News

Rethinking how to support students, leading and driving innovation, and investing in transformative teaching and impactful research are some of the focus areas of Caroline Solomon, who was installed as the first woman president of RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf on Oct. 10.

RIT will become a destination not just for students but for ideas, Bill Sanders said as part of formal ceremonies to install him as RIT’s 11th president. RIT community members, delegates from 42 universities, and state and community leaders attended the tradition-filled ceremony on Sept. 26.

The creation of five new endowed professorships, together valued at $15 million, was announced Sept. 26 during the inauguration of the university’s 11th president, Bill Sanders.

RIT, named as a top “National University,” continues its upward trajectory, rising to No. 88 in the 2026 U.S. News & World Report rankings. The publication also cited RIT as being among the best universities in value, game design/simulation, experiential learning with co-ops and internships, and innovation.

A Rochester and Finger Lakes region coalition that includes researchers from RIT has been named a finalist for the National Science Foundation’s Regional Innovation Engines (NSF Engines) program.

Satellites, planes, drones, canoes, and more were deployed at RIT’s Tait Preserve for ROCX 2025, an open-community, major data-collection experiment.

The field station will be open and available to all departments across the RIT community and allow for researchers to remain on-site instead of having to always move research materials between the preserve and the main campus.

RIT is celebrating a record year for sponsored research funding in fiscal year 2025, receiving $105 million.

A NASA-sponsored team at RIT is advancing single-photon sensing Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor detector technology that will enable future NASA astrophysics space missions to search for life on other planets.

A years-long student-led NASA project that develops technology to help guide rockets will near its final destination this month on board the Balloon Optimization Opportunity Platform!, or BOOP!

Attila Varga, an astrophysical sciences and technology Ph.D. candidate at RIT, is proud of his research that has led to new understanding about a newborn exoplanet that is shrinking due to the harsh X-rays of its nearby host star.

Two RIT astrophysical sciences and technology Ph.D. students had proposals accepted for the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Science Space and Technology program, which provides funding for graduate student designed and performed research projects for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.