Futurists Symposium

Bob Morreale is an alumnus of the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Distinguished in the field of medical illustration, Bob is both a Board-Certified Medical Illustrator (CMI) and a Fellow of the Association of Medical Illustrators (FAMI). His career has included leadership roles at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Cleveland Clinic, culminating in his current position at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. As the Senior Division Chair of Immersive and Experiential Learning, Bob is the administrative leader of the Center for Biomedical & Scientific Visualization, the Department of Clinical Anatomy, and the Mayo Enterprise Multidisciplinary Simulation Centers and Procedural Skills Mastery Laboratories. As an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Communications, his scholarly work has focused on advancing the use of innovative visual communication techniques to enhance medical education, patient care, and scientific research.

Bob’s current work at Mayo Clinic focuses on revolutionizing medical education and healthcare workforce training through immersive and experiential learning strategies and the strategic use of AR/VR, spatial computing, and 3D digital twins to design hands-on experiences with unparalleled fidelity. His commitment to leveraging advanced visualization techniques and experiential learning methodologies is a testament to the impact and value of RIT's educational foundation in fostering innovation and excellence.
 

Jeyhan Kartaltepe is an astrophysicist in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Rochester Institute of Technology. She was born in San Antonio, Texas, then moved to different parts of the US for her BA, MS, PhD, and postdoc before settling in Rochester, New York. She is an expert in the area of galaxy formation and evolution and is interested in understanding how the first stars and galaxies in the universe formed and how various physical processes shaped their transformation into today's galaxies. She is the PI of COSMOS-Web, the largest James Webb Space Telescope program observed in its first two years of operations, which is mapping out a large area of the sky in the near- and mid-infrared to study how galaxies in the early universe formed in relation to structures on large scales. She is also a leading co-I on the CEERS program, one of the first programs to obtain observations and the PI of POPPIES, a newly approved JWST program that will obtain spectroscopy for thousands of galaxies in the early universe.

Chukwuma Morah ’09 graduated from RIT with a BS in Industrial Engineering. However, he chose to focus on Marketing soon after. Thanks to his passion for gaming and soccer he became the Community & Influencer Manager for the EA SPORTS FIFA games at Electronic Arts Vancouver in 2012. After gaining valuable experience, he ventured on his own in 2015 as a Content Creator and Esports Host. Since then he's amassed over 1.1 million social media followers and worked with brands such as Adidas, Coca-Cola, PlayStation, Manchester United, Xbox and more. He’s also currently the Chief Marketing Officer at gaming data startup FUT.GG, which has over 7.5 million users and 50 million monthly page views in just its 2nd year.

Karen is a 2006 graduate from RIT’s Software Engineering program and a 2024 Distinguished Alumni Awardee representing the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. She is driven by her passion for women in STEM which has led to her participation in the Society of Women Engineers, where she is the FY25 Society President as well as past Treasurer and Director of Professional Excellence of the international organization. She has brought this passion to other organizations like the Girls Scouts and RIT. Professionally, Karen is the Deputy Director of AFWERX, the innovation arm of the Department of the Air Force. She leads strategy and execution across a $1.3 billion portfolio which serves to expand the defense industrial base for advanced technologies, empower Airmen and Guardian talent, and drive faster technology transfer to operational capability. Previously, she served as a Chief Engineer for the Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate, ensuring technical excellence on the international stage. She directed programming and focused on strategic external partnerships to accelerate change and technical impact to the Air Force, which resulted in the creation of the Innovare Alliance. Innovare is an impact driven global community of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs converging on Air Force technology interests via specialized facilities and programming for technology transfer and open innovation.

In addition to her RIT degree, Karen holds an Executive MBA from Indiana University Kelley School of Business, a master’s degree in Systems Engineering from Cornell University. She is currently pursuing an Executive Certificate in Public Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Karen’s participation in the symposium and her work on the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences National Council is done strictly in a personal capacity and does not represent the Department of the Air Force.