High school innovators and students with entrepreneurial aspirations have a new chance at a significant scholarship to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s (RPI) Lally School of Management.

As Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute celebrates its Bicentennial, we reflect on the many great minds, pioneers, entrepreneurs, and game-changers who are Rensselaer alumni. In 1995, the Rensselaer Alumni Association, with the full endorsement of the Institute Board of Trustees, created the Rensselaer Alumni Hall of Fame to preserve and celebrate the exceptional heritage of alumni accomplishments throughout the years. Honorees are chosen by a selection committee based on reputation, professional achievements, service and career contributions, and uniqueness. Etched glass windows located centrally on the Rensselaer campus honor their accomplishments.

Optimizing an investment portfolio to maximize returns while minimizing risk is the ultimate goal for investors and their advisers. However, there is no set path and challenges always arise. One such limitation is the high-dimensional, small-sample problem (HDSS). HDSS refers to a portfolio with a large number of assets but little historical data, leading to unreliable portfolio optimization and resulting in weak investment performance.

Deepfakes grab headlines when celebrities are involved, but fewer people are aware that deepfakes affect the financial services industry, too.

Customer’s online reviews of products and services are highly influential and have an immediate impact on brand value and customer buying behaviors. According to the Pew Research Center, “82% of U.S. adults say they at least sometimes read online customer ratings or reviews before purchasing items for the first time, including 40% who say they always or almost always do so.” How and whether to respond to online reviews is a critical consideration that may very well make or break a company’s success.

With misinformation and disinformation proliferating online, many may wish for a simple, reliable, automated “fake news” detection system to easily identify falsehoods from truths. Often with the help of machine learning, many scientists have developed such tools, but experts advise caution when deploying them.

No birthday party is complete without ice cream.That’s why Stewart’s Shops is helping Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute kick off its bicentennial year with a new name for the store’s “Fireworks” ice cream flavor. The freshly dubbed “Quantum Freeze” will hit stores February 5, 2024. 

Following a national search, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has appointed Liad Wagman, Ph.D., Dean of the Stuart School of Business at Illinois Institute of Technology, as Dean of the Lally School of Management, effective June 1, 2024. Wagman is also Professor of Economics and the John and Mae Calamos Dean Endowed Chair at the Stuart School of Business, with an affiliate professor appointment at Illinois Tech’s Lewis College of Science and Letters.

Intuit, Ecovative, Optum Labs, Nancy’s Specialty Foods, and Vicarious Visions, which was acquired by Blizzard Entertainment, all have something in common: they were founded by alumni of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. They are also previous William F. Glaser ’53 Entrepreneurs of the Year through Rensselaer’s Paul J. ’69 and Kathleen M. Severino Center for Technological Entrepreneurship.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Jason Kuruzovich, Ph.D., associate professor in the Lally School of Management, and alumnus Kofi Arhin, Ph.D. ’23, have won Best Paper at the INFORMS Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST) conference.