The 2007 FIRST season has officially kicked off. For the next six weeks hundreds of high school students throughout the Finger Lakes and Upstate New York regions will be working on their robots. No, not the dance move—actual robots. The FIRST High School Robotics Program challenges teams of high school students to design and build a robot that will compete in a game against
One week ago, President George W. Bush was preparing to make a historic address to the United States Congress. Not only would it be the first State of the Union address Bush had to deliver to a Democratic Congress, but the first time a female speaker of the House of Representatives ever presided over a State of the Union. Throw in hot-button issues like
Our school colors may be orange and brown, but RIT is arguably one of the most colorful universities in the world. RIT will offer a new doctoral degree in color science this fall, the only one of its kind in the nation. The program is an extension of the existing graduate program in color science offered by the Munsell Color Science Laboratory in RIT’s
A failing grade for BusinessWeek . . . and lawmakers logging on. On "Dateline: RIT – The Podcast" this week, RIT economics professor Thomas Hopkins gives a lesson in Economics 101 about supply-and-demand price elasticity pertaining to healthcare costs. Dr. Hopkins wrote a letter, appearing in the Jan. 29 edition of BusinessWeek, taking the magazine to task for oversimplifying the issue of healthcare pricing.
I honestly don’t remember my college graduation speaker. Some guy, I think, but I don’t know his name, affiliation or why he was relevant. Can you relate? More than 20 years have passed since I joined fellow members of the St. John Fisher College Class of 1986 in accepting our undergraduate diplomas, so I hope my memory lapse is forgivable. I do remember the
Exciting news will be revealed when the Jan. 25 issue of News & Events hits the stands. I can’t give it away here and now, of course, but this was one of those times when a last-minute redesign of page one was truly welcomed. In addition to this announcement being great for RIT's presence in the media, it's also great for RIT’s News
This is the long-awaited final segment in a series of Tiger Beat Blog posts on the making of a podcast (specifically, “Dateline: RIT – The Podcast”). First, a refresher. Last time, I described how the purchase of a Marantz PMD660 portable digital recorder helped overcome audio quality challenges. Remaining, though, was the dilemma of how to enhance poor telephone audio quality (remember, I merely
At RIT, the ‘snow day’ has reached an almost mythical status. Generations of students come and go, with many never receiving a single day off because of bad weather, despite Rochester’s notoriously brutal offerings of ice and snow. In fact, the last time RIT cancelled an entire day of classes was Jan. 15, 1999—exactly eight years prior to Monday’s closing, because of icy
It was hot. It was July. The Yankees and Red Sox were slugging it out (and it was clear neither team had any championship pitching)….And we were talking hockey – RIT hockey. The summer months are a busy time for RIT Sports Information, led by Director Steve Jaynes and Associate Director Joe Venniro. Sure, all the students are gone and Sports Information gets a
I’ve been fortunate enough to see some pretty cool things and meet some fairly high-profile people during my brief career. I’ve been inside the White House, interviewed various sports stars and have received “free” admission (as long as I was working) into many different sporting events. Those are some of the perks that accompany the grueling hours and relatively low pay that comes along
Remember my last blog post when I wrote that I was really looking forward to the delivery of News & Events? Well, this time around, I’ll say that I’m just plain thankful that the darn thing will hit the stands on Jan. 11. While the issue looks just as professional as the last, it was a rough road getting to that point. University News/University
Profiles in courage take on many forms. Some happen in a fleeting instant—like our New York City hero, Wesley Autrey, who decided to jump into a subway track to rescue a 19-year-old film student from an oncoming train. Other selfless acts of valor happen over a lifetime—and yes, we have examples of courage right here at RIT. As a steering committee member of RIT’s United Way
I dare say that, by all accounts, Whitney Tressel’s absence from classes today is excusable. The third-year advertising photography student in RIT’s School of Photographic Arts and Sciences is in Arizona, where she will take in tonight’s BCS Championship Game. Ohio State and Florida will battle it out for college football supremacy. Now, while many sports lovers may be jealous of Whitney’s good fortune,
As my New Year’s gift to you, my dear blog readers, podcast aficionados and Vienna Carvalho groupies, I give you a special edition of “Dateline: RIT – The Podcast”: Dateline: RIT – Bloopers & Outtakes This special episode features the funniest bloopers, gaffes, stumbles, #@%* and outtakes so far from season 1 of “Dateline: RIT – The Podcast.” So enjoy laughing along with us—and at
The seed was planted during a public relations conference I attended in early June. I attended a workshop on how to successfully place Op-Eds (opinion pieces that run opposite the editorial page in newspapers). During the presentation, it occurred to me that this would be a perfect medium in which to obtain some national media attention for Professor Sam McQuade’s cyber education initiative.