News
Mechanical Engineering BS

RIT has appointed two new members to its board of trustees: Britta MacIntosh ’89 (mechanical engineering) and Richard “Chip” Davis.

Joseph Vazquez is a third-year mechanical engineering student from Rochester and is a part of the Collegiate Science and Technology Entry Program (CSTEP) at RIT. Last summer, Vazquez conducted research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Joseph Vazquez '24 spent his summer making life-long connections and conducting research in optics and photonics at the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP).

There are 740 new RIT students enrolled in the Combined Accelerated Bachelor’s/Master’s Degree program, designed to offer highly focused, goal-oriented incoming students a one-of-a-kind opportunity to work toward a bachelor’s and master’s degree, starting from the first day of classes.

Jessica Wagner and her classmates put together a plan to tame the traffic near Rochester’s International Plaza on Clinton Avenue. Students like Wagner, who are participating in RIT’s Engineering Grand Challenges Scholars program, are finding ways to integrate technical coursework with personal interests for careers that matter.

More than 1,000 openings in the Finger Lakes region for skilled machinists are projected in the coming years. Local academic researchers and industry partners are developing new training options to fill the expected gaps—integrating gaming and virtual reality to appeal to a younger generation of manufacturing professionals.

NASA announced new funding for a project led by RIT alumni, faculty, and students that could power spacecraft to orbit the sun’s poles for the first time. The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program will provide funding to the Diffractive Solar Sailing project led by Amber Dubill ’20, ’20 MS of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

Risa Robinson was appointed to the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee. Robinson, department head of mechanical engineering in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, brings extensive research in the area of fluid dynamics, particle inhalation and toxicological effects of various tobacco products and nicotine delivery devices.

More than 1,500 students from 100 national and international collegiate race teams competed June 2-5 at RIT’s Gordon Field House and the Hogback Hill Motocross site in Palmyra, N.Y. Several teams aced the course, but at the end of the weekend, RIOT Racing, RIT’s Baja race team, conquered the field.

Students on the RIT men’s lacrosse team are looking to “pump up the jam” at the NCAA national championship game on May 29. Last year, RIT’s undefeated season culminated in the university’s first Division III lacrosse national championship. The team has a chance to go back-to-back, when it faces off against Union College in the 2022 championship game at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

If it had wheels and raced, Alan Nye had a part in it. The professor of mechanical engineering, who will retire this summer, has successfully navigated 45 years of teaching and advising engineering students and RIT’s championship Formula racing team.

As the nation’s reshuffled economy rebounds from the pandemic, RIT students graduating from a university renowned for its academic rigor combined with successful internships and co-op experiences are leveraging multiple job offers into their top choices.