Imagine RIT News

After careful consideration, it has been decided that this year’s Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival will be fully virtual for safety and planning purposes. The date remains set for May 1, 2021.

RIT students discovered lost text on 15th-century manuscript leaves using an imaging system they developed as freshmen. By using ultraviolet-fluorescence imaging, the students revealed that a manuscript leaf held in RIT’s Cary Graphic Arts Collection was actually a palimpsest, a manuscript on parchment with multiple layers of writing.

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.

The winning design in this year’s Imagine RIT poster contest was created by Jacqueline Lando, a fourth-year student majoring in new media design. Her design—colorful images sprouting from the mind—was chosen from among 28 entries in the contest.  

Six members of the RIT Game Symphony Orchestra took top honors and a $1,000 prize in the third annual Dr. Munson’s Performing Arts Challenge on Friday.

Planning to exhibit at this year’s Imagine RIT? The deadlines for submitting your proposals are fast approaching.

President Munson’s Performing Arts Challenge will be part of Freeze Fest in 2020. The contest is open to all current RIT students who enjoy dance, music, theater, comedy, juggling and more.

“The Future of Technology, the Arts and Design,” the first-ever symposium and panel discussion of its kind held during Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival, showcased what RIT alumni envision for next 50 years related to technology, the arts and design and how we can leverage its power for the greater good.

There’s always something new to experience at the Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival, which this year featured more than 400 exhibits, including a human hamster wheel, performances by student ensembles, cutting-edge video games and demonstrations to determine how color can affect your mood.

This year’s Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation began Friday evening, with scores of university students letting their talent shine in front of an appreciative crowd during Dr. Munson’s Performing Arts Challenge. First place went to The Roar’s for a rousing rendition of “Feeling Good,” which the band patterned after a Michael Bublé performance of the song.

The 12th annual Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival kicks off at 6 tonight in Ingle Auditorium with Dr. Munson’s Performing Arts Competition. Then, tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., we pull back the curtain on creativity and innovation with some 400 interactive exhibits in science, technology, engineering, the arts and more, plus live entertainment.

The big wheel will turn, but the hamsters will be humans instead. Students in RIT’s Engineering House built a Human Hamster Wheel, and instead of running in circles, as the cliché goes, their 7-foot wheel will produce electricity. Open to children and adults, the wheel will be one of many interactive exhibits featured at this year’s Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival on April 27.