News by Topic: Experiential Learning

Thousands of visitors at the 2023 Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival got to see what’s on the horizon in the areas of technology, the arts, and design. Festivalgoers traversed RIT’s campus on Saturday, exploring more than 350 exhibits.

Common household items have historical value, even the board games collecting dust in the closet. Allie Cervantes, a fourth-year graphic design student with a museum studies minor, helped bring some of America’s favorite board games out of the dust and into the spotlight at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester.

WHAM-TV previews Imagine RIT as part of the Good Day Rochester segment. Reporter Sam Carter talks to Ann Ielapi, director of Imagine RIT, and highlights several exhibits: Theme Park Enthusiasts, NASA balance gamification, space radiation shield, the RIT Drumline, interpreting dreams from brainwaves, Couchbot, AI car chase, RC cars from RIT Dubai, belt sander racing, That Damn Goat, digital weaving from RIT Kosovo, robotic dog, and the human hamster wheel.

When the Student Hall for Exploration and Development (SHED) opens in the fall, the multi-use facility will create an entirely new learning environment for RIT faculty and students alike.

A new student agency called Technically Speaking is providing a valuable opportunity for RIT students to get first-hand experience in marketing and public relations. The group’s first major client was RIT’s Division of Marketing and Communications, and one of their projects was to capture the behind-the-scenes work of students getting ready for Imagine RIT.

Associate Professor Trent Hergenrader has led two study abroad trips to Portugal in the past, but this year he wanted to try something different. In January, he and 22 students traveled to Spain as part of a unique creative writing course. 

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.

A current collaboration between RIT’s industrial design program and Autodesk will soon extend beyond the classroom, as Autodesk plans to manufacture student designs to be used at the company’s signature annual conference, Autodesk University.

This year, in addition to MAGIC Spell Studios’ decade-long tradition of sending teams to the Game Developers Conference (GDC), it sent teams to PAX East for the first time.

Artificial intelligence, robots, glass blowing, drones, cybersecurity tours, and performing arts are just a sampling of what lies in store for the thousands of visitors expected at this year’s Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, April 29.

Scientists from RIT, Caltech, Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan, and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute will launch a rocket on Sunday for a short flight into space with the goal of resolving discrepancies about the sources of near-infrared light in the universe.

Jennifer O’Neil enjoys thermodynamic memes, powerplants, and Marvel Comic heroes, especially Iron Man, and she has found ways to connect all of them for her engineering technology classes. She makes these connections through activities that bring to life complex topics that solidify learning for her students.