RIT hosts Graduate Education Week

‌

Physician assistant and RIT alumnus Chrysa Charno will deliver the keynote address at the ninth annual Graduate Research Symposium and Showcase Feb. 24. Leading up to the symposium, graduate students can take part in RIT’s Graduate Education Week activities.

The fourth annual Graduate Education Week at Rochester Institute of Technology will be held Feb. 20–24 and feature speakers, the Three Minute Thesis competition and social events.

The week culminates with the ninth annual Graduate Research Symposium and Showcase, presented by RIT’s Office of Graduate Education. For the event, graduates will present 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 students at RIT are a growing group and it’s important that they’re involved as part of the campus community,” said Twyla Cummings, dean of graduate education at RIT. “The Graduate Education Week and symposium is a terrific way to celebrate students and show-off their hard work.”

Graduate Education Week highlights include:

• Master’s student Three Minute Research Presentation Competition, 1–4 p.m. Feb. 20, Simone Center for Student Innovation room 1600. The competition challenges three master’s students from each college to present their research in less than three minutes, using only one static PowerPoint slide. Five finalists will win $100 each and go on to compete at the Graduate Symposium for a $500 prize.
• Ph.D. Three Minute Research Presentation Competition, 2–4 p.m. Feb. 21, University Gallery. Up to two students from each Ph.D. program will be challenged to present their research in less than three minutes, using only one static PowerPoint slide. The winner of the Ph.D. competition will receive $1,000, share their presentation during the lunch program at the Graduate Symposium and will be entered into the worldwide Three Minute Thesis Competition.
• How Critical Thinking… Moderated Student Panel, 10–11 a.m. Feb. 22, Simone Center for Student Innovation room 1600. A panel of RIT graduate students will discuss their critical thinking experience as students. This event is open to all RIT students, faculty, staff and community guests.
• Melbert B. Cary Jr. Distinguished Professor speaker and luncheon, 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. Feb. 22, University Gallery. Keynote speaker Steven Abitz, additive technology leader at GE Healthcare, will discuss how additive manufacturing is used within GE Healthcare, the challenges that additive manufacturing present to the business and ways that the company has worked to overcome those challenges.
• Co-op and Career Workshop—Preparing for the Career Fair, 2–3 p.m. Feb. 22, Simone Center for Student Innovation room 1600. The workshop will prepare graduate students for RIT’s March 1 Career Fair.
• Global Experiences Presentation with Fulbright Students, 4–6 p.m. Feb. 22, Simone Center for Student Innovation room 1600. RIT Fulbright students will share their stories about coming to RIT and about their countries.
• Graduate Research Symposium and Showcase, 8 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Feb. 24, Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies, Louise M. Slaughter Hall.

The Graduate Symposium keynote address will be delivered by Chrysa Charno ’03 (physician assistant, master of business administration), a practicing physician assistant who has worked in the fields of orthopedics, internal medicine, plastic surgery, dermatology, emergency medicine and urgent care. Inspired by her mother’s example of bridging the health care and business worlds, Charno returned to RIT for her MBA and became one of the first physician assistant graduates to get the degree.