News by Topic: Co-Op And Careers

Move over, Silicon Valley. Rochester, N.Y., can be the next great American technology hub.

After a year’s hiatus due to COVID-19, the popular Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival returns virtually on Saturday, May 1, with more than 250 exhibits of projects, research and performing arts of students, faculty, and staff at RIT.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 47: RIT’s Theme Park Enthusiasts started as a casual group of roller coaster fanatics. Today, they have won national design competitions and have found co-ops and jobs in the field of theme park entertainment. Travis Faircloth, current club leader, talks to alumnus and former member Robert Cybulski, CAE Analyst at Roush Industries, and Michael Deneau, vice president of Entertainment Engineering at Roush Industries. They share insights about the growth of the club and what it takes to succeed in a very competitive and rewarding industry.

When Teknic challenged a co-op student team from RIT to produce a configurable, automated machine that would use its newest motion and I/O controller called ClearCore, team members responded with a robotic bartender that automates the drink-making process.

RIT’s Creative Industry “Day” drew a wide range of talent seekers from companies such as Amazon, Forbes Media, and Microsoft last week, as the 16th annual event went virtual Feb. 22-26 this year due to the pandemic.

RIT and NTID have announced a partnership with Garth Fagan Dance for a “cooperative-creative-connection” to begin Aug. 1.

As a visual effects (VFX) editor, Harlan Doolittle ’14 (film production) oversees virtually every visual-effects shot in each film or episode they work on by working with editors and producers on what they need creatively to help shape each individual shot with VFX artists and vendors.

Saunders College of Business has announced an extension of its unique partnership with Jewish Senior Life. Over the next five years, the Jewish Senior Life Innovation Collaborative will support the development of research materials to explore how new technologies may impact and improve the lives of seniors.

Saunders College of Business ranked 58th in the list of business schools in the nation by Poets&Quants, a leading resource for coverage of business education. Saunders College was recognized for placing high in employment outcomes for graduates, fueled by a strong cooperative education program and employment rates.

More than a dozen RIT administrators and staff members have met regularly to discuss ways to help keep campus open as safely as possible as more is learned about COVID-19. To provide a student perspective, Griffin Warntz is serving on RIT’s Spring Planning Task Force.

Analytical thinking, complex problem solving, creativity, resiliency, and flexibility are among the top skills needed for emerging careers by 2025. Anticipating these rapid changes in the workplace—further accelerated by lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic—RIT is seizing on the opportunity to guide students to “new economy majors” that are multi­disciplinary, transformative, and future-focused.

Students on co-op are picking up more than occupational and professional skills. As the pandemic unfolded last spring and summer, they saw firsthand how companies manage even in the midst of a crisis.