4.2 Core Research Strengths 4.3 New Research Arenas 4.4 Resident Graduate Education Research, fundamental to a great university, is a public trust. The most significant transformation posited by The Rensselaer Plan is the imperative that Rensselaer create a research portfolio of substantially greater size, quality, prominence, and impact. Rensselaer has long taken great pride in graduates who are highly prized by employers, have immediate impact, and step up to leadership in technology-based careers. In times of very rapid technological change, our graduates cannot do this unless they are educated in an environment of leading-edge research and innovation. By building research programs, and involving students in research activity, we will preserve and enhance our historic strength in undergraduate education.
Research is a creative process that generates new principles and spawns new technologies.
Rensselaer will grow from an institution centered on undergraduate education with selected research strengths to a full research university. Rensselaer research in the future will extend over a broad portfolio that puts the Institute in a leadership position both in established fields and in evolving areas of inquiry that hold out great promise and opportunity. 4.1 Enhancing and Growing Research Greatness demands balance among the range of disciplines that comprise a fully realized technological university. To innovate and to offer the best education, each of Rensselaer's schools must be excellent in research and recognized in its own right. Rensselaer will encourage a full range of individual and group scholarly activity.