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101-405: Zachtronics was founded by American video game designer and programmer Zach Barth in 2000. Barth started creating games early in life and further developed his programming skills at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where he joined the game development club. Barth studied computer systems engineering and computer science at RPI. He was one of three students leading the interdisciplinary team of

202-420: A 218,000 square-foot research facility for fundamental and applied research in biotechnology . The primary target of the research center is biologics, a research priority based on data-driven understanding of proteomics , protein regulation, and gene regulation. It involves using biocatalysis and synthetic biology tools to block or supplement the actions of specific cells or proteins in the immune system. Over

303-485: A book titled The Voyage of Robert Dudley ...to the West Indies, 1594–95, narrated by Capt. Wyatt, by himself, and by Abram Kendall, master (published circa 1595). The word later came to be used as a noun , first as an abstract noun meaning 'the state or condition of being puzzled', and later developing the meaning of 'a perplexing problem'. The OED ' s earliest clear citation in the sense of 'a toy that tests

404-714: A college, drawing graduates from many older institutions. Under Eaton, the Rensselaer School, renamed the Rensselaer Institute in 1832, was a small but vibrant center for technological research. The first civil engineering degrees in the United States were granted by the school in 1835, and many of the best remembered civil engineers of that time graduated from the school. Important visiting scholars included Joseph Henry , who had previously studied under Amos Eaton, and Thomas Davenport , who sold

505-406: A concrete exterior that was designed to harmonize with the light gray brick of the chapel; architecturally, it is an example of the modern brutalist style. Subsequently, the university was unsure of what to do with the chapel, or whether to keep it at all, but in 1979 decided to preserve it and renovate it to house computer labs and facilities to support the institute's computing initiatives. Today

606-554: A failed vote of no-confidence in Jackson. In September 2007, RPI's Faculty Senate was suspended for over four years over conflict with the administration. In 2011, the college was sanctioned by the American Association of University Professors "for infringement of governance standards". On 3 October 2008, RPI celebrated the opening of the $ 220 million Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center . That same year

707-613: A former chairperson of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under U.S. President Bill Clinton , as the eighteenth president of RPI. She instituted " The Rensselaer Plan " (discussed below), an ambitious plan to revitalize the institute. Many advances have been made under the plan, and Jackson has enjoyed the ongoing support of the RPI Board of Trustees. However, her leadership style did not sit well with many faculty; on 26 April 2006, RPI faculty voted 149 to 155 in

808-470: A free update and editor which would allow users to create their own levels which could then be shared to other users, with the best ones being picked out by Zachtronics to be published and these were released on April 29 as the Shareholders' Update . Barth hinted at the prospect of a sequel and also stated that it would be fantastic to have SpaceChem on a future Humble Bundle . The game was included in

909-514: A goal of $ 100 million annually. Fourteen years later, in FY2013, research expenditures reached this goal. To help raise money the university mounted a $ 1 billion capital campaign, of which the public phase began in September 2004 and was expected to finish by 2008. In 2001, a major milestone of the campaign was the pledging of an unrestricted gift of $ 360 million by an anonymous donor, believed to be

1010-501: A hill overlooking Troy and the Hudson River . The surrounding area is mostly residential neighborhoods, with the city of Troy lying at the base of the hill. The campus is bisected by 15th Street, with most of the athletic and housing facilities to the east, and the academic buildings to the west. A footbridge spans the street, linking the two halves. Much of the campus features a series of Colonial Revival style structures built in

1111-552: A laptop computer since 1999. Nationally, RPI is a member of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) and the NAICU's University and College Accountability Network (U-CAN). With the arrival of President Shirley Ann Jackson came the "Rensselaer Plan", announced in 1999. Its goal is to achieve greater prominence for Rensselaer as a technological research university. Various aspects of

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1212-527: A letter to the Reverend Dr. Samuel Blatchford , in which Van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's first senior professor and appointed the first board of trustees. The school opened on Monday, 5 January 1825 at the Old Bank Place, a building at the north end of Troy. Tuition

1313-531: A number of certificate programs and skills training programs for working professionals. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has five schools: the School of Architecture, the School of Engineering, the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, the Lally School of Management & Technology , and the School of Science. The School of Engineering is the largest by enrollment, followed by the School of Science,

1414-451: A program to allow educational and non-profit institutions to freely download and use several of his games for educational purposes. With the release of Last Call BBS in July 2022, Zachtronics announced that that would likely be the last game they develop, as they "felt it was time for a change." Barth also said the decision was motivated by the fact that Zachtronics was only making games of

1515-481: A public 3D printing service. In 2017, Chi Phi and Theta Chi at Rensselaer co-hosted an event called "Brave A Shave For Kids With Cancer," along with several other Greek organizations - raising over $ 22,000 for pediatric cancer research with dozens of participants shaving their heads to spread awareness of pediatric cancers. Many fraternities and sororities also engage in Adopt-a-Highway and host events in

1616-569: A public school building which was converted into Academy Hall (1990), and the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies (2004). Tunnels connect the Low Center, DCC, JEC and Science Center. A tenth dormitory named Barton Hall was added to Freshman Hill in August 2000, featuring the largest rooms available for freshmen. On 3 October 2008, the university celebrated the grand opening of

1717-410: A record number of applications: 20,337. According to Jared Cohon in 2006, then president of Carnegie Mellon University , "Change at Rensselaer in the last five years has occurred with a scope and swiftness that may be without precedent in the recent history of American higher education." The ability to attract greater research funds is needed to meet the goals of the plan, and the university has set

1818-729: A redevelopment. The Institute ran a 15-acre (6.1 ha) campus in Hartford, Connecticut , and a distance learning center in Groton, Connecticut , the latter of which was closed in 2018. The Hartford campus was sold in 2023. These centers were used by graduates and working professionals and are now managed by the online branch of RPI, Rensselaer at Work where graduate degrees are offered in business administration , management , computer science , computer and systems engineering , electrical engineering , engineering science , mechanical engineering and information technology . There are also

1919-562: A similar puzzle nature, keeping them "locked into doing something we didn't feel like doing forever," whereas moving on would allow him and other members of the team to work on other types of games. Zachtronics' games have generally been focused around engineering puzzle games , designing machines or the equivalent to take input and make output; these are generally part of the broader class of programming games . These games, including SpaceChem , Infinifactory , and Opus Magnum , feature multiple puzzles that are open ended in solution; as long as

2020-538: Is 13:1. Among the class of 2020, 66% are in the top 5 percent of their high school class, 93% in the top quarter, and 99% in the top half. The average unweighted high school GPA for enrolled students was 3.88 on a 4.0 scale, with 65% having a 3.75 GPA or higher and 99% having at least a 3.0. Rensselaer's yield rate for the Class of 2021 surpassed 20 percent in the year 2018 with over 20,000 applications received by Rensselaer's Office of Admissions. The average SAT score range

2121-657: Is a private research university in Troy, New York . It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was established in 1824 by Stephen Van Rensselaer and Amos Eaton for the "application of science to the common purposes of life". Built on a hillside, RPI's 265-acre (107 ha) campus overlooks the city of Troy and the Hudson River . The institute operates an on‑campus business incubator and

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2222-493: Is a doctorate, and its graduate program is ranked tied for 43rd out of 218 engineering schools. The Leiden Ranking (2016) placed RPI at 127 among the top 900 world universities and research institutions according to the proportion of the top 1% most frequently cited publications of a university. In 2016, The Economist ranked Rensselaer No. 18 among four-year non-vocational colleges and universities and Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings placed Rensselaer among

2323-400: Is an acronym which stands for Bracket, Of, Division, Multiplication, Addition and Subtraction. In certain regions, PEMDAS (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition and Subtraction) is the synonym of BODMAS. It explains the order of operations to solve an expression. Some mathematical puzzles require Top to Bottom convention to avoid the ambiguity in the order of operations. It

2424-451: Is an elegantly simple idea that relies, as sudoku does, on the requirement that numbers appear only once starting from top to bottom as coming along. Puzzle makers are people who make puzzles. In general terms of occupation, a puzzler or puzzlist is someone who composes and/or solves puzzles. Some notable creators of puzzles are: The nine linked-rings puzzle, an advanced puzzle device that requires mathematical calculation to solve,

2525-451: Is called enigmatology . Puzzles are often created to be a form of entertainment but they can also arise from serious mathematical or logical problems. In such cases, their solution may be a significant contribution to mathematical research. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the word puzzle (as a verb ) to the end of the 16th century. Its earliest use documented in the OED was in

2626-485: Is on reducing the cost associated with the development of nanoscale materials and devices, such as those used in the semiconductor industry. The university also utilizes the center for interdisciplinary research in biotechnology , medicine , energy , and other fields. Rensselaer operates a nuclear reactor and testing facility–the only university-run reactor in New York State–;as well as

2727-473: The Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) situated on the west edge of campus. The building was constructed on the precipice of the hill, with the main entrance on top. Upon entering, elevated walkways lead into a 1,200-seat concert hall. Most of the building is encased in a glass exoskeleton, with an atrium -like space between it and the "inner building". Adjacent to and underneath

2828-650: The Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle charitable sale in early October 2011. The following year SpaceChem was the featured game on IndieGameStand, a site which features indie games with a pay-what-you-want model with a portion of the proceeds going to charity. Barth chose the Against Malaria Foundation as the charity to which 10% of the proceeds were donated. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ( / r ɛ n s ə ˈ l ɪər / ; RPI )

2929-695: The Interfraternal Council and Panhellenic Council . Of those Greek organizations, three were founded at Rensselaer including the Theta Xi national engineering fraternity, the Sigma Delta Hispanic-interest local sorority, and the Rensselaer Society of Engineers local engineering fraternity. Theta Xi fraternity was established by RPI students on 29 April 1864, the only national fraternity founded during

3030-763: The NCAA Division III level in the Liberty League ; men's and women's ice hockey compete at the Division I level in ECAC Hockey . The official nickname of some of the school's Division III teams was changed in 1995 from the Engineers to the Red Hawks. However, the hockey, football, cross-country, tennis and track and field teams all chose to retain the Engineers name. The Red Hawks name was, at

3131-604: The Rensselaer Technology Park . In 1982 the New York State legislature granted RPI $ 30 million to build the George M. Low Center for Industrial Innovation , a center for industry-sponsored research and development. In 1999, RPI gained attention when it was one of the first universities to implement a mandatory laptop computer program. This was also the year of the arrival of Shirley Ann Jackson ,

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3232-612: The Tetherless World Constellation , a multidisciplinary research institution focused on theories, methods, and applications of the World Wide Web . Research is carried out in three inter-connected themes: Future Web, Semantic Foundations and Xinformatics. At Rensselaer, a constellation is a multidisciplinary team composed of senior and junior faculty members, research scientists, and postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students. The faculty experts for

3333-433: The 1,250-acre (510 ha) Rensselaer Technology Park . RPI is organized into six main schools which contain 37 departments, with emphasis on science and technology. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities: Very High Research Activity". As of 2017, RPI's faculty and alumni included multiple engineers, including Ivar Giaever . Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on 5 November 1824 with

3434-574: The 1894–1895 school year, the President of the Union and Grand Marshal ran side by side. The week of voting for said positions is called GM Week, and typically has events on campus for students to do to promote the voting. The Grand Marshal position is elected by the student body (typically in the spring) and is the highest position a student can hold at RPI. The GM plays a big role in the student government by doing projects, appointing officers, and aiding

3535-473: The 1970s and 1980s, one RPI cheer was: Puzzle game A puzzle is a game , problem , or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge . In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart ) in a logical way, in order to find the solution of the puzzle. There are different genres of puzzles, such as crossword puzzles , word-search puzzles, number puzzles, relational puzzles, and logic puzzles. The academic study of puzzles

3636-629: The A* search algorithm, Herman A. Haus , Marcian E. Hoff , creator of the microprocessor, Doug Mercer, who was influential in the field of analog to digital converters, Sean O’Sullivan , Curtis P. Priem , founder of NVIDIA , George Saridis, Steven J. Sassoon , inventor of digital camera, Chauncey Starr , Raymond S. Tomlinson , inventor of e-mail , and Eitan Yudilevich. Rensselaer is classified among " R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity" . Rensselaer has established six areas of research as institute priorities: biotechnology , energy and

3737-540: The Alumni Inter-Greek Council, Greek Greeks - a student-run venture which aims to promote sustainability and safe environmental practices in Greek chapter houses, Greek Spectrum - an LGBTQIA support and advocacy group, and the undergraduate Greek leadership society Order of Omega . The RPI Engineers are the athletic teams for the university. RPI currently sponsors 23 sports, 21 of which compete at

3838-766: The CapAbility Games Research Project, a collaboration of RPI with the Center for Disability Services in Albany, New York . In 2008, the team produced Capable Shopper , a shopping simulation game for players with various degrees of disability. Barth's initial games were generally free browser games offered on his website. One of these was Infiniminer , the block-building game which inspired Mojang to create Minecraft . His earlier, non-commercial, games included twenty that were published on his old website and "five good ones" which he transferred over to

3939-715: The Civil War. The Theta Xi Fraternity Chapter House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Additionally, Rensselaer is home to the Epsilon Zeta chapter of the Alpha Phi Omega , or "APO," national service fraternity, which operates a test-bank and office at the top floor of the Student Union. The organization also hosts a campus lost & found, universal can tab collection, and

4040-587: The ECSE department often do minors in other fields such as economics or psychology . The ECSE department currently does research in the areas of information science and systems, communication and network, control and autonomy, energy and power systems, electronics and photonics, and computer systems design. Notable alumni from the ECSE department include James A. Parsons, B. Jayant Baliga , Alan Borck, founder of RLC Electronics, Bruce Carlson, Mukesh Chatter, Allen B. Du Mont , Nariman Farvardin , Peter Hart, inventor of

4141-810: The Gaerttner Linear Accelerator , which is currently being upgraded under a $ 9.44 million grant from the US Department of Energy . In 2024, Rensselaer, in partnership with IBM , unveiled a new quantum computer on campus, aiming to further quantum computer research for both the university and the New York State area. In 2018, Rensselaer's enrollment was 7,442 total resident students, including 6,590 undergraduate and 1,329 graduate. Over 71% of Rensselaer's students are from out of state. More than 20% of students are international. Rensselaer students represent all 50 U.S. states and over 60 countries. The undergraduate student to faculty ratio

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4242-643: The Institute moved to a building on Broadway on 8th Street, now the site of the Approach. One of the first Latino student organizations in the United States was founded at RPI in 1890. The Club Hispano Americano was established by the international Latin American students that attended the institute at this time. In 1904 the institute was for the fourth time devastated by fire, when its main building

4343-556: The Rensselaer Plan has led the university into financial difficulties, with its credit rating lowered by several agencies. For 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked Rensselaer tied for 53rd among national universities in the U.S., 40th out of 180 for "Best Value" in undergraduate education, and tied for 68th out of the top 83 in "Most Innovative Schools". The same rankings placed Rensselaer's undergraduate engineering program tied at 32nd among schools whose highest degree

4444-540: The School of Management, the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and the School of Architecture. There also exists an interdisciplinary program in Information Technology that began in the late 1990s, programs in prehealth and prelaw, Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) for students desiring commissions as officers in the armed forces, a program in cooperative education (Co-Op), and domestic and international exchange programs. Altogether,

4545-687: The Social and Behavioral Research Laboratory. President Palmer Ricketts supervised the construction of the school's "Green Rooftop" Colonial Revival buildings that give much of the campus a distinct architectural style. Buildings constructed during this period include the Carnegie Building (1906), Walker Laboratory (1907), Russell Sage Laboratory (1909), Pittsburgh Building (1912), Quadrangle Dormitories (1916–1927), Troy Building (1925), Amos Eaton Hall (1928), Greene Building (1931) and Ricketts Building (1935). Also built during this period

4646-672: The TWC constellation are James Hendler , Deborah McGuinness and Peter Fox . Faculty alumni of TWC includes Heng Ji ( Natural Language Processing ). In 2016, the Constellation received a one million dollar grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for continuing work on a novel data visualization platform that will harness and accelerate the analysis of vast amounts of data for the foundation's Healthy Birth, Growth, and Development Knowledge Integration initiative. In conjunction with

4747-648: The Troy community and help revitalize the downtown. RPI owns and operates three office buildings in downtown Troy, the Rice and Heley buildings and the historic W. & L.E. Gurley Building . RPI also owns the Proctor's Theater building in Troy, which was purchased in 2004, with the intention of converting it into office space. As of 2011, Rensselaer had signed an agreement with Columbia Development Companies to acquire both Proctor's Theatre and Chasan Building in Troy and launch

4848-608: The VCC serves as the backbone for the institute's data and telephony infrastructure. The modern campus features the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center (J-ROWL) (1961), Materials Research Center (MRC) (1965), Rensselaer Union (1967), Cogswell Laboratory (1971), Darrin Communications Center (DCC) (1973), Jonsson Engineering Center (JEC) (1977), Low Center for Industrial Innovation (CII) (1987),

4949-597: The ability to gain bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in Electrical Engineering , or Computer Systems Engineering . While the school itself was founded in 1824, Electrical Engineering was first introduced to Rensselaer Polytechnic in 1907 with the class of 1911, long before the invention of the first computers but twenty-eight years after the invention of the lightbulb. The department was listed as Physics and Electrical Engineering in 1924 while under President Palmer Ricketts . Computer system engineering

5050-483: The author Barth, it was based on the earlier games Infinifrag , Team Fortress , and Motherload by XGen Studios. Barth wrote Infiniminer in his spare time, with the help of a friend, and released it in steps of incremental updates during April–May 2009. It quickly garnered a following on message boards around the Internet. Infiniminer was originally intended to be played as a team-based competitive game, where

5151-453: The base of the hill, along with plans to transform it into a new residence hall. After extensive renovations, the residence hall was dedicated on 15 May 2009, as the Howard N. Blitman, P.E. '50 Residence Commons. It houses about 300 students in 148 rooms and includes a fitness center, dining hall, and conference area. The new residence hall is part of a growing initiative to involve students in

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5252-529: The board of trustees increased the goal of the $ 1 billion capital campaign to $ 1.4 billion by 30 June 2009. The new goal was met by 1 October 2008. In anticipation of RPI's 200th anniversary, an updated version called the "Rensselaer Plan 2024" was announced in 2012. In 2016, Jackson announced during the Fall Town Hall Meeting that the institute was in the final stages of organizing a new capital campaign which it would launch in 2017 to meet

5353-839: The budget for the following fiscal year, keeping track of and distributing union funds, and managing the business affairs with other facilities. In addition to appointing the executive board, they also work closely with the union's staff, athletics staff, and student clubs. The first PU was W.C.H. Slagle, and the current as of 2024-2025 is Catherine Philipps (135th). Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has an extensive history of Greek community involvement on campus, including past presidents, honorary academic building dedications, and philanthropic achievements. The overall Greek system at Rensselaer stresses Leadership, Fortitude, Innovation, and Evolution. RPI currently has 29 active fraternities as well as 6 sororities, with 32 percent involvement of all males and 18 percent involvement of all females, organized under

5454-431: The business alongside the new responsibilities at Valve. Sometime between the release of TIS-100 and Shenzhen I/O , Barth had come into contact with Alliance Media Holdings who offered to buy the studio and to manage the publishing of the games, while allowing Barth to retain his creative lead and control. Since the studio's acquisition, it has published Shenzhen I/O , Opus Magnum , and Exapunks . In June 2019,

5555-478: The constellation, Rensselaer operates the Center for Computational Innovations which is the result of a $ 100 million collaboration between Rensselaer, IBM , and New York State to further nanotechnology innovations. The center is currently home to the most powerful private-university based supercomputer in the world and its supercomputer is consistently ranked among the most powerful in the world, capable of performing over 1.1 peta- FLOPS . The center's main focus

5656-401: The east edge of campus bordering Burdett Avenue, a location that came to be called "Freshman Hill". The Houston Field House (1949) was reassembled, after being moved in pieces from its original Rhode Island location. West Hall , which was originally built in 1869 as a hospital, was acquired by the Institute in 1953. The ornate building is an example of French Second Empire architecture. It

5757-591: The economy of the Capital District . That same year, renovation of the North Hall, E-Complex, and Quadrangle dormitories began and was later completed in 2016 to house the largest incoming class in Rensselaer's history. In July 2022, Martin A. Schmidt , formerly provost of Massachusetts Institute of Technology , became RPI's nineteenth president. RPI's 275-acre (111 ha) campus sits upon

5858-563: The environment , nanotechnology , computation and information technology , and media and the arts . Research is organized under the Office of the Vice President for Research, Jonathan Dordick . In 2018, Rensselaer operated 34 research centers and maintained annual sponsored research expenditures of $ 100.8 million. One of the most recent of Rensselaer's research centers is the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies ,

5959-495: The first three decades of the 20th century. Overall, the campus has enjoyed four periods of expansion. RPI was originally located in downtown Troy, but gradually moved to the hilltop that overlooks the city. Buildings that remain from this time include Winslow Chemical Laboratory , a building on the National Register of Historic Places . Located at the base of the hill on the western edge of campus, it currently houses

6060-466: The first time in its history. These women represented 30 percent of the student body in engineering at the university, and 32 percent of the university's total gender composition. Shekhar Garde, Rensselaer's dean of engineering, claims he wants to increase the female composition of the institute to 50 percent before 2030. The positions of Grand Marshal and President of the Union at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are typically awarded (by student vote) to

6161-548: The full-time graduate enrollment declined from 1500 to 1,188. Roughly 12% of students received the Rensselaer medal, a merit scholarship with a cumulative value of $ 100,000 for exceptional high school students in science and mathematics. 95% of full-time domestic undergraduate students receive either need-based or merit-based financial aid , averaging 85% of total financial need met per student. In 2018, Rensselaer invested over $ 140 million in financial aid and scholarships for students. RPI became coeducational in 1942. In 1966,

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6262-509: The game's storefront, that have also completed that puzzle. This gives a type of competitiveness to the game for players to find ways to optimize their solutions and improve their relative scores. Newer games also feature support for user-created puzzles. Infiniminer is an open source multi-player block-based sandbox building and digging game, in which the player plays as a miner searching for minerals by carving tunnels through procedurally generated maps and building structures. According to

6363-535: The general campus community. The first GM was Albert M. Harper, and the current GM as of 2024–2025 is Vivian Rost-Nasshan (158th). The President of the Union is elected by the student body (typically in the spring). Their main responsibility is to appoint an executive board of 15–20 students (responsible for the Rensselaer Union's budget). The executive board is the chief financial body of the Rensselaer Union. They are responsible for preparing and approving

6464-408: The goal is to locate and excavate precious metals, and bring the findings to the surface to earn points for the player's team. However, as the game gained popularity, players gravitated towards the emergent gameplay functionality of building in-world objects, instead of the stated design goal of competition. Zachtronics discontinued development of the game less than a month after its first release as

6565-426: The goals of the Rensselaer Plan 2024. The goal of the campaign was cited as being primarily for the support of financial aid for undergraduate students and the expansion of on-campus research facilities to accommodate planned increases in doctoral and graduate enrollment. The fundraising goal of the capital campaign was $ 1 billion, with over $ 400 million raised prior to the campaign going public. Ambitious spending on

6666-554: The heart of the city. The "Infant School" building that housed the Institute at the time was destroyed in this fire. Columbia University proposed that Rensselaer leave Troy altogether and merge with its New York City campus. Ultimately, the proposal was rejected, and the campus left the crowded downtown for the hillside. Classes were temporarily held at the Vail House and in the Troy University building until 1864, when

6767-535: The largest such gift to a U.S. university at the time. The university had been a relative stranger to such generosity as the prior largest single gift was $ 15 million. By September 2006, the $ 1 billion goal has been exceeded much in part to an in-kind contribution of software commercially valued at $ 513.95 million by the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE). In light of this,

6868-402: The last decade through new commercial developments in diagnostics, therapeutics, medical devices, and regenerative medicine which are a direct result of research at the center. Examples of advancements include the creation of synthetic heparin , antimicrobial coatings, detoxification chemotherapy , on-demand biomedicine , implantable sensors, and 3D cellular array chips. Rensselaer also hosts

6969-588: The local community. Since its inception, all members of Greek Life have also participated in Navigating Rensselaer & Beyond - RPI's official continuation of student orientation through hosting annual events open to all students such as Beach Day/Hike with Greek Life, a day of hiking and team building activities for incoming freshmen, and Saratoga Therapeutic Equine Program, a day of service focused on horse rehabilitation programs. Greek Life organizations also operate Greek-affiliated groups including

7070-462: The main auditorium there is a 400-seat theater, offices, and two black-box studios with 35-foot (11 m) to 45-foot (14 m) ceilings. Originally budgeted for $ 50 million, the EMPAC construction costs ballooned to over $ 200 million due to difficulty of anchoring the foundation in the soft clay of the hill. In 2008, RPI announced the purchase of the former Rensselaer Best Western Inn, located at

7171-541: The male-to-female ratio was 19:1, in the 1980s it reached as low as 8:1, and in the early 1990s the ratio was around 5:1. In 2009, RPI had a ratio of 2.5:1 (72% male / 28% female), In 2016, the ratio for the incoming freshman class had fallen to 2.1:1 (68% male / 32% female), the lowest in the history of the institute. In the fall of 2016, more than 1,000 women enrolled in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's undergraduate engineering programs for

7272-724: The most powerful in the world, and the Jonsson-Rowland Science Center. The current Student Union building was opened in 1967. The next three decades brought continued growth with many new buildings (see ' Campus' below), and growing ties to industry. The "H-building", previously used for storage, became the home for the RPI incubator program, the first such program sponsored solely by a university. Shortly after this, RPI decided to invest $ 3 million in pavement, water and power on around 1,200 acres (490 ha) of land it owned 5 miles (8.0 km) south of campus to create

7373-494: The national economic downturn resulted in the elimination of 98 staff positions across the institute, about five percent of the workforce. Campus construction expansion continued, however, with the completion of the $ 92 million East Campus Athletic Village and opening of the new Blitman Commons residence hall in 2009. As of 2015, all staff positions had been reinstated at the institute, experiencing significant growth from pre-recession levels and contributing over $ 1 billion annually to

7474-459: The new site. Four of these use Adobe Flash to make them cross-platform , in spite of Flash's development environment. The other one is based on .NET Framework for greater programming convenience. SpaceChem also used .NET, as Barth considers C# to be his favorite programming language. For marketing reasons, Barth decided against Microsoft XNA with its capability to cross-publish to Xbox 360 , and switched to OpenGL , which allowed him to target

7575-432: The number of degrees offered from two to twelve; these included electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, biology, chemistry, and physics. During Rickett's tenure, enrollment increased from approximately 200 in 1900 to a high of 1,700 in 1930. Another period of expansion occurred following World War II as returning veterans used their GI Bill education benefits to attend college. The "Freshman Hill" residence complex

7676-531: The past decade, CBIS has produced over 2,000 peer-reviewed publications with over 30,000 citations and currently employs over 200 scientists and engineers. The center is used primarily to train undergraduate and graduate students, with over 1,000 undergraduates and 200 doctoral students trained. The center has numerous academic and industry partners, including the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai . These partnerships have resulted in numerous advances over

7777-597: The plan include bringing in a larger graduate student population and new research faculty, and increasing participation in undergraduate research, international exchange programs , and "living and learning communities". So far, there have been a number of changes under the plan: new infrastructure such as the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies , Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center , and Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations (CCNI) have been built to support new programs, and application numbers have increased. In 2018, Rensselaer received

7878-410: The player can make the required output, the game considers that puzzle solved and allows the player to access the next puzzle. Atop their solution, the player is shown statistics related to their solution which relate to some efficiency - how fast their solution completed the puzzle, how few parts they used, and the like. These stats are given with histograms from other players, including their friends via

7979-408: The player's ingenuity' is from Sir Walter Scott 's 1814 novel Waverley , referring to a toy known as a "reel in a bottle". The etymology of the verb puzzle is described by OED as "unknown"; unproven hypotheses regarding its origin include an Old English verb puslian meaning 'pick out', and a derivation of the verb pose . Puzzles can be categorized as: Solutions of puzzles often require

8080-489: The primary use of jigsaw puzzles until about 1820. The largest puzzle (40,320 pieces) is made by a German game company Ravensburger . The smallest puzzle ever made was created at LaserZentrum Hannover. It is only five square millimeters, the size of a sand grain. The puzzles that were first documented are riddles . In Europe, Greek mythology produced riddles like the riddle of the Sphinx . Many riddles were produced during

8181-637: The project, as development of the game had become too difficult. The source code of Infiniminer is now available under the MIT License . Building Infiniminer requires Visual Studio 2008 and XNA Game Studio 3.0. Infiniminer is the game that initially inspired Minecraft (and subsequently FortressCraft , CraftWorld and Ace of Spades ). The visuals and mechanics of procedural generation and terrain deformation of Minecraft were drawn from Infiniminer . According to Minecraft developer Markus Persson , after he discovered Infiniminer , he "decided it

8282-491: The puzzle games that he had previously developed, and turned back to his Flash-based games. Initially he looked to take The Codex of Alchemical Engineering to make it a full commercial release, but instead ended up producing Infinifactory and later TIS-100 . In 2015, Barth joined Valve to work on SteamVR . He worked there for 10 months before departing. Near the time he started to work at Valve, Barth had been considering shutting down Zachtronics due to stress of running

8383-404: The recognition of patterns and the adherence to a particular kind of order. People with a high level of inductive reasoning aptitude may be better at solving such puzzles compared to others. But puzzles based upon inquiry and discovery may be solved more easily by those with good deduction skills . Deductive reasoning improves with practice. Mathematical puzzles often involve BODMAS. BODMAS

8484-470: The result of its source code leak . As Barth had not obfuscated the C# .NET source code of the game, it was decompiled and extracted from the binaries . Hackers modified the code to make mods, but also started making clients that would target vulnerabilities in the game as well as build incompatible game forks that fragmented its user base. Barth, who was making the game for free, then lost interest and dropped

8585-411: The students who are respected by the student body and are represented by a top hat and a derby hat respectively. While Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has had the position of Grand Marshal (GM) since 1865, the position of President of the Union did not come about until 1890 when the union was developed. However, between 1890 and 1894, there was only a President of the Union, no Grand Marshal. Starting with

8686-453: The studio published the book Zach-Like that includes design documents and other reference material used by Barth and his team during the development of his games. Zachtronics used Kickstarter to produce physical copies of the book by early 2019, and by June 2019 released the title as a free eBook on Steam along with a bundle of Barth's older titles. The studio launched Zachademics in June 2019,

8787-536: The three operating systems required for inclusion in the Humble Indie Bundle . After completing The Codex of Alchemical Engineering and getting positive feedback from it, Barth came up with the idea of making commercial games. The first of these was SpaceChem , which he developed the Zachtronics label for. It was also the first game where he took in a number of collaborators to help. SpaceChem

8888-400: The time, very unpopular among the student body; a Red Hawk mascot was frequently taunted with thrown concessions and chants of "kill the chicken!". In 2009 the nickname for all teams has since been changed back to Engineers. In contrast, the official ice hockey mascot, known as Puckman , has always been very popular. Puckman is an anthropomorphic hockey puck with an engineer's helmet. During

8989-502: The top 50 universities for technology in the world. In 2016, Rensselaer was listed among the top ten universities for highest median earnings. Civil liberties organization FIRE gave RPI its 2020 "Lifetime Censorship Award" "For its unashamed, years-long record of censoring its critics and utter disinterest in protecting students’ rights". One of the major departments at RPI is the ECSE department, or Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering department. The department offers students

9090-558: The university offers over 145 programs in nearly 60 fields that lead to bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. In addition to traditional majors, RPI has around a dozen special interdisciplinary programs, such as Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences (GSAS), Design, Innovation, and Society (DIS), Minds & Machines, and Product Design and Innovation (PDI). RPI is a technology-oriented university; all buildings and residence hall rooms have hard-wired and wireless high speed internet access, and all incoming freshmen have been required to have

9191-638: The world's first working electric motor to the institute. In 1847 alumnus Benjamin Franklin Greene became the new senior professor. Earlier he had done a thorough study of European technical schools to see how Rensselaer could be improved. In 1850 he reorganized the school into a three-year polytechnic institute with six technical schools. In 1861 the name was changed to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. A severe conflagration of 10 May 1862, known as " The Great Fire ", destroyed more than 507 buildings in Troy and gutted 75 acres (300,000 m ) in

9292-519: Was "The Approach" (1907), a massive ornate granite staircase found on the west end of campus. Originally linking RPI to the Troy Union Railroad station, it again serves as an important link between the city and the university. In 1906 the '86 Field, home field of the football team until 2008, was completed with support of the Class of 1886. After World War II , the campus again underwent major expansion. Nine dormitories were built at

9393-454: Was 1330–1500 for the mid-50% range with a median SAT score of 1420 on a scale of 1600. The average ACT score range was 29–33 for the mid-50% range with a median ACT score of 31. In 2016, Rensselaer's freshman retention rate was 94% and admissions selectivity rating was 35th in the nation according to U.S. News & World Report . Since 2000, undergraduate enrollment grew by over 1,700 students, from 4,867 to 6,590 during calendar year 2018, and

9494-582: Was added later. Today Computer Systems Engineering and Electrical Engineering are in many ways similar, with many of the core classes being shared between the two. Electrical Engineering, however tends to focus more on hardware, while computer systems engineering tends to focus on algorithms and systems. Many students take dual majors, the common ones being Electrical Engineering and Computer Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Mechanic Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics, and Computer Systems Engineering and Computer Science. Many students in

9595-402: Was around $ 40 per semester (equivalent to $ 800 in 2012 ). The fact that the school attracted students from as far as Ohio and Pennsylvania is attributed to the reputation of Eaton. Fourteen months of successful trial led to the incorporation of the school on 21 March 1826 by the state of New York . In its early years, the Rensselaer School strongly resembled a graduate school more than it did

9696-550: Was completely destroyed. However, RPI underwent a period of academic and resource expansion under the leadership of President Palmer Ricketts . Named president in 1901, Ricketts liberalized the curriculum by adding the Department of Arts, Science, and Business Administration, in addition to the Graduate School. He also expanded the university's resources and developed RPI into a true polytechnic institute by increasing

9797-408: Was critically praised, which led Barth to continue to develop more games under the Zachtronics label. A few ideas failed to come to light, and with expectations for the studio to make another game, he opted to make Ironclad Tactics , which was more a real-time based card game rather than a puzzle game. Ironclad Tactics did not do as well as SpaceChem , and Barth realized there was more a market for

9898-559: Was invented in China during the Warring States period (475-221 BCE). Jigsaw puzzles were invented around 1760, when John Spilsbury , a British engraver and cartographer , mounted a map on a sheet of wood, which he then sawed around the outline of each individual country on the map. He then used the resulting pieces as an aid for the teaching of geography. After becoming popular among the public, this kind of teaching aid remained

9999-551: Was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Another unique building is the Voorhees Computing Center (VCC). Originally the St. Joseph's Seminary chapel, it was built in 1933 and acquired by Rensselaer in 1958, and after renovation served as the institute's library from 1960 until the completion of the new Folsom Library , in 1976. The Folsom Library, located adjacent to the computing center, has

10100-491: Was opened in 1953 followed by the completion of the Commons Dining Hall in 1954, two more halls in 1958, and three more in 1968. In this same time frame (1966) Herta Regina Leng was appointed as RPI's first female full professor. She is now honored there with an annual lecture series. In 1961, there was major progress in academics at the institute with the construction of the Gaerttner Linear Accelerator , then

10201-511: Was the game he wanted to do". In SpaceChem , the player creates chemical pathways similar in style to visual programming . It is one of three games on the recommendation page of Team Fortress creator Robin Walker (the others being Hotline Miami and FTL: Faster Than Light ), with him declaring it as "Pretty much the greatest game ever made". In March 2011, Barth stated the possibility of making expansion packs to SpaceChem and adding

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