News by Topic: Faculty

WXXI’s “Connections” program features Irshad Altheimer, associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and director of the Center for Public Safety Initiatives.

Scientists from RIT and the University of Rochester aim to use virtual reality to help restore vision for people with stroke-induced blindness. The team of researchers led by RIT's Gabriel Diaz, are developing a method they believe could revolutionize rehabilitation for patients with cortically induced blindness, which afflicts about 1% of the population over age 50.

Ferat Sahin and Amlan Ganguly, professors in RIT's Kate Gleason College of Engineering, were recently appointed department heads: Sahin will lead the electrical and microelectonic engineering department and Ganguly will direct the computer engineering department.

If cars talked to each other, it would improve the travel experience and help save lives—but it could also lead to malicious, even life-threatening, cyberattacks. At RIT, a team of student researchers are working to bridge this cybersecurity gap in vehicle-to-vehicle communications.

In a new game created by an RIT student, players must navigate paranoia and loneliness in order to make it off an isolated ship alive. Sean Arnold ’20 (game design and development) was inspired by his experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic to create an interactive narrative game called The Peresmeshnik.

Residents of a homeless shelter in Rochester are continuing to receive therapy during the coronavirus pandemic from a team of therapists in a clinical internship program at RIT. The doctoral training program began as an exercise in using telepsychology to deliver care to a marginalized and underserved population. When New York shut down in March to stem the spreading virus, the therapists were already prepared to apply the telehealth protocols in the crisis.

Nathaniel Barlow, associate professor in RIT’s School of Mathematical Sciences, and Steven Weinstein, head of RIT’s Department of Chemical Engineering, outline a solution to the SIR epidemic model, which is commonly used to predict how many people are susceptible to, infected by, and recovered from viral epidemics, in a study published in Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena.

Victoria Maung ’20 MFA (medical illustration) is capping her college career with a Fulbright grant that will give her an international experience and a connection to her Southeast Asian roots. With the help of RIT Global, Maung, won a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to teach high school in Malaysia.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 37: Printing, a storied industry, continues to see an evolution. RIT alumnus Henry Freedman and Professors Robert Eller and Bruce Myers discuss the strength of the industry, the rise of inkjet printing and the role RIT plays in developing professionals who can take the printing industry to the next level.

Professor Emeritus Roger Dube was recently awarded a prestigious Fulbright fellowship for a project to increase retention of First Nations students in STEM higher education programs. The project will take place at the University of Manitoba, where he is serving as Visiting Indigenous Scholar.

LaVerne McQuiller Williams, senior associate dean of RIT’s College of Liberal Arts, has been named interim COLA dean effective June 1. McQuiller Williams succeeds Dean James Winebrake, who is leaving RIT on June 30 to become provost and vice chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. 

Alesia Allen, an alumna and NTID faculty member, has been named NTID Director of Diversity and Inclusion. She begins her new duties July 1.