Vodacek helping to bring machine learning to Indigenous communities

Rochester Institute of Technology is one of the best places in the world to study the different aspects of game creation, according to new international rankings from The Princeton Review. RIT’s game design and development program was ranked sixth at the undergraduate level and 10th at the graduate level. RIT’s programs are housed in the School of Interactive Games and Media (IGM) within the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. “Our students from across the university are collaborating to build fantastic games and interactive experiences,” said David Schwartz, director of IGM. “Our bachelor’s degree in game design and development is complemented by diverse RIT programs exploring a wide range of theory and skills that can focus on game animation, coding for games, sound design, and narrative and storytelling, for example. We prepare students for careers in the global gaming industry and many other industries.” RIT offers several paths for aspiring game designers, including bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and an accelerated BS/MS option in game design and development. Computing and information sciences Ph.D. students can also specialize in games research. In a press release, The Princeton Review noted that more than half of the students in top programs worked on a shipped game as part of their studies. Nearly all the students developed an actionable plan to launch a functional game after graduation. RIT students can also develop and commodify games at the university’s MAGIC Center. The studio supports the entrepreneurial ambitions of students and faculty who are seeking to publish and distribute films, games, and interactive experiences or start new digital media businesses. RIT students and faculty have published myriad games on platforms, including Steam and Nintendo Switch. RIT was the first university to publish on the Xbox One platform. Each year, RIT student game developers show off their work at major conferences, including GDC. Students at RIT also get to take part in cooperative education—full-time paid work experiences that provide an opportunity to learn on the job in real-world industry settings. With help from the co-op program, graduates of RIT’s games programs have started careers at companies including Blizzard Entertainment, WB Games New York, Rockstar Games, Nvidia, Interactive, and Microsoft. The Princeton Review tallied the 2025 ranking based on a survey of administrators at 150 institutions offering game design courses and/or degrees. The survey covered four areas: academics, faculty, technology, and career topics. The full lists, which name the “Top 50” undergraduate and “Top 25” graduate schools, are posted on the Top Game Design Schools 2025 website. There, users can also review the methodology and profiles about each school. The 16th annual list is also published in the May issue of PC Gamer magazine. Learn more about the university’s offerings at RIT Games.

The New York State Pollution Prevention Institute (NYSP2I) is accepting applications for the organization’s 2025-2026 Community Grants Program. The program, founded in 2008, is part of the NYSP2I’s ongoing efforts to make the state more sustainable for workers, the public, the environment, and the economy through pollution prevention. Pollution prevention is reducing or eliminating waste at the source by modifying production processes, promoting the use of non-toxic or less-toxic substances, implementing conservation techniques, and reusing materials rather than putting them into the waste stream. Eligible applicants, which must be New York state-based community organizations, municipal departments, public sector, or nonprofit entities, are invited to apply for funding to support community-based projects that promote public awareness, understanding, and implementation of pollution prevention practices. The proposal deadline is 5 p.m. EDT on April 18, 2025. “We are excited to open the new proposal period for the next round of our Community Grants Program funding,” said Nabil Nasr, NYSP2I’s interim director. “Eligible organizations from across the state have used this funding to implement a variety of pollution prevention and educational projects.” “We look forward to seeing the next round of innovative proposals, and this year we are encouraging project collaborations that lead to high-impact environmental benefits throughout the state,” he added. According to NYSP2I, competitive projects utilize partnerships and collaborations with other organizations; demonstrate broad community impact; and are easy to replicate and use by other organizations. Examples of project focus areas include reduction of natural resource consumption; reduction of hazardous chemical use; food waste reduction; pollution prevention in New York state priority areas such as greenhouse gas reductions or waste reduction through adoption of circular economy concepts; and outreach and education. The 2025-2026 grant year marks the 18th round of program funding from NYSP2I. Since its inception, the program has funded 179 projects totaling more than $3 million for organizations across New York state. Featured success stories and case studies of past awarded projects are available for reference on the NYSP2I website. For information on the Community Grants Program, contact Ambika Walker, NYSP2I’s program manager, Outreach and Education, at apwgis@rit.edu or 585-475-2399. About the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute Funded by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute is led by Golisano Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and is a partnership between RIT, Binghamton University, Clarkson University, Cornell University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the NYS Manufacturing Extension Partnership. NYSP2I’s goal is to make the state more sustainable for workers, the public, the environment, and the economy through pollution prevention. Pollution prevention is reducing or eliminating waste at the source by modifying production processes, promoting the use of non-toxic or less-toxic substances, implementing conservation techniques, and reusing materials rather than putting them into the waste stream.

Astro Teller, a renowned entrepreneur, engineer, scientist, and “Captain of Moonshots” at X Google’s Factory and innovation lab, will be an honorary degree recipient and the keynote speaker for Rochester Institute of Technology’s Academic Convocation on May 9. Teller, who is widely recognized for his leadership in technological innovation, oversees X, Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory designed to help tackle the world’s most difficult problems with bold solutions. Some of X’s best known moonshot technologies include Waymo autonomous cars, Verily life sciences, Google Brain, and Wing delivery drones. Before joining Google/Alphabet, Teller was the co-founding CEO of several companies including Cerebellum Capital Inc., an investment management firm whose investments are continuously designed, executed, and improved by a software system based on techniques from statistical machine learning; BodyMedia Inc., a wearable body monitoring company; and SANDbOX Advanced Development, an advanced development technology incubator. Prior to that, Teller taught at Stanford University and was an engineer and researcher for Phoenix Laser Technologies, Stanford’s Center for Integrated Systems, and Carnegie Group. Teller earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s degree in symbolic and heuristic computation from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from Carnegie Mellon University, where he received the prestigious Hertz Fellowship for students studying applied physical, biological, and engineering sciences. He will receive an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from RIT prior to his address. Through his work as a scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur, Teller holds many U.S. and international patents related to hardware and software technology. Teller is also a novelist and screenwriter. Go to RIT’s Commencement website for more information about the ceremonies taking place May 9-10.

When RIT student Miriam Rigas sought volunteer experience as a high school junior, she found a calling and a career path working with children touched by cancer. The physician assistant (PA) major from Syracuse, N.Y., is an active volunteer with her local branch of Camp Good Days and Special Times. Rigas currently sits on the organization’s advisory board and helps plan fundraising events, camper activities, and volunteer outreach in the Syracuse region. Her eight-year affiliation with Camp Good Days began with monthly activities and progressed to summer camps and program management for children with cancer or whose siblings or parents are affected by the disease. The children have taught Rigas how to listen with her heart and to see the person beyond the disease. “My interactions with the campers are something I hold dearly,” Rigas said. “It shaped what I wanted to do in PA school and the kind of provider I want to be.” As a fifth-year PA student, Rigas has spent the majority of her time off campus, working under supervising physicians in different practice areas and gaining hands-on experience with patients. To graduate, PA students must complete 10 clinical rotations, each lasting five weeks. Rigas recently completed an elective rotation in pediatric hematology and oncology at Upstate Medical in Syracuse that confirmed her long-term goal to specialize in this area. Pediatric hematology and oncology is a niche field with some opportunities for new graduates that Rigas will explore now or work toward in the future. One of the benefits of the physician assistant field is the flexibility that enables providers to change specialties without required recertification, she said. “I always knew I wanted to go into medicine,” Rigas said. “I was interested in the science and the disease processes, but I wanted to have a good amount of patient interaction, which landed me perfectly with the PA role.” Her experience interacting with pediatric cancer patients, survivors, and family members at Camp Good Days has enhanced her RIT education with interpersonal skills that are difficult to learn through textbooks, Rigas said. “At Camp Good Days, you’re working with kids who have been through more than you can even imagine,” she said. “Being able to learn from their resilience and the joy they have for life—despite what's going on in their situation—it’s just something that I think anyone could benefit from, but especially someone who's going into the medical field.” Rigas is deeply interested in how disease shapes the children’s life, how they interact with people, and how illness affects their sense of self and self-esteem. She delved into these aspects with her graduate research project, “Psychosocial Outcomes in Childhood Cancer Survivors: Well-being beyond Medical Treatment.” She shared her results earlier this year during an RIT-Rochester Regional Health Alliance poster presentation held at Rochester General Hospital. “I think it’s really important to approach people with empathy, not sympathy, to remain present and to listen,” Rigas said. “That’s something Camp Good Days has taught me and that I’ve been able to keep in mind as I have more and more patient interactions and get closer to becoming a provider myself.”

Faculty members from across RIT’s colleges are leading research initiatives on broad topics, including mental health, cell functions, smart city technologies, gravitational waves, and more. As a result, researchers who contributed to RIT receiving nearly $103 million in sponsored research awards during the past fiscal year, including 10 faculty members who reached or surpassed $1 million this past fiscal year, were praised by Ryne Raffaelle, RIT vice president for Research and associate provost, and inducted into the yearly classes of PI Millionaires.   “There were over 800 proposals submitted, that was also a highwater mark, and we are on a record pace to beat the achievements of this past fiscal year,” Raffaelle said.  Since 2001, more than 350 principal investigators— faculty-researchers working on multidisciplinary projects at the university—have been honored.  The 10 RIT faculty members recognized this year are:Corey Crane, associate professor, College of Health Sciences and Technology, works in the area of behavioral health developing and evaluating interventions that meet individualized needs to increase treatment compliance and reduce recidivism rates. Agamemnon Crassidis, professor, Kate Gleason College of Engineering, has been at the forefront of drone and UAV aircraft technology development, including advanced all attitude/orientation devices, and next-generation inertial navigation and orientation sensing systems. Parsian Katal Mohseni, associate professor, Kate Gleason College of Engineering, has an extensive background in the manipulation of material properties at the nanometer scale to enable next-generation device technologies in optoelectronics, photonics, nanoelectronics, and photovoltaic energy conversion. His most recent award is for the development of workforce initiatives for the semiconductor industry. Xumin Liu, professor, Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, an expert in data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, service computing, and computing education, is expanding a project to overcome programming barriers for non-computing majors in learning and practicing data science. Lishibanya Mohapatra, assistant professor, College of Science, studies key principles required to assemble structures inside cells. Her team uses mathematical modeling in collaboration with experimentalists to investigate how intracellular structures attain their distinctive shapes and sizes, and how these properties are connected to their specific functions. Lu Sun, professor, College of Engineering Technology, focuses on multiple aspects of smart city technologies such as asset management, intelligent transportation systems, connected and autonomous vehicles, transportation infrastructure inspection, nanomaterials for pavement construction, cognitive and behavioral neuroscience in transportation safety and construction safety, and advancing scalable and quality workforce development for infrastructure jobs. Anna Christina (Christy) Tyler, professor, College of Science, has extensive expertise in ecology and biogeochemistry of freshwater and marine environments, and focuses her research on ecosystem restoration and emerging contaminants, especially plastic pollution. She serves as co-director of the RIT Collaborative for Plastics and the Environment and the Lake Ontario Center for Microplastics and Human Health. Steven Weinstein, the Harvey J. Palmer Professor in Chemical Engineering, Kate Gleason College of Engineering, is an expert in thin film flows, liquid film coating, flow stability, and asymptotic/power series methodologies; recent work includes the advancement of two-dimensional polymer science and applications, and employing self-assembly processes to create materials for next generation photonics applications. John Whelan, professor, College of Science, an expert in gravitational waves and statistical signal processing, is part of RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation.  He is one of the leaders of the international team searching for continuous gravitational waves from spinning neutron stars in the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, co-chair of the LVK Continuous Waves Observational Group, and leads RIT’s group in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Qian Xue, associate professor, Kate Gleason College of Engineering, centers her research on machine-learning-aided computational modeling for simulating complex multi-physics processes for biological and biomedical applications. She also uses computer modeling to understand neuromuscular control of flow-structure-acoustics interaction in human and animal airway, with application on voice production, speech generation, and sleep health. Several Seed Funding awardees— new researchers who submitted proposals as part of RIT Sponsored Research Services’ Grant Writers’ Boot Camp—were also recognized at the reception. “This funding is provided to kick-start their research efforts. This is the future crop of PIs that will help RIT achieve future research success,” said Raffaelle. The newest Seed Funding awardees are: Jun Han Bae, Sathwika Bavikadi, Carole Woodlock, Krittika Goyal, Mohammad Javad Khojasteh, Andrew Sonntag, MD Ahasan Habib, Frances Cooley, Ali Baheri, Ji Hwan Park, Sriniwas Mahapatro, Elliot Emadian, and Mihloti Williams. RIT received record funding last fiscal year from the National Science Foundation (NSF) ($20 million), the National Institutes of Health ($10 million), the Department of Defense (DOD) ($23 million), and New York State ($17 million). According to the most recent NSF Higher Education Research Development Survey, a national repository to detail awards and expenditures, RIT’s research expenditures rank among the Top 50 private universities, and the Top 15 private research universities without medical schools.

Whether your idea of recreation is lifting weights, playing basketball, running, doing yoga, or playing darts, RIT’s Hale-Andrews Student Life Center (SLC) is accommodating more visitors than ever, thanks in part to recent renovations and additions. ‌ Carlos Ortiz/RIT Leo Filho, a second-year software engineer major from Crown Point, N.Y., offers weight training guidance to Grace Perna, a third-year biomedical sciences major from Clifton Park, N.Y. in a new fitness room in the Hale-Andrews Student Life Center. This semester, two racquetball courts have been converted into fitness rooms. They provide spaces where clubs can meet, personal trainers can work with students, or classes in strength training and other specialized activities can be offered. The additions help ease some of the congestion in the Wiedman Fitness Center, a neighboring 16,000-square-foot multilevel gym and weight room. A renovated elevated running track above the basketball courts opened in January. The rubber track, an eighth of a mile long, replaced the original track that opened with the building in 1992. A golf simulator enables students to practice their drives, and a third pool table was added during spring break to accommodate a growing number of billiards players, some who start playing at 6 a.m. Garrison Koch, a Ph.D. student from New York City, visits the pool tables nearly every day. “We have a great group of players who play in a local league,” he said. “It’s a great stress reliever.” The billiards equipment was checked out 4,000 times last year, but that doesn’t include a lot of players who bring their own equipment and set cameras up to film themselves, said David Stevens, director of the Center for Recreational Sports. Stevens said the first week of classes this semester saw an all-time high of visits to the SLC, which has had more than 550,000 visits annually in the past two years. About 91 percent of the visits were from current students, with faculty, staff, and alumni being the other 9 percent. Students who visit the SLC do so an average of 38 times a year. And he said the amount of time the visitors are spending inside is also increasing, from an average of 71 minutes in 2021 to 88 minutes this year. “Once they come, they tend to also stay and socialize. That’s been our goal. We’re trying to create a community,” Stevens said. The center is also home for numerous wellness classes – two classes are mandatory for most RIT undergraduates prior to graduation. Many students take more than two and participate in classes involving dancing, fitness, martial arts, outdoor education, and recreation. ‌ Carlos Ortiz/RIT Jasper Emus, left, a second-year global business management major from South Salem, N.Y., and John Dominianni, a third-year computing and information sciences student from Closter, N.J., jog on a new rubber track above the basketball courts in the Hale-Andrews Student Life Center. To help make students feel more comfortable in the space, dart boards and games such as air hockey have been added to provide more variety for students interested in less rigorous activities. “We want people to come from different backgrounds, with all body types and experiences,” Stevens said. “We want everyone to feel welcomed here.” Jennifer Lewis, associate director of Recreational Facilities, said the changes were made from student feedback and suggestions. “We asked members of several student organizations what would be a priority for them,” she said. The new spaces were designed to accommodate their requests and be utilized as much as possible. “Our sports clubs and all the student organization clubs have the right to reserve this space,” she said. “This enables them to do group workouts together.” The fitness rooms are also available for open use during the school year on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for students to use for their functional training and strength training needs. Some additions can even help lure passersby to explore the center. Vending machines offering healthy snacks are now positioned near the Quarter Mile, offering even those not using the facility to come in to grab a snack. “Over the past couple of years, we’re busy all day, every day, especially evening hours,” Lewis said. Another addition, done in conjunction with Residence Life, opened in the basement of Frances Baker Hall in the fall of 2022. A fitness room opened there with treadmills, elliptical machines, stationary bikes, a rowing machine, a few stationary weight machines, and a small dumbbell area. “It’s connected to a studio where you could have a group of students practicing a small dance routine or connect to the TV to run a small fitness class,” Lewis said. Any RIT student can use the room, which is open 24/7, by entering with their ID. The space in Baker Hall was used 18,000 times last year by 2,100 unique students. It’s on pace to see 22,000 visits this year. “The room has been super popular as another alternative for students who didn’t feel comfortable coming into the big gym,” she said. “It can seem pretty intimidating for someone coming in brand new to working out or being in such a big school. And since it’s cold in the winter, you may not feel like trekking across campus, so you have the convenience of staying right inside the dorms and using the tunnels.” Lewis said the facilities and recreational options are not only used by current students, they are selling points to prospective students and appreciated by alumni. “Students come back after they graduated and say RIT had they best gym they ever belonged to. They miss it,” Lewis said.