Photo Spotlights

One of the highlights of RIT’s 11th annual Entrepreneurs Conference was Tiger Tank, where teams of RIT students competed for cash prizes in front of a panel of judges. The inspirational hub and day of learning also featured keynote speaker Ted Dziuba ’06 (computational mathematics), co-founder of Milo.com.

Fourth-year film and animation student Emily DeVault’s Wiggin’ Out was one of eight films created by RIT women from the School of Film and Animation shown at the High Falls Film Festival Oct. 25. The festival celebrates independent female filmmakers, directors and writers.

There was lots of love at the Bow Wow Wellness event. The Center for Student Wellness arranged for the therapy dogs’ visit to campus as a stress reduction activity on Oct. 23. Research indicates that pet therapy improves psychological well-being and self-esteem. The next chance to see the dogs is Nov. 13, 4:00-5:30 p.m. in Fireside Lounge.

The RIT MAGIC Center welcomed back alumna Anna Sweet, head of general business development at VALVE, on Oct. 24. She kicked off this year’s speaker series with her talk, “Preparing for A Career in Video Games: The Classes I Wish I Had Taken.” Sweet ’04 (computer science) joined Valve in 2008 after working at Microsoft Games Studios and MySpace/Fox Interactive. Her work with VALVE has been featured in Forbes, The Escapist, IGN, TechCrunch, ArsTechnica, Kotaku and numerous other tech news sites.

Dan Roth, professor in the computer science department at the Beckman Institute at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is known internationally for his research in machine learning and natural language understanding, and the connection to the broader field of intelligent computing. He spoke with a group of RIT students on Oct. 23 about what some of the challenges are for making future advances in machine learning, in the context of automated natural language understanding. He was also the featured speaker for the Distinguished Computational Linguistics Lecture sponsored by RIT’s College of Liberal Arts and the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences.

“What Matters to Me and Why” is a luncheon series where the RIT community can have an informal conversation with faculty and staff about personal values, journeys and visions. On Oct. 21, Ashley Carrington, fourth-year finance and management information systems student and Student Government president, shared her thoughts. The series is sponsored by the Spirituality Committee of RIT’s Student Wellness Initiative.

Students test out interactive science exhibits during Brick City Homecoming & Family Weekend. In addition, the College of Science offered lectures and a reception.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, spoke Oct. 18 as the RIT Student Government Horton Distinguished Speaker at RIT’s Brick City Homecoming & Family Weekend. Kathryn Davis, director of programming for Student Government, and Ashley Carrington, Student Government president, presented the practicing neurosurgeon with an RIT orange stethoscope.

Jerry Greenfield dishes out his namesake ice cream after delivering the Saunders College of Business’ Gasser Lecture Series Oct. 17. High school friends Greenfield and Ben Cohen started Ben & Jerry’s in 1978. Greenfield and Cohen sold Ben & Jerry’s to Unilever in 2000 and they remain employed by the company. Greenfield’s lecture, “An Afternoon of Entrepreneurial Spirit, Social Responsibility and Radical Business Philosophy,” was followed by a booksigning (Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book) and free scoops of Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough, Cherry Garcia or Chocolate Therapy ice cream.

Saunders College of Business presented the Gasser Lecture Series featuring Jerry Greenfield, who co-founded Ben & Jerry’s ice cream with Ben Cohen in 1978. Tesla Motors, an American company that manufactures electric cars, provided him with ground transportation for the event.

RIT welcomed respected neurosurgeon, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent and Emmy-award winning journalist Dr. Sanjay Gupta as this year’s Horton Distinguished Speaker Oct. 18 in the Gordon Field House and Activities Center, part of Brick City Homecoming & Family Weekend.

Saunders College of Business presented the Gasser Lecture Series featuring Jerry Greenfield, who co-founded Ben & Jerry’s ice cream with Ben Cohen in Burlington, Vt. in 1978. Recognized as a model for business success, the ice cream manufacturers were known for their social conscience and sense of humor, before the pair sold their “Chunky Monkey” and “Cherry Garcia” flavored franchises to Unilever for $325 million in 2000.