As an EMAC student, the resources of both the Arts and LL&C departments and those of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences are at your disposal.

Rensselaer has an extensive computing network, including public access laboratories and wired student residence halls. Our innovative student laptop program provides computer-based learning in many classrooms. The 500,000-volume Folsom Library also provides electronic access to thousands of publications. It is supplemented by other local research libraries accessible to students through the Capital District Library Council. Rensselaer recently opened a new $80 million high-tech Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, and the $140 million state-of-the-art Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) is currently under construction and scheduled to open in 2008.

Laboratories and studios in Arts and in LL&C are equipped with the latest computing and collaborative communication equipment. The Visualization and Simulation Technology (VAST) Lab has cutting-edge graphics, animation, and video equipment for student classes and projects. Graphic design and hypermedia courses are taught in the Intel NT Lab. iEAR Studios (integrated Electronic Arts at Rensselaer) are outfitted for producing professional-quality sound, and broadcast-quality video.

The Social and Behavioral Research Laboratory (SBRL), a collaborative effort between the Department of Language, Literature, and Communication, the Department of Cognitive Sciences, and the Department of Science and Technology Studies, provides an opportunity for students to participate on faculty research teams studying Human-Computer Interaction, Computer-Mediated Communication, and Computer Game Design.

Faculty in the Department of Language, Literature, and Communication do theoretical, empirical, and applied work on wide-ranging topics including visual communication; text design; user interface design; usability research design, testing, and evaluation; electronic information design; marketing communication; computer games design, analysis, and modeling; the history and theory of rhetoric (including the rhetoric of science and visual rhetoric); media studies; interaction design and multimedia art; computer animation and hypermedia interface design; computer-supported collaborative learning; communication on the Internet; social, psychological, and affective approaches to HCI; HCI interfaces for the visually impaired; activity theory; cultural studies and intercultural communication; composition theory and pedagogy; literature and science; literacy; communication in organizations; and writing in the professions.

Many of our faculty consult in business and government, where they use their knowledge of theory and research to solve specific problems in written, spoken, and computer-mediated communication. LL&C faculty are active in professional organizations, having served as national or regional officers of such organizations as the National and International Communication Associations (NCA, ICA), Conference on College Composition and Communication, the Society for Technical Communication (STC), the IEEE Professional Communication Society, the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA), the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group in Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI), the IGDA (International Game Developers Association), and the Academy of Management

Arts department faculty members take varying approaches to the use of electronic media in artistic creation and performance. All are active artists whose works are represented internationally in museums, galleries, and performances.

The Arts department at Rensselaer is the home of a highly visible program in integrated electronic media which includes the iEAR Studios (integrated Electronic Arts at Rensselaer), state-of-the-art facilities dedicated to interdisciplinary creative research and artistic development in audio, interactivity, video, computer imaging, animation, web, multi-media installation and performance. As an art program situated within the context of a technological university, we offer a unique creative environment in which to develop and realize cutting edge electronic art.