Photo Spotlights

Anirudh Penmetcha’s research revolves around solar cells. The graduate student in the materials science and engineering program focused his thesis research on advancing next-generation photovoltaic technology in RIT professor Christopher Collison’s laboratory. Penmetcha began, in mid-February, a six-month co-op at a Massachusetts-based branch of Saint-Gobain, an international corporation and leader in high-performance materials.

Randy Henderson, president of Henderson Ford in Webster, assumed the role of Minett Professor for 2015 and is serving as a student mentor and community advocate with RIT’s Division for Diversity. There have been 23 Minett Professors since this program began in 1991. To read more, go to www.rit.edu/news/athenaeum_story.php?id=51679.

Amberlee Jones and daughter Arya hunted for eggs at RIT’s 11th annual Easter Egg Hunt on April 4. Hundreds of candy-filled eggs were scattered across the Gleason Quad for children to find and put in their baskets. The event is co-sponsored by The Students of Art House and The RIT Leadership Institute and Community Service Center.

Fourth-year industrial design student Ned Masury examines work in the Graduate Thesis 1 exhibit in Bevier Gallery. The exhibit represents work from the School of Art, School of Design and School for American Crafts. Graduate Thesis 2 will be on view April 10-May 2 with an opening reception at 5 p.m. April 10.

Students in Tom Hanney’s special topics course “The Harmonica and the Blues” delved deep into the history of the iconic instrument associated with the blues. The multi-disciplinary course consisted of music theory and the science of sound presented by faculty from the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, along with an overview of audio recording technology, through faculty from the College of Applied Science and Technology.

Reformed convicted felon Sam E. Antar, former Crazy Eddie’s chief financial officer, discussed the dangers of fraud and answered some tough questions from the audience on white-collar crime on April 1. The event was sponsored by Saunders College of Business and The Next Generation of Accountants club.

Ceramic artist Dan Anderson visited the School for American Crafts for two days this week. Anderson, retired head of ceramics at Southern Illinois University, lectured and demonstrated in the ceramics studio here.

RIT Tiger spirit was felt across the country this weekend as students, alumni, faculty and staff gathered in a variety of places to cheer on the men’s hockey team in the NCAA Tournament. On the Notre Dame campus in South Bend, Ind., site of the games, the team was cheered on by its loyal RIT Pep Band and Corner Crew as well as more than 50 alumni from Indiana, Michigan and the Chicago area.

Past and present members of the RIT women’s cross country and track and field squad returned from a 1,400-mile non-stop relay that started in Auburn, Alabama. Dubbed “The Tiger Trail”, the eight-day endeavor will raise funds and awareness for the national Tigers for Tigers (T4T) coalition. The goals of the national Tigers for Tigers coalition are to make a positive impact on the tiger conservation, associate the tiger mascot pride with the tigers of the wild and establish passion for the T4T organization, and create conservation professionals out of student leaders.

More than 40 teams from across the region made their way to RIT’s Gordon Field House for the 2015 FIRST Robotics Finger Lakes Regional Competition. This year’s game, RECYCLE RUSH, saw team alliances stacking and filling recycling totes and scoring points using colorful pool noodles to represent litter.

For the second time in the Division I era, the RIT men’s hockey team will head to the NCAA Tournament. The third-seeded Tigers defeated No. 5 seed Mercyhurst University 5-1 in the Atlantic Hockey Championship at Blue Cross Arena on March 21. The Tigers will face Minnesota State University, the No. 1 overall seed in the 2015 NCAA Division I men’s hockey Midwest Regional, at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Compton Family Arena at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.

Ryan Chojnacki, an electrical engineering major, and Peter Lam, a management information systems major, participate in Fusion Fest ’15, hosted by RIT’s Electronic Gaming Society. The video game LAN party raised awareness for video games as a diversionary activity for people with cancer and raised money for cancer organizations. Proceeds and donations benefited Cancer Wellness Connections in Rochester, Colleges Against Cancer and helped support a paid cooperative education position for students to work at Cancer Wellness Connections.