News
Jennifer O'Neil

Turn big dreams into reality. That was just one piece of advice for the newest Rochester Institute of Technology students who attended the New Student Convocation on Aug. 24. The annual event included welcomes from administrators, the new Student Government president, and a lesson in adventure featuring RIT President David Munson.

Jennifer O’Neil enjoys thermodynamic memes, powerplants, and Marvel Comic heroes, especially Iron Man, and she has found ways to connect all of them for her engineering technology classes. She makes these connections through activities that bring to life complex topics that solidify learning for her students.

Jennifer O’Neil was recently named a KEEN Rising Star, an honor given to recognize a faculty member’s ability to improve student learning and to equip undergraduate engineers with the tools to solve societal problems.

As part of new faculty orientation, RIT’s College of Engineering Technology and Kate Gleason College of Engineering hosted a pilot workshop to introduce KEEN: Engineering Unleashed and its entrepreneurial mindset—a national initiative to advance engineering education.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 43: The KEEN Engineering Unleashed network is driving change in engineering education. Patti Cyr, lecturer in the Kate Gleason College of Engineering, and Jennifer O’Neill, assistant professor in the College of Engineering Technology, discuss what the entrepreneurial mindset is and how connections to the network are providing an edge for RIT students.

RIT is now a part of KEEN: Engineering Unleashed, a national partnership of approximately 50 universities that come together to advance engineering education. The group focuses on developing graduates who are technically prepared, understand societal changes and strategically seek opportunities to improve upon these changes.