News

Research findings and signs of computer chip industry demands were the top subjects at the 40th Annual Microelectronic Engineering Conference April 8 at RIT. With indications of growth and novel functions being developed, there were also discussions of the pressing need for even more skilled workers in the field to sustain that expected growth.

RIT Esports is a national champion again, after a team of students came out victorious in the 2022 Hearthstone Collegiate Masters Tournament. The Tigers bested more than 200 teams to win the tournament, which is the main event for collegiate Hearthstone and is run by the game’s maker, Blizzard Entertainment.

RIT’s team will develop the technology needed for a point-of-care diagnostics system built on integrated photonics. Capable of accurate detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, the new system could reduce the need for expensive equipment and specialized expertise to better inform care decisions in underserved, resource-limited communities.

RIT graduate degree programs in engineering, science, and business were featured in the U.S. News & World Report 2023 edition of Best Graduate Schools, released in March.

Working with the city’s departments of Data Analytics and Environmental Services’ staff, undergraduate engineering students built a prototype solar monitoring system. It will provide needed information about snow build up on the city’s busiest streets and provide real-time data to staff to open high-traffic areas safely and efficiently.

RIT is extending a special graduate tuition scholarship program to recent alumni as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its third year. The program helps alumni who graduated during the pandemic enhance their skill set for the new economy through master’s degrees that build upon collaboration, analytical thinking, complex problem solving, and flexibility. 

Soon industrial robots in warehouses will be smart enough to know which has the right of way in busy aisles. Researchers at RIT are developing an intelligent materials handling system for warehouses that integrates smart technologies.

The Taunton Daily Gazette features RIT/NTID alumnus William Yuknis ’94 (computer engineering) for his work on the James Webb Space Telescope.

WROC-TV talks to Sean Rommel, professor and director of the microelectronic engineering program, and Michael Jackson, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Microelectronic Engineering, about semiconductors.

Cecilia Alm, an associate professor in RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, was awarded nearly $2 million by the National Science Foundation to lead a team of RIT faculty addressing a lack of diversity in the artificial intelligence research community and gaps in AI curricula.

As an expert in microfluidic devices—tiny labs able to decipher bioparticles—Blanca Lapizco-Encinas and her research partners uncovered a mystery in how these particles can be better differentiated. As she has moved her own research forward, she is influencing a new generation of scientists to do the same.

Scientists look to space for origins of the solar system; chemical engineers like Poornima Padmanabhan are searching for the origins of life based on minute systems of molecules. Padmanabhan recently received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award for “Chirality and polymer thermodynamics: frustration and amplification.”