News by Topic: Entrepreneurship

The Virginian-Pilot features Vitali Servutas '05 (electric engineering), CEO of Premium-PPE.

RIT will celebrate graduate research during the 13th annual Graduate Education Week and Showcase: A Vision into the Future. The virtual event—Nov. 16 to 20—creates a platform for sharing and exchanging ideas during the COVID-19 pandemic, with pre-recorded and live presentations, demonstrations, visual exhibitions, and an alumni panel discussion.

The move, expected to be complete in December, will allow the incubators’ client companies to work in space designed for positive member “collisions” resulting in close and fruitful collaborations. In addition, the move further advances the commitment from RIT leadership to have a presence in downtown Rochester.

Tech Crunch features Datto, founded by RIT trustee and 2009 alumnus Austin McChord.

Virtual reunions, interactive programs, talks, a 5K, e-Sports, and even Tiger Trivia are just some of the dozens of events slated for Tiger Alumni Week, beginning Monday for RIT alumni, students, families, faculty, and staff.

Toilet seats with high-tech sensors might be the non-invasive technology of the future that could help reduce hospital return rates of individuals with heart disease. A joint project by researchers at RIT and the University of Rochester Medical Center will determine if in-home monitoring can successfully record vital signs and reduce risk and costly re-hospitalization rates for people with heart failure. The five-year, $2.9 million venture is funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Spectrum News features George Zheng ’15 (mechanical engineering technology), co-founder of Leep Foods.

Two companies associated with RIT’s Venture Creations technology business incubator have advanced to the round two finals of the Grow-NY competition. Grow-NY is a food innovation and agriculture technology business challenge focused on enhancing the emerging food, beverage and agriculture innovation cluster in Central New York, the Finger Lakes, and Southern Tier regions.

RIT alumnus Susan Foley ’73 ’79 (business administration, MBA) used her decades-long experience to compile a book of blog articles, Intrapreneurs: Who, What, How and Why, that explores who intrapreneurs are and why they are often considered to be the “squeaky wheels” in organizations. 

The Rochester Beacon talks to Rich Notargiacomo, venture coach, Venture Creations, and Nabil Nasr, associate provost and founding director of the Golisano Institute for Sustainability, about new clean energy companies.

Cosimo X invests in businesses that use digital assets and blockchain protocols to advance the digital economy. According to industry experts, the investment by RIT marks the first time that any university in the United States has directly invested in a tokenized venture fund. The fund’s parent company, Cosimo Ventures, was co-founded six years ago by RIT alumnus Robert Frasca ’88 (mechanical engineering).

WHEC-TV reports on a new resource for small businesses that was created in partnership with RIT's Center for Urban Entrepreneurship.