News

A research project that began with a student’s idea in an engineering laboratory at Rochester Institute of Technology is now Casana's Smart Seat, a commercial product that measures cardiovascular health metrics during one of life’s most routine activities.

Check out some of the great things our Saunders alumni are doing around the globe.

Hridiza Roy followed a summer internship at Disney Studios, with a fall position in the Gap Year Entrepreneurial Fellowship. The RIT program gave her a block of time and a stipend to advance her passion project—Painterly, an animation software tool.

Robots, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and performing arts were just a sampling of what visitors experienced at the 2026 Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival on April 25.

Imagine RIT: Creativity and Innovation Festival on Saturday features more than 450 exhibits, including electric vehicles, AI robots, and assistive technology.

Benjamin Brundage, a fourth-year computer science student, made front-page news for helping take down one of the most powerful cyberweapons ever assembled. And he’s been running his own startup at the same time.

George Dubinsky and David Short discovered a shared vision while at RIT, using it to guide them in developing their Philadelphia-based company into one that works with the world's top architects and interior designers.

A serial entrepreneur, Brandon Hudson was RIT’s first Gap Year fellow in 2018. Before that, Hudson had a knack for business, selling wristbands for the then-new Apple Watch.

Janessa Steenberg initially created the original recipe for herself to bridge a culinary gap between her vegan diet and the Italian-Maltese cuisine from her Toronto childhood and her grandmother’s kitchen.

Independent game developer Rami Ismail hired former Gap Year fellow Sam Magnolia and their cofounders at Aesthetician Labs — Noah Magnolia and Aidan Markham — to lead the development and production team for Australia Did It.

A team of Saunders students took second place in the 2026 CFA Institute Research Challenge, on February 7, at RIT.

When first-year student Phillip Minardo came to RIT, business wasn't part of his original plan—until a single class changed his mindset by mimicking a real-world workplace experience.