06/11/2026
GlobalFoundries invited students from RPI, SUNY Albany and SUNY Buffalo to their facility in Malta, NY to present their capstone project results. For RPI, students from the CMP Arch Scratch and Furnace teams shared explanations and demonstrations of the software they developed to help improve quality control of the semiconductor wafers made at the facility.
GlobalFoundries and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a growing partnership focused on:
Semiconductor workforce development, Chip manufacturing education, Research collaboration, Internships and talent pipelines, and Semiconductor R&D, which includes supporting capstone projects in The Design Lab.
Enjoy the photos of our students, the GlobalFoundries mentors and members of the Design Lab staff.
We are continually looking for new projects from industry partners. The Design Lab program supports seniors from the Electrical Engineering, Computer Systems Engineering, Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Systems Engineering departments. We form cross-functional teams, as we would do in industry or on a research team, to work on meaningful challenges. As we say at Rensselaer, "Why Not Change the World?"
For more information about the Design Lab, including supporting our students, please visit our website: https://designlab.rpi.edu.
We also invite you to view some of the videos on our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA_aQLN-mc-eWDoegVcooyw/videos
06/04/2026
At the end of the semester, we host a Design Showcase of our seniors and their capstone projects. Our 24 project teams shared a poster presentation of their work, engaging our visitors with an explanation of their work, the benefits to their clients and what things they learned about engineering and working as part of a team. Our partners provide support to the lab while engaging the students with meaningful technical challenges. Together, we help develop well rounded engineers ready to go forth into the workforce!
In addition, the Design Showcase featured a guest speaker, Brent Brunell '94, from GE Vernova Advanced Research at their Niskayuna, NY facility. Brent is the Technology Director for Digital and Electrical Systems which covers the technical strategy and R&D across artificial intelligence, robotics, computer vision, controls, cyber security, power electronics, and power systems. He directs a global team of researchers working to transform the energy landscape through close collaboration with GE Vernova businesses, government agencies, and academic partners.
Please enjoy these photos from the event, capturing our students and our guest speaker in action.
We are continually looking for new projects from industry partners. The Design Lab program supports seniors from the Electrical Engineering, Computer Systems Engineering, Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Systems Engineering departments. We form cross-functional teams, as we would do in industry or on a research team, to work on meaningful challenges. As we say at Rensselaer, "Why Not Change the World?"
For more information about the Design Lab, including supporting our students or proposing project ideas, please visit our website: https://designlab.rpi.edu.
We also invite you to view some of the videos on our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA_aQLN-mc-eWDoegVcooyw/videos
05/04/2026
CREATE, Cultivating Resources for Employment with Assistive Technology, is a non-profit organization located in the Albany NY area that connects NY universities with rehabilitative organizations within New York state. The students from these schools wotk with the agency to create devices that support employment and other opportunities for individuals with disabilities and qualified veterans.
For the Spring 26 semester, CREATE helped the New York State Industries for the Disabled (NYSID) partner with our Capstone program to support a team of seniors. The goal was to support the local mail distribution center run by NYSID. This center performs high volume print and mail services who must open may reams of paper each day. Our Capstone students developed a device to open the reams faster than is possible currently while making this operation safe for the workers.
Today, the various schools gathered at the CREATE Symposium to share their results with posters and demonstrations of their inventions. Pictured is the RPI Capstone team, along with Sr. Project Engineer Aren Paster, with their paper opening device. Aren was also one of the featured speakers at the event.
We are continually looking for new projects from industry partners. The Design Lab program supports seniors from the Electrical Engineering, Computer Systems Engineering, Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Systems Engineering departments. We form cross-functional teams, as we would do in industry or on a research team, to work on meaningful challenges. As we say at Rensselaer, "Why Not Change the World?"
For more information about the Design Lab, including supporting our students, please visit our website: https://designlab.rpi.edu.
We also invite you to view some of the videos on our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA_aQLN-mc-eWDoegVcooyw/videos
04/17/2026
This week the School of Engineering celebrated the opening of the Gene Haas Manufacturing Teaching & Learning Foundry, a shop facility in the Jonsson Engineering Center. This space is dedicated to educating the next generation of leaders and innovators in manufacturing through advanced, hands-on learning to go hand in hand with the theory and research opportunities shared by our students. The "ribbon cutting" (because it's a fabrication space, the ribbon was naturally a strip of metal!) event brought together the Mayor of Troy and representatives from the Gene Haas Foundation, RPI community, RPI alumni, industry partners, local educators, and community members to celebrate the opening of this innovative teaching and learning space. Congratulations to everyone for their hard work in bringing this transformation to completion!
The Design Lab also provides our students with hands-on experience. Our students work on challenging real world problems across a variety of technology areas and including multiple engineering disciplines.
We are continually looking for new projects from industry partners. The Design Lab program supports seniors from the Electrical Engineering, Computer Systems Engineering, Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Systems Engineering departments. We form cross-functional teams, as we would do in industry or on a research team, to work on meaningful challenges. As we say at Rensselaer, "Why Not Change the World?"
For more information about the Design Lab, including supporting our students, please visit our website: https://designlab.rpi.edu.
We also invite you to view some of the videos on our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA_aQLN-mc-eWDoegVcooyw/videos