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>> As dean of the college, I often think
about what we're trying to do
in the education of our students.
And I think it can be summed up by this.
If students can imagine it,
we want them to gain the skills
and to have access to the tools
to design and build it.
Engineers truly, truly, truly have the ability
to change the world in which we live.
>> At the College of Engineering, we focus a lot
on career-oriented education for our students
where our faculty are dedicated in teaching
the most advanced and also foundational
knowledge for our students
on our respective disciplines.
And we do actively engage
in multidisciplinary teaching,
multidisciplinary research,
multidisciplinary experience
for our students.
>> And RIT does a fantastic job
giving you the opportunity
to look at these engineering problems
from a bunch of different perspectives.
As a computer engineer, I've looked
at mechanical engineering problems
and industrial systems engineering problems.
And it really allows me to
look at the field as a whole
and figure out how to work on a team with people
of any type of background and come together
to solve whatever problem
someone presents us with.
>> I really think the college is
an absolutely fantastic place.
It's very collaborative.
It's very student-focused.
People's doors are open.
There's a lot of hallway conversations.
A lot of really interesting ideas and interactions
occur because of that.
And a lot of students even get involved
with a lot of our research projects
and sort of get coupled in to the excitement
that all the faculty have about
the kind of work we're doing,
and even what we're teaching.
>> The ease of access to resources
is absolutely fantastic.
When I say resources, I mean access
to professors, research labs,
any programs we need, things like that.
The professors, for instance,
in the chemical engineering department
all go by their first name.
And so having a first name basis,
calling your professor Steve or Karuna
or something like that is really--
adds a really personal
connection to your professors,
and it makes it a lot easier to reach out
when you have questions.
>> They're very good at helping you be
your own type of engineer,
pursue the stuff that is interesting to you.
I have a music minor as well,
and a lot of my professors
worked very hard to help kind of
adapt some concepts and show
how they'll be relevant to me in the music field.
You can combine your interests to fit something
that really suits you personally.
I know a lot of my other friends, they'll think,
oh, I kind of had to compromise something
I liked because my school doesn't offer it.
I don't think I've felt that once here.
>> You can still be creative within engineering,
and I think RIT does a
really good job of showcasing that.
RIT has a ton of really great arts programs,
and just being exposed to that, you really
get a good opportunity
to apply that creativity to engineering.
And I think that a lot of schools
don't necessarily have that.
>> We have lots of co-curricular activities
where students can gain even more skills.
So we have clubs like the formula race team,
electrical vehicle teams,
and Launch that does rocketry,
and Theme Park Enthusiasts that build
theme parks and virtual reality
to experience theme parks.
And what we try to do
is give them access to the tools
to build what they need to build.
>> Really, any resource that I want,
I can ask around and someone will
have an answer for me and help me find it.
>> RIT prides itself in providing
open access to our research labs
to undergraduate students,
not only graduate students,
so that they can participate
in our research programs,
help our faculty and our graduate students
achieve excellent research outcomes.
>> Coming out of my freshman year, I
reached out to my department head
and asked if there were any research projects
I could get involved with.
So I spent the summer after my freshman year
and a chunk of my second year
doing research with him.
And it was just a really interesting opportunity.
It looked great on my resume.
It was a really fun thing.
I learned a ton over the course of just a summer.
So I decided to continue with the combined
bachelor's/master's program and
I've been working on graduate
research for the last about a year now.
>> So in senior design, we reach out to industry
relative to seeing what problems they
might have that we could give to
our student teams to solve.
The capstone program is a two semester project
and gives the students the ability
to solve real-world problems.
The other benefits are
that it allows the students to work
with a real outside customer as opposed
to something that is just kind of made up,
if you will, and gives the industry the ability
to actually see some of our students
if they are interested in recruiting
for some of their people for future jobs.
The projects are very diverse.
We do a lot of different stuff.
We do healthcare, access technology projects,
we do a lot of support projects
for many different industries.
>> I'm working on a portable robotic device
that helps assist people with disabilities
and allows them to sail and steer sailboats.
A couple of professors
and a lot of technical experts
here gave me the resources and knowledge
I could use to further pursue it.
>> So this is a cross-functional exercise
where electrical engineers are working
with mechanical engineers,
working with industrial systems engineers,
working with biomedical engineers.
So one of the things that they learn
out of this process
is how to work on a team.
So it's a multi, cross-functional team
being able to solve these
kind of industry problems
as you would in industry, because this
is exactly what industry does.
>> We also pride ourselves in being
a very good co-op school, which
means all of our students have to go through one
year of cooperative education in the industry
to get real hands-on experience
of working in the industry
while making progress towards their degree.
>> I would say the co-op program in our college,
the co-op program is the thing that
really distinguishes RIT from a lot of other
programs around the country.
>> So what it means is
they earn a good salary
to practice their engineering skills.
And so by doing this,
they get to learn what it's
like to work in the real world.
They get to learn about what they
want to do for their
permanent career after graduation.
>> It just gives you a ton of opportunity
to figure out what you like and what you
don't like within your major.
So something, for instance, I've tried everything
from process engineering to
research and development in industry,
to even academic research.
I liked all of my co-ops, but I really
liked the technical research and I
liked being able to potentially have
a huge impact on our society by doing
sustainability-focused research.
So with that, I decided to apply to grad school,
and that'll be my next step moving forward.
>> I had a co-op for Yamaha Music
in Hamamatsu, Japan.
I really want to design and build
new instruments that kind of join
engineering and music together,
and combine some of the sciences and arts.
And I got to see a lot of
these technologies firsthand,
see some new fun tools.
I also got my own project there
that I could design something
and I could call it my own and start something
from beginning to end.
Such a great experience.
And RIT was very helpful with it as well.
They helped organize a lot of it.
They were in constant communication,
making sure that we could
get there safely and return safely.
The whole experience was just so unreal to me.
>> There's a lot of stuff that people kind of
don't talk about in terms of being prepared
for life after college, things like understanding
how to pay your bills and
pay rent and things like that.
And weirdly enough, the co-op
program is fantastic at that.
I had to deal with finding my own apartment
and effectively living on my own for six
months after my second year of college.
So RIT offered a lot of help there,
but it was still a situation of like, okay, I
have to learn how to be an adult.
It prepared me fantastically for my full-time job.
I'm super excited to go there.
I feel genuinely ready to
move on to the next step.
And it's really going to be a good experience.
>> There's just so much opportunity here,
and there's just so much you can do with it.
And I mean, it helped me get into the best
chemical engineering grad school in the country.
So what more can I say, you know?
It's just, it's been absolutely great.
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