News
Karen Braun

Hands-on educational experience is key to future innovation, and students in RIT’s Freshman Imaging Project receive it as soon as they step foot on campus.

First-year imaging science and motion picture science students receive immediate hands-on, collaborative experiences as they start their college careers through the Freshman Imaging Project.

Rochester Institute of Technology’s imaging science department is collaborating with the Army Educational Outreach Program Apprenticeships and Fellowship for the first time this summer to provide high school seniors with a paid experience to learn about the discipline through innovation and research.

A multidisciplinary team of first-year students has been working to develop an imaging system that can reveal information hidden in historical documents for their Innovative Freshmen Experience project-based course. But with the shift to remote classes, the students left campus with the device nearly complete. Although disappointed, they shifted focus to the opportunities the new situation would create.

Karen Braun had a clear picture of what she wanted to do with her life at a young age. As Braun grew up, she developed a wide variety of interests including photography, psychology, and physics. She ultimately found a new cross-disciplinary Ph.D. program in imaging science at RIT that let her pursue those interests all at once.