News
Kathleen Lamkin-Kennard

Students, faculty, and alumni at RIT are participating in NASA’s national Moon to Mars initiative to build a training device and monitoring tool to help make extended space travel healthier for astronauts.

In a space known for innovative science and technology, Paige Manley '24 (3D digital design) is demonstrating the value of art as an aid to science through opportunities with NASA.

WXXI talks to Kathleen Lamkin-Kennard, associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, about a video game project to help astronauts readjust to gravity on Earth after being in space.

Students from engineering, game design, and 3D design will travel to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston April 3-5 to demonstrate PLANETS, a portable sensory device to help astronauts recover normal balance and movement on earth after an extended stay in space.

Hot Wheelz Racing is going solar. Shifting gears from a Formula-style racecar to building a 16-foot solar vehicle, the team is preparing for its first Sun Grand Prix taking place this summer in Kansas.

What started with a go-cart at Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival morphed into an all-electric race car when Hot Wheelz began 10 years ago. On April 24, current team members and alumni will celebrate a milestone anniversary and take the next lap in its history showcasing plans for a new competition solar car.

RIT faculty-researchers will develop a game-design training system that could help astronauts maintain balance, motor skills, and other cognitive functions while in space. NASA, in partnership with the National Space Grant Foundation, has selected six university teams, including RIT, to develop innovative design ideas that will help NASA advance and execute its Moon to Mars exploration objectives.

Multidisciplinary Senior Design is a required, two semester, design-based course for engineering students. Currently, more than 400 students are working on 80-plus projects.

Associate Professor Kathleen Lamkin-Kennard’s students are learning to understand motion and to replicate it through technology that might mean mobility for individuals who may not have had that option before.