News

Gears make the industrial world go ’round. And RIT engineering faculty and doctoral students are working to keep them moving efficiently.

The annual festival, now in its 13th year, is a showcase day for RIT. But Imagine RIT isn’t just a one-day celebration. Every day, RIT students, faculty and staff are working to pair technology, art and design in ways that move the world forward.

Clayton Turner ’90 (electrical engineering), director of NASA Langley Research Center, received the Black Engineer of the Year (BEYA) STEM Award for his outstanding career developing and furthering some of NASA’s most significant space mission initiatives.

Saler, a miniature donkey, received new, 3D-printed shoes this past weekend at Karen and Bob Pinkney’s Wychmere Farms in Ontario, N.Y.  RIT biomedical engineering students were among the unlikely team brought together to help the 9-month-old little donkey whose tendons did not develop properly in his front legs.

Kristina Klishko, a fifth-year mechanical engineering student from San Diego, spent her summer in Fremont, Calif., working for Tesla.

Biomedical engineering students Brandon Buscaglia and Marcus D’Aguiar are helping physicians see the invisible. The undergraduates developed a motorized stage and tracking prototype that works in conjunction with digital microscopes. The students’ ideas are being incorporated into a company’s tech offerings today, providing the potential to make an impact in health care applications tomorrow.

RIT is one of hundreds of universities and organizations across the country involved in National Engineers Week, taking place Feb. 16-22. Events include talks with engineering alumni and open house sessions for K-12 students and families.

As part of an interactive games and media course, 12 RIT students made cardboard and digital pinball machines designed around themes of their own choosing. For the final exam, students brought their creations to The Strong National Museum of Play and had visitors give their physical and virtual pinball machines a test drive.

Four multidisciplinary student teams got the opportunity to pitch their business ideas to potential investors at the RIT Student Accelerator Investor Demo Night earlier this month, each one hoping to jumpstart its ventures and transform its commercial concepts into real companies.

Ridding waterways of microplastics, delivering water to remote villages experiencing drought, and better ways to remove salt from water were just a few of the clean-water research projects recently presented by undergraduate students as part of RIT’s Grand Challenge Scholars program.

The coaster contest was a thrill ride for RIT’s Theme Park Enthusiasts student group at the annual Ryerson Invitational Thrill Design Competition. For the second time since the competition began, the club won first place overall at the competition.

Claudia Alant, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student from Niskayuna, N.Y., has worked for the Writing Commons for five semesters. According to Alant, being a peer consultant for the commons is “one of the coolest jobs an undergraduate student can have” on campus.