Photo Spotlights

A celebration of life for Provost Emeritus Stan McKenzie, a beloved member of the Rochester Institute of Technology family and former senior vice president of Academic Affairs, was held March 24. McKenzie, who died Nov. 8, served RIT for 41 years in several capacities, including teaching literature for 34 years and serving as provost for 14 years. He served as director of judicial affairs and acting dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

Members of student government gather to listen to the Carillon play for the first time since 2014 on March 24.

Miles Hood, a first-year hospitality and tourism student from Rochester, N.Y., received a brush cut from his father, William Hood Sr. of Epik Hair Studios during the GLBT Health Fair March 23. The Student Wellness event featured information from Trillium Health, Victory Alliance, Gay Alliance, Student Wellness and other organizations. Representatives offered information about health, samples, games and free haircuts.

Seated from left, Bridgit Hrubecky, a second-year biomedical science student from Albany, N.Y.; Carley Geruntino, a third-year diagnostic medical sonography student from Utica, N.Y.; and Leigh Bechet, a fourth-year industrial engineering student from St. Charles, Ill., read to a group of 3-year-olds at Margaret’s House, RIT’s child care center. A new program with the RIT College Panhellenic Council donated 20 books to the center in recognition of 10 students in sororities, including these three, who earned 4.0 averages in the fall semester.

Jeanne Casares, associate vice president and chief information officer, spoke as part of the I’m First speaker series March 22. The I’m First program at RIT was started two years ago to provide support to first-generation college students. The program has a monthly lecture series that allows first-generation faculty and staff the opportunity to share their stories of success.

Ryan Jeter, a second-year 3D design student from Rochester, catches some air on the hill next to The Wallace Center. Temperatures are expected to reach only into the mid-20s today but may reach the 50s on Friday.

FIRST Robotics and the annual Finger Lakes Regional competition welcomed high school teams from across the Northeast and Canada to RIT, marking its 13th year here. This year, robotic adventure clubs mobilized for Steamworks. Forty-nine high schools competed at the event that featured team alliances acting as adventure clubs from an era in which technology relied on steam power to prepare airships for the ultimate long distance race.

RIT President Bill Destler was recognized for his long-time support of FIRST Robotics and the annual Finger Lakes Regional competition on March 17. Destler, left, was honored by Rick Byrant, a member of the Finger Lakes Regional Planning Committee.

More than 150 students from packaging science programs across the country came to RIT for the annual Packaging Jamboree. Conference attendees were able to learn about the latest industry trends, network with professionals in the field and present current research about packaging projects underway. One of those projects, presented by RIT graduate packaging student Kevin Cosgrove, is about how the packaging industry will incorporate drone technology into e-commerce delivery.

Kara Massie, producer at Vicarious Visions, spoke at the kickoff for the first-ever New York State Game Dev Challenge at the MAGIC Center. On March 10, RIT announced the New York State Game Development Challenge, a statewide competition for students and indie developers that will help bring game ideas to production. Participants will have about nine weeks to develop their games and winners will be announced during an event in May. RIT was named one of three Digital Gaming Hubs in New York state by Empire State Development. The goal is to increase the economic impact to New York state by fostering innovation and creating collaborative activities that spur new games or companies as well as providing resources and mentoring to encourage students and entrepreneurs to enter the growing gaming industry.

Hal Daume III, associate professor in Computer Science at the University of Maryland, meets with computing and information sciences Ph.D. students and faculty facilitators prior to his talk during the Distinguished Computational Linguistics Lecture, where he will talk about natural language processing on creative content.

Photography professor Michael Peres has an exhibit, Snowflakes Up Close, at the Rochester Museum & Science Center through April 30. The exhibit area, set-up to be similar to Peres’ garage where he does his work, includes a microscope, photographic prints of snowflakes and pages from his recent children’s book, Michael Photographs a Snowflake. His snowflake photography has been featured in Time, the Weather Channel and CNN. More examples can be seen on his Instagram @michael_peres.