Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will present a performance by two-time Grammy-winning percussionist Jack DeJohnette on Friday, April 7, at 7:30 p.m. in the Concert Hall of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) on campus.

The event is free and open to the public.

Over the course of his nearly six-decade career, Jack DeJohnette has established himself as one of the greatest drummers in the history of jazz. He has collaborated with icons including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, and many more, in styles as varied as hard bop, rhythm and blues, world music, and avante-garde. Modern Drummer magazine has declared him one of the five greatest living jazz drummers, saying, “[H]e seems to play the music of the spheres, like a savant channeling the rhythm gods from on high.”

While bank collapses, FTX’s demise, and Sam Bankman-Fried’s legal proceedings are making headlines, top fintech researchers and financial services industry leaders will gather at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to examine such issues as financial crime, blockchain interoperability, and risk.

“One side can start the polarization and keep it going forever, but it takes two sides to stop it. That’s why it easily arises, but it’s so difficult to end,” Boleslaw Szymanski said. Szymanski is the Claire & Roland Schmitt Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and director of the Network Science and Technology Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Moussa N’Gom, assistant professor of physics, applied physics, and astronomy, has devised a method to make communications between satellites and the ground more effective no matter the weather. In research recently published, N’Gom and his team used ultrafast, femtosecond lasers to cut through the clouds and rain that commonly cause losses in free-space optical communication (FSO).

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has partnered with SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, to initiate a new lighting conference dedicated to the advancement and use of 3D printing for the manufacture of lighting components and systems. The conference will be held as part of SPIE Optics + Photonics 2023, the leading multidisciplinary optical sciences and technology meeting, August 20-24, 2023, in San Diego, Calif.

Nadarajah Narendran, Ph.D., LRC director of research and co-chair of the conference, said the reason for initiating this conference now is to bring knowledge of this quickly advancing technology to a larger audience who could benefit from learning more about the potential of 3D printing for the lighting industry.

Whether it’s Flo from Progressive or the Geico gecko, the average TV viewer may not give much thought to commercials outside of whether they’re entertaining or not. However, there is a rather complex science behind what commercials you see and when you see them.

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

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

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

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