News

It’s been found that COVID-19 flourishes under cold and dry places without much sunlight as noted by Nature. With the cold, Rochester winter right around the corner, we will discuss why people get sick during these conditions, and how COVID-19 will interact with the winter conditions. 

Dr. Jennifer Schneider, CIH, at Rochester Institute of Technology, presented to Occupational and Environmental Medicine medical professionals during a virtual URMC Grand Rounds session called “Riding the Perfect Storm: COVID-19 at the Confluence of Community & Occupational Health.”

RIT will use an unusual technique to search for surges in coronavirus cases before those infected even begin displaying symptoms. The university will test wastewater on campus for traces of COVID-19 twice weekly beginning Aug. 5 to get early indications if coronavirus is spreading in campus housing and other areas of campus.

In a biology lab in Gosnell Hall, Professor André Hudson has been spending hours this summer testing products to see whether they are effective at killing and filtering microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi. The effort is part of RIT’s Infrastructure and Health Technologies task force, which is putting changes in place to make RIT’s campus as safe and clean as possible in the fall.

More than 30 faculty and staff from 12 colleges across the country met this past August at the AITU Summit: Advancing Student Thinking for 21st Century Success. Organized and led by RIT, participants discussed how critical thinking is essential in today’s complex society.

Students at RIT are learning about risk management and planning even before entering the workplace through a new series of systems-based educational tools integrating community and enterprise risk and sustainability management.

“Applied Critical Thinking: Critical Thinking to Making” will explore how artists and designers can use applied critical thinking in the creative process.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 1: Our debut episode features a conversation between Eugene Fram, professor emeritus from Saunders College of Business, and Chris Jackson, associate dean of the College of Art and Design. The two discuss how they came to value the importance of critical thinking and the role it plays in education, business, design and everyday life.

Adrienne Decker, an associate professor of interactive games and media, has been named the Fram Faculty Fellow in Applied Critical Thinking. Decker will work to identify and strengthen applied critical thinking across disciplines.