News

Thousands of visitors at the 2023 Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival got to see what’s on the horizon in the areas of technology, the arts, and design. Festivalgoers traversed RIT’s campus on Saturday, exploring more than 350 exhibits.

James Wegner ’09 (media arts and technology) and Jonny Widder ’09 (media arts and technology) became quick friends after meeting at RIT Orientation, bonding over their desire to rebel from the “mandatory.”

Artificial intelligence, robots, glass blowing, drones, cybersecurity tours, and performing arts are just a sampling of what lies in store for the thousands of visitors expected at this year’s Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 29.

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.

Pete Van Camp played detective before he acted as a manufacturing engineer for his graduate capstone project. His project involved upgrading a Fanuc industrial robot, which had been sitting idle for a short time in the Fabrication and Robotics Lab located in RIT’s College of Engineering Technology. Limited documentation about functions, missing cables and components, and fewer technical people from the company to provide service support were just a few of the barriers Van Camp encountered as he began.

RIT’s concrete canoe and steel bridge teams are presenting their products in person at the regional Upstate New York-Canada ASCE Student Symposium on April 20-22 for the first time as a pair since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Researchers at RIT are investigating the combined physical effects of heat, chemical reactions, and seismic activity on concrete lining structures used to dispose of nuclear waste. Results from the work could improve nuclear waste infrastructure designs, better long-term safety management, and refine strategies to meet climate change targets.

Nearly 70 different RIT student teams and clubs are poised to move into the Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED) this summer in preparation for the building’s official opening in the fall semester.

WHEC-TV talks to Jennifer Schneider, professor in the Department of Civil Engineering Technology, Environmental Management & Safety, about how a hazmat team responds to a train derailment.

When RIT students Julia LaMarra and Celina Alvarado heard about a trip to work on repairing hospital equipment in Guatemala during this past winter break, they jumped at the chance.

Retrograde, a classical rock band formed about a year and a half ago with five RIT students, won best performance and a $500 prize in this year’s Ovation: RIT Performing Arts Showcase, held Friday night in Ingle Auditorium.

RIT has been expanding its research footprint to accommodate the university’s growing research portfolio. The Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED), which opens this fall, is enabling the university to convert 10 existing classrooms, totaling more than 23,000 square feet, into new research space. Another 14,700 square feet of research space opened in January in Brown Hall.