News
Department of Mechanical Engineering

An interdisciplinary pair of RIT students is headed to Bethesda, Md., to participate in the 2023 Lockheed Martin Ethics in Engineering Case Competition. Emma Nastro, a third-year museum studies student, and Lee Sortore, a fifth-year mechanical engineering student, will represent RIT at the competition, which is held Feb. 27 through March 1 at the Lockheed Martin Center for Leadership Excellence. This is the first time an RIT team has competed in this competition.

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.

RIT has appointed two new members to its board of trustees: Britta MacIntosh ’89 (mechanical engineering) and Richard “Chip” Davis.

Joseph Vazquez is a third-year mechanical engineering student from Rochester and is a part of the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) at RIT. Last summer, Vazquez conducted research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Joseph Vazquez '24 spent his summer making life-long connections and conducting research in optics and photonics at the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP).

Adam Foster, a Ph.D. student in mechanical and industrial engineering from Villennes-sur-Seine, France, is a team member on PrisAM, a student-owned business.

Ph.D. student Jade Myers, who uses 3D print technology to develop upper and lower limb prostheses for amputees, was a top three winner of the nTopology-EOS 2022 Responsible Part Challenge, an international design competition.

RIT students participated in this summer’s Studio930 design consultancy, an interdisciplinary studio that focuses on the development of assistive healthcare solutions by leveraging the use of technology, art, and design. The 10-week long summer experience concluded with a student exhibition inside RIT’s LiveAbility Lab, a close partnership between RIT and the Al Sigl Community of Agencies. 

More than 1,000 openings in the Finger Lakes region for skilled machinists are projected in the coming years. Local academic researchers and industry partners are developing new training options to fill the expected gaps—integrating gaming and virtual reality to appeal to a younger generation of manufacturing professionals.

NASA announced new funding for a project led by RIT alumni, faculty, and students that could power spacecraft to orbit the sun’s poles for the first time. The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program will provide funding to the Diffractive Solar Sailing project led by Amber Dubill ’20, ’20 MS of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

Risa Robinson was appointed to the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee. Robinson, department head of mechanical engineering in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, brings extensive research in the area of fluid dynamics, particle inhalation and toxicological effects of various tobacco products and nicotine delivery devices.

Twelve alumni from RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering were honored with alumni awards during a reception at the Joseph M. Lobozzo Alumni House last month.