Digital Summer Institute | College of Art and Design

Your Creativity.
Your Rights. Your Voice.

Understand AI — on your terms.

A logo that reads Digital Summer Institute

About DSI

The College of Art and Design's Digital Summer Institute (DSI) offers cutting-edge summer courses at the intersection of creativity and artificial intelligence.

Learn to:

Protect your images and authorship
Understand copyright, ethics, and ownership
Use AI in collaborative team work
Engage in exploratory projects across the creative process

The Digital Summer Institute supports artists, designers, and storytellers in developing the knowledge, confidence, and agency to make informed creative choices.

*Open to all RIT students: Creativity and AI Series
*Open to all CAD students: Designing the Imaginary
*No prerequisites or technical background required.

Creativity & AI Series

These one-credit intensives — Part 1: Ideation; Part 2: Creation; and Part 3: Presentation — may be taken individually or in any combination. Together, they invite students to question, test, and reimagine their creative relationship with AI across the entire creative process.

A colorful, abstract design of many objects next to one another.

Part 1: Ideation

DatesMay 13-June 24, 2026

CourseIDEA 502 Undergraduate (1 credit)
IDEA 602 Graduate (1 credit)

Online: Week 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 — Tuesdays, 10-11 a.m.

In person: Week 2 — May 18-19, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Explore how creatives use AI in idea generation — addressing ethics, storytelling, and the use of AI in brainstorming and conceptual development.

InstructorJonathan Knight

A digitized version of a woman, in many colors, with objects coming out of her head.

Part 2: Creation

DatesMay 13-June 24, 2026

CourseIDEA 503 Undergraduate (1 credit)
IDEA 603 Graduate (1 credit)

Online: Week 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 — Wednesdays 10-11 a.m.

In person: Week 2 — May 20-21, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Examine AI’s role in the production phase, including bias, misinformation, authorship, and personal values. Students experiment with text and video in exploratory projects.

InstructorJonathan Knight and Linda Moroney

An AI-generated image of a pen touching a display.

Part 3: Presentation

DatesMay 13-June 24, 2026

CourseIDEA 504 Undergraduate (1 credit)
IDEA 604 Graduate (1 credit)

Online: Week 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 — Thursdays, 10-11 a.m.

In person: Week 2 — May 22-23, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Focus on representing creative work using AI tools — with attention to oral and visual communication, public speaking, and the ethical and historical dimensions of presentation and information literacy.

InstructorLinda Moroney

Jonathan Knight

School of Film and Animation

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Linda Moroney

School of Film and Animation

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Designing the Imaginary: Creative Collaboration with AI

An AI-generated image with a multi-colored surface with figurines one it.

DatesMay 13-June 24, 2026

CourseIDEA 505 Undergraduate (3 credits)
IDEA 605 Graduate (3 credits)

Online: Weeks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 — Wednesdays, 2 p.m.

In person: Week 3 — May 26-30 (Tuesday-Saturday), 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

A one-week intensive, in-person course designed for an interdisciplinary audience. Students explore AI as a collaborative partner in creativity, co-creating a fictional character or toy informed by AI-assisted research, speculative design, and world-building.

Deliverables include reading responses, prompt logs, iterative prototypes, critiques, and a final public presentation.

InstructorJuan Noguera