RCNJ

Dave Bohan and his associates at Alumni Relations have established a service called RPI E-mail News Update. It is a mailing list that provides summaries of news stories about Rensselaer.

Since this program formally began in September, Alumni Relations has consistantly produced a News Update once a month. The stories selected for inclusion in the News Updates have often been different than those we have highlighted on this Web Site. So, if you are interested in what is happening on campus, you will probably find this service interesting.

To subscribe, visit http://www.alumni.rpi.edu/Online/alumninews.asp.

Read on to see the latest News Update, sent by Alumni Relations earlier today....

** Please pardon us if you have received this twice - there was an error in 
original transmission and some subscribers did not receive an earlier 
issued e-mail****



RPI E-mail News Update is a service provided by the Office of Alumni 

Relations. This news summary provides stories of particular interest to 

Rensselaer alumni and is e-mailed every 4-5 weeks or sooner if news warrants.

This service is available to all Rensselaer alumni. To subscribe or 

unsubscribe, see directions at the bottom of this e-mail.

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OUTSMARTING THE UPSTARTS:  HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL PRESS PUBLISHES NEW BOOK 

BY LALLY SCHOOL PROFESSORS

Radical innovation happens in big corporations - but it's the exception 

rather than the rule. In their new book, Radical Innovation: How Mature 

Companies Can Outsmart Upstarts, a team of six Lally School professors lays 

out a manifesto for managing corporate innovation.  Full story at: 

http://www.rpi.edu/web/News/press_releases/2000/sloan.html



SHOWER POWER

Students success at running a business out of a former shower stall is 

highlighted in Entrepreneur's Start-Ups Magazine.   Full story 

at: 

http://www.entrepreneurmag.com/Magazines/MA_SegArticle/0,1539,283389----1,00.html 



RECOMMENDATIONS PRESENTED FOR ENRICHING FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE

The First-Year Experience Task Force has completed the final draft of its 

report on restructuring student orientation and enriching the overall 

experience of first-year students. The need to improve the experience of 

first-year students is a first-year priority of the Rensselaer Plan. Among 

the recommendations by the task force, chaired by Rick Hartt '70, is to 

establish an Office of the First-Year Experience, which would work with all 

campus departments to establish the most effective programs for all 

first-year undergraduate, transfer, and graduate students.   Full story at:

http://www.rpi.edu/web/Campus.News/nov00/nov_6/home.html#3



PLANNING UNDER WAY FOR ELECTRONIC MEDIA AND PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

A task force has been appointed to begin planning for a new 1,500 seat 

electronic media and performing arts center called for in the Rensselaer 

Plan. Design of the new facility is part of the Plan's "first-year 

priorities." The facility will house Rensselaer's prominent and expanding 

program in electronic media and will create a high-quality venue for campus 

events.  Full story at:

http://www.rpi.edu/web/Campus.News/nov00/nov_13/home.html#2



RPIdeaLAB HELPS STUDENT COMPANIES GET OFF THE GROUND

The Rensselaer Alumni Association has recently provided funding to support 

the RPIdeaLab, a new resource available to Rensselaer students interested 

in starting new ventures.  The RPIdeaLab is housed in the Incubator Center 

on campus, and will provide up-and-coming student-entrepreneurs with 

opportunities and expertise to help move their venture interests and 

concepts into well-formulated plans and start-up enterprises.  The 

RPIdeaLab is currently seeking the expertise of alumni in various new 

start-up, business and technical areas as resources for students.  If you 

are interested, please contact Incubator Center Director, Bela Musits '75 

at (518) 276-6658 or musitb@rpi.edu



TUNE UP THE SKATES - SATELLITE HOCKEY IS COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU!

On Saturday, February 10, 2001 at 7:00 p.m. (EST), the Rensselaer Engineers 

will meet the Clarkson Golden Knights for the 9th Annual Satellite Hockey 

Telecast. The game will be seen live from Clarkson's Cheel Arena in more 

than 50 sites across the United States. The pre-game show begins at 6:45 

p.m. and at 7:00 p.m., the puck will drop for one of the most exciting and 

competitive games in the ECAC.   Telecast cities 

at:  http://www.alumni.rpi.edu/hockey/sathock.html

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1. You can SUBSCRIBE in two ways:

a. Go to http://www.alumni.rpi.edu/Online/alumninews.asp and simply fill in 

your name, class year and e-mail address. After hitting submit, you will 

receive an e-mail confirmation, which verifies your address and asks you to 

respond. Once you have done this, you are on the list!

OR

b. Send a message addressed to listproc@lists.rpi.edu, and in the body of 

the message type:

subscribe ALUMNI-NEWS-L Your Name

You will receive a confirmation e-mail which you must respond to in order 

to be added to the list.

2. TO UNSUBSCRIBE:

If you do not want to remain on this list, you may do so, although you will 

probably miss these "readers digest" news summaries!!. To sign off from the 

list, send an email to listproc@lists.rpi.edu with the following message in 

the e-mail body:

signoff ALUMNI-NEWS-L

or

unsubscribe ALUMNI-NEWS-L

*************************

David J. Bohan '82

Director, Office of Alumni Relations

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A new article on the Poly Web Site discusses the second meeting of the Student Life Forum. Apparently, this was a meeting between Rensselaer students and staff where student quality-of-life issues were discussed.

Many RCNJ members are vitally interested in the quality of student experience. But, it is difficult to understand the issues referred to in the article because no background is provided.

For example, the article says that one issue raised at the forum was that "students are required to purchase uniforms" in order to participate on athletic teams. Some of us are contributors to Let's Go Red!, a booster organization run by the Athletic Department. Let's Go Red! members are probably very interested in a policy like this, and under what circumstances it applies.

Another interesting anecdote from the article is that someone reportedly raised the issue of the "Career Development Center’s representation of students in currently 'unpopular' majors." Which majors do the students consider unpopular? And, is there actually a qualitative difference in services provided by the CDC?

It's good to see that the Poly continues to accurately report significant events on campus and student concerns. We wish they would be more conscious of the fact that their Web Site provides alumni with immediate access to the newspaper's content. We all realize that a story gains a worldwide audience once it is posted to a public Web Site. The Poly needs to realize that in this case, the world is watching.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Campus.News is reporting that the Rensselaer is actively attempting to buy residential real estate bordering campus that is in tax foreclosure. According to the article, the intent is to rehabilitate the buildings on these properties into "multi-family homes {to be} sold to qualified homeowners."

The idea is stated as a goal in Section 7 of the Rensselaer Plan: "Redevelop community fabric contiguous to and along gateways to the campus by joining in carefully selected neighborhood renewal, housing, hospitality, and commercial projects with private developers and public agencies."

Neighborhood revitalization projects are difficult because they can tie up a lot of capital if they are not managed properly. But, nothing is as likely to improve the area around campus as much as increasing the percentage of residential properties that are owned by people who live in the neighborhood.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Saturday night, RPI beat the Mercyhurst Lakers 5-0 at Houston Field House. Freshman Nathan Marsters made 22 saves en route to the shutout.

For those of you who don't know, Mercyhurst is a college in Erie, PA that is a member of the MAAC Conference. They recently moved up from Division III, as did many of the MAAC Conference teams. This was the first meeting between Rensselaer and Mercyhurst.

As one of the better teams in the ECAC, the Engineers should defeat teams in the MAAC fairly easily. The Times-Union article about this game made that clear by quoting Coach Dan Fridgen: "They were coming in here trying to steal a victory and, you know, this is our building. We don't take kindly to strangers coming in trying to steal games from us."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rensselaer capitalized on "an extended 5 on 3 power play" in the first period to score six first period goals en route to a 9-2 rout of UMass-Amherst at Houston Field House. This must have been an interesting game, since three players from each side were ejected for fighting in one altercation midway through the first period.

Matt Murley scored his hundredth career point in a game that saw him score four goals in under 18 minutes of playing time. He provided one of the best college hockey quotes in recent memory (in the U.S. College Hockey Online game report): "It was a great period.... I guess I turned into a great goal scorer all of a sudden. Last year those shots would have hit the post and bounced into our own net."

The Engineers may not be a consistant team this season, but they have played an interesting brand of hockey up to now.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few weeks ago, we reported that a student at RPI had his computer equipment seized by the FBI in an investigation into the defacement of the New York Yankees' Web Site. We are happy to note that Andres Salomon, the student who was under investigation, received his equipment back from the FBI on November 10. You can read his account of every step of the investigation on this Web Page.

We are pleased to hear that the FBI returned the student's equipment so expeditiously. The tendency in criminal investigations of this nature is for computer equipment to be held by the police for long periods of time. No doubt both parties to this story have learned something from the experience.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "While I was researching the RPI-UMass Hockey story, I found an article in the Poly that provides statistical analysis of the penalties called in the ECAC Mens' Hockey Games last season. The reporter apparently set out to confirm the widely held theory on our campus that ECAC referees allegedly call more penalties on RPI than on opposing teams."

"The article points out that researchers were unable to prove the hypothesis, but they did discover something interesting -- home teams in the ECAC are penalized more often than visitors."

Dave Aiello continues, "Unlike some other issues that come up on this Web Site, I have some expertise in this area. I am a Level 4 USA Hockey Official and a member of the National Ice Hockey Officials Association -- the organization from which the ECAC chooses its officials. I also happen to have been one of the managers of the Mens' Hockey Team from 1985 to 1989. Therefore, I can state categorically that no official working NCAA Hockey today at any level is able to hold a grudge against a single team. Scrutiny of officials is simply too great for anything of the sort to occur."

"I also took enough statistical analysis classes when I was at RPI to know that good statistical studies do not often begin with an expected result in mind. However, John Maloney's results speak for themselves, and he ought to be saluted for having the guts to tell it like it is."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In what could be the most underpublicized game in Division III Football History, the Engineers visited Geneva, NY last week to play Hobart College. Hobart beat RPI 27-0, ending RPI's season and continuing Hobart's march into the NCAA Tournament.

It's not that we didn't know that the game took place, but we couldn't find a game report in any media outlet. We checked D3football.com, The Times-Union, The Schenectady Gazette, The Poly -- none of these organizations had a story about the game.

But, finally, we found a report on the game. A story was published in The Finger Lakes Times! Should have realized that from the outset....

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Rensselaer Club of New Jersey will hold a dinner meeting on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 at Montclair Golf Club in West Orange, NJ. Dr. G.P. "Bud" Peterson, Rensselaer's new Provost, has agreed to be our guest and will speak about his work on campus.

Further details will be posted on the RCNJ Web Site as they are finalized.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 7:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This past weekend, Colgate and Cornell came to Troy to kick off the main part of the ECAC regular season. RPI defeated Colgate on Friday night, 3-2. In the Saturday game, the Big Red defeated the Engineers, also by a 3-2 score.

This gives Rensselaer a 3-3 overall record for the season -- not great considering the opportunities the team has had to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, but better than some people had expected to this point.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 1:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Rensselaer Football raised its record to 3-5 and got its first UCAA win of the season by demolishing St. Lawrence 49-7 at '86 field.

We have been spoiled in recent years by the consistantly high standard of play that the football team has maintained. In fact, it was natural that RPI would receive some criticism from observers this season, if only because the current team suffers in comparison to the 1998 and 1999 teams. However, anyone listening to the game on Saturday on WRPI heard truly bad Division III football clearly illustrated. That was the brand played by St. Lawrence.

You have to feel bad for St. Lawrence's team in the midst of an awful season. But, their performance this weekend did serve a purpose -- it helped to put the Engineers' season in perspective.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On Thursday, the Times-Union ran an article written by Tim Wilkin which said, "To put it bluntly, RPI is supposed to beat Union. When the Engineers lose, it's news." OK, so let's put it this way -- news happened on Saturday night at Achilles Rink in Schenectady.

Union scored four power play goals en route to a 4-2 victory over RPI. As both the Times-Union and U.S. College Hockey On-Line reported, no game between RPI and Union in Schenectady is complete without a little chaos -- this time RPI's goal was dislodged for several seconds before Union scored what turned out to be the game winning goal.

Worse than this, however, is the deliberate disruption of the game that takes place after the first Union goal at every home game. As the Times-Union reported: "It produced a shower of stuffed animals and debris onto the ice
from Union fans, who at least refrained from oranges, their
ammunition of choice in the past."

The article continues, "When they let loose with a barrage again after Union's second
goal, the Dutchmen were penalized for delay of game. RPI almost
made them pay by applying sustained pressure for the first time in
the game. Only some clutch saves by Snee kept the Engineers off
the board."

This behavior has basically been tolerated by the ECAC for more than 10 years. When will it end? The disruption makes it really difficult for any visiting team to concentrate on playing the game according to plan. We're sure that this plays a role in the success that Union has had in beating RPI in Schenectady in recent years.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 8:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thursday night, about 100 Rensselaer alumni and New York-area venture capitalists participated in a Venture Forum meeting, organized by the Rensselaer Entrepreneur Network. The meeting consisted of presentations by three established companies affiliated with the RPI Incubator program who are seeking venture funding, followed by a brief presentation on the Rensselaer Open Business Plan Contest.

Read on for a description of the presentations....

The Venture Forum meeting took place at the New York Athletic Club and was co-sponsored by LaunchCenter 39, Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt, Maynard & Kristol, LLP, Quantum Venture Partners, and Golenbock, Eisman, Assor & Bell, LLP.

The first company presentation was given by Steinar Flatland of Document Development Corporation. DDC provides mechanisms to automatically or semi-automatically produce structured documents, like contracts and sales proposals. Next to present was Thea Snyder, an executive with Biazo. Biazo is a Customer Relationship Management software company focusing on the telecommunications industry. Walt Sherwood made the last company presentation, on behalf of Starfire Systems. The company makes high-tech polymers used in the aerospace, trucking, and power generation industries.

The formal part of the program was concluded by Simon Balint, Assistant Director of the Rensselaer Incubator Center. Simon introduced the Rensselaer Open Business Plan Contest, is "open to all alumni, faculty, staff, Incubator and Tech Park companies" and is geared toward "{refining and polishing} the business plans of early stage companies".

A number of people were involved in making this event a success. However, the team of Tom Payne and Dan Zettler were most involved in the organizational efforts.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 9:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dave Aiello wrote, "Yesterday, I noticed an article on Slashdot that indicated that an RPI student had his computers seized and was questioned by the FBI in connection with an investigation into the vandalization of the New York Yankees Web Site. I did not want to post a story that discussed this until I could confirm the information, and I was too busy to do much digging. But now, the story has hit the mainstream press, appearing in USA Today. If they ran the story, we can be pretty confident that the details check out."

(Update: The Poly is now providing a report on this incident, as are the The Times-Union and the Associated Press.)

"The student, Andres Salomon, a sophomore, posted this explanation of what occurred. If you are interested in a simpler explanation of what he claims he did, read on...."

This is a less technical summary of the statement that appears on the Web Page http://devrandom.net/~dilinger/. News accounts state that this Web Page is the work of Andres Salomon, an undergraduate student at Rensselaer:

He indicates that people who know him will vouch for the fact that he is not a hacker. He does, however, have an interest in computer security-related issues.

He said that when the FBI arrived (on Saturday 10/28) at his room and presented him with a search warrant, he thought that they would be upset to find out that he had hundreds of recorded music files on his computer that could be copied by others without paying for the album at the record store. He thought he could explain himself, and they would move on to a more likely suspect.

The previous day, he had gotten up early and caught up with news about technology at some of his favorite Web Sites. He also worked on some computer science projects, while communicating with his friends on IRC -- Internet Relay Chat. IRC is a service similar to America On-Line Instant Messenger. It was at this time that he found out about the vandalization of the Yankees.com Web Site.

He went to the Yankees.com Web Site and found that it had not yet been restored to its original condition. Since he had some experience reparing the damage done by computer vandals on other computers, he began his own "post-mortem inspection".

The last time a friend had asked him to fix a Linux computer that had been broken into by an unauthorized user, he found that they had exploited a documented bug in a program that allows people to send and receive files from that computer via the Internet. So, he looked for the same problem on the Yankees Web Site, found that it existed, and that the unauthorized user had used the problem to change the contents of the Web Site.

He then searched the network that the Yankees Web Site is on, looking for other computers. He found another machine called old.yankees.com which seemed to be a copy of the original Web Site. Then, he tried to find evidence that the vandals had simply changed the name of the computer where the Yankees Web Site is, and replaced it with a completely different Web Site that contained embarassing information.

For reasons he could not determine, he was unable to find conclusive evidence of the replacement. So, he simply commented to his friends that he was chatting with over the Internet that it looked like that was what had happened, and left it at that.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)