Rensselaer is America’s oldest technological research university, offering bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences, information technology and web science, architecture, management, and the humanities, arts, and social sciences.

The university offers degrees from five schools: Engineering; Science; Architecture; Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences; and the Lally School of Management; as well as an interdisciplinary degree in Information Technology and Web Science.

Rensselaer offers more than 145 programs at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. Students are encouraged to work in interdisciplinary programs that allow them to combine scholarly work from several departments or schools. The university provides rigorous, engaging, interactive learning environments and campus-wide opportunities for leadership, collaboration, and creativity.

Driven by talented, dedicated, and forward-thinking faculty, Rensselaer has dramatically expanded the research enterprise by leveraging our existing strengths and focusing on five signature research areas: biotechnology and the life sciences; energy and the environment; computational science and engineering; nanotechnology and advanced materials; and media, arts, science, and technology.

The Institute is especially well-known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace so that new discoveries and inventions benefit human life, protect the environment, and strengthen economic development.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

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Game engines and immersive displays

Dots and dashes: art, virtual reality, and the telegraph

Ben Chang is an electronic artist and director of the Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences program at Rensselaer. His work explores the intersections of virtual environments and experimental gaming with contemporary media art.  Using materials ranging from immersive visualization systems to modified surveillance cameras, hacked video games, and antique telegraphs, his work brings out the chaotic, human qualities in technological systems. 

As an electronic artist, Chang’s own work is at the intersection of virtual environments, experimental gaming, and contemporary media art.

 “I’m interested in what you could call evocative and poetic experiences within technological systems — creating that powerful experience that you can get from great music, theater, books, and paintings through immersive and interactive simulations as well,” Chang said. “But I’m also interested in the experiences of being human – the human qualities that are still there - within technological systems.”

Chang’s recent projects include a suite of classic games rewritten for the Microsoft Kinnect system, a virtual reality environment about remembrance in memorial of the Holocaust, and “Becoming” a computer-driven video installation that interchanges the attributes of two animated figures.

His installations, performances, and immersive virtual reality environments have been exhibited in numerous venues and festivals worldwide, including Art Basal Miami, Boston CyberArts, SIGGRAPH, the FILE International Electronic Language Festival in Sao Paulo, the Athens MediaTerra Festival, the Wired NextFest, and the Vancouver New Forms Festival, among others.  He has designed interactive exhibits for museums such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Field Museum of Natural History.

Digital Games

Immersive Visualization Systems

Experimental Gaming

Electronic Art

Virtual Environments

Contemporary Media Art

Game Development

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Faculty Profile

Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences Profile

ResearchGate Profile

Personal Website

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this-video-game-can-teach-you-how-to-bring-a-vaccine-to-market

Director, Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences (GSAS) & Professor, Arts

Getting a drug or vaccine from the research bench to the bedside of a patient in need is a complex process, and one that researchers around the globe are currently trying to navigate as quickly as possible to address the spread of COVID-19.

To improve understanding of this intricate, interdisciplinary undertaking, faculty and students in the Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences (GSAS) program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, in collaboration with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital, are developing a video game called "Cure Quest." This game will help bridge the gap in med school education between the clinical side of medicine and basic research.

“Cure Quest will allow medical students to tie together the necessary steps for vaccine development in dramatic cases like we’re seeing right now with COVID-19,” said Ben Chang, a professor of arts and Director of GSAS at Rensselaer, “or in drugs we would use day-to-day.”

The main character in the game is sent to an island where there is a new disease and must overcome obstacles in their pursuit of creating a new drug to cure the disease. When its development is complete, Chang envisions Cure Quest being used by the general public, as well by students in scientific and medical fields, to better understand the drug development pipeline.

Chang is available to speak about Cure Quest and the use of video games as important educational tools.
   

This Video Game Can Teach You How to Bring a Vaccine to Market

New Atlantis @ Ear Taxi Festival  10/10/2016 

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