News
David Messinger

RIT’s interdisciplinary collaborations enrich research across the university and beyond. Two of these collaborative projects recently received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of a total $22.6 million in grants given to support humanities projects across the nation.

Led by Professor Juilee Decker, Professor David Messinger, and Professor Roger Easton Jr., the development of the MISHA system was originally planned to help small- to medium-sized cultural institutions in the United States.

The low-cost multispectral imaging system MISHA, or the Multispectral Imaging System for Historical Artifacts, was developed by RIT experts to uncover object details that aren’t visible to the naked eye.

Izzy Moyer, a third-year museum studies student, earned an internship working with other RIT students on MISHA, the Multispectral Imaging System for Historical Artifacts. The system includes 16 LEDs to illuminate objects using different wavelengths of light to see the object in new ways.

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at RIT offers a unique learning program with in-person and online courses, special lectures, events, and trips for those over 50. Peer-led courses form the core of the program.

Libraries and museums across the country have begun recapturing lost and obscured text on historically significant documents thanks to low-cost spectral imaging systems developed by faculty and students at RIT.

Debbie Stendardi, who retires as vice president of Government and Community Relations at the end of the year, leaves an indelible mark on both RIT and the Greater Rochester region—both of which she has advanced considerably through her advocacy efforts for more than four decades. In a far-ranging interview, the unassuming Stendardi reflected on her longtime career and widespread impact.

Scientists from RIT are developing affordable imaging systems to help libraries and museums preserve and expand access to their historical collections. The project, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, aims to create a low-cost spectral imaging system and software that can be used to recover obscured and illegible text on historical documents.

Thirty years after the Center for Imaging Science building was dedicated, it is now home to more than 150 students studying imaging science at the undergraduate and graduate level.

Gizmodo talks to David Messinger, director of the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, about using multispectral imaging to reveal ancient text and preserve fading medieval manuscripts.

Croatia has a treasure trove of historically significant manuscripts, but after 800 years of fading ink and worms eating their parchment, much of the text has become impossible to read. Scientists from RIT are using multispectral imaging to make the writing legible once again and preserve the important information the manuscripts hold.