Rochester Institute of Technology News

RIT is one of 14 universities from around the globe that have collectively been awarded $12.5 million from the National Science Foundation to launch a new Biology Integration Institute. It will focus on better understanding ecosystem and climate interactions—like the thawing of the Arctic permafrost—and how they can alter everything from the landscape to greenhouse gases.

The National Science Foundation awarded RIT’s College of Science a three-year, $587,000 Building Capacity in STEM Education Research grant. The grant is part of a $1 million collaborative project that aims to extend the impact of the Professional development for Emerging Education Researchers (PEER) field school model to hundreds of emerging education researchers.

A recent study has shown that readers’ eye gaze behaviors are strong indicators of words that are unexpected, new, or difficult to understand. The study by Rain Bosworth, an assistant professor and researcher at NTID, explores the unknown qualities of gaze behavior for “sign watching” and how these are affected by a user’s language expertise and intelligibility of the sign input.  

Orlando Ortiz ’04 (manufacturing engineering technology), MBA '08, recently announced as our 2020-2021 Minett Professor, was honored by Rochester Business Journal's Forty Under 40.

Niantic has donated $400,000 to create a new research lab at RIT that’s focused on location-based games. In the Niantic x RIT Geo Games and Media Research Lab, researchers will work to better understand how people interact with location-based games and how they can be used for good.

Barbara Birkett and Gregory D’Amico were appointed to two of the Department of Graphic Media Science and Technology’s prestigious endowed professorships this fall. Birkett assumes the role of the Paul and Louise Miller Endowed Professorship. D’Amico will serve as the Gravure Endowed Professor.

A health care approach centered on integrating mind-body well-being in all aspects of traditional medicine is the focus of a new book by Dr. Laurence Sugarman, research professor in RIT’s biomedical sciences program.

Nishant Malik, assistant professor in RIT’s School of Mathematical Sciences, has developed a mathematical method that shows how shifting monsoon patterns led to the demise of the Indus Valley Civilization, a Bronze Age civilization contemporary to Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt.

Han Schmitthenner, research faculty from the College of Science, awarded $25K from the Foundation for Women's Wellness (FWW) to develop molecularly targeted photosensitizer (MTPS) probes used in photodynamic therapy (PDT) to kill cancer cells. 

We are nearly two weeks into classes and, as a community, we have kept COVID at bay. The only way we can ensure we remain on track is for all of us to continue the path we’ve paved.

Students Joy Anderson (Film and Animation) and Aria A. Dines (Film and Animation; Illustration) are featured speakers for the Levine Center to End Hate's "Brave Spaces" event.

ArcWatch features two projects at RIT that teach disaster management and resilience skills.