News

FedEx CEO honored, speaks on campus

Biodiesel pilot program planned

Senate questions, confirms most J-board appointments

golfing for children

Ed/Op

Staff Editorial
Senate meetings must switch focus to results

Editorial Notebook
Firefox far superior to IE

Hockey attendance dismal

Derby
Out of sight jobs keep Union going

Graduate Council
Council schedules upcoming movie

Letter to the Editor
Judo Club blues

Features

Soaring Through the Sky

Punch Drunk

Dave Barry
Don’t be a poopy pants about terrorism

Microsoft seeks to supplant Google, Yahoo

Thinking man’s comic draws laughs

Halo 2 scores “running riot”

udderly amazing

Sports

Football loses Shoes in closing minutes

Geiger, Marlor lead Red Hawks

Engineers win fifth straight

Dutchmen dominate

Weekly Round Up
Carter shines at NCAA regional for X-C

Men’s basketball caught in transition

Favre, Pack beat Vikings

T-wolves rising, Lakers falling

Rensselaer in Brief
Zebra mussels found
For the second time this year, researches at the Darrin Freshwater Institute have discovered invasive, environmentally damaging organisms known as zebra mussels in northern Lake George at the Ticonderoga Boat Launch. Zebra mussels are tube-feeding organisms that produce toxic substances while subsisting on the plants necessary to maintain a lively fish population.

Though traps have been placed for zebra mussels in the past, it was believed that Lake George would not be as fully favorable an environment as the Great Lakes, where zebra mussels were first observed.

The Darrin Freshwater Institute as well as several other organizations began studying the proliferation of zebra mussels in Lake George in 1999. Though zebra mussels in the lake did not initially show signs of maturing beyond their veliger (juvenile) stage, they have in recent years shown signs of adaptation to the lake.

This is alarming news for Lake George conservationists and boaters as zebra mussels consume large portions of the microscopic plants from the base of the food web, which in turn reduces the amount of phytoplankton. Furthermore, the removal of the plankton results in a shift of native species and a disruption of the lake’s natural balance.

In response to recent findings, local groups and governments have been working on a treatment for the problem. Since state authorization for the use of sonar chemical compounds is several years away, scientists have begun the only form of removal and prevention they know—pulling them from the bottom and continuing to monitor the lake for signs of a large-scale infestation.

Light re-invented
The Hudson River Valley Greenway Conservancy, along with the Troy Architectural Program and students from RPI, is working to make-over the appearance of Greenway Park, next to the Collar City Bridge.

At present, the park is an isolated strip against the waterfront, virtually ignored by the community it serves. RPI students were asked for input and help in the design and fabrication of the park’s new design and were asked to focus on the lighting dynamics in the park, coupled with the placement of native plants.

The students are working with lighting design specialist Jean Paul Frerysinier. Their goal is to call attention to the park while at the same time making it into a place that residents and workers in the district are comfortable with.

The goal of RPI’s involvement is for the students involved to have a chance at practicing what their professors preach. Students will have an opportunity to partake in a real architectural and urban design team that will positively impact the city.

Simulating earthquakes
RPI recently became a member of the George E. Brown, Jr., Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation, joining 14 other universities in the United States. The instrumentation at RPI, and other institutions, and the needed equipment originated from a $3 million NSF grant. RPI’s Geographical Centrifuge Research Center now includes an upgraded geotechnical centrifuge, several labs, a computer center, and a teleconferencing room for consortium members to work in real-time.

RPI will receive an initial $4.5 million over the next five years for the center and has already invested $150,000 for renovations, and an additional $500,000 over the next decade for expenses.

One of the main functions of the center will be sharing resources and participating in remote observation of experiments through the NEESgrid—the collaborative computing environment connecting the 14 consortium members.

RPI marked the opening of the NEES center on campus this past Monday with tours of the Jonsson Engineering Center, which was only one part of a network-wide kickoff of the collaboration coordinated from NSF headquarters in Arlington, Va.