
Augmented reality lets students operate a chemical plant
Coffee mugs and popsicle sticks are transformed into chemical reactors as part of an innovative teaching experiment that allows student engineers to simulate reactions in a real-life, sprawling chemical plant.

Virtual reality app offers personalized psychotherapy
A multidisciplinary team of University doctors, engineers, and musicians is working together to create an immersive, customized experience that brings cognitive-behavioral therapy to a patient’s smartphone.

Training brains—young and old, sick and healthy—with virtual reality
Rochester researchers are using virtual reality-based brain training to better understand the brain’s plasticity in athletes who have experienced concussions and older adults with mild cognitive impairments. The goal? Improved therapeutic treatments patients can do at home.

Light and Sound Interactive conference puts Rochester at center of growing fields
Inspired by Austin’s South by Southwest conference, the organizers of this year’s event partnered with RIT and the City of Rochester to highlight the region as a source for innovation.

Composer Mark Watters says new media is changing the score
The Emmy winner has composed musical scores for movies, television, video games, even the Olympics. At the inaugural Light and Sound Interactive, he shares his thoughts on this rapidly changing field.

Designing a world of immersive sound
Using a new approach to flat-panel design, Mark Bocko and his team are creating inexpensive prototypes of speakers that double as wall hangings and overhead lights.

Conference, expo puts spotlight on light and sound technologies
Rochester has the ingredients to create its own Silicon Valley in emerging imaging and audio technologies. That’s the vision of the organizers of Light and Sound Interactive, a conference and expo that will showcase how Rochester can play a leading role in such growing fields as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and interactive games and media. Oscar-winning filmmaker Ang Lee is among this year’s keynotes.

Ang Lee to keynote Light and Sound Interactive
The two-time Oscar winner forLife of Pi and Brokeback Mountain will show clips from his films and discuss the challenges of shooting in a groundbreaking 3D, 24-frames-per-second format.

Making Rochester an epicenter of light and sound innovation
Rochester has the unique potential to become an international hub for light and sound innovation, according to Joel Seligman and David Munson, presidents of the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology, respectively.

Light and Sound Interactive conference and expo debuts September 12-14
The University is among the major sponsors of the event, highlighting innovations in augmented and virtual reality, interactive media and games, film, audio and music, imaging, displays, health care, optics, and photonics.