Features

Spring 2017
Eunice Santos

Natural Path

It does not require an algorithm to uncover the reasons behind Eunice Santos’s career trajectory and her decision to come to Illinois Tech to chair the computer science department. Now the Ron Hochsprung Endowed Chair, chair of the Department of Computer Science, and professor of computer science at Illinois Tech, Santos, the daughter of an electrical engineer and a mathematics professor, recognized her innate capacity for STEM disciplines early in life. She graduated with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science and math before earning her doctoral degree in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Spring 2017
From g-Force to V-Force

From g-Force to V-Force

The high school student is safely strapped into the seat of the amusement park roller coaster. She selects the “Roller Coaster” mode in the Physics Toolbox Sensor Suite app, secures her smart phone in her pocket, and enjoys the ride as the car climbs slowly over the waiting crowd below, pauses dramatically at the top of the track, and then plunges downward. After the laughter subsides and her heart returns to its normal rate, the student checks her phone. The app has employed its various sensors to measure, collect, display, and record data, such as g-force.
Fall 2016
UFarm

Greener Acres

“These are the best tomatoes I’ve had since home,” says Merjem Mededovic (BME 3rd year), reaching for a cluster of tiny crimson spheres dangling from a blossom-studded tomato plant in UFarmIIT. Growing up in urban Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, she looked forward to weekends when she could work in her grandfather’s garden on the outskirts of the city. “As a biomedical engineering student, I appreciate the importance of being active and eating right, and also helping Earth. Farming touches so many points that are part of a sustainable life.”
Fall 2016
David Baker

UTP Celebrates 10 Years as “Living Laboratory”

Like a teacher who gives his or her student the freedom to develop and grow with just the right amount of guidance and opportunity, University Technology Park at IIT—now Chicago’s premier tech park—has fostered and graduated innovative startups that have become successful companies, many drawing international acclaim. Illinois Tech President Lewis Collens (1990–2007) first proposed the idea of a tech park and selected David Baker, longtime vice president for external affairs, as UTP’s strategic architect.
Summer 2016
Kevin Meade

It Takes an IPRO

It is one of the ironies of life that Meade, who is also a clinical orthotist, now benefits from biomechanical devices much like the individuals he has supported throughout more than a decade in clinical practice. At Illinois Tech, Meade may be best known for having led teams of students to Latin America, where they provided orthotic treatment to youngsters with scoliosis, or lateral curvature of the spine, through the university’s Interprofessional Projects (IPRO) Program. Since his stroke, some of Meade’s former students have designed an IPRO course—and an assistive therapeutic device—to benefit their teacher whose life changed in the proverbial instant. “I kind of joke about this whole situation,” Meade continues in characteristic good spirits, seated in his wheelchair in his office in the John T. Rettaliata Engineering Center. “Now I’m serving in the role of a patient—so I’ve got it all covered.”
Summer 2016
Joseph Wright

Juris Cannabis

In his three-piece suit, Joseph Wright (LAW ’13) resembles a young James Bond, a man of international daring and intrigue. Yet when he mentions his work with Cannabis , the mystique fades and he’s often hit with a barrage of jokes befitting a Cheech & Chong flick. “ Cannabis has a long history connected with amusing things, so you have to have a sense of humor to do this job,” says Wright, 31, who was appointed last June to serve as director of the State of Illinois Medical Cannabis Pilot Program. “But it’s also a serious medical program.”