RIT Kate Gleason College of Engineering

Nazanin Mosleh, a biomedical and chemical engineering Ph.D. candidate, has received the RIT Outstanding Graduate Student Achievement Award in the Ph.D. category.

Presented annually, this award honors graduate students who demonstrate exceptional academic excellence, meaningful contributions to the university community, and a spirit of collaboration. Recipients are selected based on nominations from faculty and staff across RIT’s colleges to recognize outstanding scholarly and community achievements.

Justin Bradley, a fifth year BS/ME mechanical engineering student, has been awarded the 2026 William F. Halbleib Prize. This honor recognizes outstanding academic performance in the dynamics course sequence by mechanical engineering students and consists of a cash prize, a certificate of excellence, and an inscription on the institutional Halbleib Plaque.

A team of five RIT engineering students won first place at the New York State Industries for the Disabled (NYSID) Cultivating Resources for Employment with Assistive Technology (CREATE) collegiate challenge in Albany, NY. The event challenged students to develop specialized technologies designed to improve workplace accessibility and environments for individuals with disabilities.

The team designed and built an assistive lifting system to help workers handle heavy objects at Lifetime Assistance’s document shredding facility. For their successful prototype, the student team was awarded a $15,000 prize.

Fifth year students, Ryan Schaeffer and Jonathan Jacobs developed the Underwater Non-Destructive Evaluation Robot (UNDER) prototype through RIT’s Multidisciplinary Senior Design course. Demonstrated at the 2026 Imagine RIT innovation festival, this multi-year initiative is supported by the U.S. Navy’s Office of Naval Research to create an autonomous submersible robot for hull cleaning and inspection.

Robotics at RIT: Student team develops hull-cleaning prototype The academic component of tech ecosystems provides foundational research, but it can also ideate designs with manufacturability and commercial use in mind.

Valeria Marin Montealegre, a mechanical and industrial engineering Ph.D. student, is advancing reconstructive surgery through research in 3D-printed bio-metals. Under the guidance of advisers Dr. Alvaro Rojas Arcinieagas, MS '08 Ph.D. '13, and Professor Denis Cormier, director of the AMPrint Center, she focuses on using molten metal jetting to create absorbable zinc-based craniofacial implants.

This structural technology provides temporary mechanical support during healing and gradually degrades as new bone and tissue regenerate. Following her dissertation defense, she plans to expand her custom medical device company, HumanBX, to bring these 3D-printed biomedical solutions to the global market.

Our performance teams offer students a chance to exercise engineering, professional, and social skills.

Earlier this month, Multidisciplinary Senior Design Team members, Josh Bliss, Zack Eigenmann, Emma Ernst, Melissa Ervin, and Ben Larsen won a Student Research Poster Showcase award at the NYS Pollution Prevention Institute Innovation Student Competition Exhibition and Research Showcase. Their project, “Biochar Evaporative Cooling Unit” earned the team a $1,000 prize.

A recap of RIT's 141st commencement:

RIT Commencement 2026 - Academic Convocation Rochester Institute of Technology held its 141st commencement May 8-9, 2026. Mae Jemison, a former NASA astronaut, physician, educator, and the first woman o...

Congratulations to the KGCOE Class of 2026! 🎓 You have so much to be proud of. We are confident you will make a long-lasting impact on the world.