Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications – Lighting Systems That Think

Featured News

Visiting Scholar Joins LESA Plant Science Team

The LESA Center is pleased to welcome visiting scholar Dr. Jurga Miliauskiene. Miliauskiene is the Chief Researcher at the Institute of Horticulture at the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry. She is joining the Plant Science team for two months working alongside Sr. Plant Scientist Elsebeth Kolmos. […]

Solutions to the Camera Conundrum in Healthcare Using ‘Indoor LIDAR’ for Improved Patient Safety and Protection

— A small network of low cost non-imaging sensors enhances critical patient monitoring without the invasiveness of cameras. —

(Troy, New York) Health and wellness care facilities often struggle to balance trade-offs between affordable, necessary patient monitoring and patient privacy. Camera surveillance, though useful in many situations, is not always the best option for monitoring occupants in a facility where preserving privacy is also an important function. Researchers at LESA (the Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) are solving the camera conundrum in healthcare settings by demonstrating how a small network of low cost time-of-flight sensors use the speed of light to measure distances. […]

New Senior Research Scientist Joins LESA Center’s Plant Science Team

The LESA Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. Elsebeth Kolmos to the Plant Science team. Her research interests and expertise are in Plant-Environmental Interactions, Molecular Biology, Genomics, Plant Biology, Plant Physiology, and Plant Circadian Function.

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New Horticulture Light Modules Accelerate Indoor Plant-Growth Research

— LESA and GLASE are taking the guesswork out of tunable irradiant growth efficacy research for indoor farming–

Troy, NY (May 6. 2019) – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) today announced new lighting modules being developed at the Lighting Enabled Systems & Applications (LESA) Center in collaboration with the Greenhouse Lighting & Systems Engineering (GLASE) consortium, showing real promise for advanced control over the spectral distribution of color-mixing lights for horticulture research.

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Former GE Global Research Sr. Scientist Peter Bonitatibus Newest LESA Faculty Researcher

Bonitatibus’ work in nanoparticle engineering will support LESA’s research in high refractive index materials as part of the Center’s fundamental research.

(Troy, New York) The LESA Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is proud to announce the addition of Rensselaer Professor Peter Bonitatibus from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology as its newest faculty researcher.

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Accolades

LESA Center Cited in Horticulture Daily for Advanced Research Modules

Lighting resear ch consortium brings the CEA community industry-ready technologies. Without light, plants can’t grow. The continued advance of controlled environment agriculture means that sunlight is often supplemented and in some cases completely replaced by artificial lighting. It works well, but there’s one caveat: artificial lighting can take a lot of energy. Reason enough for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to kickstart the Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering (GLASE) consortium with $5 million in funding in 2017.

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LESA Faculty Researcher Honored at IEEE Workshop

John Wen, the head of Rensselaer’s Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering, was recently honored at an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) workshop on advances in the fields of control and smart automation, an area in which Wen has made significant contributions. Wen also leads the Human Centric Lighting verticle at LESA.

LESA Faculty Researcher Selected To Receive 2019 Outstanding Young Investigator Award from ASME

Sandipan Mishra, associate professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been selected for the 2019 Outstanding Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME) Dynamic Systems and Control Division (DSCD).

LESA Center Sr. Plant Scientist’s Guest Author Blog Receives Placement in Weekly Newsletter

Dr. Elsebeth Kolmos’ guest blog spot for LEDs Magazine, describes what research has revealed about plant responses to ultraviolet light. She observes there is much more to be learned about balancing taste, nutrician, and crop yield with UV light exposure.

Learn why ‘Smart Lighting is a Myth’ in IES Webinar with LESA Center Director

Dr. Robert Karlicek addresses pressing issues about what lighting needs to be considered “SMART”. How to make cognitive lighting systems and getting to “Lighting Systems that Think” in recent Illuminating Engineering Society educational webinar.