News by Topic: Technology, The Arts, And Design

Nearly 70 different RIT student teams and clubs are poised to move into the Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED) this summer in preparation for the building’s official opening in the fall semester.

An imaginary close-up of the inside of a computer, mixed with neon lights, microphones, an artist’s palette, molecules, and computer code, has been selected as this year’s Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival poster. The winning poster was created by Annelise Wall, a second-year new media design major.

RIT students will have more opportunities to flex their creative muscles outside of the classroom through a new program called ArtEx, housed within RIT’s College of Art and Design. The new program creates opportunities for students outside of the college to engage with the resources and expertise available within the School for American Crafts and School of Art.

The crown jewel of RIT’s Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction & Creativity, MAGIC Spell Studios brings together the university’s academic strengths in game design and development, film and animation, and digital media, with a commercialization focus that provides Hollywood-scale virtual production experiences for students and clients.

A 750-seat music performance theater will be constructed on the RIT campus to offer a venue for musical theater productions. The new building will be the first of two theaters in a performing arts center. The first phase will be an iconic building with more than 40,000 square feet of space, with anticipated completion in 2025.

As students head to class each day, a new showpiece is rising at the center of RIT’s campus. The Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED)—which was first announced in 2017 and funded in part by a $50 million gift from alumnus Austin McChord ’09—is a multi-use complex that will showcase RIT’s technology, the arts, and design. The SHED is on track to open this fall.

The Vignelli Center for Design Studies has appointed RZLBD (Reza Aliabadi) as the inaugural Vignelli Center Designer in Residence. This position was created to assist with an upcoming campus project to design and build a series of outdoor interactive exhibits tentatively titled the RIT Museumscape.

WUSA-TV features Amanda Preske ’09 (chemistry), founder of Circuit Breaker Labs and Because Science.

RIT is offering a new master’s degree in artificial intelligence (AI). The program begins in fall 2023 and enrollment is now open. The Master of Science degree aims to prepare students from diverse educational backgrounds to become well-rounded AI professionals.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy features Austin McChord ’09 (bioinformatics), member of RIT's Board of Trustees.

The Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED) and the renovated Wallace Library will reopen in less than a year. Work has begun to schedule the fall semester classes that will be held for the first time in the SHED complex, and Joe Loffredo, RIT associate vice president for Academic Affairs and registrar, is leading the effort to assign the classrooms in Wallace Library.

Developed and taught by Assistant Professor Peter Pincus, the course Josiah Wedgewood’s Legacy is a unique meld of art history, philosophy, and ceramics education and encourages students of all majors to explore and learn freely through experimentation and trial and error.