News

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 50: Contentious battles are often fought over the dinner table around what and how much a child should eat. RIT researcher Barbara Lohse, head of the Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition, and colleague Ellyn Satter have rigorously tested and validated a common-sense approach to identify and prevent nutrition risk in children.

A grant from the McGowan Foundation will support a postdoctoral fellowship in RIT’s Priority Behavioral Health and Clinical Psychology Training Program in the College of Health Sciences and Technology.

RIT faculty-researchers will develop a game-design training system that could help astronauts maintain balance, motor skills, and other cognitive functions while in space. NASA, in partnership with the National Space Grant Foundation, has selected six university teams, including RIT, to develop innovative design ideas that will help NASA advance and execute its Moon to Mars exploration objectives.

Ashley Tucker, a graduating senior majoring in biomedical sciences and biology, will travel to Nigeria at the end of the summer on a Fulbright Research award. Tucker will work with a malaria research group at University of Ibadan College of Medicine. Her research will help improve the rapid diagnostic testing for the deadly tropical disease.

Sarah Sabal secured two prestigious international scholarships—a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) and a Boren Awards Scholarship—that will allow her to spend a year intensively studying the Chinese language in an immersive setting. She is one of several students who contributed to a record-breaking year for RIT in terms of securing funding for international experiences.

Nearly 60 students will graduate this May from the College of Health Sciences and Technology’s clinical programs—physician assistant BS/MS, diagnostic medical sonography BS, and the echocardiography (cardiac ultrasound) certificate program. These students spend the final year of their programs immersed in practical work experience at clinics and hospitals in the region.

The Tiger Testing team employs nearly 90 students from across campus, with about 25 students majoring in degrees in the College of Health Sciences and Technology.

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 Health Sciences and Technology began the year under new leadership with Dean Yong “Tai” Wang. Wang joined RIT in January from the University of Texas at Tyler. His research focuses on rehabilitative biomechanics related to wheelchair locomotion and Tai Chi exercise.

The best-practice approach, known as the Satter Division of Responsibility in Feeding, has now been rigorously tested and peer reviewed. The questionnaire will become a standard parent survey for professionals and researchers working in the early childhood development field, predicts lead researcher Barbara Lohse, director of RIT’s Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition.

A record 15 students participated in fall research projects thanks to support from the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) and Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement programs.

RIT’s behavioral health program is expanding in new directions with a clinic on campus and federal funding to deliver addiction treatment in rural communities in upstate New York and New Hampshire.