News

RIT is ranked 98th as a “National University” in the 2024 edition of U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges, jumping seven spots from last year. This list of 443 includes the nation’s best research universities that also offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master’s and doctoral programs, and emphasize faculty research or award professional practice doctorates.

I Run Far interviews Zach Miller '12 (mechanical engineering), an ultrarunner who finished in second place in the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), a mountain ultramarathon race.

Researchers are improving non-invasive treatment options for degenerative disc disease, an ailment that impacts 3 million adults yearly in the U.S. Using state-of-the-art gene editing technology in mesenchymal stem cells, the researchers will add to the growing field of regenerative medicine, the process of producing cellular therapies to alleviate pain and lack of mobility.

The Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED) welcomed students, faculty, and staff into its teaching and learning spaces on Aug. 28. The SHED includes five new active learning classrooms alongside the newly renovated Wallace Library with its 22 new classrooms.

Turn big dreams into reality. That was just one piece of advice for the newest Rochester Institute of Technology students who attended the New Student Convocation on Aug. 24. The annual event included welcomes from administrators, the new Student Government president, and a lesson in adventure featuring RIT President David Munson.

AIM Photonics hosted several days of training Aug. 15-17 in Photonic Integrated Circuits: Testing and Packaging Boot Camp, including one day at RIT.

Darcie Jones, a fifth-year mechanical engineering major from Reading, Pa., is this year’s Student Government president, representing more than 19,000 students on RIT’s Henrietta and overseas campuses. There were four sets of candidates this year, the most in recent history. This year’s Student Government vice president is J.T. Lapham, a fourth-year biochemistry major from Queensbury, N.Y.

The new undergraduate students come from 48 states (all but Iowa and Wyoming); Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; Guam; U.S. Virgin Islands; and 47 countries, with the largest contingent coming from India, Canada, and China. In addition, there are 927 new graduate students.

Qian Xue, associate professor of mechanical engineering in RIT's Kate Gleason College of Engineering and recent NSF CAREER Awardee, is exploring how the varied sizes, shapes, and directions of whiskers on harbor seals can correlate to better sensor technologies. 

RIT’s Launch Initiative won first place in the Space Dynamics Laboratory Payload Challenge this summer in Las Cruces, N.M. They were among nearly 6,000 students from 159 international collegiate teams at the annual competition that challenges students to launch solid, liquid, or hybrid rockets to altitudes of 10,000 and 30,000 feet.

From building a cleanroom in his family home while he was in high school to becoming an entrepreneur and Ph.D., it is no wonder that RIT alumnus Matt Hartensveld is viewed as a future leader in the microelectronics industry. He was recently named SEMICON West 20 under 30 awardee, given by the organization to recognize the microelectronic industry’s brightest young leaders.

WROC-TV interviews recent RIT graduate Bobby Kovach, who managed to earn multiple degrees despite overcoming health challenges from a car accident.