Features

With finals week looming, Nason Hall has been looking for a way to liven students’ spirits. Over the weekend, several residents pitched in to purchase and decorate a tree that’s now displayed on the building’s north side. The Polytechnic interviewed a few of the main contributors to this project.

Cadets in Rensselaer’s Army ROTC competed in a national military skills competition, the Ranger Challenge, from October 22 to 24. The Mohawk Battalion, a 12-member team with RPI, Siena College, University of Albany, and Union College cadets, placed second out of 45 teams, qualifying them to compete at the Sandhurst Military Skills Competition at West Point for the first time in over ten years.

OpenCircuits, an online circuit designer, is seeing increased usage in classrooms at Rensselaer. Recently, Professor Konstantin Kuzmin decided to use OpenCircuits as his main circuit simulator when teaching Computer Organization. To learn more about the project, The Polytechnic interviewed the OpenCircuits RCOS project team.

Despite the hiatus caused by the pandemic, the RPI Players still deliver with Clue—an infamous mystery story that’s been adapted into countless movies, shows, plays, and a myriad of board games since its inception.

With Spring semester course registration right around the corner, many RPI students are trying to put together their course schedules. A popular scheduling tool among RPI students is QuACS, the Questionably Accurate Course Scheduler. To get a better understanding of QuACS, The Polytechnic interviewed the QuACS team.

Are you looking to spice up your playlist? Don't worry, The Poly's got you covered. Check out our Fall 2021 recommendations below, featuring music from Adele to Modest Mouse.

Exploring West Hall at night is a rite of passage at RPI. In the newest Poly comic, three students have a strange encounter in the rumored-to-be-haunted building.

West Hall has a reputation at Rensselaer for its otherworldly, cryptic nature, with its eerie and complex history. Staff writer Vaughn Greason ’25 walks through the history of West Hall and what it represents to RPI.

Laura Zwirn ’23 and Erik Cross ’23 interview local drag queen Typhoid Mary to learn more about their artistic endeavors and their lived experiences as an artist in Troy.

Talk Without Borders organized Poetry Slam Night, an event aimed towards providing members of the Rensselaer community with an open space to express themselves in an artistic way.

Bill Ni ’23 shares his thoughts on why Parasite and Squid Game are so successful and how they reflect on our society’s income inequality.

Shuttle Tracker recently released a new public beta, called “the new Shuttle Tracker,” with a major new feature: crowd-sourced location data. The Polytechnic interviewed the Shuttle Tracker team on the Tracker's new features.

Editor in chief Medhini Mankale ’23 and photography editor Rachel Wang ’23 explain why We Are Lady Parts is the one show you should binge this semester. The comedy series follows an all-female Muslim punk band as they prepare and audition for a battle of the bands competition, with plenty of witty banter and jokes along the way.

Public health officials warn of possible side effects, but what if they weren't all negative? The Poly is bringing back comics with graphic artist Habib Nahouta at the helm.

As part of an ongoing attempt to maintain a semblance of the normal college experience, many clubs have adapted their activities to operate fully online. The Polytechnic interviewed club officers about forging friendships online, pursuing projects virtually, and planning for the future.

Though we’re glad 2020 is over, here are our favorite movies and shows released in the past year to get you through the quarantine and the rest of the semester.

Students returning to campus for the Spring semester face increased risk of COVID-19 by rejoining the Rensselaer community. Five students share their views on remote learning, the return to campus, and the COVID-19 vaccine, among other topics, with The Polytechnic.

The 7th annual HackRPI hackathon was held virtually this year due to COVID-19. The free event ran as usual, with themes, events, and workshops. The most interesting aspect of the hackathon, though, was the diverse set of projects, ranging from a ride-sharing app called Carpool Coordinator to a modernized health care portal called Mediscope. The themes for this year were the following: artificial intelligence, climate change and environmental sustainability, and Public Health and Pandemic Response.

In last week’s Top Hat, our Grand Marshall Advaith Narayan gave his tips for managing academic stress. Consider this a follow-up to address the elephant in the room, the biggest cause of student stress, low grades, and late nights: procrastination. From someone who has struggled with procrastination for her entire academic career, here are some guidelines to help kick the procrastination habit.

Over 4,200 members of the Rensselaer community were tested for COVID-19 prior to the return to campus this fall in an impressive feat of organization. While the process has gone remarkably smoothly, we hope that improvement in communication can make it even better.

Students everywhere endure the mediocrity of dining hall food, but Rensselaer’s choiceless quarantine meals are a whole new take on this quintessential college experience. There was no way to prepare first-year students for the abysmal food that was soon to arrive on their dorm-steps: soggy croutons, cold sauceless noodles, and more. First-year writer Avery Clark reviews Rensselaer’s quarantine food delivery service.

After transitioning to distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, Rensselaer professors provide their perspectives on online teaching and the lessons they will bring back with them when on-campus learning resumes.

After a few weeks of online courses and the absence of campus activities, here are suggestions on how to socialize while practicing social distancing.

From jazz favorites to soundtrack classics, the annual Pops Concert hosted by the Rensselaer Music Association was a blast!