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Design Lab at Rensselaer

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Design Lab at Rensselaer

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Real-world engineering experiences for undergraduates that integrate multidisciplinary design solutions and deliver results.

10/22/2026

Brainstorming is one of the many tools we introduce to our senior design students. One of the approaches allows for silent ideation where everyone works silently to write down their ideas on a topic. After a few minutes, a facilitator gathers one idea and then invites the others to share identical / similar ideas. These sticky notes then go to our whiteboards. After getting everyone's ideas posted, the team does a review to organize the information into meaningful categories. New ideas generated during the session are added to the board. With the entire session time boxed, teams are able to effectively gather and organize a large volume of data very quickly!

Combining their efforts, our students from Electrical Engineering, Computer Systems Engineering, Industrial Systems Engineering, Materials Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering, work on challenging projects from our various industrial partners as well as entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations. Applying their unique engineering skills has resulted in many successful projects during our lab's 26 year operation!

For more information on working with The Design Lab at Rensselaer, we invite you visit our website at: https://designlab.rpi.edu/. If you are ready to propose a project, please visit: https://designlab.rpi.edu/submitting-projects

10/13/2026

Since 2012, National Manufacturing Day is celebrated annually on the first Friday in October each year. For many of the past few years, we've celebrated with the landing of a helicopter on the field outside the Jonsson Engineering Center, named after J. Erik Jonsson, who founded Texas Instruments.

The Design Lab at Rensselaer has worked on a variety of manufacturing problems over the last few decades! working with our industry partners, we have addressed challenges related to the manufacturing and fabrication of semiconductors, electronics, automobiles, helicopters and airplanes, medical equipment, assistive technologies, modular housing, industrial materials / equipment, and many more areas!

For more information on working with The Design Lab at Rensselaer, we invite you visit our website at: https://designlab.rpi.edu/. If you are ready to propose a project, please visit: https://designlab.rpi.edu/submitting-projects

07/22/2026

Summer fun in The Design Lab

As we move through the year, RPI has transitioned from Spring semester to our summer semester and high school students are on their summer break. For the last several years, The Design Lab space has hosted the Aerospace Engineering Summer program. Part of our Summer@Rensselaer program, this is a one-week, hands-on STEM experience for rising 10th–12th graders, combining lectures, lab work, and real-world engineering projects. As part of the program, students learn learn how experimental data is collected by running wind tunnel tests, and learn about advanced computer simulations. Participants then apply their new aerodynamic and flight mechanic knowledge by building electric radio controlled airplanes for test flights.

The Summer Aerospace Engineering program is taught by Professor Michael Amitay and Professor Onkar Sahni of Rensselaer’s Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering with support from the School of Engineering’s Design/Build/Fly student club.

For more information on this exciting program, please visit https://pre-college.admissions.rpi.edu/summerrpi/aerospace-engineering

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

06/11/2026

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

03/17/2026

The semester is moving foward, having just passed midterm! Students are actively engaged in their project with clear goals and meaningful project plans!

Two teams of students is working on a project sponsored by Eaton Crouse-Hinds involving smart programmable lighting that employs Bluetooth for configuration and setup. They are gaining insight on the development of embedded systems, manufacturing operations including configuration and testing and the practical challenges of developing test scenarios that can confirm their work.

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

01/14/2026

Sharing a few photos from our first class days. We use a tool called Slido to create interactive pools to learn more about our students and their past experiences.

01/09/2026

Happy New Semester!

Our classes start on January 12 and for our 24 capstone teams, will be a busy time! With projects from industry partners, campus faculty, and local non-profit organizations, our students will practice the engineering design process while interacting with their clients to deliver projects of value. This project based learning approach helps prepare our students for their futures in industry, research or academia.

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?"

Stay tuned for photos our our students in action as the semester gets underway!

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

Address

110 8th Street, JEC 3232
Troy, NY
12180

Opening Hours

Monday	9am - 5pm
Tuesday	9am - 5pm
Wednesday	9am - 5pm
Thursday	9am - 5pm
Friday	9am - 5pm

Website

http://eng.rpi.edu/mdl/

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