Design Lab Spotlight
Creating a Tool for Better Heart Bypass
How do you extract a vein from a patient's leg without creating a long and uncomfortable convalescence?
And If Rockets Had Wings…
What goes up like a rocket, changes into a plane, then glides under controlled flight? For Christopher Wilkins ’05, Erik Palitsch ’05, Samuel Lee ’05, James Rollo ’05, and a team of Rensselaer students, it’s their senior capstone project. It’s called a morphing rocket—a rocket that changes inflight to an aircraft with wings and control surfaces to facilitate directed flight.
Students Help Seniors Stay on the Move
When the Albany Guardian Society (AGS), a senior advocacy group, wanted creative solutions to facilitate independent senior living, it chose to partner with Rensselaer and the O. T. Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory (MDL).
Undergraduate Ideas & Partners Who Profit From Them
For the last five years, partners from outside Rensselaer — Fortune 500s, foundations, entrepreneurs—have brought their design problems to the O. T. Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory (MDL). The undergraduates who grapple with these problems benefit greatly from the experience.
Well Beyond the Proverbial Box: Reframing a Difficult Wind Turbine Problem
“Undergraduate students simply do not study aerodynamics at the level needed to fully understand the operation of wind turbines,” said Bill Gressick, the lead research specialist at Rensselaer’s Center for Automation Technologies and Systems. “The team members thoroughly impressed me with their ability to overcome all obstacles.”
The Design Lab: Our New Brand
Something important is brewing in Rensselaer's O. T. Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory, a.k.a.THE DESIGN LAB - with the emphasis on design.
News & Updates
- Creating a Tool for Better Heart Bypass
- And If Rockets Had Wings…
- Students Help Seniors Stay on the Move
- Undergraduate Ideas & Partners Who Profit From Them
- Well Beyond the Proverbial Box: Reframing a Difficult Wind Turbine Problem
Real-world engineering experiences for undergraduates that integrate multidisciplinary design solutions that deliver results
People
A diverse combination of faculty and staff interacting with some of the best and brightest students in the country make up our project teams
Our Process
Corporate sponsors bring real-world problems for our students to address in a multidisciplinary team environment. With support from the faculty of multiple departments and staff members with a diverse range of industry backgrounds, our students learn to apply the design process to develop solutions.
Our Facilities
Students take advantage of our extensive conference and collaboration facilities to meet as teams and with their sponsors. Our design conference center provides 12 conferencing areas, covering over 6,000 square feet of floor space. Flexible workspace and Internet connections promote real-time interaction between students, sponsors and the world.