News
Department of Mechanical Engineering

When Gabrielle Cole starts her new job, she will be the only female engineer at the company. Her journey from academics to professional was influenced by several factors—from family and hometown to campus and co-op experiences. She was able to build on these foundations toward an ideal first job.

The big wheel will turn, but the hamsters will be humans instead. Students in RIT’s Engineering House built a Human Hamster Wheel, and instead of running in circles, as the cliché goes, their 7-foot wheel will produce electricity. Open to children and adults, the wheel will be one of many interactive exhibits featured at this year’s Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival on April 27.  

The Times Union features RIT students Patrick Finnerty and Catherine Krawiec, part of a team that won second place in the CREATE Symposium.

Meet Cesar Borges, a fifth-year biomedical engineering student, and Kalie Lazarou, an industrial and systems engineering student, who are part of a team working on the Overcomer, an assistive device that helps children with physical disabilities have a more inclusive playground experience.

When he was in high school, Josh Geise, a fifth-year computing security student, was involved in a program that donated refurbished computers to local families. To continue his work in computer refurbishment and help increase computer accessibility in the Rochester area, Geise and friend Brian Martens ’18 started their own nonprofit organization that donates refurbished computers to people in need.

In 2015, the Genesee Country Village & Museum stopped firing cannons during Civil War reenactments in the historic village because the black powder charges appeared to be damaging windows and buildings. To help reintroduce cannon fire, four fifth-year engineering students are identifying the cause of the damage and creating a best practices procedure to protect the buildings while maintaining authenticity.

When Aaron Bailey and Tigran Vardanyan restyled a shoulder rest for their own violins, little did they know their simple design, made in Bailey’s home workshop, would be sought by musicians around the world.

RIT alumni and long-time supporters of FIRST Robotics, Dan Schneiderman and Joe Kessler, were recognized as the 2019 Regional as Volunteers of the Year during the FIRST Robotics Finger Lakes Regional competition March 15 and 16. Both were honored for their contributions to the organization and the regional competition, serving in a variety of roles from advocates and team mentors to field judging, set up and match coordination. 

Syracuse.com features Patrick Walsh '05 (mechanical engineering), co-founder of EagleHawk

WHAM-TV talks to Agamemnon Crassidis, professor of mechanical engineering, about the issues surrounding Boeing 737 Max jets.

Local and regional teams compete at RIT’s Gordon Field House on newest challenge

Risa Robinson has taken a different approach to assessing e-cigarette usage, and it’s turned up some attention-getting results. Robinson studies users in their own environments, puffing on their own e-cigarettes, rather than on test machines in lab settings. And what she’s found is that they are puffing as much, if not more, than traditional cigarette users, resulting in potentially higher exposure to harmful substances.