Computing and Information Sciences News

WROC-TV talks to Alexa Amoriello, second-year game design and development major, about the digital RIT campus that students are building in the video game Minecraft.

Associate Professor Brian Tomaszewski is working to create interactive coronavirus maps that provide deeper insight into the spread of COVID-19 in the hope that the public can use these mapping tools to help fight the pandemic.

One brick at a time — that’s how members of RIT’s Electronic Gaming Society are building a digital version of the RIT campus in the video game Minecraft. As universities across the country closed their campuses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many students went to Minecraft as a way to stay connected with their schools. The game allows multiple players to collaborate on building structures and designing landscapes, including recreating physical places.

WROC-TV talks to Jonathan Weissman, senior lecturer of computing security, about phishing attempts targeting those awaiting stimulus checks.

During an internship, Tyler Hayes used computer vision and machine learning techniques to estimate the quality of images taken from airborne image sensors. It sparked her interest to learn more about machine learning, so she applied to the Imaging Science Ph.D. program at RIT.

WKBW-TV in Buffalo, N.Y., features Caleb Harris, a first-year management information systems, and his mask-making business.

Alumnus Christian Rahl ’13 (applied networking and systems administration) knows a little bit about social distancing. He’s stationed at a National Science Foundation site at the South Pole, working as a senior network engineer.

Mehdi Mirakhorli, an assistant professor of software engineering, has earned a prestigious National Science Foundation award to develop new technologies that can make software architecture design more intuitive, particularity for novice programmers and new learners.

Nick Giordano, who graduated from RIT in 2016 with a degree in management information systems, has created a website template that helps communities track and manage the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Dr. Christopher Tanski, who graduated from RIT in 2000, is overseeing every medical professional treating coronavirus patients on the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort and at the Javits Convention Center field hospital in New York City. Tanski, who started on April 9, is an attending physician and assistant professor of emergency medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University.

Six teams of deaf and hard-of-hearing students from NTID adapted to a virtual presentation format for the annual Next Big Idea business competition. Student presenters from as far away as Dubai shared their ideas for new businesses that positively impact deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.

Hannah Sarakin’s artistic flair and sunny personality is going a long way to cheer up her neighborhood in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., with sidewalk art and public service messages written in chalk.