Campus Spotlight

September

9/30/2013

RIT students participate in Mud Tug 2013, the annual all out tug-of-war tournament held behind Grace Watson Hall on Sept. 28. All proceeds from the event, hosted by Phi Kappa Psi and Zeta Tau Alpha, are donated to Hillside Family of Agencies.

9/29/2013

Everybody Dancing: The Interactivity of Creativity and Innovation was an audience-participatory performance directed by Thomas Warfield, RIT assistant professor in NTID’s Cultural and Creative Studies Department, at The Little Theatre during the second annual Fringe Festival on Sept. 28.

9/29/2013

Eight Beat Measure, an RIT a cappella group, performed at the Little Cafe during the second annual Fringe Festival on Sept. 28.

9/28/2013

One of RIT’s musical groups, the Ukulele Club, performed at the Little Cafe during the second annual Fringe Festival on Sept. 28.

9/27/2013

Barbara Cowles, center, manager of the original and iconic Shop One (1953-1977), visited Shop One² in Global Village on Sept. 27. She shared stories with artist Laura Wilder, left, and Wendy Marks, Shop One² manager, about her husband, Hobart Cowles, professor of ceramics at the School for American Craftsmen (now the School for American Crafts) from 1951 to 1980.

9/27/2013

Brian Landi ’02, ’06, right, leads research in the Nanopower Research Labs in addition to teaching in the chemical engineering program. He mentored Reginald Rogers, left, who was a post-doctoral researcher in the lab, and recent chemical engineering graduate Garry Clarke. Rogers became a full-time, tenure-track faculty member in 2012 and Clarke began work in Philadelphia in June as a process engineer.

9/26/2013

Today is ROAR Day, the official launch of the 2013-2014 Fund for RIT annual giving campaign. Stations will be set up across campus to encourage annual gifts to RIT, or gifts can be made online. Donors can designate where their dollars go, and undesignated gifts will go to RIT’s General Scholarship Fund. For more information, go to www.rit.edu/development/giving/ROAR.

9/25/2013

250 companies registered for the annual Fall Career Fair in the Gordon Field House on Sept. 25. Over 3,400 students and around 200 alumni attended the fair.

9/24/2013

One of RIT’s a cappella groups, Proof of Purchase, performed at the Little Cafe during the second annual Fringe Festival on Sept. 22. The festival continues through Saturday. To see a schedule of RIT-related performances, go to www.rit.edu/gcr/fringefest.

9/23/2013

RIT joins artistic forces with local businesses and cultural organizations in downtown Rochester’s East End for the second annual First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival. On tap are more than 20 performances showcasing an eclectic mix of poetry readings, dance, film, theater, music and visual arts. Here, Alexis Harris, one of the RIT Poetry Slam Team, performed on Sept. 23. For a schedule of RIT-related events, go to www.rit.edu/gcr/fringefest/.

9/22/2013

RIT joins artistic forces with local businesses and cultural organizations in downtown Rochester’s East End for the second annual Fringe Festival. On tap are more than 20 performances showcasing an eclectic mix of poetry readings, dance, film, theater, music and visual arts. Go to www.rit.edu/gcr/fringefest to see a list of RIT-related performances. Here, Wild Nights-Play That Funky Music performed on Sept. 21 in the Little Cafe.

9/20/2013

Bruce Barnes, the Ron and Donna Fielding Director of George Eastman House, discussed the future of the Rochester landmark in the first installment of the 2013-2014 William A. Kern Lecture Series at RIT on Sept. 19. The Kern lecture series, sponsored by an endowment from RIT’s William A. Kern Professorship in Communications in the College of Liberal Arts, provides an opportunity for scholarly discussion surrounding contemporary communication issues.

9/19/2013

Gallery r’s newest exhibition, A Season of Festivals, features a series of panoramic photographs of Rochester’s 2012 festivals by Frank Cost, professor and program chair in RIT’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences.The gallery, located at 100 College Ave., will host a meet and greet with the artist from 4 to 6 p.m. on Sept. 21, during the 2013 First Niagara Rochester Fringe Festival.

9/19/2013

Kindergartners from Margaret’s House, RIT’s on-campus child care center, sold handmade cards Sept. 19 to benefit victims of recent flooding in Colorado. Inspired by the book The Can Do Duck: A Story about Believing in Yourself, some of the youngest students on campus donned their duck hats with cards in hand to show that anyone can make a difference. Proceeds from the sale will go to the Red Cross.

9/18/2013

Casey Kelly ’13 looks at corporate identity manuals in the Graphic Design Archive. The Graphic Design Archive now includes the work of 40 designers and continues to grow.

9/15/2013

Frank Argento ’64, ’70 (art and design, MFA) began working at RIT in 1965 in the Instructional Resources Center. He moved to NTID in 1973 after getting his MFA with a focus on visual communications and filmmaking. By 1980, he was teaching classes in film and television and helped students produce their own news shows for the Student Television Network. Today, he continues to teach a full load of art and design classes at NTID and he pursues his own art on the side.

9/13/2013

RIT Press author Jack Garner signs copies of his just-released book, From My Seat on the Aisle: Movies and Memories. The book launch was hosted by the George Eastman House and was preceded by Garner’s reading of selections from his book to a packed audience in the Dryden Theater on Sept. 12.

9/12/2013

Matt Hoffman, assistant professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences, leads a class in matrices and boundary value problems.

9/11/2013

RIT President Bill Destler, center, and Managing Director of Uncommon Rochester Josh Phillips listen while RIT Trustee Ronald L. Zarrella shares his vision for the charter high school that RIT and Uncommon Schools are partnering to develop. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=50235.

9/10/2013

Rick Tolleson, lab manager for computer engineering, plants a flag in the quad near the Sentinel for Patriot Day. Members of the Air Force ROTC sold flags for a $1 donation Sept. 9 and 10, with proceeds to benefit the FealGood Foundation, an organization that supports first responders injured following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The Air Force ROTC also held a vigil Wednesday morning, playing “Taps” and saluting the flags at 8:46 a.m., 9:03 a.m., 9:37 a.m. and 10:03 a.m.

9/9/2013

Hundreds of students from RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf spent Friday afternoon dancing, making new friends and learning about the variety of clubs, services and activities available for RIT students at the annual Apple Festival, put on by NTID’s Student Life Team.

9/9/2013

Tony Harkin, associate professor in the School of Mathematical Sciences, balances a tensegrity structure on his hand. Structures with “tensional integrity” appear in architecture, engineering and biology.

9/5/2013

In addition to a successful career as senior partner in the Marbury Law Group in Virginia, Jon Roberts, a 1970 graduate of RIT’s imaging science program, has maintained a steadfast passion for the arts and music singing with the National Symphony Orchestra and acting in theater productions. He serves on the President’s Roundtable and has established a scholarship with his wife, Jessie, in support of science students who participate in the performing arts.

9/4/2013

The Gene Polisseni Center is starting to take shape. The arena will be the home of the men’s and women’s hockey teams and is expected to be open for play in fall 2014.

9/3/2013

R. Roger Remington, RIT’s longest-serving faculty member, will be honored this fall for his lifework in graphic design. Remington, the Lella and Massimo Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design, will also celebrate 50 years of teaching.

August

8/30/2013

Preethi Gopalan, second from right, a microsystems doctoral student, explains the inner workings of a large-scale fuel cell to lab co-workers, from left, Valentina Mejia, Camila Gomez and Carmen Azzaretti. The four worked closely together this summer on several projects led by mechanical engineering professor Satish Kandlikar. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=50199.

8/29/2013

Installation of a time capsule marking the conversion from the quarter system to semesters took place on Aug. 29. The capsule contains a video of interviews with students, faculty, staff and alumni on what this milestone means for the university, plus a proclamation from the board of trustees and other memorabilia.

8/28/2013

Wade Kellard, an RIT/NTID mechanical engineering technology major, demonstrates technology that converts hand shapes to text. He’s a member of MotionSavvy, a team of students who participated in the Saunders Summer Start-up Program, which provides mentoring for newly-formed businesses. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=50200.

8/27/2013

Cori Kolb’s ongoing medical  challenges haven’t stopped her from  earning RIT’s Outstanding Undergraduate Scholarship Award  and an accounting degree from Saunders College of Business last May, or her gig as a soprano singer and  business director of Encore, RIT’s  all-female a cappella vocal ensemble. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=50197.

8/26/2013

J. Fernando Naveda, calendar conversion director, has led RIT through the transition to a semester system. A campus-wide celebration marking the milestone academic calendar change will be at 3 p.m. today in Ingle Auditorium. The celebration also will be live streamed with real-time captioning at www.rit.edu.

8/26/2013

Red Wings General Manager Dan Mason introduced RIT’s hockey teams at the first-ever RIT Day with the Rochester Red Wings on Aug. 24. The 2013 RIT men’s lacrosse team was honored at home plate and members of the men’s and women’s hockey teams signed autographs during the game.

8/25/2013

RIT held its eighth annual Lighting the Way ceremony on Aug. 23 to welcome new female students to campus.

8/24/2013

Renovations to Barnes and Noble @ RIT are complete. Murals featuring campus scenes were hung on the walls and the children’s book department has a new look, featuring a stage and sitting area. To read more about this and other construction projects, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=50202.

8/23/2013

RIT President Bill Destler welcomed the university community back to the 2013-2014 academic year on Aug. 23. He believes the coming year “will be one of the most important in the history of RIT.”

8/21/2013

Student Convocation welcomed new students and their families on Aug. 21. The program included remarks from President Bill Destler; Jeremy Haefner, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs; and Heath Boice-Pardee, interim senior vice president for student affairs. Todd Pagano, associate professor and director of Laboratory Science Technology at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, served as keynote speaker.

8/21/2013

RIT community members cheer on incoming freshman students Aug. 21 as they take the Tiger Walk to the Gordon Field House for Convocation for New Students and Families. Todd Pagano, associate professor and director of Laboratory Science Technology in the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and the 2012 U.S. Professor of the Year, delivered the keynote address. Student Government President Paul Darragh, a third-year software engineering major, also spoke.

8/21/2013

Steve Ierardi, from Southern California, sported an orange mustache to get into the RIT spirit during Orientation on Aug. 20. His son, Weston, is a first-year student in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences.

8/20/2013

Incoming students were immersed in the Orange and Brown Experience, one of RIT’s DiscoveRIT Pre-Orientation Programs. The collaborative program ran Aug. 16-19 and taught students about RIT’s history, how to navigate campus as well as an introduction to the American Sign Language alphabet and common signs. Here, from left, Claire Fleming, Andrea Shaver and Andrew Greene practice some signs.

8/20/2013

New freshmen arrived at RIT during Move-In Day Aug. 20. RIT President Bill Destler stopped by to lend a hand as new students carried in their belongings for the coming school year.

8/19/2013

RIT’s newest group of honors students arrived on campus Aug. 17 for a week of orientation activities including meeting college advocates, enjoying a daylong retreat at YMCA Camp Arrowhead and participating in a campus-wide scavenger hunt. Here, a group located the Schmitt Interfaith Center, a spot on the scavenger hunt list.

8/19/2013

Nearly 265 deaf and hard-of-hearing students arrived on campus on Aug. 16 to attend the Summer Vestibule Program, an orientation program for RIT/NTID students.

8/14/2013

Thomas A. Nantka and Wilma A. (Tessmann) Nantka met as students at RIT, married in May of 1953, and celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this year.

8/9/2013

Construction continues on the Gene Polisseni Center. The arena will be the home of the men’s and women’s hockey teams and is expected to be open for play in Fall 2014.

8/7/2013

Fourth-year hospitality major Elizabeth Prater was among the hundreds of employees and volunteers at this year’s PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y. Serving as a host in the Wannemaker VIP Tent on the grounds of the country club, she had a chance to meet-and-greet some of the 18,000-plus guests attending the final practice day of the tournament on Aug. 7. Prater, a Fairport resident, and several other students in RIT’s School of International Hospitality and Service Innovation worked at the event as interns or co-ops with the PGA, Oak Hill or Levy’s Restaurants, learning firsthand the coordination and details required to successfully manage a major professional golf tournament. The hospitality students were among several groups from RIT, including alumni, students from ITS and others, helping out with the event.

8/6/2013

Shivan Shah, standing at center, read online about the weeklong camp, “From Finches to Fish: The Making of the Fittest,” at RIT and wanted to enroll. The 10th-grader at Clarence High School—and her mom—drove to RIT from Buffalo in time for the 9 a.m. class, offered by the Center for Bioscience Education and Technology Aug. 5-9. Here, instructor Gary Buckert, a science teacher at Pittsford-Sutherland High School, shows Shivan and Angela Rubin, left, a 10th-grader from Rush-Henrietta Senior High School, and Myah Sims, a ninth-grader from Ninth Grade Academy, how to separate and analyze proteins from the muscle tissue of different fish and a chicken. The Center for Bioscience Education and Technology is part of the Institute of Health Sciences and Technology.

8/5/2013

At RIT/NTID’s TechGirlz summer camp, deaf and hard-of-hearing middle school girls from all over the country enjoyed the opportunity to build their own computers and more. The camp took place July 28-August 2.

8/2/2013

RIT/NTID’s Steps to Success summer camp gave deaf and hard-of-hearing middle school students a chance to explore careers, including laboratory science. The camp was held July 26-28.

July

7/27/2013

Massimo Vignelli led a design workshop with RIT professors R. Roger Remington and Bruce Ian Meader the week of July 22. The 20 participants focused on a design and typographic identity for a jazz festival. A highlight of the week was a conversation, moderated by Remington, with Vignelli on July 25. Vignelli is president of Vignelli Associates in New York City. He and his wife, Lella, donated their archive to the Vignelli Center for Design Studies at RIT.

7/23/2013

The 5th annual Graduate Research and Creativity Symposium offered a showcase for graduate work featuring more than 50 presentations on a variety of topics including binary black holes, how the Federal Reserve controls the stock market and an analysis of Rochester pawn shops. Here, Valerie Rapson explains a young binary star system. The daylong symposium was sponsored by RIT’s Office of the Dean of Graduate Studies on July 23.

7/22/2013

RoboCamp @ RIT is a weeklong day camp that lets students design, build and program robots. This camp is enriched with mini-projects and goals that promote teamwork and creativity. Along with the mini-projects, instructors teach the students some of the fundamental aspects of robotics and programming. Sessions are held through August.

7/17/2013

Nearly 200 deaf or hard-of-hearing high school students from across the country attended RIT/NTID’s Explore Your Future Program to sample careers, experience life on a college campus, make new friends and have fun.

7/13/2013

Community volunteers assisted 40 bikers during I Can Bike, held at the Gordon Field House and Activities Center July 8-12. The camp helps kids with autism learn how to ride a bike without training wheels, which organizers say builds self-confidence and provides inclusion with peers. Above, 7-year-old Mark Bress gets encouragement from Alison Durocher, a volunteer from Rochester. AutismUp, an organization that supports individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families, hosted the event with help from many sponsors and volunteers.

7/11/2013

Everyday Engineering, a summer camp for girls entering grades 5-9, is a weeklong day program sponsored by the Women in Engineering program, part of the Kate Gleason College of Engineering. This year’s theme was “Energy and Environment” and the 40 campers designed, built, decorated and displayed their energy-efficient dog houses, one of the many hands-on activities during the camp designed to spark interest in engineering and technology fields.

7/11/2013

From left to right, Casey Jordan, with Venture Creations Director Bill Jones and Jordan’s business partner, Patrick Borsek, celebrate the graduation of Jordan and Borsek’s company, Jorsek, from the RIT business incubator on July 10. Jorsek provides software to aid technical communications. Venture Creations helps young high-tech businesses grow through mentoring and support.

7/5/2013

Garry Clarke holds the distinction as the first “unofficial” student enrolled in the new chemical engineering program. The New York City native graduated in May.

7/2/2013

RIT Press won two awards at the recent Book, Jacket, and Journal Show of the Association of American University Presses Conference held in Boston on June 22. Four jurors reviewed hundreds of entries and selected The Scythe and the Rabbit: Simon de Colines and the Culture of the Book in Renaissance Paris by Kay Amert and edited by Robert Bringhurst in the Scholarly Typographic category and Vignelli Transit Maps by Peter B. Lloyd with Mark Ovenden and designed by Bruce Ian Meader (CIAS) in the Trade Illustrated category.

June

6/27/2013

Jon Brennan, a fourth-year New Media Design & Imaging student from Downingtown, Penn., landed a designing job in New York City early this year. Brennan began at production agency B-Reel shortly after graduating in May.

6/24/2013

Dorrene Brown ’13 (software engineering) will make the move to Seattle in August to start with Microsoft as a program manager working on apps for Office. She worked on a co-op with the company last summer and was offered the full-time position in September. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=50046.

6/19/2013

Microelectronic engineering faculty presented a weeklong, intensive training course on Integrated Circuit Fabrication, June 17-21. The course is a regional workforce development initiative, specifically for the Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster. RIT is part of a larger, collaborative team with the University of Rochester, High Tech Rochester and the New York State Department of Economic Development providing workforce training, and retraining, of workers in optics, imaging and photonics. At RIT, faculty from microelectronic engineering, the College of Applied Science and Technology and the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science provided the training in support of New York state and the Finger lakes Economic Development initiatives.

6/18/2013

Siddharth Khullar, originally from New Delhi, India, received his Ph.D. in May from the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science. In January, Microsoft Research hired him as a post-doctoral research fellow. Khullar was the graduate speaker at the RIT academic convocation and the College of Science graduate delegate.

6/17/2013

Employees of Darkwind Media spend their days enabling video games to be played on new platforms, testing and debugging games and creating new games. In its sixth year, revenue has doubled each year for the business, which is based in RIT’s Venture Creations. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=50040

6/13/2013

Students in the kindergarten class at Margaret’s House Child Care Center at RIT use iPads and Mac computers as tools to learn about everything from foreign languages to astronomy. The educational technology was purchased with a $5,000 grant from the William G. McGowan Charitable Fund. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=50104.

6/13/2013

Two RIT hall of famers were honored at the 15th annual RITirees Picnic held in the Gordon Field House on June 12. Robert Frisina, shown here, joined RIT in 1967 as the first director of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. He is a member of the RIT Innovation Hall of Fame. J. Roger Dykes joined the RIT staff in 1972 as sports information director, where he served for 25 years. Dykes is a member of the RIT Athletics Hall of Fame.

6/13/2013

Two RIT hall of famers were honored at the 15th annual RITirees Picnic held in the Gordon Field House on June 12. J. Roger Dykes, shown here, joined the RIT staff in 1972 as sports information director, where he served for 25 years. Dykes is a member of the RIT Athletics Hall of Fame. Robert Frisina joined RIT in 1967 as the first director of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. He is a member of the RIT Innovation Hall of Fame.

6/11/2013

Evan Coyne combined a rich mix of hospitality and tourism courses with work and study abroad experiences to land a position with the Ritz-Carlton resort on Amelia Island, Florida. While an undergraduate in RIT’s School of International Hospitality and Service Innovation, she was the recipient of the prestigious Statler Scholarship, led the department’s Hospitality Student Association and helped to coordinate the school’s annual Puttin’ on the RITz Black Tie Dinner and Fundraiser—only a few of the many experiences she will be able to use in her new career.

6/10/2013

RIT hosted the 2013 SAE Baja Rochester World Challenge, a major international collegiate design challenge and race, this past weekend. This was the fifth time RIT hosted the event, and 90 collegiate racing teams participated in the three-days of off-road racing held at RIT on June 7, and at Hogback Hill in Palmyra, N.Y., on June 8 and 9. Colleges from seven countries were represented—the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, India and the United Arab Emirates—and more than 790 engineering and engineering technology students participated. In individual events, RIT Racing placed second in acceleration and maneuverability and in the top 10 of the four-hour endurance race. Those placements were enough to put the team in third place overall in performance at the competition. The team was also awarded the Toyota Teamwork Award, given to the group that goes above and beyond helping other teams throughout the competition.

6/6/2013

Sean Sercu, from Rochester, N.Y., graduated this year with a degree in criminal justice and feels fortunate to have already secured full-time employment as a youth care professional with Hillside Children’s Center.

6/5/2013

Dalton Allen graduated from NTID and has a job lined up as a CNC operator with Tiffany & Co. jewelers in Rhode Island.

6/4/2013

John Schott won RIT’s first major research grant from NASA in 1981 to calibrate the thermal band of Landsat 4, the Earth-observing satellite. His research laid the cornerstone for the university’s imaging science program and first doctoral program. The Frederick and Anna B. Wiedman Professor in RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science will retire from teaching this year.

May

5/31/2013

Jamie Post and Ryan Harriman are students from the first graduating class of RIT’s University Studies Program. They graduated on time with respective degrees in business and bio-medical communications. To read more about the University Studies program, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=50041.

5/30/2013

Genesee Valley Quilt Club presents more than 600 quilts on display, as well as lectures, demos and exhibits at its biennial show May 31 through June 2 at RIT’s Gordon Field House. To learn more, go to www.geneseequiltfest.com.

5/22/2013

The men’s lacrosse team heads to Philadelphia for the NCAA Division III National Championship at 4 p.m. Sunday. The Tigers face Stevenson University in the finals after a thrilling 10-9 overtime win over top-seeded and previously undefeated SUNY Cortland in the semifinals on May 19. This is the first time in the 46-year history of RIT men’s lacrosse that the Tigers will play for a national title.

5/22/2013

RIT Staff Council hosted the Bob Howie Memorial Classic Car Display on May 22, in conjunction with RIT’s 17th annual Staff Appreciation Day & Community Picnic. The show is named for Bob Howie, who first organized the classic car display as an RIT retiree of Campus Connections bookstore. Howie died in 2008.

5/20/2013

RIT celebrated its new crop of graduates with the university’s 128th commencement. The two-day observance kicked off during Academic Convocation on May 17 in Gordon Field House and Activities Center. Here, dt ogilvie, dean of Saunders College of Business, congratulates Nikesh Hajari, the Saunders College delegate, at convocation. To read more about commencement activities, including a copy of keynote speaker Alex Kipman’s speech, go to www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=50059.

5/17/2013

Alex Kipman ’01, now a Microsoft executive credited with inventing the Kinect system for Xbox 360 video game and Windows PCs, delivered the keynote address at convocation May 17.

5/16/2013

“Lines” is a film about an experimental work of art created by almost 3,000 people. Ryan Meadows, who just completed his second year as a film production major at RIT, traveled to various locations around Rochester and Syracuse, N.Y. to collect lines on canvases. Each line was painted by a different person, and Meadows says that the project connects everyone involved. The film was screened at the RIT School of Film and Animation’s end-of-quarter screenings and Meadows plans to enter it into several film festivals.

5/16/2013

Byron Conn, a fourth-year furniture design student in the School for American Crafts, enjoys some downtime on one of his creations inside the woodworking shop. To read more about Conn, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=50029.

5/15/2013

Tae (Tom) Oh, an associate professor of information sciences and technologies, is creating a “Smart Cane” that uses directional force vibrations to allow deaf-blind persons to easily guide themselves through their environment.

5/14/2013

Siddharth Khullar will be the graduate speaker at the RIT academic convocation and the College of Science graduate delegate. Stefi Baum, director of the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, has been a mentor through Khullar’s doctoral studies in imaging science.

5/13/2013

Students in the School for American Crafts showcased their projects during the annual “Walkthrough” on May 13. “Walkthrough” is a SAC tradition that began more than 25 years ago based on touring the school’s ceramics, glass, furniture design, metals and jewelry design studios to view work created by RIT students. Faculty, students and friends can experience the entirety of the school in a way not possible during the normal day-to-day activities.

5/13/2013

Linda Gottermeier, an associate professor/rehabilitative audiologist in NTID’s Communications Studies & Services Department, is a 2013 recipient of the Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching.

5/12/2013

Christina Goudreau caught the teaching bug as an undergraduate and never waivered from her chosen career path. “I’ve never had a job in the real world,” says the associate professor of chemistry in the College of Science and a winner of a 2013 Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching. “I went to college and then I went to graduate school and then I came here. I never left academia. I always say maybe I’ll get a real job when I retire.”

5/9/2013

Ivona Bezáková enjoys looking at math as a problem-solving tool for programing and algorithmic thinking. The associate professor of computer science in RIT’s B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences and winner of a 2013 Eisenhart Award for Outstanding Teaching believes that anyone can understand the mathematical foundations of computer science. “Many people will tell you that they were bad at math in high school and will never be any good at it,” she says. “I have never been willing to accept that, because often times you just need to look at it from another viewpoint.”

5/9/2013

Gary Behm, now director of the Center on Access Technology’s Innovation Lab at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, is testing materials to create a see-through facemask that can be used in clean rooms and hospitals.

5/8/2013

Bill McDermott, Co-CEO of SAP, renews his former Xerox-Rochester ties as keynote speaker for the Executive Leaders Network Luncheon on May 8, hosted by RIT’s Saunders College and sponsored by Toshiba Business Solutions.

5/8/2013

Bill McDermott, center, Co-CEO of SAP, renews his former Xerox-Rochester ties as keynote speaker for the Executive Leaders Network Luncheon on May 8, hosted by RIT’s Saunders College and sponsored by Toshiba Business Solutions.

5/8/2013

Kelly Martin, assistant professor of communication in RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, is the 2013 recipient of the Richard and Virginia Eisenhart Provost’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award is given to faculty who have taught three years or less and who foster excellence in teaching and leadership in the campus community. Martin, who came to RIT in 2011, says, “I always encourage my students to take advantage of every opportunity and build experiences.”

5/7/2013

Professor Carl Salvaggio and his son, Phil, a doctoral student in imaging science, built a digital music player for their car because they could. They programmed a Raspberry Pi electronic interface—a $35 general-purpose computer the size of a deck of cards—to play a random selection of their favorite music from a thumb drive.

5/6/2013

Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival drew a large and inquisitive crowd on May 4. More than 30,000 visitors explored the RIT campus during the festival. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=50004.

5/4/2013

The E-Durance Challenge kicked off the Imagine RIT Innovation and Creativity Festival on May 4.

5/4/2013

President Destler’s E-Durance Challenge kicked off the Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival on May 4. To read more about the race and other exhibits, go to www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=50004.

5/3/2013

The School for American Crafts BFA Exhibition will be showcased at Gallery r, 100 College Ave., from May 2 to 11. An opening reception will be held from 6 to 9:30 p.m. May 3, during First Friday—Rochester’s monthly citywide gallery night that encourages collaboration between nonprofit, university and commercial art venues.

5/2/2013

Rob Aldi showcased his composite material products, including turbine blades used to generate wind power, at last year’s Imagine RIT festival.

5/1/2013

The 3-foot-tall technology wonder walking the halls of the Kate Gleason College of Engineering is TigerBot III, RIT’s humanoid, autonomous robot. TigerBot III was developed by the engineering senior design project team of Chris Atwood, Graeme Buckley, Rachel Lucas, Nick Towle and Sasha Yevsitifeev, with mentoring by faculty advisers Ferat Sahin and George Slack. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=49918.

April

4/30/2013

Whether they are mentoring their peers, flipping tables to de-stress during exam week or building projects, the Society of Software Engineers offers activities for everyone. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=49931. The group’s next table-flipping event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 9 by the Tiger Statue.

4/29/2013

The RIT College Activities Board hosted SpringFest April 25-28. The sold-out Macklemore and Ryan Lewis concert at the Gordon Field House and Activities Center was the closing event.

4/25/2013

Join the RIT/NTID Performing Arts players for their production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, directed by Jim Orr. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. April 25, 26 and 27 and May 3 and 4, with a matinee at 2 p.m. April 28. For more information, go to www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=49912.

4/24/2013

Kenneth Williams, left, presented his Persian Lime Chicken Burgers to Elizabeth Olsson ’95 during his product development class. Students are using olive oils and vinegars provided by Flower City Olive Oil, a company co-owned by Olsson. The students will provide Olsson with recipes that the company will post on their website.

4/23/2013

Rochester Mayor and RIT trustee Tom Richards spoke with RIT students April 23 in an informal setting to discuss concerns and ideas about major city community-development projects. Information from the meeting, arranged as part of former Rochester Mayor Bill Johnson’s community economic development course, will be used in project reports the class is preparing on University of Rochester’s College Town and Brooks Landing, High Falls, the Midtown area of downtown and the JOSANA neighborhood in northwest Rochester.

4/23/2013

Richard Doolittle, vice dean of the College of Health Sciences and Technology, has a plan to help the college define itself and move its programs forward.

4/22/2013

Heel Violence, a one-mile walk on the RIT campus on April 21, was held to support victims and survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. Proceeds from the event went to Advocacy Services for Abused Deaf Victims.

4/21/2013

Christar Wan, a fourth-year film student in the School of Film and Animation, won the audience choice for the best short film at the High Falls Film Festival April 20. Her film, Seek, about a man’s return home after 10 years in prison, was one of 11 short films shown by RIT students at the festival. During the four-day festival, 27 short films and 22 feature films were viewed.

4/21/2013

The College of Liberal Arts honored its students April 19 with the presentation of the 2013 Henry and Mary Kearse Student Honors Awards for excellence in writing in liberal arts coursework. Faculty members recommended students based on writing assignments done in individual classes. The awards were created in 1980 thanks to a donation from Henry J. Kearse and his wife, Mary, a longtime member of RIT’s Nathaniel Rochester Society. Pictured are (front row, from left) Douglas Strouth, Daniel Corrigan (Akyuz-Ozmen Award for Women’s and Gender Studies), Audrey DiPaola, Breanne Kisselstein (McKenzie Endowed Writing Prize), Mikaela Cornacchio Cochran. In the back row, from left, are Margaret Stockman, College of Liberal Arts Dean James Winebrake, Hanna Stoehr, Ryleigh Bullock, Stephanie Whittemore and William Hamre. Missing from the photo are John Bowers, Kate Macken, Nikolas Cairns, Eric Kasperek and Kristen Cummings.

4/19/2013

RIT students organized a SlutWalk on April 19 to take a stand against sexual violence and a culture that sometimes blames victims instead of rapists.

4/19/2013

The newly renovated College of Liberal Arts lounge officially opened April 18 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and presentations by RIT President Bill Destler, second-year College of Liberal Arts student Alex Van Hook and Dean James Winebrake. The College of Liberal Arts’ Student Advisory Board was instrumental in coordinating the new space, which is located on the first floor of Eastman Hall, near the Registrar’s office.

4/18/2013

The newly renovated College of Liberal Arts lounge officially opened April 18 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and presentations by RIT President Bill Destler and Dean James Winebrake. The College of Liberal Arts’ Student Advisory Board was instrumental in coordinating the new space, which is located on the first floor of Eastman Hall, near the Registrar’s office.

4/18/2013

Bertin Mboko, an international studies student, has been selected as this year’s student delegate for the College of Liberal Arts.

4/16/2013

“Nothing is impossible,” said Robert Morgan, CEO and founder of Morgan Management LLC, who was honored with the 2013 Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award during a luncheon hosted by RIT’s E. Philip Saunders College of Business on April 16 at Genesee Valley Club. Morgan became paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot during a robbery at his parents' seafood business in 1991. He subsequently followed his passion for real estate and “making deals.” Morgan’s company now employs 950 people and is a driving force in the development of multimillion-dollar projects—including recent collaborations to revitalize the Strathallan Hotel and the Tower at Midtown.

4/16/2013

Dane Gordon, professor emeritus of philosophy in the College of Liberal Arts, helped celebrate Poetry Month at RIT by reading selections at Shop One² in Global Village on April 11. Another poetry reading is scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday, April 18, at Shop One² and features John Roche, RIT associate professor of English, and Albuquerque poet Jules Nyquist.

4/15/2013

Brooke Piraino, a third-year nutrition student, makes a cake during her product development class. The students are using olive oils and vinegars provided by Flower City Olive Oil, a company co-owned by Elizabeth Olsson ’95 (nutrition management). The students will provide Olsson with recipes that the company can then give to customers. Piraino used mandarin orange balsamic vinegar in her dessert.

4/12/2013

About 300 people filled Sustainability Institute Hall April 12 to mark the dedication of the innovative “green” home of the Golisano Institute for Sustainability. In addition to remarks from federal and state government officials and industry executives, the event featured tours of the “living laboratory.”

4/11/2013

Nabil Nasr’s dream was to open RIT’s first living lab, a building filled with cutting-edge technology that serves as a classroom and inspires students. Nasr, assistant provost and director of Golisano Institute for Sustainability, other RIT officials and special guests dedicated the building Friday. Cutting-edge “green” technology has been incorporated into every inch of the 84,000-square-foot building, from the solar panels on the soaring canopy to the 38-foot-tall green wall near the building’s entrance.

4/10/2013

More than 80 middle school students from 13 states and Canada participated in RIT’s seventh annual Math Competition for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, competing in tasks that tested their speed and accuracy, teamwork and math skills. The competition took place April 5-7.

4/10/2013

Chelsea Bailey, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in sustainability, is researching greener ways to recycle lithium-ion batteries discarded after use in electric vehicles and consumer electronics.

4/9/2013

Stephanie Rankin ’08 (marketing), right, and Danielle Raymo, an alumna of SUNY Brockport, founded Rochester Brainery as a place to make learning fun, affordable and accessible. Situated in a 1,600 square foot location in Rochester’s Village Gate complex, Rochester Brainery has two classrooms, which are available for classes as well as meetings, parties and other gatherings. Classes typically range from $15-$30 and cover a vast array of topics, from how to brew kombucha tea, to diet tips, to web design.

4/8/2013

Michael Ruhling, professor of performing arts/music in the College of Liberal Arts, conducts at a rehearsal.

4/6/2013

More than 60 people signed up to have their heads shaved on April 4 to benefit St. Baldrick’s Foundation, which raises funds and awareness for childhood cancer. Here, RIT students Ashley Gast and Ethan Young participated.

4/5/2013

Lynn Fuller, left, professor in microelectronic engineering, greets visitors to the clean room April 5. Stephanie Bolster, ’00, at right, an adjunct professor in microelectronics, introduced her three children to the Semiconductor and Microsystems Fabrication Laboratory.

4/4/2013

Rosalind Picard, founder and director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory, met with RIT doctoral students in computing and information sciences on April 4. She delivered a speech as part of RIT’s new lecture series—“Where Text and Code Collide: The Digital Humanities Distinguished Speaker Series.” Picard’s research is dedicated to making intangible emotions measureable through “wearable technology” and novel techniques—with applications from autism communication to human-computer interaction. For people with autism, or others who have difficulty expressing and interpreting their emotions, Picard’s innovative new tools may be the answer to unlocking rich emotional insight.

4/3/2013

Dyer Arts Center presents “Time & Again, Photography by Tom Policano.” The gallery at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf will highlight more than 150 of Policano’s images through April 24.

4/3/2013

More than 50 students from across the country participated in the eighth annual RIT National Science Fair for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students at NTID on March 23. The science fair promotes interest in technology, science, engineering and math to middle and high school students who are deaf or hard of hearing.

4/2/2013

Allison Conte collaborated with Don Figer, director of the Center for Detectors in the College of Science, to design signage for the suite on the third floor of Engineering Hall. Conte is in her third year of the graphic design program in the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences. To read more, go to http://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=49893.