News

WHAM-TV features Clayton Turner ’90 (electrical engineering), director of NASA Langley Research Center and RIT trustee.

Blanca Lapizco-Encinas, a professor in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, recently received a National Science Foundation grant for $348,000 to develop a new separation technique to be used in microfluidic devices. 

WHEC-TV features Quinn Nguyen, a mechanical engineering student, who competed on American Ninja Warrior.

Steven Day, professor of biomedical engineering at RIT, and Majed Refaai, from the University of Rochester, applied to the U.S. Patent Office this past April for a new blood typing device that can assist trauma patients prior to blood transfusions.

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.

Dimitris Chachlakis became the first student to be awarded the new Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering this May from RIT. The new degree builds upon the Ph.D. in engineering, a multi-disciplinary degree established several years ago, and since then refined into three distinct programs.

Micatu Inc. donated its groundbreaking Gridview optical sensors to RIT for a new campus learning lab. The equipment allows faculty and students to monitor renewable integration and manage the addition of distributed energy resources onto the campus microgrid.

Chiara Young, a fifth-year biomedical engineering graduate from Sherman, N.Y., received the 2021 Distinguished Lee Scholar award from the Patrick P. Lee Foundation. Young, who graduated in May, was presented with the award based on her integrity, leadership, and service to others. RIT has been a partner school of the Lee Foundation since fall 2019.

President Joe Biden recently called for more resources to bolster the computer chip industry to meet consumer and commercial demands. Lynn Fuller has done more than his share to provide assets for this important industry. Fuller established the first microelectronic engineering program in the country in 1982 at RIT, and today many program graduates lead efforts at the top microchip firms advising the president.

After graduating this year, Matthias Hausman, a mechanical engineering and international and global studies double major from Abington Township, Pa., will travel to Saxony, Germany, to teach English this September. As a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, he will be placed in a German classroom to provide assistance to a local English teacher.

Hira Abid crossed continents to come to RIT. The chemical engineering student from Pakistan will make another global connection when she begins graduate school in Turkey as one of RIT’s newest Fulbright awardees.

More than 50 students are expected to earn their Ph.D. degrees by the end of June. The hooding ceremony, which will also include Ph.D. recipients in the class of 2020, is May 15.