Researchers at Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester discovered an alternative to successfully purify biological particles to better understand how cells communicate with one another. The teams collaborated on work to better understand extracellular vesticles (EV). All cell types in the body release EVs for intercellular communication by exchanging proteins, RNA, DNA and lipids. There is a growing interest in EVs as a platform for liquid biopsy techniques. New technologies and science discoveries at the nano-scale—such as extracellular vesicles—might enable new ways of improving diagnostics and health care. Purification of EVs is the first step in exploring the therapeutic and diagnostic potential of EVs, said faculty-researcher Thomas Gaborski. ‌ Elizabeth Lamark Thomas Gaborski, associate professor of biomedical engineering, is working on purifying biological particles to better understand how cells communicate with one another. “Our work in the past has been on making tissue barrier models, or tissue-on-chip models, using our  ultrathin nanomembranes,” said Gaborski, associate professor of biomedical engineering in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering. “This work is a little different. What we’re doing is using membranes to collect and purify extracellular vesicles, small lipid vesicles that are secreted by cells, to help them communicate. People are excited about extracellular vesicles because they’ll help us understand how cells talk to each other inside the body. This is a novel method to help us understand biological and physiological processes.” The teams at RIT and UR collaborated to develop a technique called Tangential Flow for Analyte Capture (TFAC) that uses ultra-thin, nano-membranes to better collect and purify extracellular vesicles from biofluids. Understanding the important functions of these tiny but powerful communicators, extracellular vesicles can provide information about the biological and physiological processes taking place in the body. The research was recently published in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies. Gaborski and RIT doctoral student Mehdi (Aslan) Dehghani worked with UR professor of biomedical engineering James McGrath, research scientist Jonathan Flax and doctoral student Kilean Lucas on developing this new purification technique. Using the Tangential Flow for Analyte Capture Technique The TFAC filtration-based system is a low-pressure process reducing the possibility of damaging EVs. TFAC also leads to purification of EVs with minimal contaminations, suggesting promising potentials of this technique for high purity EV samples, said Dehghani, a microsystems engineering Ph.D. candidate working in Gaborski’s NanoBio Device Laboratory. His work with the research team involved comparing the performance of the ultrathin nano-membranes that consist of novel materials such as silicon and silicon nitride with conventional polymeric membranes. To better understand the biological roles of extracellular vesicles and to fully utilize them as therapeutic and diagnostic tools, they first need to be purified. There is no gold standard technique for purification of EVs, and all the available techniques have their own advantages and limitations, Dehghani explained. “There are other available techniques for purifying EVs such as ultra-centrifugation, which is the most common technique,” he said. “But there are different concerns such as the low yield and limited throughput. One of the other concerns is contamination or co-purification of particles that are not actually EVs. Additionally, some of these techniques could potentially damage the particles, and EVs might not be intact with preserved biological functions any more after purification.”  “We have shown the advantages of our membranes over conventional membranes in purification of nanoparticles such as EVs, but we are also working with our collaborators at the University of Rochester to optimize this system,” he said.  Gaborski agreed. “What we are bringing to the table is a new, better and more efficient filter than any that has been used in this space before. We can actually do different and better types of separations more efficiently. We are the new materials creators, and our work with novel membranes and materials to enable partners and collaborators to build systems around the membrane.” Read More The advantages of working differently: RIT Ph.D. candidate Mehdi (Aslan) Dehghani secured an internship at bio-device company after his team's research paper was published nationally. Read the story.

A study abroad experience for RIT’s College of Engineering Technology (CET) students took place over Zoom when the class connected with peers from Hochschule Mittweida University of Applied Sciences in central Germany. Fourteen students from RIT were part of the spring class Global Engineering Experience - Automotive Electronics taught by Martin Anselm, assistant professor in CET’s Department of Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology. It was to be the onsite class for a faculty-led international program that would continue over the summer with travel to Germany. While travel plans changed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, students still connected with peers through Zoom meetings for classes in culture and language as well as instruction in automotive engineering design principles to understand the industry perspective from two continents, said Jarrett Duncovich, one of the students. “We had a meeting with the students in Germany at the beginning of the semester to introduce ourselves,” he said. “We had other lessons on German culture, traditions and basic language. The week before our presentations, Professor Weidermann, from Mittweida, lectured us on the importance of Finite Element Analysis on a design.” FEA is the process of using computer simulation to model the behavior of a part or assembly during design phases. The combination of automotive technology with electronics manufacturing was a way to help students understand how components are integrated into today’s vehicles and the skills they would need to work within the industry.  “During the semester, we learned about electronics manufacturing and even looked at a few examples of circuit boards from two different cars to evaluate how they were different in design and features,” said Nicole Cuello Wajdowicz, another student in the program. “This was to help us understand and differentiate how products are designed for the environment they are going to be functioning in.” In preparation for end-of-semester group presentations, each of the students became familiar with several automotive electronic systems and analyzed the types of designs on the assemblies to account for the environment they would be placed into as well as the manufacturing processes. (These presentations were to take place in Germany.) “This gave us a basic understanding of how the United States produces these devices,” said Duncovich, who is from Islip Terrace, N.Y., and who graduated this May. “When it came time for the presentations, we researched sources through academic sources, Google searches, and compiled our research into a presentation. After compiling the gathered research and spending weeks finalizing the presentation with the feedback from Dr. Anselm, we presented it over Zoom to the class in Germany.” Anselm, who is also director of RIT’s Center for Electronic Manufacturing and Assembly (CEMA), has been taking students to Hochschule Mittweida University since 2017. It is one of several featured through RIT Global, Faculty-Led Programs where faculty combine on-campus study or project-based initiatives during the semester with an international travel experience to enhance course topics. Anselm’s course is both a cultural and technical immersion into the auto industry and electronics assemblies for vehicles and how different countries approach the latest innovations in car design and development. Once the semester was completed, the students would visit the German campus for just over two weeks with lectures and activities with the students from Hochschule Mittweida and afternoon visits to regional historic sites and tours of some of the top auto firms in the world, including BMW, Volkswagen and Porsche, located in nearby Leipzig and Dresden. Another draw, especially for RIT students on the RIT Baja and Formula racecar teams, are meetings with peers from Hochschule Mittweida’s Formula race team. Anselm has a personal connection to the host university in Germany, which comes as a surprise to the students while they are learning more about their classmates overseas and the university—a 150-year-old international campus with 7,000-plus students. Julius Johann Alexander Anselm is one of the former presidents of the university and helped restart the university after World War II. “This semester is likely one we will not forget for a very long time. My students and I have faced challenges and disappointments this semester we could not have predicted,” said Anselm about the class. “Despite the challenges, we still managed to participate via online platforms to host Hochschule Mittweida in several joint classes and events.” One of those events was a session by Sarah Reader, language professor at Mittweida. “The impressions of the Americans during the Intercultural Introduction and German Quick Lessons always play a big role,” said Reader in a statement. “Even if we were only able to offer a small part of the regular program, it was again exciting to answer the questions of RIT students about life and everyday life in Germany and the German language.” COVID-19 changed everything for the group this year, and although they did not get to Germany, there were moments that made a big difference to the students, said Cuello Wajdowicz, who is from New York City. She also graduated in May. “I am very passionate about electronics manufacturing,” she said. “This class was extremely helpful at adding to the knowledge I previously had. But also, it was a great opportunity to learn about a different culture with different customs. In my opinion, this class is the perfect combination of an engineering course with a cultural course.” For Jarrett, travel to Germany was on his personal “bucket list.” Although he was unable to travel for this academic year, he valued how today’s automotive market is so interconnected. “When we get out into the workforce, you are expected to communicate with various different personalities, languages, cultures, and expectations all trying to unite under one common goal. Some of the things I took away from this was that even though we are oceans apart and come from different cultures, the knowledge of engineering and the science behind it is one universal language.” 

Undergraduate engineering technology and computing students at Rochester Institute of Technology found ways to reduce energy consumption at the university’s Margaret’s House Child Care Center. Members of RIT’s student chapter of National Electrical Contracting Association (NECA) worked this spring with child care staff as part of the annual NECA Green Energy Challenge, an annual student design competition sponsored by NECA. Teams from universities across the country build plans to reduce energy usage and integrate alternative energy solutions. This year, student teams were asked to develop plans for an energy upgrade for a facility that provides community services, such as shelters, food pantries, child care centers, libraries or houses of worship.   “There are students doing these types of projects all over the country,” said Jon Walton, a fifth-year electrical engineering technology major from Rochester, N.Y., and team project manager. “You use a place as a basis for designing a building as close to net-zero as possible, typically with the installation of solar panels, wind power, things like that. We settled on a campus location because this building serves the community.”  Margaret’s House is a child care facility located on the residential side of the RIT campus. Built in 1996, the site has multiple rooms for small and large group activities, and early childhood education classes for infants, toddlers and pre-school age children. Over the summer, the center also hosts Kids on Campus, a summer camp program. Team members spent time with Margaret’s House staff, particularly its directors, Deanna LaManna and Jennifer Tills, and Harold Fields, director of Residence Life, to review building plans. The original work was done more than 25 years ago, and although there have been upgrades to facility systems and fixtures since that time, the team recommended several quick but important fixes, said Walton. “The building still had some of those fluorescent tubes from back in the day. Just replacing some of the current lighting with more LED of bulbs can reduce energy consumption by one third,” Walton estimated. “We also recommended solar panels on the roof and increased sensor technologies for room lighting. And we wanted to find a way to tie our plans to the main building system.” That tie-in was a challenge the team needed to address. Student design competitions are as much about showcasing new, alternative energy solutions as they are about showing how student teams overcome real-world problems. “At every part of the project we have to share information about why we made decisions,” said Walton. Margaret’s House is part of the larger campus residential system, a common operational process. “Getting the actual load, specific to this building, like how much electricity that building actually consumes, it was difficult. We had to look at all the devices and estimate as best we could through some manual calculations to arrive at workable data.” Walton developed a lighting analysis to indicate both the exact location of lights and how many foot candles—light intensity—are being produced for each surface. “We wanted to show that our solutions are within the Illuminating Engineering Society’s guideline for a given space, and we also looked to the EPA energy benchmarks to ensure our work is benchmarked against other buildings in the area,” he added. Additional support and mentoring by staff of O’Connell Electric, a regional powerline and communications contractor, contributed to details of the project. RIT’s NECA team is based in the College of Engineering Technology. Students have participated in the design competition since the student chapter was established in 2013. Projects have ranged from on-campus facilities such as the university’s Student Alumni Union to community sites such as the Irondequoit Town Hall and Bishop Kearney High School. “Design challenges such as this are a way to improve and connect student learning,” said Walton, who expects to graduate next year. He has participated on several co-op experiences with local building design firms and this experience helped him guide the team’s work toward a solution that can keep the children in a well-lit and energy efficient facility. “If only you could harness the natural energy of 3-to-5-year-olds in day care centers, that could have made for a great alternative energy solution,” said Dave Krispinsky, laughing. The professor in RIT’s College of Engineering Technology has been the team’s faculty adviser since the student chapter began. “Each team gets stronger, the projects get tougher, and the way they incorporate what they learn in a classroom can be seen very clearly in the results. Their ideas and recommendations can go easily to just about any design firm to implement.” Walton’s teammates are: Josh Bentivegna ’20 (electrical mechanical engineering technology); Brent Burgess, a second-year computing security major in RIT’s Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. They will submit their final plan and documentation in June, and winners are announced at the NECA annual meeting and convention expected to take place in October.

In a biology lab in Gosnell Hall, Professor André Hudson has been spending hours this summer testing products to see whether they are effective at killing and filtering microorganisms such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi. The head of the Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences has been testing these products—ranging from air ionization devices to titanium dioxide surface treatments—on behalf of RIT’s Infrastructure and Health Technologies task force to see if they will help make the campus safer for classes this fall. “This is to confirm the published claims made by manufacturers,” said Hudson. “Companies of course are going to report that their products are very effective at killing the coronavirus and other microbes, so before the university spends a lot of money purchasing them, we want to make sure it’s independently confirmed. So, I’m doing some tried-and-true microbiological tests on these products to see how effective they are. I report the data to the task force and discuss the findings with respect to efficacy and they make the decision whether or not to move forward.” The task force, led by RIT Finance and Administration, is putting changes in place to make RIT’s campus as safe and clean as possible so that students, faculty, and staff can study and work confidently and comfortably in the fall. They are implementing a variety of changes to RIT’s academic settings, housing, and dining. And they have been utilizing in-house expertise from RIT’s health engineering professionals and scientists like Hudson to inform their decisions. ‌ Gabrielle Plucknette-DeVito Facilities Management Services (FMS) has increased the frequency of cleaning for RIT’s public areas, including classrooms, lobbies, elevators, door handles, restrooms, and more. Here, custodian Valerie Harris performs deep cleaning in Gosnell Hall. Hudson’s analysis helped RIT determine that bipolar ionization systems would be effective at helping to neutralize viruses, bacteria, allergens, mold, and other airborne contaminants, so they are being installed in residence halls, apartments, and academic buildings. Unlike many air purification systems on a standard air filter, the ions interact with biological contaminants to make them inert. Another expert being consulted is Jennifer Schneider, the Eugene H. Fram Chair of Applied Critical Thinking and a professor in the Department of Civil Engineering Technology, Environmental Management and Safety. She is a certified industrial hygienist whose background is in disaster science and HAZMAT and has been advising the task force on putting the right mix of controls in place—engineered systems, behavioral expectations, and personal protective equipment. “It all has to be done in a coordinated fashion and in concert with one another,” said Schneider. “Behavior is so key in this instance because there is no perfect engineering control that we can use, they all have their limitations. Everyone would like a silver bullet, but it just simply doesn’t exist, so RIT is investing resources in a way that will provide the best protection we can. Ultimately, so much of this is going to be driven by individual and collective behavior.” While the immediate concern is the fall, the task force has also been thinking long term. John Moore, associate vice president of facilities management and a co-chair of the Infrastructure and Health Technologies task force, said many of the changes RIT is implementing will benefit the university even after the coronavirus pandemic has passed. “We’re being strategic about what we put in place, and many of these changes will continue to benefit the university for years to come,” said Moore. “For example, the air ionization systems will continue to provide fresher, cleaner air for years, and things like mobile food ordering are introducing new, convenient options for our customers. We have put a lot of thought and care into the changes we’re making.” Those changes are now well underway. For example, air ionizers are currently being installed in residence halls, Grace Watson Hall, and apartments. Installation for the units in the academic buildings will begin in August. For more information about changes RIT is implementing to prepare for the fall semester, visit the RIT Ready website.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, RIT’s Division of Diversity and Inclusion wanted to create a way for faculty and staff to connect with people from different backgrounds despite the limitations that come with physical distancing. In April, they launched the “What’s Your Diversity” program, a weekly storytelling and dialogue hour held via Zoom that allowed RIT faculty and staff to share how diversity impacts their lives. Each week a different employee received a turn in the spotlight and 13 faculty and staff presented from April to June. The intimate sessions, averaging about 15 attendees, were facilitated by Taj Smith, director of diversity education, and Nicole Scott, director of the Native American Future Stewards Program. The program’s organizers selected speakers to provide perspective from a wide range of different races, ethnicities, genders, sexual identities, physical abilities, and other attributes. “I hope that by listening to people’s stories, every participant was able to learn and grow from it,” said Scott. “We each have our own silos and sometimes it’s tough to break out of them. There’s some vulnerability that comes with sharing your story, and I had many people tell me they did not think their story was ‘interesting.’ So, I’m very thankful to our guests. I hope Taj and I were able to show that each story is important and needed. I hope it allowed them to reflect on their journey and be proud of it.” Participants recommended art, music, books, and other resources that resonated with them personally and that they feel could help attendees better understand their perspectives. Each week the organizers created Instagram posts to highlight the resources shared by the presenters. Harshita Sood, assistant director of campus sustainability, attended five sessions as a listener and presented on May 27 and said the program offered an important opportunity to reflect on her own similarities and differences with other participants. “I learned how to put into practice the concept of humble inquiry as a way to respectfully ask presenters about their experiences, some of which could be difficult for storytellers to share,” said Sood. “I particularly enjoyed hearing about my colleagues’ favorite podcasts, books and artists. I added some of these to my collections and it’s helped expand my horizons of understanding. As a presenter, I was grateful to share my experiences as an immigrant woman of color, and how my identity carved my career path and led me to study environmental science at RIT, and then work in the field of sustainability.” The first iteration of the program wrapped up on June 10, and Scott and Smith are now in the midst of hosting a special three-part summer series for global students. The program will resume in the fall semester twice per month during the eastern time lunch hour over Zoom with Smith and a new co-host. The program will also include students from the U.S. and RIT’s global campuses. Visit the Division of Diversity and Inclusion website for information about future editions of the “What’s Your Diversity?” program and other diversity education and training programs.                              

Josh Owen, an internationally renowned designer, author and faculty-researcher who has led Rochester Institute of Technology’s industrial design program to national prominence since coming to the university a decade ago, has been named the new director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies and the Massimo and Lella Vignelli Distinguished Professor of Design. Owen succeeds R. Roger Remington, the founding director of the international resource for design that houses the archive of the late Massimo and Lella Vignelli, whose graphic and product designs are icons of modern design. Remington retired in June after 57 years at RIT. ‌ Elizabeth Lamark Josh Owen succeeds R. Roger Remington as director of the Vignelli Center for Design Studies, the international resource for design that houses the archive of the late Massimo and Lella Vignelli. The search was led by Todd Jokl, dean of the College of Art and Design, who is “excited to work closely with Josh and the Vignelli Center on our ambitious agenda and to realize even greater appreciation and access to this remarkable resource in our region and globally.” “Josh Owen’s career in the profession and in education exemplifies the power of design to better the world in many ways,” Jokl said. “Just as Roger Remington was the perfect champion to found and lead the Vignelli Center through its first decade, Josh comes into this position with a unique mix of leadership skills, ambition and networking to advance and expand the center’s reach and programming in the decades ahead.” Owen said he is “deeply honored and grateful that both my colleagues and RIT’s leadership felt that I was the right fit to lead the Vignelli Center.” “I also recognize the substantial responsibility of ensuring that the Vignelli Center grows as a global beacon for good design,” added Owen. Both the directorship and endowed distinguished professorship were made possible through generous support from the Helen Hamlyn Trust of Great Britain, in conjunction with the university. “The sense of responsibility is balanced by my excitement and enthusiasm for the work to be done.” The Vignelli Center is marking a decade since its establishment in 2010—the same year Owen arrived on the RIT campus. Since that time, Owen and Remington have built a close working relationship as both faculty colleagues and widely respected designers. This year’s Metaproject—Owen’s brainchild pairing RIT student designers with a real-world client partner in what has become a seminal project for industrial design students who regularly get to exhibit their projects at Design Week in New York City—marked a celebratory collaboration by honoring both the 10th anniversary of the course and the Vignelli Center. “Roger was one of the reasons I accepted the offer to join RIT in the first place a decade ago,” Owen recalled. “In the 10 years since our first meeting, Roger has become a colleague, mentor and friend. We have collaborated on countless projects galvanized by the Vignelli Center and he has been generous in sharing his process and passion with me. I am looking forward to his continued camaraderie as I transition into the role and onward.” Remington said he is “delighted” to pass the directorship baton of the Vignelli Center—the crown jewel of his efforts to turn RIT into an international archival resource for design—to Owen. “I am confident that the Vignelli Center for Design Studies will flourish in this next phase of its evolution,” he said. “Having worked closely with Josh on Vignelli Center programming for many years, I am delighted to pass the leadership torch to him. I look forward to being part of this growth and supporting our new director and Vignelli professor.” Owen noted that Massimo and Lella Vignelli’s children, Valentina and Luca, “have been generous in helping us to accession additional items into the archives and we very much appreciate their continued support.” He added that “the Vignelli archives were not only a great gift to RIT, but it is the legacy of the Vignellis’ design vision that is the true gift” to a troubled world. “The Vignellis taught us that design is a systematic framework for solving the world’s most intractable problems,” said Owen, named to RIT’s first class of Distinguished Faculty in 2019. “My goal is to make the Vignelli Center even more accessible and applicable by bringing in exciting guest contributors from diverse and under-represented backgrounds who are using design in innovative ways.” “If 2020 has taught us anything,” he added, “it’s that while we humans are adaptable, our societies and systems have major flaws. We are at a point when we need to have difficult discussions and work to create a new balance in the world. In this, design must play a critical role.” In addition to his role at RIT, Owen is president of his design studio, Josh Owen LLC. His professional projects are produced by major manufacturers and have won numerous industry awards. His works are included in the permanent design collections of the ADAM Brussels Design Museum, Centre Pompidou, Corning Museum of Glass, Denver Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, The Chicago Athenaeum National Museum of American Jewish History and Taiwan Design Museum. He also is the author of the book Lenses for Design and the forthcoming Design for Study. While Owen will continue to teach the Metaproject course, Bruce Leonard, a lecturer in the School of Design, will take over as director of the undergraduate industrial design BFA program. Alex Lobos will continue in his role as the graduate director of the MFA in industrial design.

Rochester Institute of Technology is one of America’s top universities according QS Quacquarelli Symonds, a global higher education research company and publisher of the QS World University Rankings. RIT ranked 11th in New York state and in the 111-120 band nationally in the first annual QS World University Rankings: USA. In total, QS named 300 institutions as the best four-year universities in the United States. The report is designed to assess how well universities are responding to the social, intellectual, and economic challenges of our time. Universities are ranked according their research performance and career outcomes as well as a range of indicators assessing each institution’s social impact and attempts to foster equitability. Such indicators include gender pay gap, faculty gender diversity, ratio of undergraduate students receiving Pell Grants, and retention rate. The methodology also evaluates universities based on the efforts they are making to support the 17 UN Sustainable Development goals. The full list is published at the Top Universities website. Visit RIT’s rankings and recognitions to see additional accolades the university has received.

Richard Doolittle has been named interim dean of RIT’s College of Health Sciences and Technology, effective immediately. “In addition to being an accomplished professor, Richard is a successful researcher as well. His research interests include biomedical engineering projects within orthopedic rehabilitation as well as virtual reality environments pertaining to medical education,” said Ellen Granberg, RIT’s provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs. In recent years, Doolittle’s professional interests have extended to the development of programs to support deaf/hard-of-hearing people into health care careers. Doolittle has a long history with RIT’s health care programs, and he has served as vice dean of the College of Health Sciences and Technology for nearly a decade. Prior to that role, he was acting dean and played an integral role in envisioning, creating and organizing the new college, which began in 2011 as compilation of existing programs. He continues to support the university’s strategic partnership with Rochester Regional Health, the RIT & Rochester Regional Health Alliance. Doolittle succeeds Dean Dr. Daniel Ornt, who began a sabbatical this month. “It’s a privilege to work for the people of the college, not only working through the challenges of the pandemic but continuing the conversation for expanding existing and new programs and research efforts and our relationship with RRH,” Doolittle said. “I want to maintain that vision of the college so that the new dean can help provide the advocacy we need to make that vision a reality.” Doolittle, in 1986, joined the biological sciences faculty in RIT’s College of Science. His numerous leadership roles have included assistant provost for Undergraduate Education, head of the School of Life Sciences and head of the Medical Sciences Department in the College of Science. Doolittle holds a BA in biology from the University of Bridgeport and a MS/Ph.D. in pathology and anatomy from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Rochester Institute of Technology students this fall can have a creative outlet to help them reflect on their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic by producing comics and visual arts narratives. “The pandemic has impacted every aspect of our lives,” said Kriota Willberg, a New York City-based comic artist and illustrator who will be teaching the three-credit weekly online workshop called “Graphic Medicine,” being offered by the School of Individualized Study and the Center for Engaged Storycraft in the College of Liberal Arts. “Everyone, regardless of who they are, has stories to tell about their fear of infection, coping with social distancing, the loss of family and friends, witnessing prejudice or racism, seeking healthcare, loss of work, changing relationships, fluctuating mental and physical states, hope for treatment or vaccine, and more. All of these stories qualify as graphic medicine,” Willberg said. The workshop will also explore the history of visual arts and drawing graphic narratives as a way artists can resonate with epidemics. She said over the centuries, pandemics have caused similar patterns of disruption and “graphic medicine” – comics about health, health justice, illness, medicine, healthcare, the mind and body – is an emerging area of comics that is relevant to all of us at this time. “We will explore contemporary and historical graphic narratives about epidemics and pandemics and practice making our own narratives using text and images,” Willberg said. “We will be creating diary, educational and fictional comics, and other types of image-based stories.” Students in the workshop must have competency in basic drawing techniques; it is recommended for students studying art and design, illustration, animation or medical illustration. “I truly wish that COVID-19 was not ravaging the world, but our struggle with this virus gives us an opportunity to reflect, engage, and grow by helping us understand our experiences, giving us empathy for others, arguing for justice and engaging with the world and one another in new and meaningful ways,” she said. “Making graphic medicine can facilitate that growth.” Willberg visited RIT last year to lead workshops with students from English, performing arts and visual culture and medical illustration departments, as well as being part of a lecture series, “Stories of Health Care from the Field,” organized by the Center for Engaged Storycraft. The center is offering two other unrelated one-credit storycraft workshops in the fall. One is about telling the story of addiction and recovery, and the other focuses on making virtual reality experiences and will be held the MAGIC VR Lab on campus. For more information on any of these workshops, contact Laura Shackelford, director of the Center for Engaged Storycraft, at lxsgla@rit.edu.