamosIgor Vamos, born April 15, 1968, is an internationally known multimedia artist, leading member of The Yes Men , and an associate professor of media arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute...
- Multimedia artist and leading member of culture jammingCulture jammingCulture jamming, coined in 1984, denotes a tactic used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. Guerrilla semiotics and night discourse are sometimes used synonymously with the term culture jamming.Culture...
duo The Yes MenThe Yes MenThe Yes Men are a culture jamming activist duo and network of supporters created by Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos. Through actions of tactical media, The Yes Men primarily aim to raise awareness about what they consider problematic social issues. To date, the duo has produced two films: The Yes Men... - Langdon WinnerLangdon WinnerLangdon Winner is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Science and Technology Studies atRensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York since 1990....
- leading political philosopher of technology - Xi-Cheng ZhangXi-Cheng ZhangXi-Cheng Zhang, is a Chinese-American Physicist. He was born in China, People's republic. Zhang is currently the J. Erik Jonsson ’22 Professor of Science in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has joint appointments in the Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, and the Department of...
- head of the Center for TerahertzTerahertz radiationIn physics, terahertz radiation refers to electromagnetic waves propagating at frequencies in the terahertz range. It is synonymously termed submillimeter radiation, terahertz waves, terahertz light, T-rays, T-waves, T-light, T-lux, THz...
Research
Rankings
RPI ranks among the top 50 national universities in the United States according to U.S. News & World ReportU.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
. The same source ranks RPI 24th for "Best Value" in undergraduate education. In 2005, the School of Engineering was ranked 16th in the nation for undergraduates, and 34th in the nation for graduates. Four of the graduate engineering programs are ranked in the top 20 (electrical engineering, materials science and engineering, industrial engineering and mechanical engineering), seven of 11 are ranked in the top 25, and all are ranked in the top 40 in the nation. In 2006 U.S. News put the graduate applied mathematics program at 20th.
The Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
/Kaplan
Kaplan, Inc.
Kaplan, Inc. is a for-profit corporation headquartered in New York City and was founded in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan. Kaplan provides higher education programs, professional training courses, test preparation materials and other services for various levels of education...
2007 Educational College Guide named Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute one of the 25 "New Ivies", a group of 25 schools described as providing an education equivalent to schools in the Ivy League
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
.
The Lally School of Management and Technology’s entrepreneurship programs ranked 21st in the nation, and its technological entrepreneurship program was ranked sixth by Entrepreneur Magazine
Entrepreneur Magazine
Entrepreneur is a publication that carries news stories about entrepreneurialism, small business management, and business opportunities. It is published by Entrepreneur Media Inc., headquartered in Irvine, California....
. The Lally School's corporate strategy program was ranked eleventh in the nation by BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
magazine.
The Electronic Arts program is one of the highest ranked departments at RPI. For four years in a row U.S. News ranked the iEAR program 8th in the nation: 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. The Master of Fine Arts in multimedia/visual communications program was ranked 6th in 2008 and 2009 by U.S. News.
In 2008 a new ranking called America's Best Colleges released by Forbes.com placed RPI at 49, and then at 42 a year later in 2009. In 2009 Forbes.com and Payscale.com reported that among US colleges, RPI had the 9th highest average starting salary and 13th highest average mid-career salary for graduates, based on actual earnings information. The 2008 THES - QS World University Rankings
THES - QS World University Rankings
The term Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings refers to rankings published jointly between 2004 and 2009 by Times Higher Education and Quacquarelli Symonds . After QS and Times Higher Education had ended their collaboration, the methodology for these rankings continues to be used by...
ranks RPI at 174 among the top 200 universities worldwide for overall academics, and number 50 among the top 50 universities for technology. The 2010-2011 Times Higher Education rankings show RPI moving up to 104 among the world's top 200 universities. The Global University Ranking, which utilizes a combination of major international ranking systems, ranked RPI in the range 74-77 in 2009.
Research and development
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...
, energy and the environment
Energy security
Energy security is a term for an association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption. Access to cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven distribution of energy supplies among countries has led...
, nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
, computation and information technology
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
, and media and the arts
Media studies
Media studies is an academic discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history and effects of various media; in particular, the 'mass media'. Media studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly from its core disciplines of mass...
. Advances in these fields have the potential to effect dramatic transformations in 21st century society.
RPI is home to the United States' first on-campus business incubator, which has helped start over 180 companies in its lifetime, with a survival rate of about 80%. One of the largest companies to have originated in the incubator is MapInfo
MapInfo
MapInfo Corporation, initially incorporated as Navigational Technologies Incorporated, was a leading Location Intelligence and GIS company, headquartered in North Greenbush, New York. It was acquired on April 19, 2007 by Pitney Bowes, and on January 28, 2009, the name of division of Pitney Bowes it...
, a major publisher of mapping and geographic information systems software. Others incubator success stories include Vicarious Visions
Vicarious Visions
Vicarious Visions is an American video game developer founded by the high school brothers Karthik and Guha Bala in 1990, which developed some PC and Game Boy Color games in late 90's and 2000. They later developed Terminus, which won two Independent Games Festival Awards in 1999...
, a well known maker of video games, and CORESense, Inc., a leading provider of multi-channel retail software. RPI operates the Rensselaer Technology Park
Rensselaer Technology Park
The Rensselaer Technology Park is a technology park in North Greenbush, New York, USA operated by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. As of 2009 the park has over 70 tenants representing a diverse range of technologies and employing over 2,400...
, which is home to over 50 technologically oriented companies. The 1250 acres (505.9 ha) park is about 5 miles (8 km) south of the campus along the Hudson River. Park tenants collaborate with faculty and students on research projects and hire students for internships, co-ops, and employment.
Some notable research centers operated by RPI are the Terahertz Research Center, Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies
The Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies is a research facility at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute . The building is located on 15th street between RPI’s Playhouse and Academy Hall, next to the Center for Industrial Innovation...
, Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center, New York State Center for Polymer Synthesis, Darrin Fresh Water Institute, Center for Automation Technologies and Systems, and the Lighting Research Center.
The Lighting Research Center (LRC) is the leading university-based research center devoted to lighting, offering the world's only M.S. degree in lighting. Since 1988 it has built an international reputation as a reliable source for objective information about lighting technologies, applications, and products. The LRC provides training programs for government agencies, utilities, contractors, lighting designers, and other lighting professionals.
RPI conducts nuclear research at the 60MeV Gaerttner Linear Accelerator
Linear particle accelerator
A linear particle accelerator is a type of particle accelerator that greatly increases the velocity of charged subatomic particles or ions by subjecting the charged particles to a series of oscillating electric potentials along a linear beamline; this method of particle acceleration was invented...
(LINAC) Laboratory. The LINAC is used primarily for the testing of materials, but there is also ongoing research in neutron generation
Neutron generator
Neutron generators are neutron source devices which contain compact linear accelerators and that produce neutrons by fusing isotopes of hydrogen together. The fusion reactions take place in these devices by accelerating either deuterium, tritium, or a mixture of these two isotopes into a metal...
and other technologies. The lab made the news with discoveries regarding bubble fusion
Bubble fusion
Bubble fusion, also known as sonofusion, is the non-technical name for a nuclear fusion reaction hypothesized to occur during a high-pressure version of sonoluminescence, an extreme form of acoustic cavitation...
and portable pyroelectric fusion
Pyroelectric fusion
Pyroelectric fusion refers to the technique of using pyroelectric crystals to generate high strength electrostatic fields to accelerate deuterium ions into a metal hydride target also containing deuterium with sufficient kinetic energy to cause these ions to undergo nuclear fusion. It was...
devices. Other important research facilities include the geotechnical centrifuge, used for civil engineering simulations, and RPI's array of six subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic wind tunnel
Wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is a research tool used in aerodynamic research to study the effects of air moving past solid objects.-Theory of operation:Wind tunnels were first proposed as a means of studying vehicles in free flight...
s.
In May 2006, RPI announced a partnership with IBM and New York State to create the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations, a supercomputing center to be used for nanotechnology research. As of June 2008, the $100 million center is North America's most powerful university-based supercomputing center and the 22nd most powerful supercomputing center of any kind in the world.
Students
Around 17% of students received the RPI medal/scholarship in high school, which is a merit scholarship of $15,000 a year. Altogether about 90% of students receive either need-based or merit-based financial aid.
Gender ratio
Since becoming coeducational in 1942, RPI has struggled to attract a gender-balanced applicant pool. In 1966 the male-to-female ratio was 19:1, in the 1980s it reached as high as 8:1, and in the early 1990s the ratio was around 5:1. As of 2009 RPI has a ratio of 2.5:1 (72% male / 28% female), which is among the highest of major American universities. Both the class of 2011 and the class of 2012 have a ratio of about 2.3:1, or about 30% female.As is common among universities, the male-to-female ratio does vary between schools and individual majors. One of the stated goals of the Rensselaer Plan is to "reflect the diversity of the global community" in the student body, which includes encouraging more women to enroll.
Athletics
The RPI Engineers are the athletic teams for the university. RPI currently sponsors 23 sports, 21 of which compete at the NCAA Division III level in the Liberty LeagueLiberty League
The Liberty League is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA’s Division III. Originally founded in 1995 as the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association, was renamed during the summer of 2004 to the current name...
, men's and women's ice hockey compete at the Division I level in ECAC Hockey. The official nickname of some of the school's Division III teams was changed in 1995 from the Engineers to the Red Hawks. However the hockey, football, cross-country, tennis, and track and field teams all chose to retain the Engineers name. The Red Hawks name was, at the time, very unpopular among the student body; a Red Hawk mascot was frequently taunted with thrown concessions and chants of "kill the chicken!" In contrast, the official hockey mascot known as The Puckman has always been very popular. The Puckman is an anthropomorphic hockey puck with an engineer's helmet.
During the 1970s and 80s, one RPI cheer was:
- E to the x, dy/dx, E to the x, dx
- Cosine, secant, tangent, sine
- 3.14159
- Square root, cube root, log of pi
- Disintegrate them, RPI!
Ice hockey (Men's)
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
team, the Engineers, who won NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
national titles in 1954 and 1985. Depending on how the rules are interpreted, the RPI men's ice hockey team may have the longest winning streak on record for a Division I team; in the 1984-85 season it went undefeated for 30 games, but one game was against the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, a non-NCAA team. Continuing into the 1985-86 season, RPI continued undefeated over 38 games, including two wins over Toronto. Adam Oates
Adam Oates
Adam Oates is a retired professional ice hockey and lacrosse player and is currently an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils.-Playing career:Oates' break came when Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute offered him a scholarship...
and Daren Puppa
Daren Puppa
Daren James Puppa was born in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada and is a former professional ice hockey goaltender in the NHL...
, two players during that time, both went on to become stars in the NHL. Joe Juneau
Joé Juneau
Joé Juneau is a retired Canadian professional hockey player and engineer, born in Pont-Rouge, Quebec. He played in the National Hockey League for the Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals, Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators, Phoenix Coyotes and the Montreal Canadiens.-Playing career:Originally drafted...
, who played from 1987 to 1991, also spent many years in the NHL. Graeme Townshend
Graeme Townshend
Graeme Scott Townshend is a retired ice hockey forward. He emigrated to Toronto, Ontario in 1969 with his younger brother Kurt. His sister, Laurie, was born in Toronto....
who also played in the late 1980s, had a brief NHL career. He is the first person of Jamaican ancestry to play in the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
.
The hockey team plays a significant role in the campus's culture, drawing thousands of fans each week to the Houston Field House
Houston Field House
Houston Field House is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. It is the second oldest arena in the ECAC Hockey League behind Princeton University's Hobey Baker Memorial Rink.It is also the nations third oldest hockey rink behind Northeasterns...
during the season. The team's popularity even sparked the tradition of the hockey line, where students lined up for season tickets months in advance of the on-sale date. Today, the line generally begins a week or more before ticket sales. Another tradition since 1978 has been the "Big Red Freakout!" game held close to the first weekend of February. Fans usually dress in the schools colors Red and White, and gifts such as tee-shirts are distributed en masse. In hockey the school's biggest rival has always been the upstate engineering school Clarkson University
Clarkson University
-The Clarkson School:The Clarkson School, a special division of Clarkson University, was founded in 1978 as a unique educational opportunity. The School offers students an early entrance opportunity into college, replacing the typical senior year of high school with a year of college...
.
Ice hockey (Women's)
The women's ice hockey team moved to the NCAA Division I level in 2005. During the 2008-09 season the team set the record for most wins in one season (19-14-4). On February 28, 2010, Rensselaer made NCAA history. The Engineers beat Quinnipiac, 2-1, but it took five overtimes. It is now the longest college hockey game in NCAA history. Senior defenseman Laura Gersten had the game winning goal. She registered it at 4:32 of the fifth overtime session to not only clinch the win, but the series victory.Lacrosse (Men's)
The lacrosseLacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
team won the national championship
Wingate Memorial Trophy
The Wingate Memorial Trophy was the award given to the national champion in men's college lacrosse prior to the inception of an NCAA tournament format in 1971....
in 1952. The lacrosse team also represented the United States in the 1948 Olympics
Lacrosse at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Lacrosse was a demonstration sport at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. Teams from Great Britain and the United States played a single match, which ended in a 5-5 draw. The match was played in Wembley Stadium.-Result:-Great Britain:...
in London. Ned Harkness
Ned Harkness
Nevin D. "Ned" Harkness was a successful NCAA head coach of ice hockey and lacrosse at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Cornell University and of ice hockey at Union College. Harkness was also head coach of the Detroit Red Wings and later was the team's general manager...
coached the lacrosse and ice hockey teams, winning national championships in both sports.
Baseball
The Red Hawk baseball squad is perennially atop the Liberty League standings, winning the league title in 2008 with the help of Liberty League Pitcher of the year Joe Zongol. The team is coached by ex-New York Yankee Karl Steffen (Ithaca '78) with Steve "Smoke" Allard (Massachusetts '87) as Associate Head Coach and Kyle Meyer (Marist '09) as Assistant Coach. The Red Hawks play their home games at historic Robison Field.Football
Since 1903 RPI and nearby Union College have been rivals in football, making it the oldest such rivalry in the state. The teams play for the Dutchman's ShoesDutchman's Shoes
The Dutchman's Shoes is a trophy awarded to the winner of the annual college football game between the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers and the Union College Dutchmen since 1950...
. RPI Football had their most successful season in 2003, where they finished 11-2 and lost to St. Johns (Minn.) in the NCAA Division III semi final game.
Athletic facilities
The Houston Field House is a 4,780-seat multi-purpose arena located on the RPI campus. It opened in 1949 and is home to the RPI Engineers men's and women's ice hockey teams. The Field House was recently renovated starting in 2007 as part of the major campus improvement project to build the East Campus Athletic Village. The renovations included locker rooms upgrades, addition of a new weight room, and a new special reception room dedicated to Ned Harkness. Additionally, as part of the renovations, solar panels were added installed on the roof to supply power to the building through a government grant.
As part of the Rensselaer Plan, the Institute recently completed a major project to improve its athletic facilities with the East Campus Athletic Village. The plan included construction of a new and much larger 4,842 seat football stadium, a basketball arena with seating for 1,200, a new 50-meter pool, an indoor track and field complex, new tennis courts, new weight rooms and a new sports medicine center. The Institute broke ground on August 26, 2007 and construction of the first phase is expected to last two years. The estimated cost of the project is $78 million for phase one and $35–$45 million for phase two. Since the completion of the new stadium, the bleachers on the Class of '86 football field on the central campus have been removed and the field has become an open space. In the future the new space could be used for expansions of the academic buildings, but for now members of the campus planning team foresee a "historic landscape with different paths and access ways for students and vehicles alike".
Student life
Phalanx is RPI's Senior Honor Society. It was founded in 1912, when Edward Dion and the Student Council organized a society to recognize those RPI students who have distinguished themselves among their peers in the areas of leadership, service, and devotion to the alma mater. It is a fellowship of the most active in student activities and has inducted over 1300 members since its founding.
Greek organizations are popular with about 30 social fraternities and 5 sororities. There are two coed fraternities, Psi Upsilon, a social fraternity, while the other, Alpha Phi Omega, is a service fraternity
Service fraternities and sororities
Service fraternity may refer to any fraternal public service organization, such as the Kiwanis or Rotary International. In Canada and the United States, the term fraternal organization is more common as "fraternity" in everyday usage refers to fraternal student societies.In the context of the North...
. As such, about a third of men are in fraternities and about a fifth of women are in sororities. See the List of RPI fraternities and sororities.
RPI has around twenty intramural sports organizations, many of which are broken down into different divisions based on level of play. Greek organizations compete in them as well as independent athletes. There are also thirty-nine club sports.
Given the university's proximity to the Berkshires, Green Mountains, and Adirondacks, the Ski Club and the Outing Club are some of the largest groups on campus. The Ski Club offers weekly trips to local ski areas during the winter months, while the Outing Club offers trips on a weekly basis for a variety of activities.
The Rensselaer Polytechnic
The Rensselaer Polytechnic
The Rensselaer Polytechnic is the weekly student-run newspaper of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. It is published every Wednesday during the Institute's fall and spring academic calendars and once during the summer.-Organization:-About The Poly:...
is the student-run weekly school newspaper. The Poly prints about 7000 copies each week, and distributes them around campus. Although it is the Union club with the largest budget, The Poly receives no subsidy from the Union, and obtains all funding through the sale of ads. There is also a popular student-run magazine called Statler & Waldorf.
RPI has an improvisational comedy group, Sheer Idiocy, which performs several shows a semester, as well as a sketch comedy troupe, Experimental Error. There are also several music groups ranging from a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
groups such as the Rensselyrics, the Rusty Pipes, Partial Credit and Duly Noted, to several instrumental groups such as the Orchestra, the Jazz Band, and a classical choral group, the Rensselaer Concert Choir.
Another notable organization on campus is WRPI
WRPI
WRPI is a non-commercial college radio station run by students attending Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and community members in Troy, New York. WRPI broadcasts 365 days a year with an effective radiated power of 10,000 watts, serving listeners in eastern New York and western Massachusetts and...
, the campus radio station. WRPI differs from most college radio in that it serves a 75 miles (120.7 km) radius including the greater Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
area. With 10 kW of broadcasting power, WRPI maintains a stronger signal than nearly all college radio stations and some commercial stations. WRPI currently broadcasts on 91.5 FM in the Albany area.
RPI songs
There are a number of songs commonly played and sung at various RPI events. Notable among them are: * The Alma Mater (Here's to Old RPI) - sung at formal events such as commencementGraduation
Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the ceremony that is sometimes associated, where students become Graduates. Before the graduation, candidates are referred to as Graduands. The date of graduation is often called degree day. The graduation itself is also...
and convocation
Convocation
A Convocation is a group of people formally assembled for a special purpose.- University use :....
, also played and sung by the Pep Band
Pep band
A pep band is an ensemble of instrumentalists who play at functions or events with the purpose of entertaining and "pepping" up a crowd. Often members of a pep band are a subset of people from a larger ensemble such as a marching band or a concert band. Pep bands are generally associated with...
at hockey and football games. It was published in the first book of Songs of Rensselaer printed in 1913.
- Hail, Dear Old Rensselaer - used to be the fight songFight songA fight song is primarily an American and Canadian sports term, referring to a song associated with a team. In both professional and amateur sports, fight songs are a popular way for fans to cheer for their team...
during the 1960s. It is still played today by the Pep Band at athletic events. - All We've Learned at Rensselaer - sung at the RPI commencement ceremonies by the Rensselyrics. Although the Rensselyrics are an a cappellaA cappellaA cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
group, this song is accompanied by piano. Each verse or section has a different musical style, several of which are closely based on Billy JoelBilly JoelWilliam Martin "Billy" Joel is an American musician and pianist, singer-songwriter, and classical composer. Since releasing his first hit song, "Piano Man", in 1973, Joel has become the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States, according to...
songs or other popular songs.
First Year Experience and CLASS Programs
Another notable aspect of student life at RPI is the "First-Year Experience", or FYE program. Freshman begin their stay at RPI with a week called "Navigating Rensselaer and Beyond" or NRB week. The Office of the First-Year Experience provides several programs that extend to not only freshman, but to all students. These include family weekend, community service days, the Information and Personal Assistance Center (IPAC), and the Community Advocate Program. Recently the FYE program was awarded the 2006 NASPA Excellence Gold Award, in the category of "Enrollment Management, Orientation, Parents, First-Year, Other-Year and related."Since 2008, Dr. Jackson's administration has led an effort to form the CLASS Initiative ("Clustered Learning Advocacy and Support for Students"), which requires all sophomores to live on campus and to live with special "residence cluster deans".
The transition to this program began in early 2010 among some resistance from some fraternities and students who had planned to live off campus.
Notable alumni
According to the Rensselaer Alumni Association, there are around 90,000 RPI graduates currently living in the United States, and another 4,378 living abroad. In 1995 the Alumni Association created the Rensselaer Alumni Hall of Fame to "preserve and celebrate the long and exceptional heritage of Rensselaer graduates".Several notable 19th century civil engineers graduated from RPI. These include the visionary of the transcontinental railroad, Theodore Judah
Theodore Judah
Theodore Dehone Judah was an American railroad engineer who dreamed of the first Transcontinental Railroad. He found investors for what became the Central Pacific Railroad...
, Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River...
engineer Washington Roebling
Washington Roebling
Washington Augustus Roebling was an American civil engineer best known for his work on the Brooklyn Bridge, which was initially designed by his father John A. Roebling.-Education and military service:...
, George W. G. Ferris (who designed and built the original Ferris Wheel
Ferris Wheel
The original Ferris Wheel, sometimes also referred to as the Chicago Wheel, was the centerpiece of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois....
) and Leffert L. Buck
Leffert L. Buck
Leffert L. Buck was an American civil engineer and a pioneer in the use of steel arch bridge structures. Leffert graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY in 1868...
, the chief engineer of the Williamsburg Bridge
Williamsburg Bridge
The Williamsburg Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City across the East River connecting the Lower East Side of Manhattan at Delancey Street with the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn at Broadway near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway...
in NYC.
Many RPI graduates have gone on to change the world with their inventions. Famous among these inventors are Allen B. Dumont
Allen B. DuMont
Allen Balcom DuMont also spelled Du Mont, was an American scientist and inventor best known for improvements to the cathode ray tube in 1931 for use in television receivers. Seven years later he manufactured and sold the first commercially practical television set to the public...
('24), creator of the first commercial television; Keith D. Millis
Keith Millis
Keith Dwight Millis was an American metallurgical engineer and inventor of ductile iron.Keith Millis grew up in Rensselaer, New York and earned his Bachelor of Science in Metallurgical Engineering as a 1938 graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute...
('38), inventor of ductile iron
Ductile iron
Ductile iron, also known as ductile cast iron, nodular cast iron, spheroidal graphite iron, spherulitic graphite cast iron and SG iron, is a type of cast iron invented in 1943 by Keith Millis...
; Ted Hoff
Marcian Hoff
Marcian Edward "Ted" Hoff, Jr. , is one of the inventors of the microprocessor. Hoff joined Intel in 1967 as employee number 12, and is credited with coming up with the idea of using a "universal processor" rather than a variety of custom-designed circuits. His insight started the microprocessor...
('58), father of the microprocessor; Raymond Tomlinson ('63), often credited with the invention of e-mail; inventor of digital camera Steven Sasson
Steven Sasson
Steven J. Sasson , is an American electrical engineer and the inventor of the digital camera. Sasson is a 1972 and 1973 graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in electrical engineering.-Biography:...
and Curtis Priem
Curtis Priem
Curtis R. Priem is an American computer scientist.He received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1982...
('82), designer of the first video graphics processor and co-founder of NVIDIA
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
.
In addition to NVIDIA, RPI graduates have also gone on to found or co-found major companies such as John Wiley and Sons, Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
, Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor
Fairchild Semiconductor International, Inc. is an American semiconductor company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1957, it was a pioneer in transistor and integrated circuit manufacturing...
, PSINet
PSINet
PSINet was one of the first internet service providers , based in Northern Virginia, and a major player in the commercialization of the Internet until the company's bankruptcy in 2001 during the dot-com bubble and acquisition by Cogent Communications in 2002.-Growth:PSINet was founded in 1989 by...
, MapInfo
MapInfo
MapInfo Corporation, initially incorporated as Navigational Technologies Incorporated, was a leading Location Intelligence and GIS company, headquartered in North Greenbush, New York. It was acquired on April 19, 2007 by Pitney Bowes, and on January 28, 2009, the name of division of Pitney Bowes it...
, Adelphia Communications, Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications is a telecommunications and Internet service provider headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado.It operates a Tier 1 network. The company provides core transport, IP, voice, video and content delivery for most of the medium to large Internet carriers in North America and Europe...
, Garmin
Garmin
Garmin Ltd. , incorporated in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, is the parent company of a group of companies founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao , that develops consumer, aviation, and marine technologies for the Global Positioning System...
, and Bugle Boy
Bugle Boy
Bugle Boy is a brand of pants popular in the 1980s founded by Dr. William Mow in 1977. It declared bankruptcy in 2001.William Mow was born in Hang-Chow, China, and later moved with his family to the United States. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1959 and then earned a Ph.D....
. Several RPI graduates have played a part in the US space program; graduate George Low
George Low
George Michael Low, born George Wilhelm Low was a NASA administrator and 14th President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was born near Vienna, Austria to Artur and Gertrude Burger Low, small business people in Austria...
was manager of NASA for the Apollo 11 project and served as president of RPI. Alumni astronauts include John L. Swigert Jr., Richard Mastracchio
Richard Mastracchio
Richard Alan "Rick" Mastracchio is an American engineer and a NASA astronaut. He has flown on three NASA Space Shuttle missions as a mission specialist...
, Gregory R. Wiseman
Gregory R. Wiseman
Gregory Reid Wiseman is an American astronaut and naval aviator. Wiseman was selected in June 2009 as a member of the NASA Astronaut Group 20 and qualified as an astronaut in 2011...
, and space tourist Dennis Tito
Dennis Tito
Dennis Anthony Tito is an Italian American engineer and multimillionaire, most widely known as the first space tourist to fund his own trip into space. In mid-2001, he spent nearly eight days in orbit as a crew member of ISS EP-1, a visiting mission to the International Space Station...
. There are also several political figures from RPI, including federal judge Arthur J. Gajarsa
Arthur J. Gajarsa
Judge Arthur Joseph Gajarsa is a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit .Judge Arthur Gajarsa was born on 1 March 1941 in Norcia, Italy. He was the top ranked student in the 1958 graduating class at Boston Technical High School...
, director of DARPA Tony Tether
Tony Tether
Anthony J. Tether served as director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency from June 18, 2001, until February 20, 2009. As of September 8, 2009, Tether is a member of the SSCI Scientific Advisory Board...
, MA-1
Massachusetts's 1st congressional district
Massachusetts's 1st congressional district is in western and central Massachusetts. The largest Massachusetts district in area, it covers about one-third of the state and is more rural than the rest. It has the state's highest point, Mount Greylock...
representative John Olver
John Olver
John Walter Olver is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1991. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Early in his career, he was a chemistry professor and served in both chambers of the Massachusetts General Court....
and Senators Mark Shepard
Mark Shepard
Mark I Shepard is a Vermont State Senator and unsuccessful candidate for the 2006 Republican nomination for Vermont's at-large United States House of Representatives seat.-Biography:...
(VT) and George R. Dennis
George R. Dennis
George Robertson Dennis , a Democrat, was a United States Senator from Maryland, serving from 1873-1879. He also served in the Maryland State Senate and the Maryland House of Delegates....
(MD). Notable hockey players include Stanley Cup winner and former NHL All Star Mike McPhee
Mike McPhee
Michael Joseph McPhee is a retired Canadian ice hockey forward....
(1982), two-time Calder Cup winner Neil Little
Neil Little
Neil Little is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender. He was a member of the Philadelphia Flyers organization nearly his entire professional career, helping backstop the Philadelphia Phantoms to two Calder Cup championships and playing in two career National Hockey League games...
(1994), former NHL All Rookie Joé Juneau
Joé Juneau
Joé Juneau is a retired Canadian professional hockey player and engineer, born in Pont-Rouge, Quebec. He played in the National Hockey League for the Boston Bruins, Washington Capitals, Buffalo Sabres, Ottawa Senators, Phoenix Coyotes and the Montreal Canadiens.-Playing career:Originally drafted...
(1991), and former NHL All Stars Adam Oates
Adam Oates
Adam Oates is a retired professional ice hockey and lacrosse player and is currently an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils.-Playing career:Oates' break came when Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute offered him a scholarship...
(1985) and Daren Puppa
Daren Puppa
Daren James Puppa was born in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada and is a former professional ice hockey goaltender in the NHL...
(1985).
Other notable alumni include physics Nobel Prize winner Ivar Giaever
Ivar Giaever
Ivar Giaever is a physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 with Leo Esaki and Brian Josephson "for their discoveries regarding tunnelling phenomena in solids". Giaever's share of the prize was specifically for his "experimental discoveries regarding tunnelling phenomena in ......
(1964); director of Linux International Jon Hall (1977); president of the NCAA Myles Brand
Myles Brand
Myles Neil Brand, Ph. D. was the 14th president of the University of Oregon, president of the United States' National Collegiate Athletic Association , and 16th president of Indiana University.-Personal life:...
(1964); adult stem cell pioneer James Fallon
James Fallon
-Academics:He received his biology and chemistry undergraduate training at Saint Michael's College in Vermont and his psychology and psychophysics degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. He carried out his Ph.D. training in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology at the University of...
; director Bobby Farrelly
Bobby Farrelly
Robert Leo "Bobby" Farrelly, Jr. is an American film director, screenwriter and producer.-Life and career:Farrelly was born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, the son of Mariann, a nurse practitioner, and Robert Leo Farrelly, a doctor. He is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has been...
and David Ferrucci the lead researcher in IBM's Watson/Jeopardy! project.