Photo Spotlights

Keith Jenkins, RIT interim vice president and associate provost, speaks to his Intercultural Communication class of students from the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP). HEOP is committed to the recruitment and academic success of disadvantaged students with strong academic potential and personal initiative who would otherwise be excluded from higher education at a private New York State college or university. This week the students began an intensive four-week summer residence pre-freshmen program.

The one-week workshop in digital photography for high school students covered camera controls, composition, flash techniques, demos and more. Here, Dan Hughes, an RIT lecturer in photo sciences, demonstrated painting with light in a dark studio. Other summer workshops held by the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences include color managed workflow for digital print and photojournalism.

From left, middle school students Jack Peyre, Sarah Kroetz and Ebun Thomas collected insect specimens for the “Living Things: From Macroscopic to Microscopic” camp this week, hosted by RIT’s Center for Bioscience Education and Technology. They identified and studied the insects under microscopes before setting them free.

Middle school students participated in the “Living Things: From Macroscopic to Microscopic” camp this week held by the Center for Bioscience Education and Technology. Here, Chris Widmaier, camp instructor for the class, demonstrated flash freezing plants with liquid nitrogen.

At RIT/NTID’s career exploration program, Explore Your Future, students William Pena from Willie Ross School for the Deaf in Massachusetts and Danielle Morley from Eastern North Carolina School for the Deaf develop new skills by teaming up to create and program their own robot. The camp runs through July 13.

Members of the RIT community lined up to extend a warm welcome to its 10th president, David Munson, on his first day in office. Learn more about RIT’s 10th president at rit.edu/president.

Members of the RIT community lined up to extend a warm welcome to its 10th president, David Munson, on his first day in office. Learn more about RIT’s 10th president at rit.edu/president.

New pedestrian walkway signs went up around campus recently. The names feature RIT-related people from the past and iconic spots on campus.

The 2017 REU Graduate Study and Research Symposium was jointly hosted by RIT’s seven REU programs and sponsored by RIT’s Office of the Vice President for Research. The National Science Foundation-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates programs draw top students from across the country and expose them to different perspectives. Approximately eight to 10 students per program work with RIT researchers for 10 weeks in the following areas: accessible multimodal interfaces; computational sensing; extremal graph theory and dynamical systems; imaging in the physical sciences; materials, applications and development for organic photovoltaic devices; model-based reasoning in STEM education; and multimessenger astrophysics. To read more, go to rit.edu/news/story.php?id=62292.

Saunders College of Business named John LiDestri, CEO of LiDestri Food & Drink, as the 2017 recipient of the Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award. The award ceremony was held at Oak Hill Country Club on June 28 and included remarks by Saunders Dean Jacqueline Mozrall, right, and LiDestri, who discussed his business success in the local community.

Representatives of ASM Systems and RIT’s Center for Electronics Manufacturing and Assembly (CEMA) celebrated their expanded research and development collaboration during a half-day event on June 21. ASM installed new electronics manufacturing equipment in the center to be used for research, undergraduate and graduate courses and workforce development training. CEMA is a partner in RIT’s AIM Photonics initiative and is part of the team developing electronics packaging solutions. The new equipment and R&D efforts would be a means to contribute to this effort.

RIT’s Center for Media, Arts, Games, Interaction and Creativity (MAGIC) worked with Make-A-Wish Central New York to grant a wish for 14-year-old Riley Zabele, who loves video games, especially interactive games that involve design. Riley, who has a brain tumor, and his family traveled to Rochester from Madison County on June 17 to pick up his new high-end, custom-built gaming computer created by MAGIC Center Director Andy Phelps and Associate Director Chris Egert. Riley also received several gifts donated by “friends of MAGIC,” including Vicarious Visions, Bungie, Re-Logic, Microsoft and Valve. Pictured, back row from left, are Phelps; Jennifer Hinton, assistant director, MAGIC Center; Jim Ockenden, Make-A-Wish Western New York Advisory Board; and Lou Diorio and Cristofer Sochacki, MAGIC Center co-op students. Seated in front row are Riley, left, and Egert.