As Vice President for Information Services and Technology and Chief Information Officer, John E. Kolb provides leadership for strategic planning in the acquisition, use, and growth of Rensselaer’s campus-wide information resources, services, and technology, to support education, research, and administrative activities. John Kolb received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from Rensselaer. He is a licensed professional engineer in NYS, with a Rensselaer career spanning over 40 years. He previously served as dean, Computing and Information Services; assistant dean, Engineering; head, Core Engineering; and director, Engineering Computing Services. Kolb has taught courses in Engineering, Science, Management, and Information Technology and Web Science. He is a member of the NYSERNET.org Board; chair of the NYSERNET.net Board; co-chair, University of the State of NY Technology Policy and Practices Council; past chair of the WMHT Board and a member of the Rensselaer Newman Foundation; a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; former chair, CIO Council of the Capital Region Business-Higher Education Roundtable, former member of the Internet2 Board; former member and chair of the Board for the Children’s Museum of Science and Technology; and past recipient of the Boeing Outstanding Engineering Educator Award. Kolb was instrumental in attracting and implementing three generations of supercomputers housed in the Center for Computational Innovations (CCI), and was the PI for the NYS High Performance Computing Consortium (HPCNY). He has established supercomputing solutions for industry and academia, with AiMOS, an 8 PetaFLOP system, and Watson, a cognitive computing platform, all housed in the Center for Computational Innovations, and focused on research with artificial intelligence. Mr. Kolb is currently working with teams from Rensselaer and IBM developing research in areas of Cognitive Immersive Systems, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning, and Cybersecurity. Less   View all posts

Skill has more than 30 years of computing and communication technology experience in higher education. He has been on the faculty at the University of Dayton since 1984 and holds the rank of professor in the department of communication. Prior to his current position, Skill served as associate provost for educational innovation and technology, assistant provost for academic technology, chair of the department of communication, director of graduate studies in the department of communication for seven years, interim of dean of the graduate school and was the lead researcher in the School of Business Administration Information Systems Laboratory. Skill is a founding member of the Cybersecurity Consortium of Southwestern Ohio (CCSO), which brings together expertise from academia, business and government to advance cybersecurity research and education along the Cincinnati-Dayton “cyber corridor.” He also helped establish the Center for Cybersecurity and Data Intelligence at the University of Dayton, which serves as a catalyst for IT security research and education. Less   View all posts