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Ryne Raffaelle

Applications being developed at RIT using artificial intelligence vary from sophisticated medical monitoring devices to the development of autonomous systems for Indy racecars. These represent some of the exciting and complex work underway at the university that will be featured prominently at the AI@RIT Summit: Discovering and Harnessing the Breadth and Depth of Artificial Intelligence at RIT.

Dr. Russell W. Bessette and his wife, Melissa, joined RIT officials and other dignitaries to announce a donation of two patents and the creation of the Dr. Russell and Melissa Bessette Award for Doctoral Student Excellence, a $3.05 million bequest from which funding will be awarded annually as part of recruitment or at any point during a doctoral student’s enrollment at RIT.

RIT had its best year ever for sponsored research funding. For fiscal year 2020, which ended June 30, RIT received 382 new awards totaling $82 million. The record funding follows almost $58 million in research expenditures in fiscal year 2019, also a record.

RIT is establishing Open@RIT, an initiative dedicated to supporting all kinds of “open work,” including — but not limited to — open source software, open data, open hardware, open educational resources, Creative Commons licensed work, and open research.