RIT on TV News: Imagine RIT

R News reports on the success of the second annual Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival at Rochester Institute of Technology on May 2, 2009.

Reporter: The Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival features the full range of what the school's academic programs and clubs have to offer. Green technology reigned supreme Saturday in RIT president Bill Destler's green vehicle challenge.

"The lowest energy consumed is the victor," said Destler. According to the rules of the contest, if you used wind power or solar power, you don't have to count that energy." RIT student and green vehicle challenge participant Abbey Donner said, "We created a charging cart which has three solar panels on it. We set that outside to charge the bike. Free energy charged the battery that way, so we're really not paying for any energy with this bike." Over in the Gordon Field House, visitors could help biotechnology students extract DNA from strawberries.

"We're wanting people to understand that genetic engineering isn't necessarily a scary thing. And we're trying to educate people about the whole process. We also want to encourage kids to learn about plants and explore the field of biotechnology," said RIT student Shandra Iannucci.

Of course, no festival is complete without food. But at imagine: RIT, that also comes with a dose of technology, like a robotic hot dog vendor.

"This is actually put together by the manufacturing engineering technology department, said RIT student Mike Hyman. Our degree is very broad in that we have some aspects of mechanical, some aspects of electrical, computer programming. We have a basic knowledge of a little bit of everything and developed it into this."

And why not wash down that hot dog with a strawberry banana smoothie, courtesy the RIT cycling club's bike blender. "I designed it. I'm a mechanical engineering student here. Basically, as the bike wheel rolls by, it turns a smaller wheel that goes straight up and drives the blender," said RIT student Donald Leclerc.

This marked the second year for the Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival. Dan Smith, R News.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Imagine
• RIT

[stonerj0e]

wow new ideas ! NOT !

[Norumu]

Woo for the Free Hugs guy at the end! (Cus it was me. Hohohooo)