Announcements

Dr. Ge Wang has been selected as the recipient of Sigma Xi's Walston Chubb Award for Innovation. Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society, is the international honor society of science and engineering. One of the oldest and largest scientific organizations in the world, Sigma Xi has a distinguished history of service to science and society for more than one hundred and twenty five years.

The Rensselaer Board of Trustees has approved Leo Wan's promotion to the rank of Professor.  He joined the Biomedical Engineering Department at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as an assistant professor in 2011 and became an associate professor in 2016. He received both B.S. and M. Eng. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University, where he became a post-doc on stem cells and tissue engineering.

Fenglei Fan, a 2021 doctoral graduate of Dr. Ge Wang's lab, has been selected as the recipient for the 2021 International Neural Network Society Doctoral Dissertation Award.

The Doctoral Dissertation Award is presented annually to the author(s) of the best doctoral dissertation(s) in neural networks, machine learning, and related fields by INNS members in recognition of his/her high-quality, excellent, and outstanding research work. INNS established the program to recognize and encourage doctoral candidates in computer science and engineering among its members. 

The department congratulates the graduates of the class of 2022 who received their degrees during commencement on Saturday, May 21. We were pleased to honor the graduates at the departmental graduation luncheon on Friday, May 20.

Dr. Deepak Vashishth has been selected to receive Rensselaer's William H. Wiley 1866 Distinguished Faculty Award.

This award was established in 1977 by the late Edward P. Hamilton ’07, a 34-year trustee of Rensselaer. He set up an endowment in memory of his uncle, William H. Wiley, an alumnus of the Class of 1866. Nominations are made by the faculty, and the recipient is chosen by the Faculty Committee on Honors. The award is based on excellence in teaching, productive research, and interest in the totality of the educational process.

PhD students Jessica Funnell, Nathan Lampen, Rebecca Levy, and Derek Nelson have been awarded the Health Innovations Incubator and Technology Center (HII Tech) engineering fellowship. HII Tech is a research and development division of the Center for Disability Services (CFDS), a major provider of programs and services for individuals with disabilities in the Capital Region of New York for the last 75 years.

Dr. Elizabeth Blaber's project "Understanding the Brain-Liver-Gut Axis during Spaceflight and Aging," a collaboration with NASA Ames and Johns Hopkins University, has been selected for funding by NASA's Space Biology Program.