News

According to a 2023 Bloomberg article, over 5 million startup companies are founded each year in the United States. At RIT’s Albert J. Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, students are working together to turn their dreams of starting companies into reality.

The Rochester Business Journal talks to Richard DeMartino, professor of management and director of the Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, about education options in career areas outside of a bachelor’s degree.

WXXI’s “Connections” program features Richard DeMartino, professor of management and director for the Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

This semester, five graduate students attending RIT through the Fulbright Foreign Student Program have come together in one course to grow their skills in creating and running new organizations. These students intend to use their newly enhanced skills to create positive impacts in their home countries.

RIT student Jake Downie has been “all in” for the past few years when working to advance JDocs, a startup he created with fellow computer science student Artem Goncharov. And now, a JDocs product, FlexFile, is making waves in the legal industry. Last week, FlexFile became a semifinalist to compete in ABA Techshow’s Startup Alley competition.

Student Janessa Steenberg’s plant-based Parmesan-style cheese start-up company, Panacheeza, has earned her a spot in Venture Creations’ Ignite initiative, which gives promising entrepreneurs the power they need to become successful business owners.

Peter Hogya, a computer science major in RIT’s Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, was honored with the Herbert W. Vanden Brul Student Entrepreneurial Award at last week’s Vanden Brul Entrepreneurial Award Luncheon at Genesee Valley Club in Rochester.

In a move to further enhance an already robust innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, RIT is partnering with the NSF’s I-Corps Hub: Interior Northeast Region. RIT will join a consortium of 10 renowned regional colleges and universities that will utilize $15 million in NSF funding over the next five years to implement and execute a cohesive innovation ecosystem that delivers inclusive models of education and workforce training.

Local businessman and entrepreneur Bernard Kozel was known for having as much passion for helping others develop their businesses as he did for developing his own. Kozel’s dedication to supporting his partners, employees, and entrepreneurs in creating success is the inspiration behind several gifts to RIT.

A trio of trailblazing students who came to RIT from the university’s partner charter school will fulfill a long-term promise when they receive their college degrees at commencement this May. Zaid Abdulsalam, Ismael Cortes Jr., and Justice Marbury were among the first students to enroll at Rochester Prep High School, and they were the three students from the first graduating class in 2018 who chose RIT as their destination.

RIT’s Albert J. Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, created to help students invent and problem solve through experiential learning, offers multidisciplinary student teams a stipend for the unique opportunity to examine their businesses and, for some, move them to the next level of development.

RIT is contributing to Rochester’s revitalization efforts in a significant way, bringing a creative energy and economic development acumen translating into important arts, cultural, educational, and economic opportunities for the city.