University News

Researchers in RIT's Tissue Regeneration and Mechanobiology Lab are investigating a new approach that could change how fibrosis is treated across organs in patients suffering from systemic sclerosis: targeting the protein TRPC6, a small ion channel—that can sense mechanical cues such as stiffness.

A serial entrepreneur, Brandon Hudson was RIT’s first Gap Year fellow in 2018. Before that, Hudson had a knack for business, selling wristbands for the then-new Apple Watch.

Janessa Steenberg initially created the original recipe for herself to bridge a culinary gap between her vegan diet and the Italian-Maltese cuisine from her Toronto childhood and her grandmother’s kitchen.

Independent game developer Rami Ismail hired former Gap Year fellow Sam Magnolia and their cofounders at Aesthetician Labs — Noah Magnolia and Aidan Markham — to lead the development and production team for Australia Did It.

Hridiza Roy followed a summer internship at Disney Studios, with a fall position in the Gap Year Entrepreneurial Fellowship. The RIT program gave her a block of time and a stipend to advance her passion project—Painterly, an animation software tool.

When Don Pettit, NASA’s most senior astronaut, sought a way to accurately capture his view from the International Space Station, alumnus Peter Blacksberg connected him with Ted Kinsman, associate professor in the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences.

Computer science major Emma Schmitt took a required co-op seminar class to help prepare for the internship search and what do to on the job, helping her land co-ops at Honeywell/LenelS2 and Microsoft.

Amelia Hunkele, now in her second year as a new media design major, is this year’s winning artist for the Imagine RIT poster, which depicts a Rube Goldberg machine.