Your Impact

Unique Fair-Smith saw his future on a hot sauce bottle while he was a 10th-grade student at the World of Inquiry School.
His teacher brought him and other artistically inclined students for a visit to the RIT campus and as they passed by the illustration studios, he saw a glass case displaying hot sauce bottles designed by illustration students for a project. Something about it captivated him.

“I saw that and thought that is extremely cool and I want to do that,” said Fair-Smith. “I walked away from that meeting in 10th grade knowing I wanted to go to RIT for illustration.”

He achieved that dream thanks in part to funding from the Destler/Johnson Rochester City Scholars program and by his junior year at RIT, he had his own hot sauce bottle designs featured in the same showcase.

So he set out to achieve more and after earning his illustration BFA in 2019, Fair-Smith decided to further hone his skills by pursuing his master’s degree in fine arts studio.
He became one of the first two recipients of the Mark and Maureen Davitt Graduate Education Endowed Scholarship, established with a $500,000 gift to the university by Mark and Maureen Davitt to help graduates from the Rochester City School District pursue advanced degrees.

Working under the guidance of advisors, including Professor Luvon Sheppard, Associate Professor Clifford Wun, and Professor Eileen Bushnell, Fair-Smith refined his craft in oil painting and screen printing, exploring themes of oppression and liberation, exploring systemic impacts and how they affect people. He said that after graduation he will pursue residencies, grants, and commissions to develop his body of work and hopes to improve representation in the art community.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency is funding a team of Rochester Institute of Technology imaging scientists to study the limits of spectral remote sensing imaging systems. Led by principal investigator John Kerekes, a professor in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, the team received a grant of up to $1 million to conduct fundamental research on imaging systems over the next two to five years. The researchers hope to develop a tool that can quantitatively predict how well a spectral remote system can accomplish a given task.

The team studies how a signal is collected by a sensor, how it’s analyzed, and even how it’s visualized by a human. The NGA recognized that RIT was in a distinctive position to study this very difficult and challenging problem. Researcher/Engineer Scott Brown and Assistant Professor Emmett Ientilucci are the project’s co-PIs and the funding will support a Ph.D. student as well.

RIT received a substantial grant from the National Science Foundation to continue “S-STEM: Self-Determined Critical Mass of Engineering Technology Scholars.”

The nearly $1,000,000 grant funds 36 scholarships for economically disadvantaged, academically talented students, and faculty programming to improve engineering technology education. In addition, the program creates a formal mentoring network for scholarship recipients, to encourage them to complete their STEM degrees.

Jeanne Christman, associate professor in the College of Engineering, is one of a core group of faculty-researchers with expertise in building collaborative learning environments, generally seen as an asset for engineering education. Trends in this area today involve blending theoretical engineering principles with more real-world applications, and varying the style of presenting engineering information to students to better connect theory with practice. One of the organizations leading this transformation is the Kern Foundation.

Professional conferences are often launch pads for RIT students’ careers. Industry shows and conferences offer a great chance to see an industry’s best ideas, learn more about potential future employers, and network with university alumni. These trips can open incredibly valuable doors to students’ future careers.

But the money needed to pay for students to attend isn’t always available. Event fees, transportation, and hotel costs can add thousands of dollars to a department’s budget. And there are hundreds of students across the university with hopes of attending an industry show or conference.

Fortunately for students in the School of Media Science, Henry Kuhn BS ’65 has them covered! Henry valued his RIT print education so much that he wanted to give back in an important way. With his generous gifts, the School now sends several students to the biggest graphics industry shows each year.

A decades long career doesn’t happen without many supporters. RIT alumnus and legendary design professor, Roger Remington ’64, has shepherded the School of Design through significant change, and knows the importance of donors to the design programs and students.

“Countless people have shown their faith in the School of Design’s vision by supporting our programs. They are an important part of my career and the careers of designers who have studied here.”

See more of Rodger’s vision.

Just like cooperative education positions, internships fill the need for real career experience for hundreds of RIT students every year. Internships are the norm for many humanities degree programs, and are also common for technology and business positions in non-profit organizations. For many RIT students, these positions prepare them for their career dreams.

Unlike cooperative education, internships are frequently not paid positions. And for many RIT students, the cost of living expenses for a semester or two keep them from being able to pursue internships away from home. The Ruth M. & Brackett H. Clark Internship Support Fund was established to help RIT students complete their required internships and seek the best opportunities for their future career, regardless of location.

Many students fulfill internships during their college years, but few have internships that take them to Italy to serve in a major U.S. Consulate. Thanks to the Ruth & Brackett Clark Internship Support Fund, that’s exactly where Jaleesa Panico ’18, found herself as a third year RIT undergraduate.

As a criminal justice and psychology double major, internships, not co-ops, are the norm for experiential learning. Some of the most valuable internship opportunities require students to travel and live in another city without the benefit of a salaried position. In Jaleesa’s case, her internship was a combined work abroad experience at the U.S. Consulate in Genoa, Italy, working on a number of projects related to psychology and law.

“The experience of learning about Italian law was amazing,” says Jaleesa. “It was exactly what I hoped to learn by going to a different country for my internship. And with my criminal justice studies so far, I was actually pretty good at navigating a different country's law.”

Jaleesa and other interns were assigned to act as representatives of the U.S. and the Consular Agency at multiple events. It was a privilege to be formal representatives for the United States, RIT, and the Agency – a privilege that few undergraduates experience. Jaleesa’s experience was made possible by the internship support she received.

The number of individuals entering end-stage kidney failure is increasing by five percent each year, driving high costs and higher patient challenges from the increased need for dialysis. Despite significant advances in medical technology and materials, dialysis technology and treatment has not changed much in the last two decades. New nano-membranes, just one of the initiatives in RIT’s personalized health care technology research agenda, may offer hope to these patients for improved treatment and better lives.

Tom Gaborski, RIT associate professor of biomedical engineering, is developing these flexible structures made from porous materials for more precise cell filtration and analysis to detect diseases. Gaborski’s team is taking a dual approach in that evolution, testing and improving the nanofabrication process, and at the same time, evaluating the impact of the new nano-porous membranes—more than 1000x thinner than a human hair—on applications such as hemodialysis. The new membranes could be part of a wearable system that goes anywhere the patient does and helps continuously maintain proper water balance.

Gaborski says the membranes have many potential applications in medicine. “With support from the NIH grant, RIT is researching fabrication of ultrathin nano- and micro-porous membranes that may not only solve the needs of researchers studying the basic biology of barriers, but also scientists and engineers investigating drug discovery and stem cell differentiation.”

A revolutionary technique developed by NTID astrophysicist Jason Nordhaus could allow for a better understanding of the fates of solar systems when their stars cease to shine. With the help of a three-year grant from NASA/Space Telescope Science Institute, Nordhaus has developed a system of complex 3D super-computer algorithms able to pinpoint the existence of previously undiscovered planets and celestial bodies associated with dying stars.

An NTID assistant professor of physics and a program faculty member in RIT’s astrophysical sciences and technology Ph.D. program, Nordhaus is also is a member of RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation, whose simulations of merging black hole binaries were used by the LIGO Project to confirm the breakthrough detection of gravitational waves from binary black holes in space.

This summer, Nordhaus will work with several deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing students at RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf to study four systems for which Nordhaus has comprehensive data obtained over the past two decades. They are hoping that their 3D computer simulations will help determine which planets survive the death of their parent stars and which are ultimately destroyed.

A powerful partnership was formed when Genesee Country Village & Museum in Mumford, NY, and Rochester Institute of Technology formally agreed to apply joint problem solving and applied research to the museum’s needs. Supported by donors to the partnership and supporters of student experiential learning projects, the RIT/GCV&M relationship is reimagining the visitor experience, creating data-driven marketing and business plans, and developing technology-driven solutions for collections management and preventative conservation. The results of these projects will help future-proof the museum and similar museums across the country.

RIT’s unique blend of technology, humanities, and art and design programs makes such an interdisciplinary approach possible. RIT has the ability to bring together students from the right degree programs and have them collaboratively apply their advanced skills to GCV&M’s unique environment in a way, unlike most other universities. In turn, GCV&M has become a valuable hands-on research and learning laboratory for students in museum studies, business, engineering, computing, design, and digital humanities degree programs.

With more than 135,000 alumni around the world, RIT is the proud alma mater for business leaders, scientists, designers and artists, tech innovators and community leaders alike. We celebrate their successes in their industries and their communities, but we also enjoy welcoming them back to campus.

Until fall 2018, RIT alumni had no place to call their own on the main campus – a campus that has changed dramatically since many of them were students. Helping our alumni navigate the modern campus, welcoming them when they return, and offering them the opportunity to gather as alumni groups here at their university was challenging.

Thanks to the generous gifts of many RIT alumni, the Joseph M. Lobozzo Alumni House became a home on campus for RIT alumni, and was officially dedicated in October 2018. This stunning alumni-centric facility is available for meetings, reunions, private events, and as an official welcome center for all RIT Tigers coming to visit campus for any reason.

In RIT’s biomedical engineering program, the commitment to undergraduate research is evident. As a third-year bachelor’s degree student, Melissa Mendoza ’17 was first author on a published scientific paper on kidney dialysis patients to help improve their care and prognosis. Armed with her valuable co-op experience at the Renal Research Institute, and with meaningful research experience, Mendoza is now a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering, and looking forward to developing the technologies and techniques that will dramatically improve lives for the nearly half-million people in the U.S. undergoing dialysis.

Melissa’s dreams, her education, and her invaluable research experience are all directly connected to the generous support of donors who believe RIT students can change lives.

RIT’s College of Liberal Arts and Kate Gleason College of Engineering are transforming how future engineers prepare to tackle the world’s biggest problems. The Colleges have partnered on a “Grand Challenges Scholars Program” which encourages students to think about ways their work can change society. The program asks students to pursue solutions to some of the most challenging global problems such as reducing hunger, expanding renewable energy and ensuring clean water for a growing world population.

After decades of increased demand for specialized, highly technical skillsets, employers and society have found many of today’s challenges cannot be solved by technology alone, and many professionals lack the broad skills to play a role in driving change. By integrating carefully planned and directly relevant liberal arts coursework into engineering curricula, RIT’s future engineers have the opportunity to learn more than the technical specs for solving a problem. They also learn why they are solving the problem, who is impacted, and what unintended consequences may come from their solution.

Good design is more than making pretty things; it is a merger of art and engineering, business, and psychology, with a healthy dose of entrepreneurial thinking. With donor support, RIT’s nationally ranked industrial design program began a significant renovation of their studio space to reflect design best practices and culture. In the process, the program opened opportunities to students for world-changing impact.

The first renovation step was to create an open collaboration space, allowing for physically larger projects than the studio was able to accommodate in the past, and dramatically changing the capacity for multidisciplinary collaboration. The seemingly small renovation resulted in immense benefits for an exciting multi-disciplinary student design project called “Hope for Honduras.” This impactful project focused on reducing infant mortality in Honduras. RIT Interior Design students proposed designs to build a 4,200 square-foot neonatal intensive care unit addition at Honduras’ largest public hospital. Industrial Design students designed preemie examination tables and a mobile education unit. The team has been working with an international aid organization, making it possible for their project to change infant care in developing countries.

Education changes the lives of urban youth. Holding fast to that belief, RIT has joined with the Rochester City School District to create the Destler/Johnson Rochester City Scholars Program. Honoring RIT’s past president Bill Destler, and his spouse, Dr. Rebecca Johnson, the program enables all qualified City School District graduates to study at RIT tuition-free. Drs. Destler and Johnson personally championed the program, and upon President Destler’s retirement from RIT, hundreds of well-wishers joined together to endow that scholarship fund and name it for the two university leaders.

The program reinforces the City School District’s message that college is an attainable goal for each student, regardless of economic standing. It incents students in the region’s most economically challenged neighborhoods to pursue academic success knowing that there is a reward beyond just high school graduation, helping to further develop a college-going culture among Rochester’s city population.

After winning consecutive College Hockey America championships in 2015-2016, the RIT Women’s Hockey Team celebrated a groundbreaking “win” of a different kind. Longtime RIT support Bruce Bates created the Bruce B. Bates Women’s Hockey Coach, the university’s first endowed coaching position for Tiger athletic programs. Endowed earnings from Bates’ gift supports the salary of the women’s head hockey coach and provides ongoing budget dollars to RIT’s athletics programs.
The endowed position provides financial support that is critical to building consistently competitive teams. However, it also provides an attractive component to athletic recruiting efforts in RIT’s multi-division environment, where athletic scholarships are prohibited by NCAA rules. Scott McDonald, the program’s all-time leader in coaching wins, was named the first Bruce B. Bates Women’s Hockey Coach. In his tenure, McDonald has transformed the Tigers into one of the most successful and respected teams in all of college hockey, and making RIT a lightning rod for women interested in playing college hockey.

A survey of cultural heritage institutions around the United States revealed significant concern about how to care for the growing number of digitally-printed materials in their collections, many of which have experienced some degree of objectionable deterioration, including fading, yellowing and water damage. RIT’s Image Permanence Institute (IPI), a world leader in sustainable practices for the preservation of cultural heritage collections, has created workshops on identifying and caring for digitally printed materials in libraries, archives and museums throughout the United States. Digital Print Preservation: Education and Training for Cultural Heritage Professionals, leverages more than a decade of research and education initiatives at IPI, and was created and executed through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.