Visually Impaired Students to be Immersed in Computing, July 13-16

Visually impaired students in the San Diego area are going to have a unique opportunity to delve into computing. Rochester Institute of Technology is bringing Imagine IT, a series of interactive workshops that strives to increase participation in computing among students with visual impairments, to the California State University San Marcos campus.

Eleven 7-12th grade students will build robots, assemble computers and tackle other real world computing applications. Students will also learn about career opportunities in the computing world.

“The unemployment rate for the blind in this country is 70 percent,” says RIT software engineering professor and San Diego native Stephanie Ludi, one of the organizers of the workshop. “We want to open more doors for the visually impaired and get them thinking about college.”

Imagine IT, which is funded by a National Science Foundation grant, takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 13-16 in room 105 of the Markstein building on the California State University San Marcos campus.

Rochester Institute of Technology is internationally recognized for academic leadership in computing, engineering, imaging technology, and fine and applied arts, in addition to unparalleled support services for students with hearing loss. Nearly 16,450 full- and part-time students are enrolled in more than 200 career-oriented and professional programs at RIT, and its cooperative education program is one of the oldest and largest in the nation.

For two decades, U.S. News & World Report has ranked RIT among the nation’s leading comprehensive universities. RIT is featured in The Princeton Review’s 2009 edition of The Best 368 Colleges and in Barron’s Best Buys in Education. The Chronicle of Higher Education recognizes RIT as a “Great College to Work For.”