Important visiting scholars included Joseph Henry, who had previously studied under Amos Eaton, and Thomas Davenport, who sold the world's first working electric motor to the institute.

[26] 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 the Rensselaer Technology Park.

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 the economy of the Capital District.

[35] 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.

[12][40] 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.

[44] The Folsom Library, located adjacent to the computing center, has a concrete exterior that was designed to harmonize with the light gray brick of the chapel;[45] architecturally, it is an example of the modern brutalist style.

[47] On 3 October 2008, the university celebrated the grand opening of the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) situated on the west edge of campus.

[59] 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 a laptop computer since 1999.

[63] 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.

[65] 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).

[70] 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.

[84] 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".

[89] 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.

[91] Rensselaer has established six areas of research as institute priorities: biotechnology, energy and the environment, nanotechnology, computation and information technology, and media and the arts.

Examples of advancements include the creation of synthetic heparin, antimicrobial coatings, detoxification chemotherapy, on-demand biomedicine, implantable sensors, and 3D cellular array chips.

At Rensselaer, a constellation is a multidisciplinary team composed of senior and junior faculty members, research scientists, and postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate students.

RPI NROTC is home to several notable alumni including NASA Astronaut CDR Reid Wiseman and RDML Lewis Combs.

[124] RDML Combs is the founder of the Navy Construction Battalion, commonly referred to as the "Seabees," which plays a crucial role in creating forward deployed bases as well as humanitarian efforts to bring fresh water to underdeveloped communities.

They are responsible for preparing and approving the budget for the following fiscal year, keeping track of and distributing union funds, and managing the business affairs with other facilities.

[127] Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has an extensive history of Greek community involvement on campus, including past presidents, honorary academic building dedications, and philanthropic achievements.

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.

[130] 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.

The ice hockey team plays a significant role in the campus's culture, drawing thousands of fans each week to the Houston Field House during the season.

In recent years RPI has also developed a spirited rivalry with their conference travel partner Union College, with whom they annually play a nonconference game in Albany for the Mayor's Cup.

The plan included construction of a new and much larger 4,842‑seat football stadium, a basketball arena with seating for 1,200, a new 50-meter pool, an indoor track and field complex, new tennis courts, new weight rooms and a new sports medicine center.

In the future the new space could be used for expansions of the academic buildings, but for now members of the campus planning team foresee a "historic landscape with different paths and access ways for students and vehicles alike".

[157] Many RPI graduates have made important inventions, including Allen B. DuMont ('24),[158] creator of the first commercial television and radar; Keith D. Millis ('38),[159] inventor of ductile iron; Ted Hoff ('58),[160] father of the microprocessor; Raymond Tomlinson ('63),[161] often credited with the invention of e-mail; inventor of the digital camera Steven Sasson[162] and Curtis Priem ('82), designer of the first graphics processor for the PC, and co-founder of NVIDIA.

1950) was manager of the Apollo 11 project and served as president of RPI, and astronauts John L. Swigert Jr., Richard Mastracchio, Gregory R. Wiseman, and space tourist Dennis Tito are alumni.

Other notable alumni include 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics winner Ivar Giaever (Ph.D. 1964);[163] the first African American woman to become a thoracic surgeon, Rosalyn Scott (B.S.

project; 66th AIA Gold Medal-winning architect Peter Q Bohlin; Matt Patricia, former head coach for the Detroit Lions; Garrettina LTS Brown, founder of Garrett's List, King Breeders and inventor of FreeTV; Luis Acuña-Cedeño, Governor of the Venezuelan Sucre State and former Minister of Universities; Andrew Franks, former placekicker for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League; Sean Conroy, the first openly gay professional baseball player; Prem Jain (Father of Green Buildings in India); Keith Raniere, an American felon and the founder of NXIVM, a multi-level marketing company and cult.