Campus Spotlight

April 16, 2025

<p>The exhibits that will be featured at the <a href="https://www.rit.edu/imagine/">Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival</a> on April 26 represent some of RIT’s many strengths. Many of the exhibits, like the Data Sonification Weather Chimes being assembled here, highlight how an idea can be enhanced by working across disciplines. The exhibit was born from a collaboration between RIT’s School of Performing Arts and the Kate Gleason College of Engineering’s Multidisciplinary Senior Design project initiative. The completed set of chimes will be on view during the festival.</p>

Photo by Carlos Ortiz

The exhibits that will be featured at the Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival on April 26 represent some of RIT’s many strengths. Many of the exhibits, like the Data Sonification Weather Chimes being assembled here, highlight how an idea can be enhanced by working across disciplines. The exhibit was born from a collaboration between RIT’s School of Performing Arts and the Kate Gleason College of Engineering’s Multidisciplinary Senior Design project initiative. The completed set of chimes will be on view during the festival.

A man engaged in computer work inside a lab, with laboratory equipment and research materials around him.

Photo by Carlos Ortiz/RIT

Traditional wind chimes produce sound based solely on wind activity, but these weather chimes were crafted to capture and respond to real-time weather data like wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, and other measurable variables. Here, David Edmiston, a fourth-year electrical engineering student, works on the solar panel system used to power the chimes.
A group of people gathered around a table, examining metal poles placed on the surface.

Photo by Carlos Ortiz/RIT

The group’s goal in creating these chimes is to enhance the auditory perception of weather patterns and provide an accessible means for individuals with visual impairments to understand weather conditions. From left: David Edmiston; Joel Hunt, assistant professor in the School of Performing Arts; Matt Baldwin, a fifth-year mechanical engineering student; Jared Cranna, a fifth-year mechanical engineering student; Sam Jacob, a fifth-year mechanical engineering student; Jack Ganger-Spivak, a fifth-year software engineering student; Jennifer Indovina, lecturer in RIT’s School of Design; and Morgan Kreifels, a fifth-year computer engineering student.
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