Photo Spotlights

Ryan Norris, left, and Benson Yu, fifth-year engineering majors, are part of the senior-design team that helped put a little extra swirl in Wegmans Food Markets marble cakes. The team designed equipment consisting of swirler modules to be used in the Bakeshop.

Design professor David Royka led a 10-week class whose project was to work with the Toy Resource Center in Rochester, a nonprofit that offers a variety of toys and equipment to enrich play experiences between children and their caregivers. Students in the class gained real-world experience with a client. Here, Christina Salvas, a third-year graphic design major, and Royka are in front of a logo she designed. The class wrapped up at the end of May.

RIT student Rachel Zoyhofsky is headed to the U.S. Olympic time trials in July for the race walk. If her time holds up, she will be selected to represent the United States at the London Olympic games. The environmental science student started competing in the race walk during high school and she is among the youngest competitors in the country in this event. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=49180.

Nicole Mallory, a third-year physician assistant student, competed in the U.S. Olympic trials for flat-water kayaking in April, hoping to earn a coveted spot on the Olympic team. She placed fourth overall in the 500-meter race and took second place in the 500-meter kayak double with her racing partner, falling just short of making the team. Mallory has her sights set on the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro.

Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology and University at Buffalo held the Joint Workshop on Disaster Response May 30-June 1 to stimulate innovation in the remote-sensing industry by bringing together industry members, researchers and representatives of the emergency response community. The RIT Information Products Laboratory for Emergency Response and the UB Center for Geohazards Studies shared advances in remote sensing technologies used to create “information maps” that can assess damage to buildings and infrastructure, detect toxic plumes in water or conduct land-cover analysis to identify crops contaminated by radiation, such as in the aftermath of the nuclear disaster at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi. The event was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Partnerships for Innovation, RIT Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing Laboratory in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, and the UB Center for Geohazards Studies.

There are dollar signs associated with RIT’s Financial Management Association, a student organization under the helm of the E. Philip Saunders College of Business. Members get to manage real money, track an investment portfolio with a market value of $110,000 and decide whether to invest or not invest based on their analysis. Eight members presented financial assessments during a late-April field trip, as they met with company executives in New York City’s financial marketplace. Jaré Allocco Allen, left, assistant controller at RIT, accompanied students William (Jon) Weintraub, Guangjun Ding, Troy Lubberts, Russell Sisipenzi, Harpreet Singh, Deep Ashar and Seerat Sodhi, along with Daniel Tessoni, right, accounting professor in the Saunders College (not pictured is Financial Management Association President Mayank Bindal). Tessoni was responsible for arranging executive meetings at WL Ross & Co. and International Textile Group (Cone Denim). James Watters, senior vice president of finance and administration at RIT, was responsible for arranging the executive meeting at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

RIT Staff Council hosted the Bob Howie Memorial Classic Car Display on May 30, in conjunction with RIT’s 16th annual Staff Appreciation Day & Community Picnic. About 40 classic vehicles belonging to RIT employees, retirees, trustees, alumni and students were displayed. The show is named for Bob Howie, who first organized the classic car display as an RIT retiree of Campus Connections bookstore. Howie died in 2008.

RIT celebrates its new crop of graduates with the university’s 127th commencement. The two-day observance kicked off during Academic Convocation on May 25 in RIT’s Gordon Field House and Activities Center. Here, students from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf line up for their ceremony in the Ritter Ice Arena. To see more photos from Academic Convocation, go to bit.ly/Kb0pEG.

Adena Thomson is an accounting major with a 4.0 GPA who will be graduating with an MBA degree from RIT in February 2013. She enjoys playing the violin and is the captain of RIT’s intramural volleyball team. Read more about Thomson and her journey to RIT in Athenaeum and at www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=49188.

RIT celebrates its new crop of graduates with the university’s 127th commencement. The two-day observance kicked off during Academic Convocation on May 25 in Gordon Field House and Activities Center. During the ceremony, RIT President Bill Destler conferred degrees on both undergraduate and graduate candidates. To see more photos from Academic Convocation, go to bit.ly/Kb0pEG.

Bill Nye, scientist and beloved TV personality, provided the keynote address at RIT’s 127th commencement celebration May 25 in the Gordon Field House and Activities Center. Nye’s message on fostering a scientifically literate society proved popular among graduates, many of whom grew up watching “Bill Nye the Science Guy” during its originally run on public television from 1992 to 1998. To see more photos from Academic Convocation, go to bit.ly/Kb0pEG.

Bernard Brooks is a 2012 recipient of an Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching. Brooks is an associate professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences in the College of Science and a gifted researcher and teacher. The award is named in honor of M. Herbert and Elsa Bausch Eisenhart. Mr. Eisenhart was the longtime president and board chairman of Bausch & Lomb Inc. and a member of RIT’s Board of Trustees for more than 50 years.