Photo Spotlights

Grace Watson Dining Hall took on a blues theme for a special meal on Dec. 11. The David Millers Blues Brothers performed while students dined on pepper steak, blackened salmon, shrimp cocktail, sauteed kale, coconut sweet potatoes, bourbon bread pudding and key lime tarts.

Members of the RIT community helped to spread holiday cheer Dec. 9 during the fourth annual Holiday Service Project, sponsored by the RIT Center for Residence Life. About 50 volunteers packed 104 shoeboxes with donated items and wrapped them in holiday paper as part of the “Shoe Box Gifts” program for the Open Door Mission of Rochester. Throughout the fall semester, students donated toiletries and cold weather gear for people in need in our area. The gift boxes will be delivered to the Open Door Mission’s Caring Center on Plymouth Avenue this week.

RIT’s 5th Annual FreezeFest kickoff event on Dec. 11 featured a table of blue and white giveaways, a candy buffet, photo booth and blue cotton candy. John Oliver, from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, was announced as the featured comedian for the three-day winter festival and is set to perform Feb. 22, 2014.

Metal sculptor Albert Paley created 13 pieces that were installed on Park Avenue in New York City in June. On Dec. 9, Paley, who holds an endowed chair at RIT’s College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, attended the premiere of the film chronicling the project, produced by WXXI. The film includes segments at RIT and an interview with James Watters, RIT senior vice president of finance and administration. Tune in to WXXI-TV at 8 p.m. Dec. 12 for Paley on Park Avenue: New York City.

Students from the High Speed Photography class brave below freezing temperatures to pull off their semester’s final shoot. A collaboration between students from the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences and the Center for Imaging Science, the students photographed RIT Formula SAE Team’s F-18 race car. Using stroboscopic lighting, the car slid in an arc around an array of cameras (and students) with synchronized flashes of light.

The RIT Cosplay Troupe sponsored its annual Cosplay Snow Festival on Dec. 7. The Snow Ball Dance, contests, panels and performances were all part of the day.

RIT alumna Gale Gand ’81 visited with students in the hospitality program on Dec. 6. The nationally acclaimed pastry chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, television personality, teacher and entrepreneur talked about her time at RIT, a graduate of its art program, and her career shift to hospitality and restaurants. She has been recognized as Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year by The James Beard Foundation as well as by Bon Appetite magazine.

Margaret Bailey is the principal investigator of a $3.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation ADVANCE program for a project intended to increase representation and advancement of women in academic science, technology, engineering and mathematics at RIT. The professor of mechanical engineering in the Kate Gleason College of Engineering also is the founding member of the women in engineering program, WE@RIT.

At a meeting Dec. 3 at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., are RIT President Bill Destler, and to the right, NGA Deputy Director Michael A. Rodrigue, RIT Professor David Messinger, Trustee Jeffrey Harris ’75 and far right, RIT Vice President of Government and Community Relations Deborah Stendardi. The meeting was just prior to an RIT-hosted Capitol Hill briefing, “STEM Workforce in Remote Sensing, a National Imperative: Views and Next Steps from the Intelligence, Corporate and Academic Communities.”

Marissa Masek, a fifth-year photographic sciences and biology student, celebrated her 23rd birthday on Dec. 2 by inviting friends to a studio filled with 360 balloons to toss around and photograph.

Bethany Choate ’06 and Matthew Heimbueger ’06 are building their own 2,048-square-foot sustainable home in suburban Rochester. The imaging science graduates plan to move in by the end of this year.

The Tiger’s Next Top Model competition concluded with a runway show on Nov. 22. Students Hailey Koth and Kyle Brossoit were chosen as the winners at the end of the show.