RIT partners with Vellore Institute of Technology for AI and data science summit

Professor Tae (Tom) Oh sees international cooperation as a key to addressing the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century—especially in artificial intelligence (AI). Since being named the 53rd president of the Korean-American Scientists and Engineers Association (KSEA) in 2023, he is helping to foster that collaborative environment. Oh, a professor in RIT’s School of Information, leads the nonprofit professional organization with more than 7,000 registered members. The KSEA aims to promote science and technology, foster global collaboration, and help Korean-American scientists and engineers develop their full career potential. Oh was born in Korea and moved to the United States when he was 11 years old. Overcoming culture and language challenges, he describes himself as a member of the 1.5 generation—immigrants who entered a new country before becoming adults. As an undergraduate student studying electrical engineering at Texas Tech University, he joined the KSEA. “I have gained many mentors through KSEA, which played a pivotal role in guiding me toward earning my Ph.D. and becoming a professor,” said Oh. “I ran for president to give back to this incredible organization that has given me so much.” ‌ Supplied photo Oh, right, was interviewed by a reporter at the Korean Broadcasting System's KBS World Radio. As KSEA president, Oh has met with Korean diplomats, top officials, and presidents of top universities from Korea and science and technology research institutes and agencies. He said that Korea is looking for high impact collaborators and KSEA can foster that channel between Korea and the U.S., working with organizations including the National Science Foundation, the National Research Foundation of Korea, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and Korea’s Research Institutes. “Korea and the U.S. have a strong partnership, and collaboration between the two fosters innovation and growth,” said Oh. “Embracing global connections allows us to stay competitive and benefit from diverse perspectives.”   KSEA also runs an annual conference that brings together a diverse array of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs from both Korea and the U.S. The U.S.-Korea Conference 2024 showcased groundbreaking research, fostered international collaborations, and highlighted the pivotal role of AI in shaping the future. “In light of the dynamic changes brought by AI, it is imperative for scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs to converge, exchange knowledge, and prepare for the future,” said Oh. KSEA has 70 local chapters, 16 technical groups, and 35 affiliated professional societies across the U.S. The organization hosts research collaboration workshops, regional conferences, career development activities, sponsors scholarships for high school students, and runs a national math and science contest for high school students. Oh noted that KSEA members now come from all different generations—1st, 2nd, and 3rd generations. He also remarked that member’s cultural relationships with Korea differ—especially with the more recent international spread of Korean culture and companies. At RIT, Oh is an adviser for RIT’s Korean International Student Association and the Korean Student Association at RIT. Oh worked for several telecommunications and defense companies for 18 years before joining RIT. His research focuses on vehicular/drone area networks, Internet of Things, security, and human computer interaction.

RIT students will have a chance to show their talents and compete for cash prizes during Ovation: RIT Performing Arts Showcase, from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 7 in Ingle Auditorium in the Student Alumni Union. Ovation will feature 14 acts of dance, vocal and instrumental music. The first-place act will win $1,000, with a $500 prize awarded to the second-place act. RIT President David Munson and his wife, Nancy, will emcee the competition, which will feature judges from RIT and the community. The judges and their biographies can be found on the event website. “Nancy and I know our students are bright, but the number of students who also have talents in the arts is phenomenal,” Munson said. “We enjoy watching and hearing them perform at every opportunity we have and are delighted RIT allows them to continue their passions in performing arts.” The performers come from diverse backgrounds, representing majors from nearly every college at RIT. They include:“Death By Glamour,” video game tune arranged by Miles Davenport and Roman Barnes “Blissful Hour,” marimba percussion, by Alex Negrini  RIT AIM Medley Showcase, jazz fusion  Yo-yo performance, by Max Gonzaga  “Black Chrome,” original rap by The Crown Kid Steven Simmons  Currents n Sync,” tap dance by Hannah Boettcher and Yasmin Khan.  AFro Dance Club, dance by the AFro Dance Club Choreography Team “Flamenco Farruca,” solo Flamenco guitar by Miles Rothman  “Astonishing” from Little Women, sung by Alison Maselek  WADAIKO, Japanese drumming and dancing group  Vocal Accent, a cappella group  Rachmaninoff’s “Bells of Moscow,” piano piece by Jonah Cousins The Jive, an RIT jazz combo “Spinning,” performed by Courtyard, a slow indie rock, chamber rock, and chamber pop band Last year’s winner, a rocking cello duet now named “Double Stop!” featuring Brandon Faunce and Gavin Palmer, along with guest Charles DiGiovanni, will perform during the judges’ deliberation. Ovation is free and open to the RIT community.

A generous donation is giving RIT students the opportunity to explore more pathways in entrepreneurship and innovation. The Bernard Kozel Startup Program @ Saunders College of Business will provide entrepreneurial-minded students with the resources, mentorship, and funding necessary to bring their innovative ideas to life. ‌ © Times Union – USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images. Startup program namesake Bernard Kozel, pictured here in 1980, was a longtime innovator and entrepreneur, as he emphasized guiding and investing in emerging entrepreneurs. Formerly known as the RIT Student Accelerator, the Bernard Kozel Startup Program @ Saunders aims to empower students across all majors at RIT by offering hands-on learning experiences, networking opportunities, and strategic mentorship from RIT advisers, industry experts, and investors. Eligibility is limited to student teams, and they will receive a stipend for the summer, culminating in a Demo Night where each team will have an opportunity to pitch their business to a group of real investors. The effort is made possible by support from RIT’s Bernard Kozel Endowed Fund for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Kozel was well respected for his roles as a businessman and entrepreneur, innovator, investor, and connector. Kozel’s entrepreneurial journey began post-World War II, when he successfully established various companies dedicated to structural steel, semiconductors and high-tech electronics. Central to his accomplishments was a deep belief in mentoring, evident through his co-founding of KG Capital Associates and his emphasis on guiding and investing in emerging entrepreneurs. Barbara Kozel, longtime donor and daughter of the late Bernard Kozel is the fund’s creator, and a dedicated supporter of RIT and its entrepreneurial initiatives. She established the fund to continue her father’s legacy of commitment to the success of emerging business owners in the Rochester region. “I was looking for a place and a process where I could honor my father’s memory and keep his impact on the community alive,” Kozel said. “After getting to know the Accelerator program, I saw many aspects of my father’s vision in its design. At several Demo Nights I witnessed the quality, detail and originality presented by entrepreneurial-minded students.” Kozel also said that she was impressed by the students’ commitment and enthusiasm, and the opportunities they had to pursue their own businesses or work with another team member on their businesses. “Seeing the collective dedication to encouraging students’ success was powerful,” she added. “It affirmed what a fantastic fit the Accelerator program was to carry on my father’s focus on investing in people first, through networking, coaching and trusting the potential of budding business owners and leaders to contribute to the well-being of the Rochester region.” Jacqueline Mozrall, dean of the Saunders College of Business, expressed gratitude for the continued support from the Kozel family. “We are deeply grateful by Barbara’s generosity and her on-going commitment to foster innovation at Saunders,” said Mozrall. “The Bernard Kozel Startup Program @ Saunders will serve as a catalyst for creativity and innovation, providing students with critical resources and mentorship to ultimately transform their ideas into business ventures.” Anthony Testa, director, Commercialization Training Programs at RIT’s Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, highlighted the program’s significance in shaping future business leaders. “The Bernard Kozel Startup Program is an incredible opportunity for students to gain real-world experience in launching their own ventures,” said Testa. “Having access to mentorship and funding at such a critical stage can make all the difference in their entrepreneurial journey.” The program is currently accepting applications from student teams for the summer session.

An RIT faculty member helped redesign an infamous clock that made international headlines this week—and the body of the clock was printed in RIT’s SHED. Juan Noguera, assistant professor in RIT’s School of Design, and Tom Weis, associate department head at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and founder of Altimeter Design Group, redesigned the “Doomsday Clock,” a symbolic attempt to assess how close humanity is to destroying the world. ‌ Provided From left, Tom Weis and Juan Noguera pose next to the back of the redesigned “Doomsday Clock,” which was unveiled on Jan. 28 in Washington, D.C. Created 78 years ago, the time is set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science and Security Board. On Jan. 28, the redesigned clock was unveiled and set to 89 seconds to midnight during an annual event at the United States Institute of Peace. This moves the clock one second forward, the closest the clock has ever been to midnight, according to AP News. Representatives from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists contacted Altimeter Design Group about the redesign of the clock in 2024. The firm has collaborated with several esteemed national and international organizations, including the United Nations, Sandia National Laboratories, and the Naval Postgraduate School. The designers first met when Noguera was a student at RISD and Weis was his professor. This redesign offered an opportunity for them to collaborate and use design to underscore an important message for the world. Noguera and Weis agreed to combine both traditional and modern techniques in the redesign. The clock’s base was crafted with traditional woodworking techniques, the body and components of the clock’s face were 3D-printed in the SHED, and the pair used a combination of pencil-sketching and artificial intelligence (AI) visualization tools in the ideation process. The resulting design was more akin to a sculpture than the previous clocks—with the addition of the hand-crafted wooden base and a larger body—and commanded a presence when presented to global audiences. “We liked the juxtaposition of the traditional wood crafting techniques and the 3D-printed and AI elements. We think it represents what the Bulletin is trying to communicate,” said Noguera. “We know that the world is changing, but we can’t forget about what happened in the past because we need to learn from it.” Noguera has consistently advocated for the use of AI to transform the creative process and has used it to inform his own work. One example is a 2023 artwork created in collaboration with Paolo Cardini called “PastFastForward,” which aimed to give autonomy to Guatemalan traditional artisans. While the symbol of the “Doomsday Clock” is far from positive, Noguera shared that he and Weis leaned into optimism when working on the project. The pair designed the new clock to be modular, attaching the text and hands on the clockface with magnets and providing additional letters and numbers. “I think everyone hopes that the clock changes and that, instead of being seconds from midnight, we can move back to minutes,” said Noguera. “Hopefully, they can make use of those other numbers and letters that are now in their toolset in the future.” The clock is set to be displayed at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ office in Washington, D.C. “Reimagining such a powerful symbol, one that has resonated for decades as a measure of existential risk, was both a privilege and a challenge,” said Weis in a collaborative artist’s statement. “This redesign goes beyond mere aesthetic enhancements; it reaffirms our responsibility as designers to engage with both the past and the future, to wield technology judiciously, and to create things that not only serve as objects of design, but also convey narratives of adaptability, resilience, and hope.” Go to the Bulletin’s YouTube to watch the full press conference.

Researchers have discovered new ways to bend light to improve optical applications such as sensors, displays, and next-generation photonic devices. ‌ RIT/University Photography Steve Weinstein, professor of chemical engineering, Kate Gleason College of Engineering. Steve Weinstein, professor of chemical engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology, co-authored a paper with Cornell University faculty-researcher Richard Robinson about a robust, scalable method to generate chiral films for advancing photonic technologies. The article was published Jan. 30 in Science magazine. Chirality is the property where objects exist in left-handed or right-handed forms, like mirror images, except that they cannot be superimposed. Chiroptics focuses on how these chiral structures interact with light, often twisting its polarization. The new research details the advantages of those optical techniques for advancing semiconductor technologies, Weinstein explained. “Introducing chiral properties into semiconductors is desirable because it permits simultaneous control over light, spin, and charge—key capabilities for advancing next-generation photonic and optoelectronic applications,” said Weinstein. The new work details fiber self-assembly in an evaporative deposition process. Weinstein developed a theoretical framework to interpret observed fiber deposition patterns, why they twist, and how the twist is affected by fluid flow during evaporation and formation of the fibers in solutions. Chiral nanomaterials could offer a groundbreaking approach to non-invasive glucose monitoring, for example, by controlling the unique way glucose rotates polarized light. By integrating these chiral materials into sensors to amplify light signals, subtle changes can be revealed in polarization, enabling highly sensitive glucose detection through the skin. This technology would eliminate the need for painful finger pricks, paving the way for continuous and more comfortable glucose tracking. Chirality is common in molecules found in living organisms such as DNA and in inorganic systems, like snail shells. One way to produce a chiroptical response is to assemble small nano-sized units together into a helical, or spiral, assembly. In the inorganic world, semiconductors have not yet been made into these chiral, exciton-coupled assemblies. Weinstein and Robinson were able to refine a directional drying process technique to form helical semiconductor nanoclusters that have a chiral optical response. “This is the first report of its kind that we know of, and the processing is based on the simple mechanism responsible for the common coffee ring that is observed as a droplet dries,” said Weinstein. “Our investigation examines the large-area films that are formed and the mechanisms behind them. The result is the highest chiral signal reported for inorganic materials to date. This evaporation-driven technique not only induces nanometer-scale fiber twists but also allows us to tune their chiroptical properties by controlling the flow parameters.” Robinson, lead author on the article and principal investigator of the National Science Foundation grant for this work, said that future aspects of the project will focus on extending the technique to other materials such as nanoplatelets in quantum dots. Weinstein originated the mechanistic origin of the phenomena discussed in the paper—and the team from both RIT and Cornell will continue the work with funding from the Department of Energy to examine that mechanism in more detail and to perform relatively sophisticated mathematical modeling of the proposed mechanism. Along with his position in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, Weinstein has been a research adjunct at Cornell University for more than 20 years. He collaborated on projects with Cornell’s materials science and chemical engineering researchers and students.

William H. Sanders was named RIT’s 11th president. He was introduced to the community on Jan. 28. To learn more Read more about RIT’s 11th president. Sanders is currently dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering. He will assume RIT’s top post July 1, succeeding David Munson who will retire after serving eight years as RIT’s president. Get to know RIT’s next president in this question and answer with Sanders. 1. What do you enjoy doing outside of work? I enjoy outdoor activities, including hiking, kayaking, and canoeing. I also enjoy going to plays and getting together with friends to share home-cooked meals as well as going out to eat at local restaurants and listening to live music. I have also enjoyed photography as a hobby throughout my life. 2. We hear you enjoy amateur astronomy. Tell us how that began in your childhood? I am a child of the Space Age, fascinated by the Apollo space program. When I was 12, I joined a class at the Grand Rapids, Michigan, public museum to build a 6-inch reflecting telescope, grinding the mirror for it by hand. That sparked my interest in space and astronomy further, and I joined and became active in the local amateur astronomy club. The club had an observatory (JC Veen Observatory), where I spent most clear nights as a teenager. This led to an interest in photometric photometry, doing observations for a professor at Vanderbilt University, and eventually working during summers when I was an undergraduate at Optec Inc., where I helped design the SSP-3 solid-state photometer. 3. What’s a favorite childhood memory? Spending time at my family cabin in northern Michigan. My grandmother and grandfather built the cabin in 1937, and I would spend several weekends and a couple weeks there each summer. We did all the things you would expect—walking in and exploring the woods, hiking, swimming, boating, fishing, and spending quality time with my grandparents and family. 4. Tell us about your family? ‌ Traci Westcott Sanders and his wife, Emily, pose with Ritchie before the community announcement. My wife, Emily, who studied French and art history at Michigan State University, made our family her career, supporting me and our children in innumerable ways. She enjoys art, gourmet cooking, travel, knitting, and hiking. Our daughter, Elizabeth, recently received her Ph.D. in engineering education from Purdue and is now a postdoc at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Our son, Zach, has a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Purdue and is an R&D engineer at Cardinal Health in St. Louis. Both enjoy playing musical instruments in their spare time. 5. Do you have any pets? We have a very energetic 4-year-old Labradoodle named Ollie. 6. What was your first job? My first job was during high school, working at a dry cleaner, first as a janitor and doing odd jobs and later as a presser. I also worked occasionally at the local planetarium, running the shows. 7. If you have time, what have you been watching lately? We just saw A Complete Unknown in a movie theater and really enjoyed it. I don’t watch much TV, but I like watching Michigan and other Big Ten college football games and various shows on PBS. 8. What are you reading? I enjoy reading The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Yorker. I always have a stack of books on my nightstand but don’t have a lot of time to read them. 9. What are you listening to or what’s on your playlist? I mostly listen to jazz, some classical and folk, but enjoy other genres as well. I’m a fan of Susan Werner and Bruce Springsteen, especially his Broadway show, Springsteen on Broadway. 10. What is one thing people would be surprised to find out about you? People are surprised to know that as a teenager I owned a “muscle car,” a 1971 Mercury Cougar with a 351 Cleveland engine. 11. What excites you about moving to the Greater Rochester area? Obviously, joining the RIT community excites me the most, but I am also excited by the thrill of discovering Rochester and the surrounding region: exploring the Finger Lakes, eating at local restaurants, and meeting new people. ‌ Traci Westcott Sanders spoke with members of the RIT community, including graduate student Colin Farmer, at his introduction. He begins his tenure as RIT’s 11th president on July 1.