News

Move over, Silicon Valley. Rochester, N.Y., can be the next great American technology hub.

After a year’s hiatus due to COVID-19, the popular Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival returns virtually on Saturday, May 1, with more than 250 exhibits of projects, research and performing arts of students, faculty, and staff at RIT.

For two years, RIT student Matt Ryan has worked with RIT’s FoodShare program, which is dedicated to serving and supporting the RIT community by providing free food to students in need.

The Distinguished Alumni Awards are presented annually by each of RIT’s nine colleges and the School of Individualized Study to alumni who have performed at the highest levels of their profession or who have contributed to the advancement and leadership of civic, philanthropic, or service organizations.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 47: RIT’s Theme Park Enthusiasts started as a casual group of roller coaster fanatics. Today, they have won national design competitions and have found co-ops and jobs in the field of theme park entertainment. Travis Faircloth, current club leader, talks to alumnus and former member Robert Cybulski, CAE Analyst at Roush Industries, and Michael Deneau, vice president of Entertainment Engineering at Roush Industries. They share insights about the growth of the club and what it takes to succeed in a very competitive and rewarding industry.

WROC-TV features Zac Bittner ’11 (microelectronic engineering), ’11 MS (materials science), ’19 Ph.D. (microsystems engineering); Nicholos Mackos ’08 (mechanical engineering); Chelsea Mackosm ’09 (microelectronic engineering), ’11 MS (materials science); and Joseph Hunt ’19 (chemical engineering).

This year’s recognition of RIT’s Alfred L. Davis Distinguished Public Service Award winners will be a double celebration, as faculty and student recipients from 2020 and 2021 are honored April 13. Luane Davis Haggerty will receive the 2021 Four Presidents Distinguished Public Service Award, and Bhuvish Mehta will receive the 2021 Bruce R. James ’64 Distinguished Public Service Award. Thomas Warfield was awarded the 2020 Four Presidents Distinguished Public Service Award, and Çlirim Sheremeti was awarded the 2020 Bruce R. James ’64 Distinguished Public Service Award.

The Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers has named Nabil Nasr, associate provost and founding director of RIT’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability, and Iris Rivero, head of RIT’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, as Fellows, an honor that recognizes outstanding leaders of the profession who have made significant, nationally recognized contributions to industrial and systems engineering.

Researchers at RIT are using augmented and virtual reality as part of a modern training platform to help address the skilled labor shortage in manufacturing. Using artificial intelligence and augmented or virtual reality applications as a training strategy can support novice trainees and retain the knowledge of master machinists and manufacturing engineers.

RIT graduate programs are among the best in the nation, according to the U.S. News & World Report annual statistical survey of graduate programs.

RIT's College of Liberal Arts honored student achievements in writing with 15 writing awards on Friday, March 19. This year marks the 41st year the awards were presented, though the first time the ceremony was held virtually.

When the incidence of the COVID-19 virus increased locally this winter, clinical test labs experienced larger than normal volumes of specimens—and higher expectations of rapid turnaround of results. Industrial and systems engineering (ISE) alumni and former faculty members helped a local lab meet those goals.