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Rochester Institute of Tech Gets $1 Million to Train Hard-of-Hearing Science Undergrads

The National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) has received a $1.025 million grant to develop training programs for deaf and hard-of-hearing undergraduate students to become future scientists.

The grant, provided by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences, will be used toward RIT’s Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (RISE) program over the next five years to “increase the number of underrepresented students who enter Ph.D. programs in biomedical and behavioral sciences,” according to a university statement. “The RIT-RISE program is the first RISE program to specifically serve deaf and hard-of-hearing students.”

Training will include enrichment workshops, presentations, activities and more that are tailored to this specific population of students, but will be open to all RIT students and faculty. All training will primarily focus on helping students to:

  • Enrich their research skills;
  • Stay abreast of hot topics in biomedical and behavioral sciences fields;
  • Sharpen their presentation skills; and
  • Apply to graduate programs.

Students enrolled in RIT’s "biochemistry, bioinformatics, biology, biomedical engineering, biomedical sciences, biotechnology & molecular bioscience, chemistry, computing and information technologies, computer science, computing security, game design & development, human-centered computing, new media interactive development, psychology, and web and mobile computing" baccalaureate programs are encouraged to apply. RIT-RISE scholars receive wage support and mentorship from laboratory researchers. They’ll also have the opportunity to attend conferences, present papers and publish their work.

Meanwhile, for faculty, the RIT-RISE will “share best practices for promoting effective communication between hearing and deaf researchers in lab settings,” according to the statement.

About the Author

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

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