News
Mechanical Engineering MS

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.

From robot waiters to river otters, RIT’s Graduate Showcase will cover a wide variety of topics representing graduate scholarship from the university’s Henrietta and global campuses. The symposium, held April 7, will feature oral presentations in the morning and poster presentations, demonstrations, and visual exhibitions in the afternoon.

RIT Associate Professor Michael Schrlau and Ian Dickerson from the University of Rochester Medical Center have received a patent to deliver biomolecules into cells through carbon nanotube arrays.

RIT appointed two new members — who are also alumni — to its board of trustees. Kathy Yu ’91 has more than 20 years of experience in the technology and semiconductor manufacturing sectors. Nick Schneider ’10, ’10 MS is a principal at Boston Consulting Group, where he is a lead in the company’s technology, media, and telco sector.

To build understanding of faculty compensation systems and improve conversations around salary, several RIT faculty members are sharing their experiences with a National Science Foundation-funded multidisciplinary research team. The team’s goal is to significantly expand knowledge of best practices for faculty compensation to a broader community in higher education and provide insights to guide compensation practices.  

As one of the leading causes of death in hospitals, sepsis becomes more complicated with the rise in bacteria most resistant to some of today’s antibiotics. If physicians can detect onset earlier, treatments could begin sooner. Ke Du, a mechanical engineering faculty-researcher, will be developing a microfluidic device to improve detection of drug resistant bacteria in blood.

RIT honored its 2020 class of Distinguished Faculty—Manuela Campanelli, Satish Kandlikar and James Perkins. The Distinguished Professor designation is given to tenured faculty who have shown continued excellence over their careers in teaching, scholarly contributions, lasting contributions in creative and professional work and service to both the university and community.

Ke Du and Blanca Lapizco-Encinas, both faculty-researchers in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, worked with an international team to collaborate on the design of a next-generation miniature lab device that uses magnetic nano-beads to isolate minute bacterial particles that cause diseases. This new technology improves how clinicians isolate drug-resistant strains of bacterial infections and difficult-to-detect micro-particles such as those making up Ebola and coronaviruses.

ASME.org features David Swerzenski '17 (mechanical engineering) and talks to Tim Landschoot, principal lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Catherine Osadciw, fifth-year software engineering major.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers features Risa Robinson, department head, mechanical engineering.

WROC-TV talks to Risa Robinson, department head and professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, about her research on vaping and e-cigarettes.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 21: Are electronic cigarettes really a healthier alternative to tobacco products? Risa Robinson, head of RIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, talks with Edward Hensel, associate dean, about their unique research methods into how these devices are used and how they affect users’ health.