News
Ryne Raffaelle

The Battery Prototyping Center at RIT and the Battery and Energy Storage Technology (BEST) Test and Commercialization Center have merged to become a comprehensive battery development enterprise in New York state.

RIT celebrated another exemplary year of research funding and honored 15 faculty and staff researchers in its newest class of PI Millionaires. The honorees, all principal investigators on innovative projects, were recognized at a reception on March 26 at the university.

RIT reached another record year in sponsored research awards, attaining more than $94 million in fiscal year 2022-2023. Some key areas of research include nanotechnology, optics and imaging science, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, and growth in life sciences and health fields.

Preliminary construction of a modern research facility has been underway since mid-summer. The RIT Research Building, on the southwest side of campus near R Lot, will provide more laboratory space in science, computing, and engineering.

Wayne Plourde was recently appointed director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Office at Rochester Institute of Technology. With a diverse background in academia, law, and in industry, he will administer RIT’s intellectual property assets and manage its campus-wide entrepreneurial initiatives.

RIT faculty members, who led research initiatives as principal investigators, were honored at a reception on March 21 to celebrate the individuals who helped the university reach record awards surpassing $92 million and place among the top private research universities in the country.

RIT’s Principal Investigator Reception recognizes faculty and staff who have received external research funding, including the newest class of PI Millionaires, a group of faculty researchers that have surpassed $1 million in career funding at RIT.

Rochester Beacon highlights RIT’s research portfolio.

Increases in collaborative projects and inclusion in statewide and national economic development initiatives combined for another record year of sponsored research funding at RIT.

Applications being developed at RIT using artificial intelligence vary from sophisticated medical monitoring devices to the development of autonomous systems for Indy racecars. These represent some of the exciting and complex work underway at the university that will be featured prominently at the AI@RIT Summit: Discovering and Harnessing the Breadth and Depth of Artificial Intelligence at RIT.

RIT is part of a major national initiative that secured more than $63.7 million to establish upstate New York as a national hub for battery research and manufacturing. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer announced that Binghamton University’s New Energy New York Proposal secured substantial funding for the new hub, Battery-NY, which will include partners such as RIT’s Battery Prototyping Center and New York Battery and Energy Storage Technology.

Increased awards for advancing biomedical technology and economic development initiatives have lifted RIT to another record year of sponsored research funding.