RCNJ

The Rensselaer Club of New Jersey has scheduled a second Summer baseball event on Tuesday, August 6th, entitled 'Night Out with the Newark Bears'. The Newark Bears will host the Camden Riversharks, at 6:35pm in Riverfront Stadium in Newark. We also plan to have a pre-game get-together in the Hall of Fame Room at Riverfront Stadium at 5:00pm. We have arranged for Rick Cerone, former New York Yankees catcher, to be our speaker at this event.

The Newark Bears made the national stage last year, when Jose Canseco, Lance Johnson, and Jim Leyritz all attempted major-league comebacks by playing for the Bears.

Bring your friends and family out to this RPI alumni Summer event, and catch a glimpse of baseball from a very close perspective. We are offering the tickets to our alumni and friends at face value, $8 each. If you're interested, please contact Phil Lurie by phone at 201-970-0254 to ensure that tickets are still available. Mail your payment to:

Phil Lurie '74
Rensselaer Club of New Jersey
P.O. Box 461
Paramus, NJ 07653-0461

Riverfront Stadium is easily accessible from Interstate 280 and Route 21 and is only a few miles from both the New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway. Directions to Riverfront Stadium can be found here. Attendees may also choose to take NJ Transit trains to the game via the Morris and Essex lines using the Newark-Broad Street station.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Articles in The New York Times and the Albany Times Union confirm that International Sematech, a consortium of microelectronic manufacturing companies, has chosen to locate a new $403 million semiconductor research facility at the State University of New York at Albany. The Times Union says that the center will initially be located at the a soon-to-be-completed building at the Center for Environmental Studies and Technology Management on the SUNY campus. A ceremony will take place at 10:30am today to announce the official selection.

The New York Times article focuses more on the potential regional economic impact of the announcement, including its importance to RPI:

... Despite the weak economy and a slumping technology sector, state and industry officials, as well as people who follow the industry, say the project could draw investments worth several times the cost of the project to the region.

The only other such center created by the computer chip consortium, International Sematech, was built in the late 1980's in another state capital and college town, Austin, Tex. Over the next decade, Austin became one of the best places to be in the high-tech world....

Austin's great advantage, he said, was a a large, first-rate engineering school at the University of Texas that supplied a steady stream of professors and graduates to high-tech industries. It remains to be seen whether SUNY and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in nearby Troy, can be a similar source of talent.

Those of us who were on campus in the mid to late 1980s will remember the intense work that Rensselaer faculty did to try to attract the Sematech facility that was ultimately located in Austin. Sematech actually built their Austin facility at the beginning of the last recession, and the massive semiconductor industry growth in that area took place in spite of somewhat difficult economic conditions.

It's hard to believe that growth of a similar magnitude could occur in Albany as has already occured in Austin. For one thing, Albany doesn't have a company like Dell Computer, which was in its infancy in Austin in 1988. But, the establishment of International Sematech North is likely to do more to create a high tech economy in the Capital District than all of the effort on locally-based entrepreneurship to date.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 6:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A major article on President Shirley Ann Jackson was published in Sunday's Albany Times Union. The article summarizes her three year tenure in the position including the successes, such as fundraising, and the controversies, like the change in Graduate School tuition and some of the more controversial elements of The Rensselaer Plan.

The article quotes Howard Isermann '42, an RCNJ member and an RPI trustee emeritus as saying: "Some people don't like her top-down management style, but it's her vision and she wants to make it happen." Lots of other juicy information and quotes may be found in the article. It's worth reading.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

John Cloninger pointed out that today's New York Times carries a major feature article about nanotube research and the Nanotube 2000 conference taking place in Boston this week. John said, "On page one of today's Science Times, there is an
article on nanotubes. Therein, RPI is cited for
creating an 8-inch nanotube, the longest ever. There
are other references to RPI in the article as well."

Posted by Dave Aiello at 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mark Ameres '87 wrote, "The New York City Chapter is planning a few upcoming events. Our next event is an impromptu Happy Hour at The Beer Bar, on Thursday, July 18. The Beer Bar is located at 45th Street and Vanderbuilt Avenue near Grand Central Station. Please contact me at rpinyc@mameres.com if you are interested in attending or planning events in New York City."

More information about New York City Chapter events and their organization is located on their website, http://www.alumni.rpi.edu/si/chapters/nyc.html.

Posted by Dave Aiello at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)