RIT celebrates graduate student research

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The eighth annual Graduate Research and Creativity Symposium wraps up RIT’s Graduate Education Week, April 4–8.

The third annual Graduate Education Week at Rochester Institute of Technology will be held April 4–8 and feature speakers, a play reading, the new Three Minute Thesis competition and social events.

The week culminates with the eighth annual Graduate Research and Creativity Symposium, presented by RIT’s Office of Graduate Studies. For the event, graduate students are charged with presenting poster and oral presentations in a way that allows anyone to understand their research. Prizes are awarded at the end of the day for the best presentations.

“Graduate education at RIT is shifting and becoming a major feature of the university,” said Hector Flores, RIT’s dean of graduate studies. “The Graduate Education Week and symposium is a terrific way to recognize and celebrate the important graduate community on campus.”

Graduate Education Week highlights include:

• Ph.D. Three Minute Thesis Competition, 10 a.m.–noon April 4, Golisano Institute for Sustainability room 1130. The new competition challenges graduate students to present their thesis research in less than three minutes, using only one static PowerPoint slide. The winner of the Ph.D. competition will receive $500, share their presentation during the lunch program at the Graduate Symposium and will be entered into the worldwide Three Minute Thesis Competition.
• 2016 Eugene H. Fram Chair in Applied Critical Thinking Spring Lecture, 4 p.m. April 5, Webb Auditorium, James E. Booth Hall. Keynote speaker Luis A. N. Amaral, co-director of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems and professor of chemical and biological engineering at Northwestern University, will present “Thinking Critically: The Complexity of Modern Medicine.”
• Reading of the Photograph 51, 6:30–9 p.m. April 6, Center for Student Innovation. A reading of the award-winning play Photograph 51, written by Anna Ziegler. The play, which most recently played in London staring Nicole Kidman, is about the working life of Rosalind Franklin and her involvement in the discovery of DNA. After the reading, Ziegler will join a panel of RIT scientists via Skype, to discuss the gender issues involved with the play.
• How to Present Your Research Workshop, 2:30 p.m. April 7, Reading Room, Campus Center. Members of RIT’s Tiger Tales Toastmasters will provide tips for presenters.
• Graduate Research and Creativity Symposium, 8 a.m.–5:30 p.m. April 8, Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies, Louise M. Slaughter Hall.

The Graduate Symposium keynote address will be delivered by Jennifer Schneider, a professor in RIT’s College of Applied Science and Technology and the Eugene H. Fram Chair in Applied Critical Thinking. As a certified industrial hygienist, Schneider is a risk analysis and HAZMAT process expert known for her scholarship in the areas of global resilience and community criticality. Her talk, at the 11:30 a.m. luncheon, will use the example of climate change and disaster to explore what it may take to reimagine our world through interdisciplinary research.

Special events at this year’s symposium include a panel discussion by RIT’s Gravitational Wave team at 3 p.m. and the finals of the master’s student Three Minute Thesis competition at 4 p.m.