News Stories

Thousands of RIT students are graduating this week with majors including engineering, computer science, cybersecurity, business, and fine arts. But more than 250 graduates are also receiving customized bachelor’s and master’s degrees from RIT’s School of Individualized Study, which allows students a flexible education pathway of their choosing.

RIT will confer a record 69 Ph.D. degrees during commencement May 12, marking a 53 percent increase from last year.

For decades, deaf and hard-of-hearing students attending RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf have been earning associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees. This year, the first three NTID-supported students are on track to earn their doctoral degrees from RIT.

WHEC-TV talks to student Matt Gonzalez-Rappe about Pi Kappa Phi’s charity, The Ability Experience, which supports people with disabilities.

RIT’s VEX Robotics team placed 10th overall among 96 collegiate teams in the recent VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas. Closing a strong 2023 season, the team was also recognized for excellence in technical designs and the overall quality of its program.

Forbes features Sean Petterson '13 (industrial design), CEO of StrongArm Technologies.

NTID and the PGA of America announce a partnership to have American Sign Language interpreters throughout the weeklong 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club, May 15-21. Most notably, for the first time in PGA of America’s history, ASL interpreters will also be on site at the PGA Championship Wanamaker Trophy presentation.

Elle Holland discovered her dream job as a genetic counselor while still in high school, and she came to RIT to become a scientist as the first step toward her career goal. She is one of several 2023 graduates finding careers in health care.

Tiffany Brodner was named RIT’s inaugural executive director of the Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED), following a national search. She assumed her new position in April. She will work closely with Michael Buffalin IV, who was appointed director of RIT’s makerspace within the SHED.

Professor Joel Kastner from RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and School of Physics and Astronomy is part of a team of scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope to study how the changing patterns of shadows cast on the dusty disks orbiting young stars can reveal the presence of newly formed planets.

Fierce Biotech features healthcare technology firm Casana, founded by alumnus Nick Conn. RIT Trustee Austin McChord is CEO of the company that makes a smart toilet seat that measures heart rate and oxygen saturation.

The tech employment landscape is changing, and RIT graduates are taking their skills to a variety of organizations—to support accessibility for health and wellness companies, to provide coding for data center equipment, and to develop software for sophisticated HVAC systems—and more.