Examining the benefits of scholarship and research

Donald Boyd is RIT’s vice president for research.

Pushing the boundaries of knowledge and understanding. It’s the fundamental reason why individuals engage in scholarship and research, and the benefits of their explorations can often extend far and wide.

In the university setting, research offers the opportunity to push the frontiers of knowledge—enriching the student experience, enhancing the curriculum, building faculty scholarship and providing a return to our partners in academia, industry and government.

This is why RIT adopted a scholarship policy to serve as an underlying foundation for the goals and objectives of the university’s current strategic plan. Included as one of five strategic dimensions, it states: “The foremost activity of the RIT faculty is to facilitate, enable and support student learning. Scholarship is an essential ingredient of an effective learning environment.” The strategy goes on to say, “There can be, by design, a flow of ideas, opportunities, resources, facilities, equipment and capabilities from the Ph.D. level into undergraduate activity.” In other words, there’s a role for everyone—faculty, staff and students.

RIT is making great strides in tapping its research potential, and it is important for us to celebrate the initiatives that highlight our success. With the support of the leadership at University News, members of the campus community have more opportunities to explore the breadth of these activities at RIT through a regular feature on scholarship and research in News & Events. The purpose of this feature is to help readers know, understand and appreciate the impact on students, our academic quality and RIT’s reputation.

Research leadership and reputation are key factors in the attracting and retaining the best students and faculty, which also provide the basis for further investment in our programs from various partners throughout society. Such partnerships become the fuel for growth in further research, infrastructure development and in career opportunities for graduates.

To help achieve these partnerships, RIT created the First in Class program in 1999 with a mission to be first in the class of universities that achieve real, effective and meaningful partnerships with industry and government. This means providing positive return to our partners as well as the university. Those returns are measured in technology, innovations, solutions and, most importantly, graduates ready to contribute.

RIT’s scholarship and research initiatives are diverse in nature and incorporate a wide range of expertise from across campus. Many have mainstream applications and offer great potential in improving overall quality of life. For that reason alone, I am confident that you will find the work of RIT’s students, faculty and staff researchers—featured here in the pages of News & Events—makes for worthwhile reading.

Furthermore, I hope these stories encourage other members of the RIT community to consider their scholarship and research potential. The Office of the Vice President for Research is here to support that exploration. Resources like Sponsored Research Services, Research Computing, and the Research Relations Office provide the foundation through which all great ideas can take flight.

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This column presents opinions and ideas on issues relevant to higher education. To suggest an idea for the column, e-mail newsevents@rit.edu.