News

Clayton Turner ’90 (electrical engineering) has been named the new director of NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. He will assume the director’s position on Monday, Sept. 30, when current center Director David Bowles retires after 39 years with the agency.

Doug Melton, program director of the Entrepreneurial Engineering Program at The Kern Family Foundation, will be the keynote speaker at Rochester Institute of Technology, presenting “Powerful Stuff: An Entrepreneurial Mindset Built on Critical Thinking” as part of the 2019 Eugene H. Fram Signature Lecture in Critical Thinking. The event takes place 3:30-4:45 p.m. Sept. 17 in Ingle Auditorium, located in RIT’s Student Alumni Union.

RIT is among the top third “National Universities,” earning praise for its co-operative education program and its graduation rate for students from low-income families, as well as its business and engineering colleges, according to the 2020 edition of U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 22: Heart failure costs the U.S. $34 billion a year, with most of those costs due to repeated hospitalization. David Borkholder, RIT’s Bausch and Lomb Professor of Microsystems Engineering, talks with Nicholas Conn, a postdoctoral fellow and founder of Heart Health Intelligence, about a new invention that could help patients easily monitor their health in the privacy of their own bathrooms.

RIT is now a part of KEEN: Engineering Unleashed, a national partnership of approximately 50 universities that come together to advance engineering education. The group focuses on developing graduates who are technically prepared, understand societal changes and strategically seek opportunities to improve upon these changes.

WROC-TV talks to Risa Robinson, department head and professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, about her research on vaping and e-cigarettes.

Blanca Lapizco-Encinas, professor of biomedical engineering in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, was named a Fellow in the inaugural cohort of the I Aspire Leadership Academy. This leadership program aims to help STEM faculty from underrepresented backgrounds attain leadership roles at colleges and universities.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 21: Are electronic cigarettes really a healthier alternative to tobacco products? Risa Robinson, head of RIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, talks with Edward Hensel, associate dean, about their unique research methods into how these devices are used and how they affect users’ health.

The 2019-20 renovation project will be launched with a $1 million grant from New York state’s Higher Education Capital Matching Grant Program and will further advance RIT’s research in integrated photonics, quantum information technology, biomedical devices and sensors for smart systems.

The 28th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, held on Aug. 1, is structured as a professional research conference. Research themes included everything from fundamental microbiology to the fine arts.

RIT’s genomics research capabilities have evolved significantly over the past year. The university has invested heavily in revamping and equipping its Genomics Research Lab Cluster. The overhauled genomics facilities will boost capabilities for researchers in multiple disciplines, including bioinformatics, biotechnology and environmental science.

You do what? From accountant to the stars to sustainable chocolate producer, RIT alumni have some pretty cool careers. Read about Margot Sandy ’08 (electrical mechanical engineering technology), ’12 MS (product development), a self-employed product development consultant.