Photo Spotlights

Hundreds of competitors and their robots took the field in Gordon Field House March 4-5 for the 2011 Finger Lakes Regional FIRST Robotics competition. More than 40 high school teams from across the Northeast U.S. and Canada participated in LOGO Motion. Here, students cheer for their team.

Hundreds of competitors and their robots took the field in Gordon Field House March 4 for the 2011 FIRST Robotics Finger Lakes Regional competition. More than 40 high school teams from across the Northeast U.S. and Canada participated in LOGO Motion. Winners in the regional meet for the championship April 27-30 in St. Louis.

More than 130 full-time sign-language interpreters are found throughout RIT. Here, Angela Hauser interprets for the Aeolian Choir during RIT’s Martin Luther King Day celebration.

Mentors & Makers, an exhibit at Rochester Contemporary Art Center, features Wendell Castle, RIT artist-in-residence, with Nancy Jurs, his wife and an RIT alumna. The couple invited alumni Tom Lacagnina and Bethany Krull to exhibit their work alongside theirs. The exhibit is on view through March 13.

Therapy Dogs International—handlers with 10 certified therapy dogs—provided a welcome break for RIT/NTID students as they entered exam week. Students “de-stressed” with the dogs, who were wearing bandanas that read “Paws a While for Love.”

Ask Jamie Wratten, a fourth-year mathematics student, about his thoughts on education and he’ll tell you that it’s not all about the classroom or the lab. A desire to volunteer and gain new experiences led him to orphanages in India where he spent the last two summers teaching children English and mathematics, and reshaping his own worldview. Wratten will graduate this spring with his bachelor’s degree in mathematics.

Venture Creations, RIT’s business incubator, facilitates the growth of businesses in the Rochester area. Sweetwater Energy is a Venture Creations company that produces liquid feedstock for ethanol producers.

Upgrading and improving the “Wandering Campus Ambassador” took the collective expertise of students from mechanical, electrical and computer engineering as well as peers from industrial design. The robotic system and its intricate mechanical elements were on display at the multidisciplinary senior design presentations in the Kate Gleason College of Engineering on Feb. 18. The device is designed to move around campus to not only generate interest in robotics but to raise awareness about self-sustaining energy platforms. The project, sponsored by the RIT Provost’s Learning Innovations Grant, focused on upgraded solar collectors and improved mechanical components.

Fernando Naveda is charting a course for RIT’s conversion to semesters starting Aug. 26, 2013. The appointed calendar conversion director says questions from members of the campus community remain among his priorities.

“Algae—as a renewable feedstock—grow a lot quicker than crops of corn or soybeans,” says Eric Lannan, right, who is working on his master’s degree in mechanical engineering. “It’s a more continuous source that could offset 50 percent of our total gas use for equipment that uses diesel.” Lannan and Jeff Lodge, left, associate professor of biological sciences, are developing biodiesel from microalgae grown in wastewater. They’ve moved their research out of the lab and to Environmental Energy Technologies Inc. on Brighton-Henrietta Townline Road, where they’ve scaled up production from 30 to 100 gallons, with Lannan’s thesis advisor Ali Ogut, professor of mechanical engineering and president and CTO of EET.

Design experts deliberated over chair prototypes designed by industrial design students as part of a juried competition Feb. 10 in collaboration with Wilsonart International. The students were required to use Wilsonart laminate in their chair designs. Jurors pictured from left to right are Wendell Castle, RIT artist-in-residence and furniture designer; Ron Labaco, senior curator at the Museum of Arts and Design; Grace Jeffers, project manager for the Wilsonart Challenge; and Allan Chochinov, editor-in-chief of Core 77. Jurors selected six student designs, including Dan Kestler’s design (foreground) which conjoins two Adirondack chairs, to be featured at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City in May.

Barnes & Noble @ RIT hosted a meet and greet with the RIT men’s hockey team to benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Rochester on Feb. 12. The event included a silent auction of RIT hockey memorabilia, donations for a team photo for the players to sign, giveaways and snacks. The total raised was $1,000.