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Student spotlight: Researching health care for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people
Emma Kane, a third-year public policy major from Brighton, N.Y., has spent the past year working at the Deaf Health Laboratory, led by the mentors at the Deaf Health Care and Biomedical Sciences Hub (Deaf Hub) at RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf. The Deaf Hub was established in 2022 to promote representation of Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals in healthcare and biomedical science careers. It offers supporting pathways to healthcare careers, a network for Deaf scientists and mentors, and research related to the Deaf community and their health. Kane has been involved with the Deaf Hub since 2023 as a Summer Healthcare Academic Research Program scholar, a Deaf Health Laboratory research assistant, and is now one of the chief research assistants. She has presented at national conferences and local research symposiums about her work. What kind of research are you doing? I’ve been working to find barriers in sex education for Deaf and hard-of-hearing young adults. The goal is to improve access to sexual health resources by gamification and create policy solutions. I also do research on reproductive health experiences of Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals with uteruses to collect data on reproductive health access and experiences of receiving reproductive health resources. Would you like a career in the medical field? I never thought about doing research until I participated in the SHARP program. It gave me the full autonomy to figure out what type of research I liked, which was public health research. That led me to develop a research proposal on sex education in the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community. I don’t envision myself working in the medical field, however. I have a huge passion for changing Deaf education through policy work. I aspire to continue researching on the access to education for Deaf and hard-of-hearing kids and provide policy solutions, especially education as a public health issue. I hope to pursue an MBA and possibly a Ph.D. in education policy. My dream is to live in a big metropolitan area, like Washington, D.C. or Boston. What attracted you to become a public policy major? Public policy offers a unique intersection of policy, actions, and regulations, but they are not necessarily about making laws. It’s about creating the big picture–this is what attracted me. I love solving problems and offer out-of-the-box solutions. Public policy requires you to think outside of the box. It’s about creating innovative solutions and practices that can have a huge impact. For me personally, it offers a perfect balance of advocacy and creating innovative solutions and policies that can change the lives of deaf children. What other activities are you involved with? The balance between academic and social life, the research opportunities, and the networking opportunities at RIT are amazing. I’m involved with Alpha Sigma Alpha and Student Government. I’m also the newest e-board member for the College Panhellenic Council. Outside of these activities, I enjoy trying new coffee shops around Rochester and across the country as well!
ACLU President Deborah Archer headlines 43rd annual Expressions of King’s Legacy
RIT will welcome Deborah Archer, eighth president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), to campus on Wednesday, Jan. 29, for the 43rd annual Expressions of King’s Legacy event. Programming will start with a performance by Rochester’s own Garth Fagan Dance. The event will begin at noon and end at 2 p.m. at RIT’s Gordon Field House. Registration is free and open to the public. All attendees are asked to register in order for proper planning and to receive up-to-date event information. Archer was named president of the ACLU in 2021, making her the first person of color to lead the organization in its more than 100-year history. She also is a professor of clinical law at the New York University School of Law and faculty director of the school’s Community Equity Initiative. As a young child of Jamaican immigrants, Archer experienced racism and discrimination firsthand, leading her down a lifelong path to fight racism, classism, and anti-immigrant sentiment. “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. continuously fought for legislation to promote civil rights, so having Dr. Archer on campus to speak on these issues is a great way to honor his legacy,” said Keith Jenkins, vice president and associate provost for the Division of Diversity and Inclusion. “Many of the things Dr. King fought for are things Dr. Archer and the ACLU are still advocating for today. I encourage all across our campus and community to take advantage in joining us for this event.” Prior to her time at NYU, Archer worked as an attorney with the ACLU and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. She litigated in the areas of voting rights, employment discrimination, and school desegregation. Her list of honors from community organizations and legal institutions is vast, and she is toted as a leading expert in civil rights, civil liberties, and racial justice. Archer is a graduate of Yale Law School and Smith College. Garth Fagan Dance is an internationally recognized contemporary American dance company founded in Rochester in the 1970’s. For decades, the school invites young people regardless of race, gender, or financial resources to fulfill their potential, while the company provides performances and activities that enrich the community. The company’s namesake came to America from Jamaica in 1960 and was inspired by the raw talent and perseverance of students from inner-city Rochester, leading to the formation of Garth Fagan Dance. Fagan is perhaps best known as the Tony-award winning choreographer of Disney’s The Lion King on Broadway. In May 2024, he received an honorary doctorate from RIT. Expressions of King’s Legacy is a decades-old celebration at RIT. Beginning in 1982, the Committee for Promoting Pluralism and the Black Awareness Coordinating Committee held the Conference on Racism, which in 2002 was renamed the Expressions of Diversity Conference. In 2010, an annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was combined into a week-long event called Expressions of King’s Legacy. The program moved under the Division of Diversity and Inclusion in 2012 and continues as the longest-standing diversity program at the university. For more information on the event and to register, visit the Expressions of King’s Legacy website.
Faculty exhibit in Venice earns a European Cultural Centre Award
A group of six faculty members in RIT’s College of Art and Design have earned the University & Research Projects Award from the European Cultural Centre (ECC) for their collection of works, titled “Cultural Disruptors.” “Cultural Disruptors” was displayed at the ECC Palazzo Mora, located in Venice, Italy, as part of the “Personal Structures” exhibition, which ran from April 20 through Nov. 24, 2024, and was a featured exhibition during the 2024 Venice Art Biennial. The faculty who received the award, and their works, include: Vashti Anderson, assistant professor, School of Film and Animation — “Moko Jumbie” (film) Christine Banna, assistant professor, School of Film and Animation — “Pink Pottery” (experimental animation) Elizabeth Kronfield, director, Schools of Art and American Crafts — “Chasing Tail” (sculpture) Joshua Rashaad McFadden, assistant professor, School of Photographic Arts and Sciences — “Love Without Justice” (photography) Juan Noguera, assistant professor, School of Design — “PastFastForward” (design, artificial intelligence) Shanti Thakur, director, School of Film and Animation — “Terrible Children” (film) The jury of the ECC Awards celebrated the excellence displayed by participants in the “Personal Structures” exhibition. The international jury was composed of a group of professionals working in the arts, including: Amit Gupta, Founder & Editor in Chief at STIRworld; Steve Bisson, Head of the Photography Department at Paris College of Art, Founder of Penisola Edizioni, and Editor in Chief at Urbanautica; Alexandra Laqueur, Managing Director and Maria Nekrassova, Co-founder of the European Cultural Academy; and Saskia Fernando, Director of Saskia Fernando Gallery, Paradise Road Group and Founder of KALĀ platform. The winners received a limited-edition artwork by the Dutch artist René Rietmeyer, founder of the ECC. Visit the “Personal Structures” website for more details about the award. Explore the artworks ECC/Federico Vespignani “Moko Jumbie,” written and directed by Vashti Anderson, explores themes of race, class and post-colonialism through a fictional story set in rural Trinidad. The film leans into magical realism, where taboo attraction lives amongst spirits in the natural world. Provided “Pink Pottery” is an independent, experimental animation created by Christine Banna that juxtaposes vibrant imagery of the earliest artmaking with modern destructive technology. It is an exploration of our relationship with material culture, and includes art objects such as cave paintings, fertility figures, and pottery contrasted against destructive objects like arrows to modern missiles. Provided “Chasing Tail,” created by Elizabeth Kronfield is a sculpture composed of cast iron and horsehair that explores the complexities of gender identity and connection as forced onto materials and forms. Provided “Love without Justice” is a series of photos by Joshua Rashaad McFadden that delves into an autobiographical archive where intimate connections, the Black church, and vulnerability in family interconnect. Provided “PastFastForward” is an industrial design experiment created by Juan Noguera. The project disrupts artificial intelligence tools of the global north by pairing them with traditional sand-casting techniques of Antigua, Guatemala, and prompts viewers to consider the unique relationships to capitalistic colonization. Provided “Terrible Children” poses the universal question, “must we betray our family to grow up?” Written, directed, and edited by Shanti Thakur, the feature documentary film reveals the rich and complex interior lives of boys fighting to become men through personal narrative, reimagined history, and chronicles of racial nationalism.
Student spotlight: Fulbright student's research applies AI to real-world problems
Diana Velychko, a Fulbright master’s student in artificial intelligence, is paving the way for more intuitive artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Originally from Ternopil, Ukraine, Velychko’s academic journey has taken her to exchange programs across Europe and now to RIT. Her work focuses on the intersection of human perception and AI, aiming to bridge the gap between how people see the world and how machines interpret it. Through her classes and research, she works to apply AI to real-world problems. What made you want to study AI? While in Ukraine, I took an AI machine learning course where we did a project in computer vision. Even though ChatGPT wasn’t around yet, I thought AI might be good for the future. I found it to be really challenging and really exciting. I like that we can create something that we can’t really predict what it’s going to do. How did you become a Fulbright student? I’ve had a diverse educational experience owing to studying at Ternopil Ivan Pul’uj National Technical University which allowed me to do a few exchange programs in Europe, including a semester abroad in Spain and Lithuania. I was excited to see what university life is like in U.S., so I applied for the Fulbright Ukraine program. RIT was my first choice because it offered a specialized master’s in AI—something that is rare and not typically offered as a standalone degree. I’m really grateful for the helpful professors at RIT and for the Fulbright program that allowed me to gain new perspectives. What projects are you working on in AI? I just published a paper in satellite imagery. As a machine learning intern in the Adaptive Human-Robot Teaming Lab last summer, with Assistant Professor Jamison Heard, improved a model that detects cars, ships, planes, trains and other small moving objects in satellite imagery. We trained the model to be more robust toward perturbations, or noise in the training data. In RIT’s Brain Lab, I’m collaborating with computer engineering researcher Associate Professor Cory Merkel and psychology researcher Professor Andrew Herbert to understand how humans learn to classify synthetic images they’ve never seen before. Using eye-tracking technology, we analyze which parts of an image people pay attention to when learning about new objects. The goal is to apply these patterns to enhance AI architecture, so AI models classify objects more robustly, similarly to humans. What are some ways that AI can help people? Right now, Ukraine has electricity shortages due to the ongoing war and bombarding that has destroyed electrical stations. So, officials schedule when electricity can be available to different populations. Just the other day, my family only had two hours of electricity for the day. However, it can take officials days—even weeks—to manually create these schedules and remake them after each attack. In my Introduction to AI class with Professor Cecilia Alm at RIT, we learned about genetic algorithms—optimization techniques based on evolutionary principles. I was able to use those algorithms in a project to quickly create schedules, saving time and allowing people to plan when they will get access to electricity. I published a paper on this topic in Ukraine. Recently, an AI-based algorithm was introduced to accelerate the process of energy redistribution and the creation of electricity schedules.

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