Council passes law
The Troy City Council passed a loitering law last Thursday that had been called for by city leaders and school administration. Under the ordinance, it is illegal for students under age 18 to loiter within 2,000 feet of a school between the hours of 7 am and 4 pm.
The law was rallied for by several school administrators in hopes it will reduce fighting, but many students harshly criticized the proposal. Currently, many students stand across from the high schools during the day and lawmakers have received complaints from residents about it. Lansingburgh High is located across from residential houses while Troy High is right across the street from many of RPI’s dorms.
A student who breaks the new law will be held by police and turned over to his or her parent or guardian. The next time the student is in violation, he or she will have to serve 25 hours of community service and the parents will be fined $100.
Drug software released
Software that may enable faster discovery of new medicines was recently released by a team of researchers from RPI. The Drug Discovery and Semi-Supervised Learning software is capable of examining very large databases in order to find molecules that may be useful in medicines.
Mark Embrechts, a Decisions Sciences and Engineering Systems associate professor, was one of the researchers and said, “The trick with drug discovery is to have the drug molecule fit like a key in a lock, because shape affects its performance.” He said that the software takes advantage of a computer’s calculating ability to look for the patterns necessary for the drug to work.
The research team also includes Chemistry professor Curt Breneman and Mathematics associate professor Kristin Bennett. As development of the software is continued, it will be moved to the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies when it opens.
GameFest scheduled
RPI’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences has recently added a minor in game studies, an interdisciplinary program between the cognitive science and arts department. In order to celebrate the new minor, a program entitled “GameFest” will be held next Monday and Tuesday.
The event includes lectures, a full-day design workshop, and an exhibition of computer games designed by over 70 art students. According to Assistant Professor Kathleen Ruiz, who is the co-director of the new minor, “The symposium will bring together philosophers, computer scientists, artists, and cognitive scientists who are conducting research in game design, development and production.”
Reservations are required for those wishing to attend. For more information, call Mark DeStefano at 276-4849 or e-mail him at destem@rpi.edu.
Speaker announced
RPI has announced that Robert Metcalfe will speak at the 2004 Commencement ceremony. At the ceremony, RPI will award honorary degrees to Metcalfe and three others.
Metcalfe is considered one of the people who made the internet possible as he invented Ethernet networking while working for Xerox in 1973 and later founded the 3Com Corporation. He has written for many publications and is now a general partner in Polaris Venture Partners, a venture capital firm.
The other three recipients of degrees will be Charles Thornton, George Bugliarello, and Donald Keck. The 198th Commencement is scheduled for 9:30 am on Saturday, May 15 on Harkness Field.
