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Eagles fall short of championship Red Hawks lose key games RPI athletes excel in classroom Engineers edged by Eagles, destroy Pioneers Continentals sweep Red Hawks Men’s hockey demolishes Crusaders Weekly Round Up
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Rensselaer in Brief
Engineering dean named
On Monday, the Institute announced that it had appointed a new dean for the School of Engineering, Alan Cramb. Cramb will succeed interim Dean Lester Gerhardt on July 1, thirteen months after he began serving in that positon.
Cramb currently serves as the head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, and worked in the steel industry as a research engineer prior to accepting an assistant professor position at CMU.
Cramb has published over 160 papers, and his current research focuses on various behaviors of steel, including solidification, while wetting at high temperatures, and eco-processing. He has also won several awards and has been active in many professional societies—serving as president of one and currently as president-elect of another.
Born in Scotland, Cramb earned his bachelors of science there in 1975. He received his Ph.D. in materials science at the University of Pennsylvania four years later.
The dean of engineering position was filled by Gerhardt after William “Bud” Baeslack III left the position at the end of May, 2004. Many other administrative searches are still continuing, including those for a vice provost for entrepreneurship, dean of enrollment management, and dean of the Lally School of Management.
SP2 recommended
Six months ago, Microsoft released a major update to the Windows XP operating system—Service Pack 2. While dotCIO recommended against students making the upgrade for the first several months while testing was performed, they are now recommending the update.
After testing all of the software packages found on school-issued IBM ThinkPads, problems were found with three pieces of software in particular—OpenAFS (software to connect to Andrew File System shared resources on the RPI network), Symantec NAV CE (virus protection), and IBM Access Connections (used to simplify connecting to many diverse networks).
Anyone can go to the Microsoft Windows Update website to download the free upgrade. As an alternative, the Help Desk will re-image student laptops with a version of Windows that has been fully updated with SP2; however, students will need to back up all of their data prior to doing this.
As far as the upgrade itself, the Help Desk recommends that students have their laptops on AC power, backup all of their data, scan for and remove malware, apply critical Windows patches, shutdown programs running in the background, and run the SP2 installation program.
RPI helps city makeover
In one of the largest collaborations between RPI and Troy in recent years, RPI, the city of Troy, and the Rensselaer Housing Authority have collaborated in buying adjoining land in the Congress Street and Ferry Street corridor.
Harry Tutunjian, Troy’s mayor, has already begun evaluating developer plans, ranging from $60-100 million, though who will pay for the development of the 14 acres into housing, shops, and restaurants has yet to be determined.
A realignment of Congress and Ferry streets is almost certain during the course of the development, as Troy has an $11 million federal transportation grant for such a project.
One project proposal seeks to closely link the RPI campus with Troy by erecting a mix of married and graduate housing along with retail and office space. Rensselaer County officials are optimistic that the project will increase the city and county’s tax base, as well as create many new jobs.
Mayor urges rezoning
During his second State of the City address, Troy mayor Harry Tutunjian announced several proposed initiatives, not the least of which included redeveloping the riverfront and citywide rezoning.
During the speech, the mayor also emphasized a new reliance on existing city personnel rather than external consultants with regard to the review of city planning and engineering projects.
The mayor is seeking to rezone the entire city because in the past, various types of businesses such as used car lots and trucking terminals were allowed to locate in any area, regardless of the impact on the community.
Tutunjian also spoke about authorizing the purchase of new technology to prevent future problems with water main breakages in the wake of last week’s disastrous main breaks, which forced over a dozen families from their homes. |
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