Zevez Zalay, a third-year finance and marketing student, has long been fascinated with the idea of community. After spending a day searching for a local spoken-word poetry group in Rochester, Zalay worked to envision a platform that offers a different experience. Zalay and their business partner, third-year software engineering student Nathan Jackson, are the creators of GroupSoup, a social engagement platform that brings people together for recurring meetups hosted at local businesses. The goal is to foster organic, authentic community building while helping small businesses increase foot traffic and gain customer insights. ‌ Pete Schuck/RIT From left, Nathan Jackson and Zevez Zalay present GroupSoup, a marketplace platform that helps drive foot traffic to local businesses, during Demo Night of the Bernard Kozel StartUP Program @ Saunders. “There’s no convenient catalog for people looking to organize meetups unless you’re willing to cold message businesses on Facebook or send out emails, which is a tedious process,” Zalay said. “We want to connect people who want to build community with businesses that want to bring people through the door.” The Bernard Kozel StartUP Program @ Saunders is helping student teams like GroupSoup turn innovative ideas into the beginnings of tangible businesses. As the program concludes its first cohort as a newly established program under the Saunders College of Business, named in honor of Bernard Kozel – well respected for his roles as a businessman and entrepreneur, innovator, investor, and connector. Eight student-led companies are reaping the rewards of a unique support system designed to help them thrive. Pathways for student entrepreneurship are not new to RIT. This program was originally founded in 2011 by professor Richard DeMartino and the late Rich Notargiacomo, former director of RIT’s Venture Creations business incubator, and later run by director Anthony Testa and Evan Vershay under the RIT Student Accelerator name until its rebranding in early 2025. In all, 167 teams and 479 students have participated across the last 23 cohorts. The effort is made possible by many benefactors, including support from the Bernard Kozel Endowed Fund for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The program, open to all RIT students, is a 12-week immersive summer experience, offering guidance, hands-on learning, and networking opportunities for the student teams. The teams invest into their projects full-time and are given an honorarium to help build their ideas and meet at least twice a week as a group. They have alternative sessions with coaches, who have decades of business experience, and guest speakers from the world of business and leadership. The program culminates with Demo Night, where the teams showcase their business ideas in front of friends, family, and potential investors. One such venture is Endo Automation, which was supported through the Sarah Ramsey Strong Fund, and founded by graduate software engineering students Devaj Mody and Shridhar Vilas Shinde, and Lex Baker, a second-year computer science major. Their solution to a critical modern farming issue: a low-cost, AI-enabled drip irrigation system that uses soil moisture and rainfall sensors to optimize water usage. “We noticed the issues with farmers across the board, especially those in more arid regions in India and the United States,” said Mody. “Water shortages, loss of crops, and the expense to run a farm are all barriers for them. We basically decided to design a system that's able to carry out irrigation at a fraction of the cost, with all the benefits that the farmer would have.” The Endo Automation team designed and perfected their system in Rochester over the summer. The product is already gaining traction. The team has planned deployments this month at four farms in India, including a large vineyard. They’re also eyeing applications to World Bank initiatives for agricultural innovation. ‌ Provided The 23rd cohort of the Bernard Kozel StartUP Program @ Saunders was led by program director Anthony Testa, front, second from right, along with support by, from front left, coaches Steve Brookstein and Richard Condon, the 2025 Bernard Kozel Mentor of the Year. Along with GroupSoup and Endo Automation, this summer’s teams included: CYPER, an affordable cybersecurity assessment platform for small-to-medium businesses; ModuCore, a company which creates personalized organizers geared toward lifestyle artisans; Bone Bros, a semi-custom shoe brand bridging the gap between modern footwear and foot health; CollegeGO, an affordable one-stop shop for students and parents to simplify the college application experience; OpenSeek, an education and employment platform for early career UX designers; and Obscura, a breakthrough technology which prevents AI theft of art. A major addition to this summer’s format was the introduction of co-op students, provided with support from Saunders College, who were embedded into the startup teams. “That was a great experience,” said Baker. “It was a different look into managing others who may not have a stake or equity in the company like the three of us. We had to learn how to manage those different expectations, which was great to learn.” “The co-ops added a new dynamic,” added Testa. “Integrating any group of people into a process is not without hard work. The Kozel teams are learning entrepreneurship, but they're also learning how to be leaders and managers on the fly, which is really cool in this safe space.” Throughout the 12 weeks, the teams also formed a tight-knit community. They supported each other regularly through impromptu design feedback and help troubleshooting customer discovery hurdles. One example is through the OpenSeek team, who helped teams like Endo Automation with UI/UX work. A shared Discord group allowed the students to stay connected and share resources in real-time. “This was definitely one of the more connected groups we have had,” added Vershay. It's always encouraged by Anthony and me, but at the end of the day it's on them to really make it happen and connect with each other. They were great about that this year.” The 2025 cohort marked a turning point for the program. It drew a record number of applicants—24 in total—allowing staff to accept the most committed and promising eight groups. “We had alumni and long-time supporters telling us this was the strongest cohort they’d ever seen,” Testa said. “These students came ready.” Applications for the 24th cohort in the summer of 2026 are open on a rolling basis. Interested student teams are encouraged to apply early and reach out for guidance.  

When cybersecurity student Emery Rios got an email about winning an RIT award, they immediately thought it was suspicious. Luckily, after a bit of investigation, Rios was able to confirm that the email was not a phishing attack. Rios, a combined accelerated cybersecurity BS/MS student, was selected for the Norman A. Miles Award for Academic Excellence in Study for the 2025-2026 academic year. The award is given to a student who began their studies as a first-year student at RIT and is entering their final year of undergraduate study with the highest grade point average across the university. Recommendations from deans are also considered.  ‌ Provided Yin Pan, professor in the Department of Cybersecurity, was selected by Emery Rios for the Norman A. Miles Award for Academic Excellence in Teaching. A second component of the award allows the student to recognize a faculty member who contributed to their success at RIT. Rios selected Yin Pan, professor in the Department of Cybersecurity, for the Norman A. Miles Award for Academic Excellence in Teaching. “Professor Pan is so caring, understanding, and truly wants students to succeed,” said Rios. “She is really deserving of this award for the impact she has made on every student, not just me.” Rios chose to attend RIT after finding a love for cybersecurity through a special program in high school. They were also a big fan of Penelope Garcia, the technical analyst on the TV show Criminal Minds. “Digital forensics can be like a crime scene investigation, but doing it on a device,” said Rios, who is from Waldorf, Md. At RIT, Rios enjoyed taking a class in social engineering—where they got to complete a tailgating assessment—and working on a USB baiting attack field experiment that was later published at a cybersecurity conference. As a third-year, Rios took an advanced computer forensics course with Pan. “Emery stood out right away, always asking insightful questions and an enthusiasm to learn new things,” said Pan. For a group project in Pan’s class, Rios worked on a forensic analysis for open source cloud technology. They completed an overview of existing tools, identified limitations, and studied how to modify tools to fit in cloud forensics. “I gave them a 100,” said Pan. “That is very unusual, but I couldn’t pick out anything unsatisfactory.” Rios has since become a teaching assistant (TA) for two of Pan’s computer forensics courses. As a TA, they grade assignments and host open office hours to help other students with technical questions. During the summer, Rios did a cybersecurity co-op with Dick’s Sporting Goods, at the Security Operations Center near Pittsburgh. Outside of class, Rios enjoys being a Resident Advisor and was a Performing Arts Scholar for acting. They are also president of RIT Cosplay Troupe, which meets weekly and holds events and performances throughout the year. Rios is known for cosplaying Dungeons & Dragons characters. As part of the Norman Miles award, Rios is earning a scholarship and Pan will receive funds to support faculty professional development activities. Pan plans to use the money to attend an interesting conference or to support research. She hopes to get a laptop for students who are interested in studying how features in the newest Microsoft Windows system impact forensic analysis.

Like many Ph.D. students, Attila Varga’s professional pursuits include being a lead author on a published paper. But, getting his research featured on the front page of NASA’s website and in news outlets around the world is definitely a bonus. Varga, an astrophysical sciences and technology Ph.D. candidate at RIT, is proud of his research that has led to new understanding about a newborn exoplanet that is shrinking due to the harsh X-rays of its nearby host star. Named TOI 1227 b, the planet is the second youngest ever to be observed passing in front of its host star. While previous estimations put the planet’s age at 11 million years, Varga’s study found the planet to be 8 million years old, which is very young by planetary standards (by comparison, the Earth is about 5 billion years old). The team’s research on TOI 1227 b began when Varga noticed that one of the young stars he had been studying, named TOI 1227, had been identified as a potential exoplanet host by a separate NASA mission. After the exoplanet was confirmed, the research team, led by Varga and his dissertation adviser Joel Kastner, professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy and Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, used NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory to measure the star’s intense high-energy radiation. Varga then led a series of computer models that demonstrated that the effects of this intense stellar X-ray bombardment of the planet was probably devastating. TOI 1227 b’s atmosphere is being blasted away and its mass is due to shrink. “It’s almost unfathomable to imagine what is happening to this planet,” said Varga. “The planet’s atmosphere simply cannot withstand the high X-ray dose it’s receiving from its star.” Varga’s work on the effects of young star X-rays on their newborn planets will continue as he, fellow astrophysical sciences and technology Ph.D. student Ryan Butler, and adviser Kastner were recently awarded Chandra observing time to measure X-ray radiation from another exoplanet host star that is even younger than TOI 1227. “When Attila told me that he had found an exoplanet host among the hundreds of young stars he had been studying, I have to say my jaw kind of dropped on the floor because it was such a significant discovery,” said Kastner. “You can learn a lot by looking at these very young planets to determine how our solar system came to be and if there are other solar systems like ours.” Along with Varga and Kastner, other collaborators on the paper published in The Astrophysical Journal include Alexander Binks from Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen in Germany, Moritz Guenther from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Simon Murphy from The University of New South Wales in Australia. The opportunity to work with researchers around the world and to have direct access to NASA telescopes like Chandra was what helped bring Varga to RIT. “I really like the research when the focus is X-ray astronomy,” said Varga. “It was really cool that we could propose time with Chandra and get the data back, and have such definite measurement of this young exoplanet host star’s X-ray radiation. It’s exciting, and it puts all the work in my classes and experience I’ve been getting together really nicely.” For Kastner, supervising a Ph.D. student making such discoveries is just as rewarding. “Seeing him get to the place where he’s making major advances in exoplanet research with data collected from a major international observatory is wonderful,” said Kastner. “Even better, he’s done so by taking the research initiative and leading an international team of recognized experts in the field.”

Rochester Institute of Technology’s newest doctoral degree offers a personalized approach to helping people with illnesses or disabilities participate in life. An entry-level clinical doctorate in occupational therapy (OTD) will launch in June 2026. The program will focus on innovative interventions and adaptive devices that extend patients’ functional skills. The OTD program represents the university’s first clinical doctorate degree. ‌ Pete Schuck/RIT RIT’s clinical doctorate in occupational therapy looks to the future of adaptive design. Here, Christopher Alterio, OTD director, and Marcia Shea, OTD clinical coordinator, tour the AMPrint Center and learn about integrated prosthetic research that could revolutionize occupational therapy. “Occupational therapy is about function, participation, and adaptation,” said Christopher Alterio, director of RIT’s occupational therapy doctoral program. “Occupational therapists work across a variety of different settings and diagnoses, helping people do the things they need and want to do in the context of their real lives.” The future-facing and collaborative program will develop clinicians who are comfortable working with engineers, designers, and data scientists to create meaningful solutions for people, he said. “Our students will work in AR/VR environments and design custom orthotics and prosthetics in 3D-printing labs,” Alterio said. “They will learn how to evaluate emerging tools that are still being tested in research settings.” The three-year clinical doctorate, approved by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education and the New York State Education Department, is housed within RIT’s Wegmans School of Health and Nutrition. The program will prepare graduates to work with people of all ages at schools, hospitals, and outpatient clinics. The program consists of nine consecutive semesters, a capstone, and required fieldwork, and blends a traditional curriculum with innovative technology and experiential learning. Completion of the program qualifies graduates to sit for the national certification exam administered by the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy. U.S. News Careers ranks occupational therapy as the eighth best health care career in 2025. Increased retirement rates within the profession create opportunities for the next generation to bring new energy to the field. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the need for occupational therapists to grow by 11 percent through 2033 and reports a median annual wage of $98,340. The expansion of RIT’s health sciences programs will help address workforce shortages in the health sector, starting with occupational therapy, according to Yong “Tai” Wang, dean of RIT’s College of Health Sciences and Technology. OTD’s focus on patient experience and capstone research distinguishes it from RIT’s 13 Ph.D. programs. “Healthcare workforce demands present an opportunity for RIT to make an impact beyond the region,” Wang said. “Our OTD program will educate a new type of clinician who approaches patient-centered care with a technology mindset.” The OTD lab will give students experience working in augmented- and virtual-reality (AR/VR) spaces for immersive rehabilitation, traditional outpatient therapy environments, and a large pediatric play space. Occupational therapy at RIT will tap into the synergy of technology, the arts, and design on campus, Alterio said, and explore possibilities through AR/VR simulations, personalized 3D-printed prostheses, and apps that gamify OT. Close proximity to research labs, studios, and makerspaces across campus gives the OTD program an edge, Alterio said. Occupational therapy is a multidisciplinary field with overlap in health sciences, engineering, computer science, and industrial design, among other areas. Researchers at RIT’s AMPrint Center, for instance, develop and test additive manufacturing and 3D-printing technologies and materials. Ongoing research in 3D-printed orthotics and personalized prosthesis technology integrated with tissue engineering has OT applications. Accessible design challenges, such as RIT’s Studio 930, give students other opportunities to work in multidisciplinary teams and apply design thinking to real problems. OTD students can gain experience interacting with clients representing the Al Sigl Community of Agencies and the RIT-Rochester Regional Health Alliance, a strategic partnership between the university and the health system. “We want to make it the norm in occupational therapy to work with people who are always advancing technology,” Alterio said. “I want to model a spirit of collaboration so we can bring the kinds of amazing ideas that are happening on campus into the field and directly to patients.” For more information about RIT’s OTD program, contact Alterio at cjachst@rit.edu.

Two RIT astrophysical sciences and technology Ph.D. students had proposals accepted for the Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Science Space and Technology (FINESST) program, which provides funding for graduate student designed and performed research projects for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. Students Allen Wen and Sadie Coffin wrote two of 24 proposals accepted in the astrophysics category out of 456 submissions. Wen, advised by Professor Yosef Zlochower from the School of Mathematics and Statistics, will be modeling multiwavelength signals from binary neutron star mergers. Coffin, under the direction of Associate Professor Jeyhan Kartaltepe from the School of Physics and Astronomy, will be leveraging citizen science measurements to efficiently identify galaxy pairs. FINESST awardees must be the primary author of the research and will receive $50,000 per year for up to three years. RIT is one of just two schools nationwide to have more than one FINESST proposal in astrophysics accepted, and those two are in two different research centers associated with the Ph.D. program: The Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation and the Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics. “It speaks to the emphasis on excellence that we have in the program,” said Zlochower. “It’s unusual to get one student winning. Two is quite remarkable.” In 2017, the first binary neutron star merger that detected both gravitational waves and a light signal from the same event was observed. That left a lot of data to be analyzed and explained. Wen will be creating big simulations to try to answer why the light signal looked the way it did, what different things could be active at the sight of the merger, and how these events can impact the light signals we observe. He credits the entire research group with helping him prepare a successful proposal. “We have a very open and collaborative environment,” said Wen. “I could get help from other grad students, junior researchers, and professors and get all sorts of feedback. The collaboration helps in both writing this one proposal and in day-to-day research, as well.” Coffin is enlisting citizens to be trained and then to help comb through spectroscopic data to study galaxies through the Redshift Wrangler project. The project uses volunteer contributions to identify and analyze galaxy pairs at high redshift. Previous studies on galaxies have limited sample sizes, but using citizen science helps astronomers comb through data faster. “We have this problem that the spectra we have right now are somewhat manageable, but over the next several years, we’re going to be inundated because there will be a lot of instruments providing millions of spectra,” explained Kartaltepe. “Nobody will be able to look at every single object anymore. Projects like this where you can crowdsource some of the measurements can be really useful.” The FINESST funding for the project will also help bring real science to people around the world, hopefully growing an interest in the overall work and making high-level research available to anyone. “I’m really excited about making science more open,” said Coffin. “We welcome anyone to be a part of our scientific research. We benefit from diverse perspectives. It’s fun to see the different paths to studying these big questions about the universe.”

RIT student Rowen Brignon had been rehearsing her research presentation on solar cells for weeks but never imagined that she would be sharing her work with NASA leader and RIT alumnus and trustee Clayton Turner. “I can’t even believe this,” said Brignon, a fourth-year physics major from Buffalo, N.Y. “Just the fact that I was able to talk to him about the impact of my research on the future of solar cells in space, and that he was so engaged in my work, is a dream come true.” ‌ Pete Schuck/RIT Psychology student Sayyada Khaki, left, reviews her poster on her research on maternal health with her faculty mentor Stephanie Godleski. Godleski understands the impact she has on undergraduate students when it comes to developing their professional skills and ensuring student success. Brignon was one of more than 150 students who presented their findings at this year’s Undergraduate Research Symposium on July 31. Turner, a 1990 electrical engineering graduate and NASA’s associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate, returned to campus to offer the event’s keynote address. As he walked through rows of research displays in the SHED, he was amazed by the level of dedication displayed by the students. “I can hear the excitement in the students’ voices as they explain their research,” Turner said. “When I was a student here at RIT, I was involved in research, but I didn’t do anything like what these students are doing. They are finding the solutions to the world’s problems faster than ever before.” From artificial intelligence to health sciences, sustainability, engineering, and more, students from every college had the opportunity to talk about their research. By blending her interests in psychology and public health, fourth-year student Sayyada Khaki is hoping that her research will improve public understanding of maternal health.  “The part of psychology that first drew me in was the idea of using research to understand why and how people make the choices they do. But I also believe that we can use data to improve our communities by empowering vulnerable populations.” ‌ Pete Schuck/RIT Biochemistry student Gabriella Redman delivers her oral presentation on alternative methods of identifying and eradicating breast cancer cells during the Undergraduate Research Symposium. Khaki, who was born prematurely in Tanzania, is cognizant of the lack of prenatal care that, she said, leads to high rates of maternal and child mortality in many low-income countries. “Working on research as an undergraduate has given me the opportunity to see what a career in this field would look like and improve on the skills and knowledge I learn in many of my psychology classes. This is allowing me to gain a better feel for my future academic pursuits.” Faculty mentors play a key role in not only helping undergraduate students realize the impact of their research, but also in encouraging their successes through building lasting professional relationships. “My role as a faculty mentor is to promote research exploration and independence while also providing support, encouragement, and opportunities for growth in technical knowledge and skills,” said Stephanie Godleski, associate professor in the Department of Psychology and Khaki’s mentor. “For me, fostering undergraduate student research interest and engagement is one of the most important and rewarding parts of being a faculty member.” ‌ Pete Schuck/RIT Eduard Velazquez, a fourth-year computer engineering technology major, presents his talk on machine learning-based monitoring of wireless Internet of Things devices at this year’s Undergraduate Research Symposium. Gabriella Redman, a fourth-year biochemistry student from Rochester, N.Y., is working on an emerging treatment for breast cancer that uses dyes and light beams to target cells.  “I didn’t think that I would become so interested in research, but being in a lab gets me excited,” she said. “Gathering samples and seeing a hypothesis proved as true is so cool.” As for Brignon’s research, Turner sees the promise in her work as he looks at a photo of his young grandson.  “The number one challenge when considering the lunar surface is power,” he explained.  “The work that Rowen is doing now on solar cells is going to enable this young child and his peers to one day live and work on the moon.” ‌ Pete Schuck/RIT More than 150 students from a variety of disciplines presented their work at this year’s Undergraduate Research Symposium on July 31 in the SHED.