RIT on TV News: Imagine RIT

WROC-TV (Channel 8) reports on the success of the second annual Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival at Rochester Institute of Technology on May 2, 2009.

Reporter: It took nearly 2700 students, administrators and volunteers 12 months to pull it off. "There is everything that we do from A to Z." says Barry Culhane, Chair of Image RIT.

From a smoothie making bicycle. To trucks that are powered by hydrogen instead of gas. It's all a part of imagine RIT. Its a day to showcase student projects and local science vendors.

"You can go over and see glass bowling and digital imaging for the right side of the brain to poetry and theater from the national institute of the deaf," says Culhane.

For people who love music, you can play a harp with laser beams instead of strings. One of the crowd favorites was the hot dog assembler. Instead of going to the supermarket to get a hot dog, all you have to do is punch in what you want and volia, it comes out. But it wasn't just about showcasing RIT's inventions, its about showing how fun science can be.

"What I really want is for kids to get jazzed about science," says Tim Cawley of the Rochester Museum and Science Center. And that they did. They've inspired this future mechanical engineer.

"I think its pretty amazing. I definitely didnt imagine that this could be possible until i came here and its definitely so far inspiring," says Alex Morales.

But Imagine RIT does have a hefty price tag. "We fundraised about 175,000 which is good in this economy. We are really cost efficient because we want to make sure that anything we spend is spent well," says Calhane.

But they say, seeing the smiles of the kid's faces is priceless. More than 25,000 people showed up to Imagine RIT and they look forward to doing it again next year.

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Education

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• RIT