Features

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.”
Summer 2016
Old enemy, New Threat

Old enemy, New Threat

Decades later and half a world away, the Zika virus has graduated from benign to deadly. IITRI scientists—the first to model today’s new strain—are now testing viable treatments and vaccines. In 1947 defibrillation was first performed on a human, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to scientists who discovered how glycogen breaks down in the human body, and the United States Army successfully launched and returned the first living animal—fruit flies—to and from outer space. A lot has changed since then—including the Zika virus.
Summer 2016
Wi-Tronix

On the High-Tech Fast TraX

Larry Jordan (EE ’89), president of the remote monitoring technology company Wi-Tronix®, says that although he had led the Electro-Motive Diesel team that created the company’s signature IntelliTrain remote monitoring system, he just couldn’t shake the feeling that an even better system was just down the tracks. “I can’t just have an idea—I have to make it a reality,” says Jordan, noting that when he had the chance to collaborate on a project with Electro-Motive colleague Mike Heilmann (M.B.A. ’04), he knew that together, they could make it happen.