Computing and Information Sciences News

Four RIT designers completed a NASA internship in which they produced creative works in support of an upcoming mission to reach an asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

RIT faculty-researchers will develop a game-design training system that could help astronauts maintain balance, motor skills, and other cognitive functions while in space. NASA, in partnership with the National Space Grant Foundation, has selected six university teams, including RIT, to develop innovative design ideas that will help NASA advance and execute its Moon to Mars exploration objectives.

Elissa Weeden, associate professor, and Michael McQuaid, senior lecturer, each received a Teach Access Curriculum Development Award of $5,000. The awards will be used to develop educational materials and drive curriculum enhancements to introduce key concepts and skills on accessible design and development in university courses.

Dimitris Chachlakis became the first student to be awarded the new Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering this May from RIT. The new degree builds upon the Ph.D. in engineering, a multi-disciplinary degree established several years ago, and since then refined into three distinct programs.

Essay by Kristen Shinohara and Garreth Tigwell, assistant professors of computing and information sciences, published by The Conversation and republished in The News & Advance, Communications of the ACM, and NextGov.

Mathematical modeling has been a powerful tool for policymakers grappling with COVID-19 to help predict how targeted actions can impact the rates of infections, minimize the risk of exposures, increase recovery rates, and much more. Fifteen seniors who took the Senior Capstone in Math course this spring put their modeling skills to the test to help officials evaluate past policies and predict future outcomes.

Rajendra Raj, professor of computer science, has been appointed co-chair of an international task force to revise computer science curriculum in the next decade. This is the first time someone from RIT has been selected to co-lead the task force.

Sarah Sabal secured two prestigious international scholarships—a Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) and a Boren Awards Scholarship—that will allow her to spend a year intensively studying the Chinese language in an immersive setting. She is one of several students who contributed to a record-breaking year for RIT in terms of securing funding for international experiences.

WHEC-TV talks to Monika Verma, a recent human-computer interaction graduate, about her capstone project.

More than 50 students are expected to earn their Ph.D. degrees by the end of June. The hooding ceremony, which will also include Ph.D. recipients in the class of 2020, is May 15.

CloudCover, an automated intelligence-driven cybersecurity platform, has made a $500,000 gift to name the conference center in RIT’s new Global Cybersecurity Institute (GCI). The CloudCover Conference Center serves as a central space for cybersecurity-related events and meetings with industry, students, government, and organizations.

Nick Renzoni, a management information systems (MIS) major and communication minor from Holden, Mass., is following in his grandfather’s footsteps. Like his grandfather and many of his RIT classmates, Renzoni has decided to pursue a master’s degree directly after completing his undergraduate education.