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For Jane Amstey, community engagement and working with youth is part of her identity. The newly appointed senior director for the Office of Pre-College Programs, through the K-12 University Center at Rochester Institute of Technology, has dedicated her life to giving back to those she helps serve in and out of the office.

Rochester Institute of Technology is hosting the JSHS Central/Western New York Subregional contest where high school students are given the chance to present results of original research efforts before a panel of judges and an audience of their peers. At the end of the event, one participant will be selected for the New York State regional competition.

Many RIT faculty, staff and students work with Camp Tiger to bring various expertise to youth campers in unique STEAM learning experiences. That includes adjunct professor Alan Gesek and a grad student from the College of Art and Design that take content out of the classroom and into youth settings to combine the arts and sciences that allow opportunities for the facilitators to promote their fields, while sparking excitement in campers and their families.

Come explore inside the SHED (Student Hall for Exploration and Development) during an open house for the RIT community.

That Damn Goat, a game created by nearly 60 students and faculty at RIT, is now available for purchase on Steam. The students and faculty who have worked on the game come from across RIT’s nine colleges, making it a truly multidisciplinary effort.

Resistance Mapping is a local, collaborative digital humanities project focused on how Monroe County, N.Y., has been shaped by histories of institutional racism and collective community resistance. Scholars and students affiliated with RIT’s humanities, computing, and design program and the University of Rochester’s Digital Scholarship at River Campus Libraries helped create a website to host the educational content.

The Athenaeum Games—a domestic science fair held Dec. 7 in the RIT Archives—showcased 19th century skills and technology that RIT students learned about in the class Hands on History: Examining RIT’s Domestic Science and Arts Program.

Students in the History and Technology of Musical Instruments class taught by Matias Homar at RIT got the chance to take a discarded harpsichord and bring it to life, juicing it up with electricity, connecting it with a computer and monitors, and adding sensors, microphones, and even lights to it.

RIT is partnering with Synapse Virtual Production on an in-person immersion in Los Angeles next month that will provide creatives, technologists, and classically trained filmmakers with the latest training in experiential elements for virtual production.

Betsy Dell, professor in the College of Engineering Technology, and Makini Beck, assistant professor in the College of Liberal Arts and the School of Individualized Study, are leading a National Science Foundation-funded project to support minoritized women students in STEM through a co-mentoring network.

With its five extra-large classrooms, seven makerspaces, performing arts studios, and glass box theater, the $120 million SHED complex is made for a new generation of RIT students who see themselves as makers and doers, performers, and active learners.

Like many fields, the world of academia is wrestling with the challenges and opportunities presented by generative AI tools. While a few K-12 school districts, international universities, and businesses have attempted to ban the use of AI tools, RIT is acknowledging that it’s here to stay and can be used as a force for good.