[en] This project involved collaboration in the design, construction and testing of a prototype chamber capable of detecting Cerenkov rings. The chamber incorporated several novel techniques in that it used parallel-plate pad readout and a Cesium-iodide (CsI) solid photocathode. The pad system used gas multiplication where the gas was kept at low pressure to minimize photon losses due to absorption and back-scattering and to minimize ion collection times. Low pressure also lowers the chamber response to charged particles. The chamber gas was ethane at 20 torr and the chamber was operated at room temperature. The chamber was built at the University of Pennsylvania by a University of Puerto Rico graduate student, Jorge Millan. Initial tests at Pennsylvania using a hydrogen-discharge lamp indicated a quantum efficiency of 13% at 190 nm. The chamber was then tested in the M-Test beam line at Fermilab and behind the C3 beamline dump at Brookhaven Lab. Cerenkov rings were clearly observed with each photoelectron typically exciting one pad. On average each ring had five struck pads and only 10% of the events had hits in the center due to the charged particle. These results indicate that a RICH detector using a solid CsI photocathode coupled to a low-pressure, parallel-plate pad chamber is an excellent device for particle identification in high-rate environments when there is a need to cover large areas with minimum expense