Summer 2014

Inside this Issue

President’s Message

Letter from the President

“In the end, the American dream is not a sprint…Our families don’t always cross the finish line in the span of one generation. But each generation passes on to the next the fruits of their labor.” —Julian Castro, Mayor of San Antonio, Texas When this issue of IIT Magazine reaches...

Features

A Hub for Generation Innovation

Generation Innovation Member Dane Christianson Interviews Ed Kaplan About the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship Dane Christianson and Ed Kaplan Photo by: Michael Goss Only minutes after meeting entrepreneur Ed Kaplan (ME ’65) for the first time, Dane Christianson (ME 3rd year) says it was clear...

Features

Another Day, Another Patent

Ordinarily, three patents in a single day would represent a banner achievement for a software engineer. Even three patents spread over the course of a career would constitute an impressive body of work. Yet for Resch, a notice from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) just means it’s...

Features

Appetite for Development

Peapod Labs and Uppd are both startups that began life as apps created by IIT students. Now alumni, the apps’ founders may come from different academic disciplines but share qualities exhibited by successful entrepreneurs—that of being forward-thinking, self-motivating, and hardworking. Here is a snapshot look at the apps that came...

Features

Better Than a Week at The Beach

“ASB has been a part of IIT in some form or another for many years and has grown to become one of the most popular service-learning opportunities on this campus.” For Utsav Gandhi (EMGT ’14) and 24 other IIT students, “a little house somewhere in the innards of mountain country...

Features

Environmentally Motivated

Just months away from attaining her doctorate, Stephanie Kunkel (M.S. BIOL ’11, Ph.D. ’ 14) fills test tubes at her workbench in the Life Sciences Building, her long brown hair under a navy Arizona ball cap she wears in support of the Wildcats basketball team. While Kunkel was introduced to...

Features

Fertile Minds Yield Crop of Innovative Ideas

During summer’s golden days, a visitor to the spacious garden off 27th and California streets in Chicago ’ s Little Village neighborhood could believe the abundant plot is located in the farm communities of rural Illinois instead of urban Cook County. Heavy watermelons, pumpkin vines, and peanut plants grow low...

Features

Investing in His Future

For IIT Stuart School of Business graduate finance student Yuming “Gary” Hou (M.S. FIN ’14), one commodity always seemed scarce this past school year—time. As executive director of Stuart Investments, a student group that invests a portion of IIT ’ s endowment to give students real investment experience, he was...

Online Exclusives

Where Do IIT Alumni Work?

According to the IIT Career Management Center and Corporate Relations, at the time this issue of IIT Magazine went to print: Top 10 Companies Where IIT Alumni Are Currently Employed Alcatel-Lucent 358 Lenovo (Motorola Mobility) 192 Motorola Solutions 190 Nokia 140 IBM 139 GE 127 JPMorgan Chase 115 Microsoft 115...

Online Exclusives

A New Way to See Electricity

We all know what electricity does, but what does it look like? As manager of smart grid and technology for ComEd , Shay Bahramirad (Ph.D. EE ’10) is working to build a new form of electricity delivery that allows users to track and control—effectively see—their own energy use. “The technology...

Online Exclusives

At the Intersection of East and West

At night the street became a small night market, the chaos unchanged except that now it was mixed with enticing smells of samosas, samar, and chapatis. We went from kiosk to kiosk, sampling a samosa here, a parantha there. We grabbed a bag of grapes to wash and eat on...

Online Exclusives

Career in Overdrive

“From an exterior styling standpoint, what you’re going to cue off of is that the Canyon’s definitely got the strong, proven DNA of our GMC truck family,” says Anita Burke (ME ’90) to a group of reporters. “When you look at the interior, there’s stitching on the IP, soft-touch materials,...

Online Exclusives

New Logo for Armour R&D

Armour R&D, an initiative of IIT Armour College of Engineering to promote discovery, innovation, and entrepreneurship within the undergraduate engineering experience, has a new logo thanks to Amanda Rapacz (CHE ’14). Her logo was chosen from a field of 15 designs and will be used in all official Armour R&D...

Features

A Catalyst for Biofuels—and for Self-Discovery

Gaby Sumampouw (CHE 3rd year) serves on the Executive Board of the IIT chapter of Engineers Without Borders, leads a vegan lifestyle, and gives plenty of thought to society’s dependence upon fossil fuels. During her second year at IIT, she was seeking summer opportunities to further explore her major; at...

Vice President for Marketing and Communications

Jeanne Hartig

Editor

Marcia Faye

Contributors

David Chong
Steve Hendershot
Chelsea Kalberloh Jackson
Michelle McKenzie-Voight

Art Director/Design

Scott Benbrook

Illinois Tech Magazine is published two times a year by the Office of Marketing and Communications

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Generation Innovation Charting Their Own Paths

Summer 2014

Inside this Issue

President’s Message

Letter from the President

Features

A Hub for Generation Innovation

Features

Another Day, Another Patent

Features

Appetite for Development

Features

Better Than a Week at The Beach

Features

Environmentally Motivated

Features

Fertile Minds Yield Crop of Innovative Ideas

Features

Investing in His Future

Online Exclusives

Where Do IIT Alumni Work?

Online Exclusives

A New Way to See Electricity

Online Exclusives

At the Intersection of East and West

Online Exclusives

Career in Overdrive

Online Exclusives

New Logo for Armour R&D

Features

A Catalyst for Biofuels—and for Self-Discovery

Vice President for Marketing and Communications

Editor

Contributors

Art Director/Design

Illinois Tech Magazine is published two times a year by the Office of Marketing and Communications

Send Letters to

Download the Summer 2014 Issue