Rochester Institute of Tech Launches Series on Artificial Intelligence

Today, the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is kicking off a new seminar series focused on connecting the campus’s growing artificial intelligence (AI) community.

The series has evolved out of a long tradition of AI research at the institution. There are 43 AI-focused courses and approximately 40 faculty-researchers in 27 lab groups across RIT involved in using AI and related areas, RIT News reported. This past February, RIT hosted the  Move78 retreat, which brought together individuals from the Kate Gleason College of Engineering, B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences, Saunders College of Business, the College of Science and the College of Liberal Art. More than 200 faculty, students and staff members teaching or researching AI had a chance to learn more about the field, as well as the direction that RIT might take to expand its capabilities.

“The retreat is to determine three things: What will RIT’s role be in this arena and what role will we have in new AI discoveries,” Provost Jeremy Haefner told RIT News. “From the education point of view, how should RIT prepare its students for the inevitable future where some of the skills they learn today may be done by a machine in the future? And what can RIT do to augment technology on campus to better fulfill its mission?”

Haefner named the retreat “Move78,” a reference to a game of Go between Google’s computer system AlphaGo and Lee Sedol, a top Go player, in which the computer bested Sedol by “learning” and anticipating moves. “The encounter raised questions about the potential of AI and how humans will rise to the challenge. It also raised questions about RIT’s role in these challenges,” according to RIT News.

Building off the success of the retreat, the seminar series will delve deeper into machine learning, neuromorphic computing, computer vision and other topics. It begins Monday, March 27 and runs successive Mondays through the remainder of the academic year. It is open to faculty and staff retreat participants.

To learn more, visit the RIT News site.

About the Author

Sri Ravipati is Web producer for THE Journal and Campus Technology. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • white clouds in the sky overlaid with glowing network nodes, circuits, and AI symbols

    AWS, Microsoft, Google, Others Make DeepSeek-R1 AI Model Available on Their Platforms

    Leading cloud service providers are now making the open source DeepSeek-R1 reasoning model available on their platforms, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.

  • illustration with geometric shapes, digital circuitry, and subtle icons of an open book, graduation cap, and lightbulb

    University of Michigan Launches Agentic AI Virtual Teaching Assistant

    At the University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School of Business, a new Virtual Teaching Assistant pilot program is utilizing agentic AI to provide students with 24/7 access to support and self-directed learning.

  • robot waving

    Copilot Updates Aim to Make AI More Personal

    Microsoft has unveiled a range of updates to its Copilot platform, marking a new phase in its effort to deliver what it calls a "true AI companion" that adapts to individual users' needs, preferences and routines.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Launches Claude for Education

    Anthropic has announced a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.