News

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 39: Nicole Scott, director of RIT’s Native American Future Stewards Program, and Abigail Reigner, a second-year mechanical engineering student who is the regional student representative for the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, discuss life as Native Americans in higher education, learning about Native cultures, and some of the unique ways RIT partners with tribal nations and organizations.

A one-credit workshop allowed RIT students to examine ways of sharing more accurate depictions of a complex topic. The class culminates in an exhibition that opens Nov. 5. 

While the pandemic touched RIT locally, Ruben Proano, associate professor of industrial engineering, saw it from a global perspective, as part of a year-long sabbatical at UNICEF in Copenhagen, Denmark. His work extended ongoing research on making the vaccine market more affordable and profitable.

Toilet seats with high-tech sensors might be the non-invasive technology of the future that could help reduce hospital return rates of individuals with heart disease. A joint project by researchers at RIT and the University of Rochester Medical Center will determine if in-home monitoring can successfully record vital signs and reduce risk and costly re-hospitalization rates for people with heart failure. The five-year, $2.9 million venture is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

RIT’s Future Photon Initiative (FPI) and L3Harris have entered into a new industry partnership to develop quantum technologies. The partners will begin developing next steps for experiments and analysis focused on quantum information processing for communication, sensing, and computing.

Linwei Wang has been named the new director of the Personalized Healthcare Technology signature research initiative at RIT, and Adam Smith has been named Creative Director, a new position with the group.

Engineering Design Tools, a first-year course, is an example of how RIT’s most applied programs have managed to keep learning as close to hands-on as possible in the age of COVID-19.

Steven Day, a professor in Biomedical Engineering, received 337K from the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with Drexel University to research ventricular assist devices (VADs) for high-risk pediatric patients in outpatient settings.  

Cosimo X invests in businesses that use digital assets and blockchain protocols to advance the digital economy. According to industry experts, the investment by RIT marks the first time that any university in the United States has directly invested in a tokenized venture fund. The fund’s parent company, Cosimo Ventures, was co-founded six years ago by RIT alumnus Robert Frasca ’88 (mechanical engineering).

RIT engineering professor Iris Rivero will be part of the newest class of the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering and Science, also known as ELATES. The national program based at Drexel University is intended to prepare senior women faculty into leadership roles within their respective institutions.

Natural gas-hydrates—crystalline compounds of gas molecules—are found in permafrost and marine sediments. While these gas hydrates can be used as alternative energy resources, they also pose a danger in terms of global warming. RIT researchers Patricia Taboada-Serrano and Yali Zhang developed a comprehensive model to better validate location of gas-hydrate deposits in marine sediments.

Michael Guglielmo never envisioned that he would spend a summer co-op helping his university prepare to fight off a pandemic. But the fifth-year student from Henrietta, N.Y., pursuing his BS in industrial engineering and ME in industrial and systems engineering helped put measures in place that will make everyone who sets foot on campus this fall safer.