News by Topic: Entrepreneurship

On June 16, five business technology start-up companies graduated from RIT’s Venture Creations business incubator with a commitment to continuing to engage local and regional suppliers, expand labor forces locally and nationally, and impact the regional economy.

A panel discussion at RIT among some of the Rochester region’s key stakeholders—employers, government officials, economic development leaders, and higher-education experts—provided the launch for RIT Certified, which aims to provide a wide range of alternative education courses, certificate programs, and skill-based learning experiences targeting people beginning their careers, changing roles, maintaining their existing job, or advancing in the workplace.

RIT alumnus Erblin Ribari ’17 MBA (finance) has been named to the seventh annual Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe, which recognizes young entrepreneurs and leaders for how they are transforming business and society today.

Syracuse.com features Circle Optics, a member company of RIT’s Venture Creations technology business incubator.

Students from around the country—including a Webster, N.Y., high school senior attending Saunders College of Business this fall—will compete to see who will be named America’s Next Top Young Entrepreneur at the Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) 14th annual Saunders Scholars National Competition on June 4.

TikTok has become one of the most popular social media apps to hit the market in a decade. Billions of social media users have found both community and entertainment in the vertical short videos that are central to TikTok’s format. With a combined nearly 1 million followers and 25 million “likes” between them, four RIT alumni are establishing themselves as social media influencers.

Chinese tea culture, with its rich history existing since before the third century, has always been a lifelong passion for Tian Tian and Zining Chen. The graduates of RIT’s advertising and public relations program (2017) and master’s in entrepreneurship program (2019), yearned to share their culture in a new and exciting way—by founding Taichi Bubble Tea. 

Sherry Dadgar ’08 MS (bioinformatics) wants the future of medicine to empower patients. Dadgar, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at George Washington University, launched her company, Personalized Medicine Care Diagnostics (PMCDx), in 2020 with a goal of delivering advanced clinical genomic diagnostic testing to patients and their physicians.

As the nation’s reshuffled economy rebounds from the pandemic, RIT students graduating from a university renowned for its academic rigor combined with successful internships and co-op experiences are leveraging multiple job offers into their top choices.

After going virtual for 2021, thousands of people came to the RIT campus on Saturday for an in-person Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival, which featured more than 250 exhibits throughout the campus from more than 1,800 students and faculty.

Three student teams showed what technology, the arts, and design means at RIT. They designed technology to help astronauts keep physically fit in space, incorporated virtual reality to enhance signing and captioning support for the Deaf, and built a modern sculpture of the human body made of computers.

Aaron Gordon ’13, CEO of Optic Sky, an advertising and digital experience production company; Franklyn Athias ’85, CTO and senior vice president for Xfinity Mobile Retail Convergence; and Erin Sarofsky ’98, ’00 MFA, an award-winning creative visionary, discussed how the pandemic opened up the eyes of many industries to the future.