This Month's Latest Tech News in Rochester, NY - Sunday August 31st 2025 Edition

Weekly commentary: Rochester's AI moment - education, research, and industry converge: this region is quietly building an end‑to‑end AI pipeline where new degree programs, hands‑on campus labs, and industry partnerships meet workforce needs.

The University of Rochester is rolling out AI‑focused offerings (from an online MS in Healthcare Data Science and AI to an MS in AI and Business) that align academics with employer demand (University of Rochester new AI academic programs (2025–2026)), while RIT's AI Foundry is turning student projects like TutorBot and AdvisorBot into practical pilots that teach responsible, scalable design (RIT AI Foundry Spring 2025 newsletter on student AI pilots).

Local applied initiatives - Golisano's RIA humanoid collaboration and Nazareth's new MS in Business Analytics & AI - plus Empire AI's expanding supercomputing access are closing the gap between research and jobs.

For working professionals seeking fast, usable skills, short courses such as Nucamp's AI Essentials for Work (15 weeks; practical prompt‑writing and applied AI for any role) offer a clear on‑ramp to that pipeline (Nucamp AI Essentials for Work bootcamp - 15-week practical AI course); the scene combines promising momentum with a quiet reminder that talent, governance, and real projects must scale together.

Bootcamp	AI Essentials for Work
Description	Practical AI skills for any workplace - AI tools, prompt writing, applied business use
Length	15 Weeks
Courses	AI at Work: Foundations; Writing AI Prompts; Job Based Practical AI Skills
Cost (early bird)	$3,582 - paid in 18 monthly payments; first payment due at registration
Register	Register for Nucamp AI Essentials for Work (15-week bootcamp)

“New York State's investment in artificial intelligence for the public good is paving the way for generations of New Yorkers to understand and utilize this supercomputing power to its fullest potential.” - Governor Kathy Hochul

Rochester colleges are doubling down on workforce-ready AI education, led locally by Nazareth University's new Master of Science in Business Analytics & Artificial Intelligence - a 16-month, STEM‑designated program that blends predictive modeling, machine learning, responsible AI governance, and hands‑on projects with industry partners to fast‑track graduates into roles like AI/data‑science engineer, business‑intelligence engineer, and data architect; the program is offered live online or in‑person (classes at Golisano Academic Center and Smyth Hall), qualifies for STEM OPT extension, requires no GMAT/GRE, and will grow from an inaugural class of 10 toward a planned 25 by 2026, signaling an intentional, compact pipeline between classroom and employer demand (learn more at Nazareth's program page and the university's launch announcement).

The curriculum's practical focus, flexible delivery, and career outcomes mirror regional aims to turn research and training into hireable skills within months, not years - a sharp contrast to decade‑long degree tracks and a vivid reminder that speed plus ethical training can directly feed Rochester's AI economy.

Program	Details
MS in Business Analytics & Artificial Intelligence (Nazareth)	MS in Business Analytics & Artificial Intelligence (Nazareth)
Duration	16 months
Delivery	Live online or in‑person (Golisano Academic Center & Smyth Hall)
Designation	STEM‑designated; OPT extension eligible
Inaugural class	10 students (planned expansion to 25 by 2026)
Admissions notes	No GMAT/GRE required
Careers	AI/Data Science Engineer; Business Intelligence Engineer; Data Architect; Management Consultant

“It's not the Terminator, it's not the Matrix. It's really a tool that's there to help us, and it will really make our lives a lot easier.” - Jeffrey Allan, Nazareth University

RIT convenes industry–university workshop to seed a responsible AI consortium: in early April the Saunders College of Business hosted a focused, invitation‑only two‑day workshop (April 3–4, 2025) at the Susan R. Holliday Center to turn university research into industry pilots and a standing RIT–industry consortium for “AI for good.” The agenda stitched together distinguished keynotes and hands‑on tracks - from Smart Manufacturing and Cybersecurity to Ethical AI, explainability, and bias - so academic teams and corporate partners could map projects that scale from lab code to production pilots; speakers included Pramod Khargonekar, Micron's Peter Pianoto, and Ericsson's Mallik Tatipamula.

Framed by RIT's recent move to join New York's statewide Empire AI effort, the workshop offered a concrete pathway for Rochester researchers to access shared high‑performance computing and to collaborate on public‑interest problems like health, climate, and resilient manufacturing (read the workshop program and RIT's Empire AI announcement for details).

Date	Location	Registration
April 3–4, 2025	Susan R. Holliday Center, Lowenthal Hall 4050, Saunders College of Business (RIT)	Invitation‑only (industry partners contact Lauren Shields)

“Joining Empire AI will strengthen our commitment to leading the way in the higher education artificial intelligence space.” - Ryne Raffaelle, vice president for Research, RIT

Nazareth launches a 16-month MS in Business Analytics & AI that mixes practical, career-focused coursework with ethical guardrails: the STEM‑designated program (live online or in‑person) packs predictive modeling, machine learning, responsible AI governance, and hands‑on industry projects into a compact 16‑month schedule to fast‑track graduates into roles like AI/data‑science engineer or business‑intelligence engineer; Nazareth is accepting Fall 2025 applications and plans a deliberately small inaugural cohort of 10 students (with growth to 25 by 2026) to keep projects close to industry partners and mentoring (program details at Nazareth's MS page and the university's launch announcement).

The curriculum's flexibility - no GMAT/GRE required and OPT extension eligibility for international students - makes it a practical on‑ramp for recent grads and working professionals who need applied AI skills, not just theory, and positions Nazareth as a regional bridge between classroom training and employer demand in upstate New York's growing tech ecosystem.

Feature	Details
Duration	16 months
Delivery	Live online or in‑person (Golisano Academic Center & Smyth Hall)
Admissions	No GMAT/GRE required
Designation	STEM‑designated; OPT extension eligible
Inaugural class	10 students (planned expansion to 25 by 2026)
Career outcomes	AI/Data Science Engineer; Business Intelligence Engineer; Data Architect; Management Consultant

“Nazareth's Master of Science in Business Analytics and Artificial Intelligence reflects the University's commitment to shaping the next generation of leaders who are not just skilled in data analytics and AI but are also prepared to apply these tools responsibly.” - Jeffrey Allan, Ph.D., Program Director (Nazareth University MS in Business Analytics & AI news announcement)

MagicTime: University of Rochester advances metamorphic text-to-video research - a multi‑institution team led in part by Rochester researchers has built an open, physics‑aware text‑to‑video model that learns real‑world dynamics from time‑lapse footage, enabling AI to simulate true metamorphic processes like a seed sprouting, bread rising, or a building taking shape over time; read the University of Rochester summary for context and the project page for the paper and code.

By training on a ChronoMagic benchmark of more than 2,000 captioned time‑lapse videos, the team's U‑Net diffusion variant currently produces two‑second, 512×512 clips at 8 fps, while a diffusion‑transformer extension can stretch outputs to ten seconds - a practical step beyond static scene synthesis toward tools scientists could use to accelerate hypothesis testing or preview experiments.

The model is open‑source, aims to encode implicit physical laws, and frames metamorphic video generation as both a research instrument and a creative engine for education and entertainment.

Feature	Detail
Dataset	ChronoMagic - >2,000 captioned time‑lapse videos
U‑Net output	2 seconds, 512×512 pixels, 8 fps (open source)
Diffusion‑transformer	Extends clips up to 10 seconds
Publication	IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (TPAMI 2025)
More	University of Rochester summary of the MagicTime research; MagicTime project page and code (Peking University Yuangroup)

“MagicTime is a step toward AI that can better simulate the physical, chemical, biological, or social properties of the world around us.” - Jinfa Huang

ESIST: AI-driven instructor-free surgical training from URMC and Mount Sinai - Mount Sinai and University of Rochester Medical Center collaborators demonstrated ESIST, an AI‑backed “instructionless” surgical education system that pairs a deep‑learning model with a custom extended‑reality headset and a first‑person camera to teach a partial nephrectomy on a 3D‑printed “phantom” kidney; in the small study all 17 trainees achieved surgical success and the team reported the system could perform a critical step with 99.9% accuracy, pointing to real potential to reduce proctor shortages, lower training costs, and standardize skills acquisition (read the Mount Sinai summary for study details).

The setup streamed corrective prompts while trainees' hands remained free to practice on CT‑derived casts filled with water‑based polymers, and researchers plan to expand toward more complex synthetic cadaver models and whole‑procedure training - work supported by federal grants and related to broader AI in biomedical imaging funding programs (see NIBIB's machine‑learning program page).

Feature	Detail
Participants	17 surgical trainees
Procedure	Partial nephrectomy simulation (renal artery clamp)
Model accuracy	Reported 99.9% for a critical step
Simulation	3D‑printed “phantom” kidney with water‑based polymers
Publication	Journal of Medical Extended Reality (study)
Partners & funding	Mount Sinai, URMC; National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (grant 1R41EB026358‑01A1), NSF grant 1913911

“For the first time, we created an AI model linked to an extended‑reality headset to prove that a critical step in a kidney cancer procedure could be done with 99.9 percent accuracy.” - Nelson Stone, MD

Mount Sinai study on AI-driven surgical education (2025)

NIBIB machine learning program for biomedical imaging

Rochester researchers weigh in on AGI, continual learning, and responsible AI - University of Rochester computer scientist Christopher Kanan frames the challenge as teaching machines to learn more like people do, through curiosity, gradual skill-building, and replay-based memory, rather than freezing knowledge at training time (read the University of Rochester primer on AGI and LLMs).

That child‑learning metaphor - “if a human attempted to read all this text, it would take tens of thousands of lifetimes” - underscores why Kanan's lab is recruiting PhD students focused on efficient continual/lifelong learning, bias‑robust networks, self‑supervised methods, and multimodal models (see the Kanan Lab recruitment page for Fall 2025 openings).

Nearby, brain‑inspired work such as Georgia Tech's TopoNets suggests structural, neuroscience‑influenced designs can boost efficiency by more than 20%, offering practical paths to scalable, interpretable systems.

The local takeaway: Rochester's research community is pushing for AI that keeps learning while embedding guardrails from day one - a mix of continual‑learning algorithms, brain‑inspired efficiency, and funding for applied safety that makes advancing toward AGI a measured, societally mindful process.

Item	Detail
Institution	University of Rochester (Kanan Lab)
Admission	Fall 2025 (apply by Jan 1)
Focus areas	Continual learning, bias‑robust AI, self‑supervised learning, multimodal LLMs
Funding	Full‑tuition scholarship + five‑year stipend

“It shouldn't be the last step, otherwise we can unleash a monster.” - Christopher Kanan

Visa pilots AI agents making purchases with credit cards - Visa's new Intelligent Commerce initiative is piloting “agentic” commerce that lets designated AI agents discover, recommend, and complete purchases using a consumer's Visa credentials while maintaining controls like spend limits, tokenization, and dispute protections.

The work stitches together payments primitives (Visa Agent APIs for tokenization, authentication, and transaction controls) with infrastructure partners such as VGS - which will pilot secure tokenization for agentic payments - and major AI platforms (Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, Perplexity and others), with pilots already underway and broader availability expected next year.

A practical demo Visa describes even shows an agent planning a Florida trip and pausing at “sunscreen” to ask for buy confirmation - a small, memorable test of how agents could save time while leaving consumers in control.

Metric	Detail
Payment credentials	4.8 billion (Visa network)
Merchant reach	~150 million locations
Notable pilot partners	Anthropic, Microsoft, OpenAI, Perplexity, IBM, Mistral, Stripe, Samsung; VGS (tokenization)

“Transformational, on the order of magnitude of the advent of e‑commerce itself.” - Jack Forestell, Visa's Chief Product and Strategy Officer

Sutherland patents Sentinel AI®, partners with Google Cloud, and scales AI training: this Rochester‑based digital‑transformation firm just won a U.S. patent for Sutherland Sentinel AI®, an AI‑driven data‑protection suite that layers real‑time dynamic masking (Sentinel AI Shield®) with environmental and facial cues (Sentinel AI Vision®) to secure remote and hybrid workforces; the platform promises code‑free, browser‑level masking and audit trails while machine‑learning rules tailor redaction and role‑based access, and Sutherland is pairing that tech with strategic alliances - including a reported Google Cloud partnership and an AI Academy program - to roll out training and deployment at scale (read the U.S. patent announcement on BusinessWire and the product overview at Sutherland).

Item	Detail
USPTO patent	Sutherland Sentinel AI U.S. Patent Announcement - BusinessWire (May 21, 2025)
Core features	Dynamic data masking (Shield), real‑time vision monitoring (Vision), audit trail & role controls
Partnerships & training	Google Cloud partnership; AI Academy and other scaling programs
Reported results	2M+ secured interactions; deployment across 40+ apps; large audit/time savings

“Enterprises shouldn't have to choose between scaling fast and staying secure. With Sentinel AI, we are changing the game - making compliance and data protection seamless, intelligent, and built for a digital‑first world.” - Doug Gilbert, CIO & CDO, Sutherland

Regional Data & AI event: converting strategy to measurable outcomes - On Thursday, September 18, 2025 the Rochester Business Journal's Data & AI: Accelerating Adoption and Impact gathers senior leaders, data professionals, and strategists at the Genesee Valley Club for a tightly focused afternoon that's less about big ideas and more about turning pilots into KPIs.

The agenda pairs a 2:00 PM networking reception (light refreshments) with a 2:45 keynote from Phong Le and a 3:15 executive panel titled “Turning AI Strategy into Action” - a practical forum where CIOs and industry heads (including panelists like Cindy Donovan and John G. Roman, Jr.) will press vendors on measurable outcomes, timelines, and governance.

Early‑bird tickets are available through August 22 on the event page, and the timing - right before the University of Rochester's Goergen Institute events on Sept.

19 - makes this one of the region's best opportunities to align campus research, vendor roadmaps, and executive priorities into verifiable business impact. Learn more and register on the Rochester Business Journal Data & AI event registration and details page: Rochester Business Journal Data & AI event registration and details.

Item	Detail
Date & Time	Thursday, September 18, 2025 - 2:00 PM–4:30 PM EDT
Location	Genesee Valley Club, Rochester, NY
Keynote	Phong Le, President & CEO, Strategy
Panel	Turning AI Strategy into Action (Moderator: John C.S. Loury)
Tickets	Rochester Business Journal Data & AI event registration and ticket purchase (early bird through Aug 22)

AI in courtrooms and New York regulatory shifts: courts across the U.S. are no longer testing the waters - synthetic voices and avatars have already crossed the bench, most visibly when an AI-rendered likeness of Christopher Pelkey addressed a Maricopa County judge at sentencing, a move that prompted an immediate notice of appeal and a wider debate about admissibility, fairness, and unequal access to high-end evidentiary tech.

Legal scholars and conference panels warn that these episodes - including a separate New York appearance where an AI avatar tried to argue a case - expose a gap between courtroom tradition and rapidly evolving tools, pushing rulemakers to consider updates to evidence rules, disclosure requirements, and judicial training.

The practical stakes are plain: a grieving family can produce a polished, persuasive recreation that a judge may find moving, while under-resourced defenders lack the forensic muscle to challenge it; regulators and bar groups are now urging mandatory disclosure, neutral forensic review, and tech literacy for judges to keep human judgment, not compute budgets, at the center of justice.

“I loved that AI. Thank you for that.” - Judge Todd Lang

Conclusion: next steps for Rochester - talent pipelines, responsible innovation, and civic oversight: the region's momentum now needs deliberate stitching - state support for hands‑on training (the recent $2.3M in workforce grants to train residents for building trades, advanced manufacturing, and veteran‑focused electronics work) should be paired with sustained research commercialization (the University of Rochester's CEIS renewal brings $1M/year to translate optics, imaging, and AI research into local jobs) and the expanded Empire AI investment that is scaling supercomputing capacity for public‑interest projects; together these build a full “seed‑to‑skill” pipeline from bootcamps to labs.

Short, practical upskilling options matter here - for working professionals, a 15‑week course like Nucamp AI Essentials for Work: prompt-writing and applied AI skills for the workplace offers prompt‑writing and applied AI skills that feed employer demand - while universities and employers must lock in ethics, measurable outcomes, and accessible entry points so that innovation benefits the whole city, not just well‑funded labs.

Program/Investment	Value/Detail
Workforce grants (Rochester)	$2.3M - training for trades, advanced manufacturing, veteran tech programs (Rochester Business Journal report on the 2025 workforce training grants)
CEIS renewal (University of Rochester)	$1M/year - supports industry‑sponsored research and commercialization (University of Rochester CEIS renewal announcement)
Empire AI expansion	$90M capital plan to boost computing power and broaden researcher access

“Growing a skilled workforce in high-demand industries throughout the state is a cornerstone of New York's economic development strategy.” - Hope Knight, Empire State Development president, CEO and commissioner