Information Technology and Web Science at RPI

Date: Thursday April 21st Time: 7:00 PM Location: Blitman Commons From Jeopardy to the World Wide Web: emerging technologies that will change our lives - a talk by Constellation Professor James Hendler. Abstract: Although the read/write world of Web 2.0 is now commonplace - even your parents use Facebook - the promise of massive scale human computing has barely begun to be exploited. New technologies, including the Semantic Web, mobile computing, and open data suggest ways that far more powerfu l systems than those we have today could be created, empowering humanity to help address some of our key problems. The potential for the sharing of data and knowledge, among willing participants, makes it possible to envision declarative models for creating and evolving new Web technologies that would more open and distributed systems. Further, by explicating the social, not just the technical, protocols, new models of information control that encourage, rather than prohibit, sharing can

It is tradition for the ITWS department to take their students to New York City on Grand Marshall Day. (GM Day is the day of GM Week where students get classes off. GM Week is the week when student elections are held. It's an RPI tradition!) Every year our plans are to go visit a couple companies, then meet up with Mike and Henry (2 RPI Alums) to give us a walking tour of NYC, and end the trip with a meet and greet with more alums at Red's. This year we followed tradition and visited Google and Goldman Sachs. While at Google we had a Q & A session with about 10 employees. They were all from different departments and gave us an interesting view on what it is like working at Google. They also talked about what kinds of people Google were looking to hire. They provided very insightful answers. After the Q & A session we were given a tour of the Google's NYC headquarters. They have recently purchased the entire building and it seems as though Google is hiring so fast th

The ITWS department had a blast in NYC this past Tuesday!   Special thanks to Pooja Daswani, Antonio Borges, Michael Wellner and Henry Scheuer for hosting our visit to New York City.  You all made the trip truly memorable! Our first stop of the day was Google for a Q&A Session. Then we got a tour of the Google offices, scooters really are used to get around the building! Lunch at Google was delicious.  We had a huge selection from sandwiches to sushi.   Google gave us really nice T-shirts.   Thank you! Our second stop of the day was at Goldman Sachs.  They have a beautiful new building but we were not allowed to take photographs there.  They gave a very interesting presentation on the Internal Audit portion of the company and answered some great student questions.  Thank you to everyone at Goldman Sachs for hosting our visit!   In the afternoon we meet up with RPI alumnus Michael Wellner and  Henry Scheuer for some great advice, history and walking tour of the city.

Programmers/Game Developers Needed Dreamkind is an award-winning entertainment studio specializing in apps, animations, video games, television content, web content and other forms of digital media. We are looking for talented programmers to join our growing team. Projects include programming and developing mobile apps, online games, video games, websites, social media campaigns and other forms of digital entertainment. We are looking for someone who wants to use their creativity each and every day. The candidate must work well in a highly creative office environment. We are looking for someone to work in-house 5 days a week. We are located in Englewood, New Jersey, 5 miles from NYC and we are close to public transportation. What we’re looking for: • Motivated self-starter. • Highly creative with strong programming skills. • Strong organization and attention to detail. • Excellent interpersonal communication techniques. • Creative, proactive thinker with "can-do" attitude.

Agenda  April 12, 2011 RPI Information and Technology and Web Science Students Visit to New York City with Company Visits and Reception 7:00 am - Leave Rensselaer Union Horseshoe by bus with box breakfast 10:00 am - Google 12:00 pm - Lunch with RPI alums in the Google office 2:00 pm - Goldman Sachs 3:15 pm - Winter Garden at World Financial Center and Tour of the City 5:00 pm - Reception at Red's with RPI Alums on South Street Sea 7:00 pm - Leave Manhattan for Troy 10:00 pm - Arrive at Rensselaer Union Horseshoe

ITWS students Diego Regules and Travis Cano have been involved in an exciting new project.  Check it out! The   Social Media Club @Rensselaer , and the   Lally School of Management   would like to invite you to the Social Media Forum entitled  "Social Media Strategy: What's Yours?" , taking place  April 13th  at  6:00-7:30pm  in the  Biotechnology Auditorium . Please pass this along with your peers and colleagues. This has been the year of the Social Network. This event will be a great opportunity for the Rensselaer community as a whole to learn more about the managerial impacts of Social Media. The panel list includes: Sibel Adali , Associate Director, Social and Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center, Rensselaer Jeff Goronkin , CEO, Izoca.com Ron Ladoucer , Executive VP/ Executive Creative Director, Media Logic Matt Peters , Founder and Creative Director, Pandemic Labs Heidi Reale , Director of Consumer Insights, Price Chopper Please reserve your spot

The IT and Web Science program has provided a number of students who work with me on developing technologies for Open Government Data. Congressional budget cuts are now threatening to cut down or cut off many of the US efforts in Open Government Data Sharing and in general open government transparency. To learn more about our work in this area you can visit our Linked Open Government Data website (and note that many of these demos were built by ITWS students, in fact all the demos about New York State government were built by students in the Web Science class). To learn about what you can do to help save this important government resource, or to learn more about the issue if you are interested in the interaction between IT, Government and Society, you can look at a longer blog entry that includes pointers to articles and more discussion. This also contains information about what you as a US voter can do to help. To track discussion about this issue, you can search for the hashtag

Accepted Student Celebration is next Saturday April 9th, 2011.  ITWS staff, faculty and students will be in Lally Hall Room 102 from 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM to welcome accepted students in person and to answer any questions they may have about RPI or our department.  Current students will also be presenting projects they have created in their ITWS classes. Assistant Dean of Information Technology and Web Science Jim Hendler will be giving a presentation about the ITWS program from 10:30 - 11:30 AM in the EMPAC auditorium.  Afterwards he will be available for questions in Lally 102 during the ITWS department open house. Photos below are from a previous recruiting event.  A good time was had by all visiting students! For those accepted students planning to attend this year's celebration, we look forward to meeting you soon!