Photo Spotlights

The 18th annual Taste of RIT took place on April 29 with all proceeds going to the RIT United Way Campaign.

Many of Rochester’s middle school students participated in the annual Engineering, Experimentation and Exploration Fair at RIT on April 29. The program, celebrating 20 years in existence, is a way to increase interest in engineering through fun projects, team competitions and interesting design challenges. Here, Ryan Moorthi (left) and Griffin Perry compete in the stationary lift, using Legos and metal weights. Both boys attend the Twelve Corners Middle School in Brighton.

RIT’s Department of Foreign Languages will present a series of plays, written by students, as part of the Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival on May 1. Featured are Everett Brown and Carina Nyerges, two of the stars of the modern adaptation of the Italian opera L’elisir d’Amore.

Kappa Delta Rho annually provides a helping hand to commencement organizers by stuffing diploma cases. Fraternity members Stanley Adecla (left) and Rob Mancini were among those gathered on April 24 to insert a letter to the graduates from RIT President Bill Destler into each of the 4,000 cases.

Fifth-year software engineering major Alex Ford has made a temporary home for himself at RIT, specifically through his work with the Society of Software Engineers. In 2007, Ford created Voices in Software Engineering, bringing some of the most prominent and influential individuals in the field to campus.

Anthropologist Uli Linke and sociologist Danielle Taana Smith, both faculty in the Department of Sociology, suggest that the production of fear and the discourse of terror have been variously deployed as a political strategy to manipulate public opinion and to govern people, communities and nations. In the new book Cultures of Fear, Linke and Smith assemble essays from world-class scholars, each discussing different ways in which fear is produced, used and channeled toward specific sociopolitical ends.

Robert Luessen, one of RIT’s Outstanding Undergraduate Student Scholars from the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences, attended the scholarship event April 22 in Gordon Field House and Activities Center. Each student honored has achieved a minimum grade point average of 3.85 out of a possible 4.0.

For his successful business efforts, William K. Pollock, founder, CEO and president of Optimation Technology, was named recipient of the 2010 Herbert W. Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award by RIT’s E. Philip Saunders College of Business. He was honored during a luncheon at Oak Hill Country Club on April 22.

RIT’s Community Garden, a grassroots project begun last year by RIT employees and students, kicks off its growing season today. Activities are planned until 1 p.m. near U Lot, just south of the tennis courts.

Mark Mikolajczyk, president and publisher of Florida Today, and a 1983 graduate of RIT, received the 2010 Isaiah Thomas Award on April 21. Presented by RIT’s School of Print Media, the award is named after one of America’s great patriot printers and recognizes outstanding contributions to the publishing industry. Florida Today is part of the U.S. Community Publishing Division of Gannett Co. Inc. Mikolajczyk is the 26th recipient of the award.

Zeta Tau Alpha hosted a yogurt eating contest to support breast cancer education on April 20. 30 participants gobbled several containers of yogurt in a timed session. Three winners received gift cards and everyone got a pink towel to clean up with.

Neuroscientist Christopher deCharms, a pioneer in the development of real-time magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI, discussed the use of the technology in diagnosis, pain management and the treatment of disease April 19 at RIT. The presentation, “Imagine, Imaging your Own Brain,” was part of the Caroline Werner Gannett Project’s Visionaries in Motion Series.