RIT’s new real estate in hospitality minor gives students the opportunity to connect real estate knowledge with hospitality management practices. Launched in fall 2023, this minor at Saunders College of Business is designed to equip students with specialized skills for careers in both industries. Edwin Torres Areizaga, associate professor and chair of the Department of International Hospitality and Service Innovation, created the minor to offer students a unique career path focused on understanding commercial properties within hospitality. To learn more Saunders College of Business will host a real estate conference from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 21, at the Susan R. Holliday Center in Max Lowenthal Hall. Led by keynote speaker Mark Laport ’92 MS (hospitality tourism management), co-founder and CEO of Concord Business Enterprises, the conference offers a chance for students to interact with real estate executives and other industry professionals and gain a comprehensive understanding of the diverse pathways in real estate. “In recent years, the hotel industry has separated ownership, management, and branding, meaning the company that owns a hotel building is often not the same one that runs or brands it,” Torres Areizaga said. “Our new minor gives students a pathway to work in areas like hotel development, brokerage, and asset management—preparing them for roles beyond hotel operations and aligning with these industry shifts.” This minor is open to students within Saunders College and from other disciplines who are interested in real estate. Students will learn analytical thinking, marketing, and the key roles of ownership, management, and branding, as well as the value of networking and the power of negotiation. “We don’t just want to teach people how to work spreadsheets,” Torres Areizaga said. “We want them to know how to communicate with architects and engineers and understand how major hospitality investments like hotels, restaurants, or theme parks operate. That way, if a property is underperforming, they can look beyond the numbers to identify the root cause.” Courses in the minor build these essential skills. Debanjana Dey, an assistant professor who teaches Hospitality Real Estate Development and Hospitality Analytics, sees untapped potential for students in this field. “There’s a lot of interest in hospitality, but many people don’t realize the strong career and earning potential in hospitality real estate,” Dey said. “I cover both commercial and residential real estate, since both offer valuable insights. I find that most students have some exposure to real estate, like a family investment property or a construction background, but they don’t see it as a career option. My goal is to show them that this minor is more general than people realize; that it can open many professional paths they might not have considered.” Assistant Professor Soon Hyeok Choi brings an additional perspective with his Hospitality Asset Management and Investment course, integrating AI and machine learning to help students prepare for technology-driven changes in the industry. Choi also shares insights from his research on legislation, such as Hawaii Senate Bill 2919, to show how laws affect both residential and commercial sectors. “We’re not just learning how to pick a site and generate cash flow for the next nine years,” Choi said. “That’s a one-dimensional approach. We’re trying to understand the entire ecosystem of real estate—the local labor market, demographics, and housing market—so we can effectively tackle the commercial side. When you think about hotel resorts, who works in those spaces? The local workforce, tied to local residences. Understanding demographics and housing affordability directly impacts a property’s ability to operate successfully.” The hope is that students who graduate get a good return on investment from their education, transitioning into careers such as analysts, marketing specialists, commercial brokers, or those who want to build their own real estate portfolio as entrepreneurs. Looking ahead, Torres Areizaga hopes to expand the program by adding more introductory courses to draw non-majors and offering students the chance to study these principles internationally through existing hospitality global rotation programs at RIT Croatia, with an opportunity to add courses at RIT Dubai as well.

An online community for sonographers channels the professional excellence and passion that is a hallmark of RIT’s diagnostic medical sonography program. Hayley Bartkus ’17 (diagnostic medical sonography) and Christina Werth ’13 (diagnostic medical sonography) created EchoMentor as an educational platform for healthcare professionals working in sonography or ultrasound, a medical imaging method that uses sound waves to peer inside the body. EchoMentor is an evolving resource for continuing education, mentorship, professional development, and patient-focused case studies. It launched last spring with Bartkus teaching “Approaching Appendicitis.” New content this fall included her class on kidney transplants, and Werth’s session on fetal skeletal dysplasia. Colleague Samantha Grimsley ’15 (diagnostic medical sonography), a vascular sonographer at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, taught a third class on subclavian steal syndrome, a condition in which the subclavian artery narrows and causes blood flow reversal in the vertebral artery. Courses developed for EchoMentor are accredited by the American Society of Radiologic Technologists and satisfy continuing medical education requirements of the American Registry of Diagnostic Medical Sonographers and the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists. EchoMentor grew from the co-founders’ experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, when they worked together in high-risk maternal fetal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. They saw first-hand the need to promote the important—yet often overlooked—role sonography plays in healthcare, said Bartkus, director of the diagnostic medical sonography program at Johns Hopkins Schools of Medical Imaging and host of the ultrasound podcast 256 Shades of Gray. EchoMentor represents a grassroots effort to bring awareness and visibility to a profession that emerged alongside technological advances in the latter part of the 20th century. “One of the gaps we want to fill with EchoMentor is helping sonographers learn how they can further their careers without leaving the field,” said Werth, an echosonographer at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “Opportunities are unclear because those paths aren’t yet well forged.” As an online platform, EchoMentor can work toward establishing professional representation. To Bartkus, that means being part of the conversation around current issues facing the medical field, such as gender affirming care and the Black maternal health crisis. “EchoMentor is meant to empower other sonographers to get excited and motivated about these things, too,” Bartkus said. “It’s how they can make a change in the field and in the world because sonography is life-saving healthcare.” The name of their organization underscores the importance of mentorship in the niche ultrasound field, said Werth, who mentored both Bartkus and Grimsley. EchoMentor will expand to include a mentorship program with a lineage that traces back to Hamad Ghazle, director of RIT’s diagnostic medical sonography program and an influential figure in the field. In many ways, EchoMentor is a conduit for sharing Ghazle’s legacy in ultrasound education and imparting his high level of excellence and joy for sonography, Bartkus said. Graduates from the RIT program have a reputation for growing in their positions and embodying an inclusive, extra quality that lifts up the people around them. “They want to do more than the bare minimum of scanning patients,” Werth said. “They want to be involved in education and research, mentorship opportunities, patientcare improvement, and quality projects.” This is where EchoMentor comes in as a resource for lifelong learning that furthers the profession and helps patients. “We learned from our time at RIT that when you’re passionate about what you do, that passion trickles into all areas of your life and can make for a joyful career,” Werth said.

RIT’s new entrepreneurial hub is designed to support entrepreneurs at every stage of their journeys—from ideation to launch, growth, and exits. The Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, in partnership with students, faculty, staff, alumni, industrial partners, and investors, will catalyze the development of successful ventures, and will strategically consolidate several existing departments and centers supporting the university entrepreneurial community, and beyond. The office encompasses the Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Center for Urban Entrepreneurship, Venture Creations incubator, and the Office of Intellectual Property Management to benefit startups, corporate partners, investors, and government entities looking to collaborate with RIT. It’s housed in Student Innovation Hall. According to Ryne Raffaelle, vice president for Research and associate provost, the vision is bold: to foster a culture where innovation becomes integral to RIT life, creating lasting economic impact both within the university and beyond. “The formation of this office is the result of multiple studies, review sessions, strategy development, and implementation plans created and reviewed by entrepreneurs, alumni, business executives, academics, and university leadership,” said Raffaelle. “It will be the epicenter of our efforts to leverage our research strengths, unlock the commercial potential of our ideas and discoveries, and foster a culture of entrepreneurial thinking that spans across disciplines. This center is the next step in advancing RIT’s status as a catalyst of entrepreneurial endeavors.” ‌ RIT Johan Klarin is leading the office as assistant vice president and managing director. Johan Klarin, formerly the director of Venture Creations, is leading the office as assistant vice president and managing director. An experienced business startup creator, adviser, and serial entrepreneur, Klarin believes that RIT is the perfect place to develop the best entrepreneurs, citing its fast and astute learners. “RIT is well positioned to support entrepreneurs both within the university ecosystem and externally,” he said. “With our strengths in research, outstanding students, campus resources, alumni, business partners, and generous supporters, we can accelerate the creation of successful companies. While failures are part of the journey when creating new things, by building an environment and culture where entrepreneurs and their endeavors are celebrated and supported, we can reach our bold goal of establishing RIT as a recognized dynamic engine of innovation with real-world impact.”

Arthur Deane ’08 (electrical engineering) broke into the cybersecurity industry and he hasn’t looked back. Now, he’s helping others unlock opportunities in cybersecurity, paving the way for a more diverse and inclusive tech industry. Deane has become a leader in the field and currently works in Washington, D.C., as Chief Information Security Officer at Amazon Health Services. On the same week that he started that CISO role, he also established an endowed scholarship fund to support African American, Latin American, and Native American students enrolled in cybersecurity at RIT. “I rarely had someone who looked like me and was doing things I aspired to do, someone whose shoes I could see myself in,” said Deane. “I want to give people what I wish I had, so they can thrive in this rigorous program. My scholarship recipients are also future mentees.” Growing up, Deane enjoyed exploring technology and breaking things—just to put them back together. He chose to attend RIT for the practical engineering experience and the co-op program. There was no cybersecurity degree at the time, but Deane saw electrical engineering as the ideal place to learn all things technology. “It was an eye-opener in terms of diversity—coming from the Bronx where all my peers were people of color, then going to a program that was not very diverse,” said Deane. “In some ways, it prepared me for corporate America, where I got used to being the only one in the room.” One year into his electrical engineering career, he noticed that government and industry were starting to take cybersecurity seriously. He was working on a small intelligence community program and he pivoted full force into the cyber world. “It piqued my intellectual curiosity because the field changes every day,” said Deane. “I tried a bunch of different cyber roles to learn all the different components of the industry, from penetration testing to doing digital forensics, and even less technical areas like risk management.” Deane’s many cybersecurity leadership roles at Amazon, Google, and Capital One have shaped his perspective on balancing the tensions between security, compliance, and innovation. He emphasizes the importance of meeting regulatory compliance while striving for top-tier security. Now, with Amazon Health, he’s driving innovative solutions that allow the healthcare business to advance securely. “I’m excited by the opportunity to transform an industry as critical as healthcare, with security and privacy driving much of the innovation,” said Deane. Deane’s commitment to opening the world of cybersecurity extends beyond his office job. He has written books on cybersecurity certifications, which are an important way for people to enter the cybersecurity industry and hone their skills. He is also an adjunct instructor at American University, a member of the Computer Science Advisory Board at Howard University, and a member of RIT’s Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences National Council. Deane enjoys international travel and learning about local cultures. He said that getting different viewpoints is important for cybersecurity, too. “Relying on a single perspective limits our ability to understand and address complex problems,” said Deane. “Building diverse organizations and encouraging broad viewpoints ensures that we can effectively tackle the large problems that we see every day in this industry.”

The brain is a great source of inspiration for Alexander Ororbia, an assistant professor of computer science and cognitive science at RIT. By mimicking how neurons in the brain learn, Ororbia is working to make artificial intelligence (AI) more powerful and energy efficient. His research was recently published in the journal Science Advances. ‌ RIT RIT Assistant Professor Alexander Ororbia The research article, “Contrastive signal–dependent plasticity: Self-supervised learning in spiking neural circuits,” introduces an AI network architecture that processes information through spikes, much like the electrical signals that brain cells use. This new learning method allows AI to do self-supervised learning, which is faster and more adaptable. Most of the deep neural networks that power modern day versions of generative AI and large language models use a learning approach called backpropagation of errors. This training method works well, but it often has to retrace a long communication pathway between inputs and outputs that is not time or energy efficient. “The brain isn’t designed to do learning this way,” said Ororbia. “Things are sparser in the brain—more localized. When you look at an MRI, there are very few neurons going off at one time. If your brain worked like modern AI, and all or most of your neurons fired at the same time, you would simply die.” Ororbia’s new method addresses inherent problems with back propagation. It lets the network learn without constant supervised feedback. The network improves its ability to classify and understand patterns by comparing fake data with real data. The method also works in parallel, meaning different parts of the network can learn at the same time without waiting for each other. Studies have shown that spiking neural networks can be several orders of magnitude more power efficient than modern-day deep neural networks. “The new method is like a prescription for how you specifically change the strengths—or plasticity—of the little synapses that connect spiking neurons in a structure,” said Ororbia. “It basically tells AI what to do when it has some data—increase the strength of synapses if you want a neuron to fire later or decrease it to be quiet.” Ororbia said this new technology will be useful for edge computing. For example, having more energy efficient AI would be critical for extending the battery life of autonomous electric vehicles and robotic controllers. Next, Ororbia is looking to show that his theories can be scaled and produce that energy efficiency in real life. He is working with Cory Merkel, assistant professor of computer engineering, to evaluate the method on powerful neuromorphic chips. Ororbia is also director of the Neural Adaptive Computing Laboratory (NAC Lab) in RIT’s Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, where he is working with researchers to develop more applications for brain-inspired computing.

Valerie Horn ’19 (public policy), ’19 MS (science, technology, and public policy) believes accessibility should be at the forefront of entrepreneurs’ minds when developing their businesses. This belief pushed her to co-found Zestability, a consultation firm that advocates for prioritizing accessibility and inclusive business practices. “I want everyone to have more choices. Deaf people and people with disabilities often have limited options, and that can also mean limited quality of services or products. It can be a very frustrating experience, and I’ve encountered that many times myself,” said Horn. The mission of Zestability, co-founded by Horn and Sheila Xu, is to “change the way industries approach accessibility.” They collaborate with businesses to create innovative, inclusive, and accessible solutions for customers both with and without disabilities. “The global disability market is $13 trillion in annual spending. That market includes people with disabilities, but it also includes their families, friends, and government agencies,” said Horn. “When companies invest in accessible practices, it can create loyalty among their customer base. If they make a bad impression by not being inclusive, customers are not going to use those services again.” Since graduating from RIT, Horn has worked at several nonprofits in roles focused on policy and advocacy work for people with disabilities. She met Xu when she relocated to Boston for her current position as the nonprofit manager of Deaf Inc. The pair bonded by venting their frustrations over obstacles they’ve faced as deaf women due to businesses not prioritizing accessibility, and they channeled those frustrations into this new business venture. Zestability was founded in early 2024. To Horn’s delight, the majority of their clients have been new startup companies. These companies benefit from consultations for product and customer experience development, as well as research and design feedback from Zestability’s disability network. “People reach out to us because they’re not sure how to include accessibility within their products, and we help guide them,” said Horn. “We’re really happy to work with them at that beginning stage. Once a business has already developed products and information, backtracking to make things more accessible takes more time and money to fix.” For clients seeking to improve their established offerings, Horn and Xu provide accessibility evaluations, language consulting, training workshops, and other services regarding appropriate practices and language needed to maximize inclusivity. A passion for breaking barriers and inspiring people to achieve their goals is the motivation behind Horn’s work. She said that her time at RIT helped her realize that she could use her skills and experiences to make a difference. “I did a lot of advocacy work for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community through my sorority, Alpha Sigma Alpha, and through Student Government. I think the self-confidence I gained through those experiences really helped me get to this point in my career,” said Horn.

As a Fedora community architect, Justin W. Flory ’20 (networking and systems administration) wears many hats. He is a community liaison, accountant, and project manager—all rolled into one. Most of all, he’s a leader at Red Hat working on the strategic direction of the Fedora Project, a cornerstone of the Linux open source movement. Open work is non-proprietary—meaning it’s licensed in a way that is publicly accessible and anyone can modify and share it. The original term for open source came out of the software industry. “Open source is a set of rules and guidelines about protecting freedoms, but it’s also a movement of people—that’s what has always attracted me to it,” said Flory, who is based out of Atlanta. Flory fell in love with open source in high school, when he used it to play and run a Minecraft game server. After he learned that RIT offers the first-ever minor in free and open source software and free culture, he applied to the university early decision. He also arrived at school a week early in order to attend Flock to Fedora, a global open source event that was coincidentally being held in Rochester that year. At RIT, Flory learned how to use the technological and social sides of open source to share and analyze data and improve collaboration among global, decentralized teams. He also volunteered with Red Hat, and through an RIT initiative, he earned a co-op with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), where he helped grow a community around a mapping project that visualizes schools around the world and their connectivity to the internet. Now, Flory has joined Red Hat and the Fedora Project, which produces the popular open source Fedora Linux operating system. It’s used by millions—from small nonprofits to Meta. Flory collaborates on projects that make it easier to develop artificial intelligence solutions on a Linux platform and RISC-V hardware architecture for developing open source microprocessors. He is also promoting outreach to engage more open source creators from underrepresented places. Four people have now taken on the role of Fedora community architect and three of them have been RIT alumni. The newest intern is also a current RIT student. Most recently, Flory ran the annual Flock to Fedora conference and he brought it back to Rochester for 2024. Nearly 120 contributors came together from 14 countries to exchange ideas and improve society. “If you told me nine years ago that I’d be making a career out of organizing Flock and these projects, I wouldn’t have believed you. RIT helped open the door for me to this incredible community.”

Kory Samuels has grown professionally throughout his time at RIT, starting as a student employee and progressing to his current leadership position as associate vice president of Auxiliary Services. He says continuous learning has allowed him to navigate the organization and find ways to thrive. Samuels is among the more than 2,600 RIT employees included in the Staff Career Architecture Project, a universitywide initiative built to improve career pathways and professional development opportunities for all staff. Upon implementation in about 18 months, the large-scale project, which launched in summer 2024, will offer staff members and their managers a clear framework for how jobs, career levels, and pathways for growth are structured across the university. RIT has engaged Segal, a national consultant firm, to guide the work of the project and advisory teams. The multiple phases of the project include gathering input and ongoing feedback from campus community members. To date, through a series of interviews, focus groups, and a survey, staff has provided input on the university’s strengths and challenges heading into the project. Samuels has been involved in several workshops so far and is enjoying the collaboration among campus partners. He’s looking forward to the impact the project will have on current and future generations of staff, particularly within his area of Auxiliary Services. “Given that the industries of housing, dining, and the support services of business operations, compliance, technology, facilities, finance, and retail services change so often, this framework will help us navigate changes in our organization to meet the needs of our evolving community at a faster pace,” he said. Jo Ellen Pinkham, associate vice president and chief human resources officer, is pleased that “in today’s dynamic and evolving work environment, RIT is demonstrating a strong commitment to staff and their growth and success through its support of this transformative work. The new architecture will ensure RIT continues to attract, retain, and grow talent, and foster staff engagement. This contemporary framework will offer valuable insights and opportunities for staff and managers alike.” For more information and updates, go to the Staff Career Architecture Project website.