Fall 2014

Inside this Issue

President’s Message

Letter from the President

“No period of my life has been one of such unmixed happiness as the four years which have been spent within college walls.” —Horatio Alger Jr. I have been following the recent debate about the value of a college education with great interest—and a bit of dismay. Many argue that...

News Briefs

A Creative Path to Leadership

Christine Himes’s path to dean of IIT Lewis College of Human Sciences was a wild ride—unpredictable, nonlinear, and filled with surprising twists. Over the course of her life, Himes has found one constant: pursuing her fascinations, no matter how circuitous and rudderless her career journey sometimes has seemed. She has taken risks and exemplified other qualities noted in highly creative individuals, seeking out new experiences and connecting the dots in seemingly unrelated situations, as she has followed her interests—and discovered her passions.

Research Briefs

Insights Into the Ionosphere

Look skyward on a winter’s night in the Northern Hemisphere and you may glimpse the beauty of the aurora borealis. Come sunrise, the same forces that spur its shimmering bands will likely wreak havoc with communication systems and GPS navigation. Each time the sun beams a solar flare or lobs...

Research Briefs

Summer of Real Research

Ask Veronica Torres (BME 4th year) to describe two highlights of her summer vacation, and chances are she will tell you about completing brain surgery on mice and observing cells glow when excited by high-energy light. Some 30 other IIT engineering undergraduates might describe similar research experiences thanks to their...

Athletics

Success Beyond the Sports Center

That Illinois Tech’s director of athletics, Joe Hakes, is qualified to provide athletic vision and lead the university’s efforts toward NCAA Division III membership is unquestionable. Joe Hakes Photo by: Bonnie Robinson Apart from his brief career layover as a residential realtor in the Washington, D.C., area, Hakes has spent...

Features

What Can We Learn from Failure?

If we ask a basketball player to imagine taking the final shot of a game, that player will almost certainly imagine the ball going through the hoop to win the game. Similarly, if you close your eyes and imagine yourself completing an important school or work assignment, you will likely envision yourself being successful, maybe even wildly successful. Failure is not something we generally desire in our daily pursuits. That doesn’t mean, however, that failure cannot provide positive outcomes.

Features

How Does Helping Others Help Us?

“Their homes were the size of a large bathroom in the United States and didn't have mattresses or tile floors, yet the families who lived in them were not downtrodden or bitter.” The question “How does helping others help us?” caused me to reflect on my experiences serving others from...

Features

Is My College Education Worth Having?

Akinade Aderele, a fourth-year architecture student at Illinois Institute of Technology, views a college education as a down payment on a long-term investment in the future of his home country. A native of Lagos, the most populous city in Nigeria and the largest in Africa, Aderele misses home, but says...

Features

Small Things + Big Science = Huge Payoff?

“Paradoxically, this pursuit of the very small has led us to construct ever-larger accelerators and detection devices.” Russell Bets Photo: Bonnie Robinson A driving force in science is the pursuit of understanding the ultimate nature of matter and its interactions. Historically, this has led us on a path to smaller...

Features

Is the Textbook Obsolete?

The science-learning landscape is shifting. As information becomes more readily available, learning environments become transformed with the help of technology and individuals take more ownership of their education in and out of the classroom. For example, the Maker Movement has helped the act of doing science and engineering become more...

Features

What Is America’s Best Pathway to Sustainable Energy?

National security, and economic vitality and growth depend upon adequate future supplies of energy and water. IIT’s Wanger Institute for Sustainable Energy Research and its Robert W. Galvin Center for Electricity Innovation have developed an approach to the increasingly challenging task of creating a pathway to sustainable energy and water for our nation that is both multifaceted and complex. It aims to improve the reliability, security, and affordability of energy and water by

Alumni News

IIT Worldwide Alumni Chapters, Clubs, and Networks

China Chapter offers a variety of programs Since its establishment in 2012, the Illinois Institute of Technology China Alumni Chapter has been working to engage alumni in a multitude of ways. With strong representation from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law and IIT Stuart School of Business, the chapter offers presentations,...

Rewind

A Chapel for All

On the northeast side of IIT Main Campus, blocks away from the ornate red brick and arched façade of Machinery Hall, is a more modest, single-story building — the Robert F. Carr Memorial Chapel of Saint Savior. Unassuming as it may appear, the structure is significant for two primary reasons...

Online Exclusives

Remote Control

When Luis Larco was a kid growing up in Peru, he says his dad often told him that he wished he could work from the beach. Luis Larco Photo by: Scott Benbrook “Now it’s possible,” says Larco (ECE 5th year). “You can be sitting on the beach, on the sand-you...

Online Exclusives

Playing for Keeps

For Shahmeer Khaliqdina (EE ‘10, M.A.S. ECE ‘14), a world without cricket would be unthinkable. So when the Pakistani-born son of a professional cricket player arrived at IIT, the first thing he noticed was the sport's absence. IIT Cricket Club Photo: Sachin Raj “I saw we had all of these...

Online Exclusives

Summer of Real Research

“This was my first research experience. Being an aerospace engineering major, I very much value the materials engineering base I have now formed. Materials engineering is so fundamentally crucial to all other engineering fields, and its scope encompasses both aerospace and mechanical engineering.”

Online Exclusives

Bridge of Humanity

Adults of a certain generation who grew up experiencing harsh winters in the United States may have chided their children with these infamous words: “ When I was your age, I walked for two miles in the snow to get to school.” Kids living in the village of San Claudio,...

Online Exclusives

IIT Office of Campus Energy and Sustainability

All for Energy and Sustainability

Even if Dan Medrano (ARCH/ARCE ’13) had not come in late to the meeting bearing a dozen Dunkin’ Donuts and wearing an apologetic grin, it was easy to see that the group seated at the conference table on the 19th floor of IIT Tower had a genuine camaraderie. Medrano and...

Online Exclusives

Slideshow: The Quiet Season - Winter on IIT Main Campus

Red, White, and Blue A lone walker in red provides vibrant contrast to a snow-surrounded S. R. Crown Hall, home to IIT College of Architecture. All Photos by Dan Kasberger Reflection in the Village The winter sun is reflected in the tinted windows of State Street Village student housing. Snow...