On Saturday, May 3rd, people of all ages swarmed to RIT’s campus to attend Imagine RIT, the inaugural “innovation and creativity festival.” The festival, coinciding with the traditional Spring Festival, sought to showcase the Institute’s commitment to becoming an “innovation university.” With over 400 exhibits, Imagine RIT displayed a wide variety of projects by students, faculty, and businesses.

Some of the more popular exhibits included an automated hot-dog-making robot designed to assemble hot dogs to order, as well as a demonstration of combat robotics, complements of a BattleBots veteran. These demonstrations, along with over 60 others, were housed in the Gordon Field House, dubbed the “WOW Center” during the event, which was reserved for premier innovative projects.

“There’s a computer generated poetry booth, and I was reading some of the poetry. I thought it was pretty cool,” said Travis Popkave, a second year Computer Science major, referring to a computer program designed to generate unique poetic verse. Popkave, an off-floor member of Computer Science House (CSH), was demonstrating CSH’s project, Drink, a networked drink dispenser, and its companion delivery robot.

“It’s really great to see all the changes that have happened,” said Brittany Wooten, who graduated from RIT in 2007 with a degree in Advertising Photography. She noted that Imagine RIT was an excellent way for students to get noticed. “When I was a student, you had to wait until someone acknowledged your ideas… I think this really brings attention from not only the local community, but also the parents and alumni… about what we’re doing here at RIT that may go unlooked otherwise.”

“It’s giving this broad spectrum of what RIT has to offer,” said Wooten, pointing out that the most interesting exhibits had interactive features, such as Hotel Proxy, an online hotel community. “[It] was really interesting, just because of their set up, you walked up to what looked like a hotel welcome stand.”

“I liked the [Mobius] kaleidoscope thing that Professor Thurston was showing off,” said Max Wunderlich, a fourth year Information Technology major, in reference to a walk-in kaleidoscope. Wunderlich also remarked that while he enjoyed the festival, he would not like to see it annually, as a year’s worth of innovation might not be adequate for the festival.

Another popular exhibit was FIRST Robotics, a national high school robotics program, designed to encourage innovation through friendly competition. Students, with the help of engineers, built 120-pound robots designed to compete in a sports-like game. The exhibit consisted of two local FIRST teams demonstrating some of their robot’s abilities, like manipulating large exercise balls.

Outside of the WOW center, other demonstrations were happening across the campus, including an NTID-sponsored miniature golf course and a pumpkin cannon demonstration. President Destler has already announced that following the success of Imagine RIT, the festival will return to RIT next year on May 2nd.