News

Entrepreneur Reuben Zielinski ’85 (electrical engineering) ’96 (EMBA) believes that generating a great idea is actually the easiest part of the product development process. The hardest part? Convincing other people that what you have is a great idea and getting them to buy what you have developed.

During a 2008 visit to RIT while she was in high school, Madeleine Rabil ’13 (3D digital graphics) learned that the university’s then-called College of Imaging Arts and Sciences had just announced the creation of a new major for incoming students focusing on 3D as a medium. “I knew immediately that RIT was where I needed to be,” she says.

Jordan Darling’s career has soared as rapidly as the sleek watercraft he designs. The vice president of Nikola Powersports was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30, the prestigious designation given annually to top entrepreneurial talent in the United States and Canada.

Karen Braun had a clear picture of what she wanted to do with her life at a young age. As Braun grew up, she developed a wide variety of interests including photography, psychology, and physics. She ultimately found a new cross-disciplinary Ph.D. program in imaging science at RIT that let her pursue those interests all at once.

Many RIT alumni have tapped into the craft-beer boom that has swept across the country in the past 10 years.

Researchers from RIT’s Future Photon Initiative, in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory, have produced the Department of Defense’s first-ever fully integrated quantum photonics wafer.

A team of RIT cybersecurity students is moving on to the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) after taking first place at the Northeast regional competition March 20–22. The students pulled together a win, despite having to compete from separate locations across the country, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The LiveAbility Lab is a partnership between RIT and the Al Sigl Community of Agencies, a collaborative network of organizations in Rochester that serves children and adults with special needs. The lab, which is located on Al Sigl’s Wolk Campus, opened in 2018. The goal is to develop a pipeline of accessible technology projects that are conceived at RIT and take root at the LiveAbility Lab on their way to development in the marketplace. 

While he’ll soon step away from the day-to-day at the university to which he has dedicated nearly six decades, R. Roger Remington wants people to know, “I’m not going anywhere.” The Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design and longest-serving faculty member at RIT will retire in May after 57 years at the university.

Gears make the industrial world go ’round. And RIT engineering faculty and doctoral students are working to keep them moving efficiently.

The New York Times features a match striker designed by Josh Owen, distinguished professor and director of the industrial design program.

WHEC-TV talks to RIT trustee and 2009 alumnus Austin McChord, founder and CEO of Datto.