EMPAC / the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center announces its Research program to host Deep Listening: Creativity, Accessibility, and Well-being with the Center for Deep Listening and the International Symposium on Assistive Technology for Music and Art (ISATMA), September 28-30, 2023.

ChatGPT has fascinated the public as we begin to explore how generative artificial intelligence (AI) can be useful in our everyday lives. On the back end, scientists are continually advancing AI for potential applications so vast that it may change life as we know it by accelerating scientific and technological developments.

With daylight savings time ending soon, we anticipate a change in the timing of daylight hours with the sunrise occurring earlier in the morning. Already, too many of us get far too little sleep, and disruptions to our circadian cycles like those caused by daylight savings time transitions may make us feel more than tired and out of whack. In the end, there is significant medical data that shows that sudden day/night-time changes may even make us sick.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will host the Rensselaer Runs United Zombie 5K on October 22 at the Rensselaer Technology Park, 100 Defreest Dr., Troy. It will benefit the United Way of the Greater Capital Region, a local organization that brings individuals and groups together in a community-wide effort to help people. 5k participants are encouraged to come in costume and there will be a costume contest. The event is open to the public.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) alumnus Daniel Peat, Class of 2005, a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army National Guard, will be promoted to lieutenant colonel (LTC) at a ceremony at RPI’s Heffner Alumni House on Saturday, September 23, at 10 a.m. The ceremony is being hosted by Major General John Andonie, deputy director of the Army National Guard who earned his master’s degree in management from RPI in 2003.

The LTC is a senior officer position within the U.S. Army Reserves and signifies an increased advancement in responsibility, leadership, and expertise. LTCs often are in senior staff and command positions, leading battalions, serving on senior staffs for General Officers, or as in Peat’s case, are instructors for senior officer schools. He is currently an adjunct instructor for the Command and General Staff College.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has received a $1 million pledge to support the Rensselaer Student Union from Jonathan Kessler, Class of 1979 and 1982. Kessler retired in September 2020 as senior information architect for Computing System Innovations. The firm develops artificial intelligence software for government offices.

The $1 million fund will be established with a five-year pledge and through a bequest gift to support the Union’s contributions to the student experience on campus. Upon fulfillment of the pledge, the Union directorship will be named the Jonathan Kessler ’79, ’82G Director of the Rensselaer Union.

In partnership with the non-partisan League of Women Voters of Rensselaer County, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will host the 2023 City of Troy mayoral candidate forum on October 3 at 6 p.m. at the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC). A reception will follow.  

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has established the Office of Strategic Alliances and Translation, a new area within the university that incorporates a number of key translational activities at RPI, including intellectual property and technology licensing, large-scale corporate partnerships, initiation and growth of start-up ventures, and translational campuses, including the Rensselaer Technology Park, as well as translational activities in New York City.

What if microgravity holds the key to preventing the overheating of advanced electronics? That’s one idea behind an International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory-sponsored investigation that recently launched to station on Northrop Grumman’s 19th Commercial Resupply Services mission (NG-19). This week, the ISS crew is working on the experiment, which aims to improve the efficiency of heat transfer devices used in various technologies, from laptops to NASA’s Hubble Telescope.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will announce the appointment of Kristie Bowers, Ph.D., as its new associate vice president and director of athletics at a press conference at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, August 23, 2023 at the East Campus Athletic Village’s main arena. Bowers comes from Boston University, where she has served as senior associate athletic director and senior woman administrator since 2019. She is succeeding Dr. Lee McElroy, who retired at the beginning of the summer after eight years with RPI. Bowers will be the first woman appointed to the role.