RIT posts second best-year for sponsored research

Rochester Institute of Technology had its second-best year ever in sponsored research funding, with 366 new research awards totaling $74 million in funding in fiscal 2019. Research expenditures grew to $61 million.

RIT now has 353 principal investigators associated with active research awards. Among the funding sources, RIT received $35 million from federal agencies, $11.2 million from New York state and $6.1 from corporate and private sources. From federal agencies, there was $11.5 million from the National Science Foundation, $8 million from the Department of Defense, $6.1 million from the Department of Health and Human Services (most of that from the National Institutes of Health) and $2.1 million from NASA.

The university also submitted a record 731 research proposals, totaling $250 million this past fiscal year.

“These results reflect RIT’s success in executing a strategic plan that includes a focus on growing its reputation as a research university,” said Ryne Raffaelle, RIT’s vice president for research and associate provost. “RIT is now a Carnegie R2 research university, and the increasing engagement in research among faculty across the entire university demonstrates our success in executing upon this plan.”

Also this fiscal year:

• Ben Zwickl, assistant professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy, and Ifeoma Nwogu, assistant professor of computer science, received Career Awards from NSF. Zwickl’s grant will be used to study how lab-based, project-based and work-based learning environments can teach sophisticated problem-solving skills not attainable in lecture courses.
• Linwei Wang, a new recipient of prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, was awarded $3 million from NIH to research non-invasive personalized healthcare for heart diseases. She is an associate professor of computing and information sciences.