Research News

RIT’s behavioral health program is expanding in new directions with a clinic on campus and federal funding to deliver addiction treatment in rural communities in upstate New York and New Hampshire.

Scientists began conducting research at the Tait Preserve of RIT for the first time this summer. Researchers from the Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing Laboratory were the first to use the site, collecting data using imaging technology flown on unmanned aerial systems, or drones.

For too long, cybersecurity has been an afterthought. In a preemptive strike on cyber­security threats across the world, RIT has created the Global Cybersecurity Institute (GCI). Late last fall, the GCI opened the doors to its 52,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility on campus. With the institute, RIT is on its way to becoming one of the best places in the world for cybersecurity education, training, and research.

Researchers have used pulsar measurements to help uncover new information about the density of dark matter in our home galaxy. In a new study led by RIT Associate Professor Sukanya Chakrabarti, researchers have now obtained the first direct measurement of the average acceleration taking place within the Milky Way.

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.

Faculty-researcher Cory Merkel recently received a grant from the Air Force Research Lab for developing more secure AI functionality including how it defends against system attacks, and, through training the system, how it could learn to anticipate triggers for possible system attacks.

Michael Zemcov, assistant professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, is part of the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission, which will let scientists learn about the formation of galaxies and search for life-sustaining molecules in the clouds of material where stars and planets form.

WXXI’s “Connections” program features Roger Easton, professor in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science; Lisa Enochs, second-year student double majoring in motion picture science and imaging science; and Zoë LaLena, second-year imaging science student.

While the scientific community grapples with the loss of the Arecibo radio telescope, astronomers who recently revived a long-dormant radio telescope array in Argentina hope it can help modestly compensate for the work Arecibo did in pulsar timing.

Imaging scientists at RIT have several new projects in the works to improve the way waveform LiDAR can be used to study forests. LiDAR currently does a good job of outlining the top portion of forests, but by using a more complex form of LiDAR, it can reveal much more detail about what lies beneath the forest canopy’s surface.

CIO Magazine mentions Manuela Campanelli, professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences, and her work with the TACC Frontera supercomputer.

RIT's Cary Graphic Arts Collection has received a donation of books and printing equipment from the estate of a noted historian of typography and early printing technologies. Stephen Saxe was an expert on American type foundries from the 19th century and a founding member of the American Printing History Association.