November 5, 2018

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

One of our most exciting research enterprises has just been renewed for another five years of federal funding. Led by Jannick Rolland, our Brian J. Thompson Professor of Optical Engineering, the Center for Freeform Optics is a collaboration involving researchers at our Institute of Optics and Department of Mechanical Engineering, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and 17 companies and research institutes. The goal is to advance the use of lenses and mirrors with freeform surfaces to create optical devices that are lighter, more compact, and more effective than ever before. Achievements during the first five years include:

A new methodology, published in Nature Communications, that removes much of the guesswork in designing freeform optics.
Two hardware prototypes completed.
Seven patents awarded.
Total annual revenues in excess of $1 million.
An increase in participating companies and institutes from an initial 8 to 17.

It is also worth noting that about 30 percent of the students and faculty involved in this project are women. Congratulations to Jannick and all her colleagues for the great progress so far. Click here to read more about the truly collaborative nature of CeFO’s efforts.

Congratulations as well to:

Hanan Dery, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, who has received a $510,000 grant from the Department of Energy. This will fund research that could have an important impact on the design of optoelectronic devices such as conventional, spin, and polariton lasers with ultra-low power threshold that can persist up to room temperature. In addition, it may spur new research in novel logic architectures that make use of the strong spin-orbit interaction in mono-layer transition-metal dichalcogenides (ML-TMDs).
Michael Pomerantz, a technical associate with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Institute of Optics, who is recipient of this year’s Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster Education Award. The award recognizes individuals who inspire students to embrace optics, photonics, and imaging sciences and who guide them in career development. Read more here.

Despite raw temperatures and cloudy skies, there was a strong turnout for the recent pumpkin launch organized by our American Society of Mechanical Engineers student chapter. Seven teams, including two from RIT, wielded trebuchets and pneumatic launchers in a contest that stressed accuracy over distance at the Wilson Quad, which quickly became littered with orange carcasses. On the adjoining Wilson Commons porch, the Engineering E-Social provided hot snacks, and a chance to nibble at donuts on strings and to paint pumpkins, rather than launch them. Click here for Instagram postings.

A lot of organization goes into events like this. Kudos to Mira Bodek, president of the ASME chapter, events coordinator Emma Kayton and ASME e-board members Nate Nickerson, Shira Katz, and Tim Schuler; volunteers from the Society of Asian Scientists & Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and Tau Beta Pi; advisors Douglas Kelley (also a judge) and Madeleine Aborn; other judges John Lambropoulos and Chris Muir; and the Wilson Commons Students Association, Facilities & Grounds, and Public Safety for helping insure everyone’s safety.

Top prizes for the pumpkin launch, by the way, went to teams fielded by our American Institute of Chemical Engineers chapter, RIT’s ASME chapter, and our own Solar Splash.

The annual Dandyhacks Hackathon drew about 250 participants. Among the 39 projects, Whip by Yipeng Zhang, Nicholas White, and Michael and Daniel Kiselev won two prizes. This project would provide uber/lyft drivers with the information they need to add more value to their time. For example, higher cost trips result in the driver keeping a higher percentage of the total fare paid. So, the team aggregated data from across the web to find a more consistent source of higher cost trips, for example from large airports, which are generally farther from a rider’s residence.

Another prize-winning project, Rnnr by Jack Valinsky, David Quach, Jye Ying Chong, and Kyle Suero, is a mobile app that pulls from data sources such as the registered sex offender list to make runners aware of high risk areas when they plan their runs. Visit the Dandyhacks Facebook page for a complete list of projects.

Thanks to Aman Shrestha, director of DandyHacks; Carolina Lion He, head of communications; Canruo Zou and Ziyi You of the finance team; Anna Zimmerman and Vincent (Sifan) Ye of the logistics team, and Matthew Taruno and James Sastrawan of the marketing team for orchestrating this successful event.

Optics alumnus Stephen Fantone ’79 (PhD), the founder, president, and CEO of Optikos and an expert in optical engineering and optical product development, has maintained close ties with the Hajim School and our University. He chairs our Dean’s Advisory Committee; his company is a member of the Industrial Associates (IA) Program at the Institute of Optics; Steve has also been a supportive donor and fundraiser.

And he hires a lot of graduates from his alma mater. So I was delighted to sit in when he agreed to share his career advice with students during the recent IA fall meeting. Steve covered a lot of ground, from study habits to getting along in a team, and he covered it exceptionally well. I hope all of our Optics students in attendance appreciated his insights. And I would encourage Hajim students from our other departments to click here to share in those insights as well.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman