Habitat of ‘Gen-Next’ Technocrats | Rochester Institute of Technology, Dubai

Rochester Institute of Technology, Dubai: Habitat of ‘Gen-Next’ Technocrats

“Together let’s Reflect, Innovate, Transform and make great contributions to our societies”

–Dr. Yousef Al Assaf, President, RIT University in Dubai

Rochester Institute of Technology, Dubai, is a highly technology-focused American university, located in and sponsored by Dubai Silicon Oasis. It is a not-for-profit university which is accredited both in the United States and by the UAE Ministry of Higher Education.

RIT Dubai is a branch university of RIT New York. At RIT Dubai, students have the opportunity to study at any of its international campuses like RIT Croatia, RIT Kosovo and RIT New York. In addition to the traditional means of classroom studies, at RIT Dubai, special focus is given for the all-round development of the students. There are multiple clubs which the students can become a part of and get benefitted.

RIT Dubai is known to be the first university in the region to offer a Master’s degree in Data Analytics and Smart Cities. It is also the first university in the region to offer diploma in Corporate Happiness. All degree programs offered at RIT Dubai are technology based and are very advanced, meeting the modern days’ requirements.

The University offers quality American bachelor and master’s degrees in Business, Leadership, Computing and Engineering, that teach and practice global intelligence and provides relevant work experience through cooperative education program. This makes their student stand out in the competitive job market.

RIT is one of the few universities where one can immerse in his/her major from day one. Or, if one needs time to explore their options, multiple options are available at both the university and college levels.

An Oasis of Opportunities

At RIT Dubai, it’s important for students to be engaged with the university campus community and the greater community. The Student Affairs Office works with the Student Government to oversee the numerous student clubs and organizations. Students can join academic departmental clubs, special interest clubs and cultural clubs. Through participation in these student led groups, students make close friends and are introduced to opportunities to become more engaged on campus and hold leadership positions. Student organized motivating TEDx talks for RIT students and community are also hosted by RIT Dubai each Spring. RIT’s Music Club hosts Tiger Fest. This event is held each semester and is a popular inter-university talent show where student musicians and dancers perform. RIT Dubai also has a student-run magazine, WRITERS!

RIT’s Student Government is very active and is connected with their counterparts at the Rochester, NY (USA), Zagreb, Dubrovnik (Croatia) and Pristina (Kosovo) campuses. They meet annually at the Student Government Consortium and work on building their role in university governance, coordinating among campuses addition to planning their own extra-curricular activity programing. The RIT Dubai Student Government also assists with numerous charity initiatives with Al Jalila Foundation. In addition to the student clubs and organizations and the Student Government, RIT Dubai provides its student body with opportunities to participate in other extracurricular activities; some include international travel such as the Harvard Model United Nations Conference. These extra-curricular leadership experiences have assisted many students secure jobs!

At RIT Dubai, the importance of sports in one’s life is also valued. Here, the students are encouraged to be active in sports or personal exercise as it helps students become stronger both mentally and physically. Involvement in sports also affords students the opportunity to develop their leadership skills, work in a team and learn that regular practice, focus and dedication lead to success. The Student Affairs Office’s Athletic Division caters to all types of students by providing a variety of sports programs and athletic opportunities that are accessible to all students. Key elements of the program are good training and dedicated, professional coaches. The athletic activities and sports teams are a great compliment to the student life experience.

The meaning of ‘One SpiRIT’

Each Fall semester, each RIT campus welcomes new students and introduces them to their extended RIT global campuses at the One SpiRIT event trough a live campus competition. Students learn about all of the RIT campuses and have the opportunity to taste food from each campus’ country. This event is very important since RIT students are part of a larger global family and have the opportunity to study abroad at the other campuses.

Awards of Excellence

Though, the processes have their own importance but the successful end-results are always the one which validates the effectiveness of the process acquired. RIT Dubai has attained a plenty of validations in this regard. Under mentioned are to name a few:

RIT Dubai’s student, Md. Yousefi’s research paper was presented at the Society of Experimental Mechanics Annual Conference in Greenville, South Carolina on 6^th June, 2018. His research is advised by Dr. Wael A. Samad and is in collaboration with Dr. Xavier Balandraud from Universite Clermont Auvergne in France. He was also awarded the RIT Outstanding Undergraduate.
Senior design students under the supervision of Dr. Mohamed Samaha, introduced their project (Regenerative Hydraulic Shock Absorber). Students have won the second place in Young Innovator Award of Excellence 2018 which was sponsored by UAE Higher Education, Worldwide Academia Industry network [WAIN], KESTONE and Melting Pot 2020 Innovation Summit. RIT Dubai is proud on this achievement of Dr. Samaha and the team of students comprising of Bahman Jafari, Fouad Ahmad, Md. Hossein Moazeni and Saba Andarz.
RIT Dubai’s alumnus, Mohamed Al Hammadi- Masters in Service Leadership and Innovation, won the Parasuraman Service Excellence Award in the Innovation Arabia event held in March 2018.
RIT Dubai Tigers have secured ‘First Place’ in the ‘6th United Arab Emirates Undergraduate Research Competition‘ – a National-Level competition with the participation of around 50 teams from universities across the UAE.
In the fields of sports and music too, RIT Dubai’s students’ performance has been exemplary. Their team has won the First Place in soccer at the Dubai Inter-University Sports League 2017/2018. Moreover. RIT Team also won the 2^nd Place at the ‘Battle of Bands’ JASHN 2018.

Scholarship Support at RIT

RIT Dubai strongly believes in ensuring that highly motivated and academically strong students are rewarded for their efforts and achievements. Additionally, RIT Dubai scholarships encourage students to excel in their course work and become valuable participants in extracurricular and community activities.

In addition to multiple merit-based scholarships like Academic Scholarship, Extracurricular Achievement Scholarship, Interscholastic Achievement Scholarship, Advanced Scholar Award, Executive Experience Award and UAE National Emirati Award, RIT Dubai offers financial aid to students who need financial assistance to be able to attend RIT Dubai. Financial aid packages are awarded based on financial need and includes extensive review and consideration of not only the student’s school records and extracurricular activities, but also their family’s financial status.

Life Post RIT

For facing the challenges after college, RIT Dubai prepares their students well in time. RIT is known to have one of the most unique internship programs called “COOP”. It is known to be the longest program (minimum 16 weeks for business students and up to a year for engineering students). This guarantees that students get some priceless experience before hitting the job market.

RIT Dubai provides exceptional placement facilities. And reports suggest that more than 90% of its graduates get employed within a year of graduation. Their alumni have roots in a wide range of sectors comprising of Energy, Data, Power, Business, Automotive, Telecommunications, Engineering, Computing and Computing Security. Though, RIT Dubai’s presence can be found in the work-force of many reputed MNCs across the globe, a number of graduates from the university opt for the path of entrepreneurship and end-up successfully starting their own companies as well.

Exemplary Leadership

An engineer by education, a renowned figure from the fields of academics, and an exemplary educational leader, Dr Yousef Al Assaf, the President of RIT Dubai.

Dr Al-Assaf had his PhD from Oxford University and leadership training from Cornell University. He is a widely published, academic and senior education management professional with extensive international experience.

RIT Dubai is enriched with an impeccable leadership of Dr Yousef Al Assaf. He brings decades of academics and a magnanimous amount educational leadership experience at the campus. Prior becoming the President of Rochester Institute of Technology- Dubai in 2013, Dr. Al-Assaf served as Dean of the College of Engineering at the American University of Sharjah, where he was one of the founding members of the electrical engineering and computer engineering programs.

During his tenure at RIT Dubai, he has ensured that the university plays a major role in the ecosystem of Dubai Silicon Oasis and supporting the achievements of Dubai vision Dr.Assaf introduced a number of new programs, certifications and initiatives to meet the needs of public and technology partners including: Smart City Sciences, Data Analytics, Emerging Technologies, Corporate and Customer Happiness, Future Shaping, Computing Security and Sustainability among others.

Dr Al-Assaf has made his mark in the areas of researches pertaining to electrical engineering. His research focuses on using soft computing to model and control various industrial and medical systems. Applications include material-modelling and classification, prostheses control, industrial quality control and optimization. Dr. Al-Assaf’s industrial experiences are in the areas of industrial instrumentation and control (PLC, SCADA, DCS, microprocessor and PC-based controllers). He designed and developed various automated control systems for various industries including fertilizer, textile and sheet-cutting establishments.

Words of Trust

“The best thing about RIT is the quality of the professors; I had the pleasure to be taught by amazing professors, who had strong sense of responsibility”

Omar Ghazal- Alumnus Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering – General Motors Middle East.

“What I like best about RIT is the way they put through their courses and educational schedule. Given that I am a transfer student, I find it much better more flexible”

Elham Bepari- Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering-OTIS

“I highly recommend RIT Dubai because opportunities that I got over the 4 years during my course of education were absolutely incredible. RIT always encourages you to do better and achieve more”

Mashal Waqar- Alumna Bachelor of Science in Computing security. The Tempest

“We as RIT Students have more opportunities to show ourselves and show our talents. At RIT you can study abroad, and I have done that, which helped me a lot in showing my skills.