Imagine RIT.. meh
Today was the day. May 3rd, 2008. RIT would open it’s doors to the community, and then some, to show off over 400 exhibits and presentations about what makes RIT an “innovation university”.
Sure. I like the concept. Lets get a lot of people to campus and show off all of our cool stuff. Show that while we are immensely technical and artistic, we can learn how to combined the two. RIT has something that more ‘prestigious’ universities such as Yale, MIT, or Harvard will never have… practicality. Students here are well trained (at least in the fields I am closest with) in how to make things happen. We have the theoretical background, but we don’t spend so much time in it that it takes away from the practical application. This is where me and President Destler disagree with how the university should be going, but I really do believe the idea behind Imagine RIT is a good one. Lets show off what we can do.
Now ideas are one thing, implementation is always something very different (again, another practical versus theoretical argument). I really do believe RIT did the best we could to make this event go awesome, but I’ll be honest, I only saw one or two things today that really made me go “wow. this is cool.” Sure, I didn’t see everything, in fact I was very upset that I missed out a fairly large portion of presentations, including missing Dan’s booth about The College Blog Network, but there still wasn’t much that was amazing with what I did see.
Maybe I am just the wrong demographic? Maybe since I get to see all the interesting technical things anyway, they aren’t that exciting to me? It’s possible. I do think that Imagine RIT is a good thing for RIT, but I don’t believe that it is something that is going to be as big as they want it to be… at least not yet.
So, I guess overall, I commend RIT for attempting to do something that will make us ‘prestigious’ and have us become the ‘innovation university’ that President Destler longs for us to be, but I don’t think today was really worth all the money and the resources that I know were poured into it.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:27 am
I think that the real successes in the festival are on the micro level. Yes, on the whole the festival was a little bit too flashy and ridiculous, with hot dog making robots and Segway rides, but the actual innovation was being recognized by the right people in the right ways, just not out in the open.
May 4th, 2008 at 10:32 am
@Mark,
I would tend to agree. I really think this could be a cool thing - but I just think we missed a little this time around. I also realize that I am not the key demographic here (even though I am a student… which concerns me), but that the community (Rochester, and the greater academic community) is who they are targeting, as well as prospective students.
I think from a logistical standpoint, RIT did awesome. I do think we could have cut out a little bit of the fluff and done some real stuff that was ‘awesome’. Maybe next year.
May 4th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I would have really liked to see more hands on things, things I could try doing. But most of the stuff was just poster boards and that was a little boring even if the concepts behind it were interesting, the display of the information wasn’t that great.
May 5th, 2008 at 7:22 am
I concur with Allison. I think there was a lot of stuff “for sale”. Where was the cool, hands-on things RIT students are known for? Prior my arrival, many people had told me RIT students were well-known because of their acumen and pragmatism. I think this was my biggest disappointment.
Maybe that was the intention of ImagineRIT, stuff to sell to the world instead of showcasing what students are capable of. “Meh” :-)
May 8th, 2008 at 1:18 am
You have to remember people had less than 8 months to put this festival together. That’s not a lot of time so I think RIT did a fairly good job. But they should be aware that people are going to have very high expectation of ImagineRIT next year. Personally, I want to see more research– things that we can actually contribute to the community. Not just funny programs, robots that beep, Kodak’s Oscar Award showing in building 7a.