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The two-week trip through the German cities of Paderborn and Frankfurt was the culmination of a spring semester course that introduced students to game design and development in Germany. For the study abroad program, students participated in an extended game jam with German students, sat in on a class about artificial intelligence in the games industry and toured three game studios.

A professor from RIT Croatia is featured in Ice on Fire, a new HBO documentary about climate change produced by Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio, George DiCaprio and Mathew Schmid and directed by Leila Conners. Professor Staša Puškarić is one of several scientists featured who outline solutions designed stave off the worst effects of global warming.

Callie Babbitt, an associate professor in RIT’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability, will study sustainable solutions that will address the growing challenge of food waste management along Croatia’s Adriatic coast.

Professor John Kerekes will spend the next year advising the U.S. Department of State on issues including its air quality monitoring program and Earth Challenge 2020, the world’s largest ever coordinated citizen science campaign. He is one of 11 faculty nationwide to be selected for a 2019-2020 Jefferson Science Fellowship.

The fellowship program provides opportunities to outstanding scientists and engineers to learn first-hand about policymaking and contribute their knowledge and analytical skills in the policy realm. Brennan Ireland ’18 Ph.D. (astrophysical sciences and technology) will use his analytical skills to quantitatively evaluate countries to get a better picture of what their futures look like.

The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor took first place overall at the 2019 Baja SAE Rochester challenge, an international student-design competition that challenges students to apply classroom knowledge with real-world applications. RIT placed 10th overall among 100 collegiate race teams that took on a daunting motor cross field and four challenging days of competition.

An RIT alumnus received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award in computer engineering to help drones assist with search and rescue operations in difficult terrain such as dense forests or steep mountains where GPS might not be reliable. Andrew Ramsey ’18 (computer engineering), ’18 MS (computer engineering) will conduct research at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt as part of a project to research innovative ways to determine the location of a drone in a low-cost and reliable manner.

RIT researchers are studying the genetic switch that could make cattle resistant to the wasting disease known as “sleeping sickness.” Bolaji Thomas, professor of biomedical sciences in RIT’s College of Health Sciences and Technology, is examining different immune responses to bovine trypanosomiasis within the same species of cattle in Nigeria.

RIT has received a grant from the National Science Foundation to help make artificial intelligence smarter and more inclusive. The grant creates the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site in Computational Sensing for Human-centered AI and will allow a total of 30 undergraduate students from across the country to spend 10 weeks at RIT.

This year, more students will graduate from RIT’s international campuses than ever before. RIT’s campuses in China, Croatia, Dubai and Kosovo are expected to award degrees to more than 500 students, up from 369 degrees granted in 2017-18.

Administrators from NTID and a delegation from Changchun University in China signed a Memorandum of Understanding at a ceremony May 6 establishing a cultural and educational partnership between the two institutions. The Memorandum of Understanding will establish student and faculty exchange programs in the art and design fields.

Aditi Khazanchi came to RIT with three goals in mind. “I wanted to learn how to design inclusive experiences that empower people around me; gain industry experience; and learn from cultures outside of my own,” said Khazanchi, who grew up in New Delhi, India. Check, check and check.