Summer 2013

Inside this Issue

President’s Message

Letter from the President

“Do you know what my favorite renewable fuel is? An ecosystem for innovation.” —Thomas Friedman How should innovation be defined in the twenty-first century? Has the word become a synonym for “anything that is new” or should it be reserved for something more? Something like the portable cell phone, barcode...

Features

Visionaries. Change Makers. Innovators.

All of these terms could be used to describe Taylor Harvey (SOC 4th year). Confident, curious, and creative, Harvey, and his team at MonkeyBars—a tech events startup he co-founded—coordinated IIT’s first-ever Hackathon in 2012. Harvey brought the 24-hour tech competition to IIT to help foster a sense of community and nurture tomorrow’s Web developers and designers. More than 100 participants attended the 2013 Hackathon, which was held in February at IIT’s Idea Shop.

Features

A Portal to the Future

In July 2012, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel joined IIT President John Anderson in S. R. Crown Hall on the university’s Main Campus to announce IIT’s plans to construct, in the words of Anderson, “a portal to the future.” The first new academic building to be constructed on Main Campus in 40 years, it comes with an ambitious set of goals, including showcasing IIT’s distinctive education and nurturing the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.

Features

ReVITALization: Academic Buildings for the Future

The construction pit is being readied for the Engineering 1 building in 1966. To the west is Main Building with IIT Tower ahead to the south. Source: IIT Archives (Chicago) Two buildings at the north end of IIT Main Campus bounded by 31st Street—Life Sciences and Engineering 1—have served students...

Features

Vanguards of Advanced Technology

Shih-Yew “S. Y.” Chen, the first full-time director of the IIT Professional Master of Health Physics program, says that he will likely never win a Nobel Prize. But that realization is fine with him. Chen is content with a more intrinsic type of reward.

Features

Work-Centric Prosthetics

Michael Morley (BME ’08) observes Helcias Rubio using the prosthetic tool Morley designed to help the carpenter return to work after severing his fingers in an accident. Photo: Michael Morley “To say that he’s passionate about his prosthetics projects is a real understatement; I just stand back and try to...

Features

Cancer as Cure

Jialing Xiang For certain forms of cancer, two wrongs can make a right. That is the surprising discovery revealed in new research by IIT Associate Professor of Biology Jialing Xiang. Xiang’s latest investigations deal with the biological mechanisms designed to prevent the growth of tumor cells. One of the most...

Features

The Newness of Nowness

With the spring semester just ended, S. R. Crown Hall is uncharacteristically quiet as Wiel Arets—architect, urbanist, and the new Rowe Family College of Architecture Dean Endowed Chair—suggests we pull up two whimsical yet sturdy chairs that his students exhibited at the college’s spring Open House. Wearing a tailored sports jacket and an expression that alters between intense and contemplative, Arets discusses a term some may consider to be as curious as the chairs: nowness.

Features

Cool Storage: New Ways to Stockpile Energy

This schematic is of a 3-D supercapacitor utilizing graphene sheets studded with nano-oxide islands. According to Leon Shaw, the Rowe Family Endowed Chair in Sustainable Energy at IIT, innovations at the submicroscopic level may help to satisfy society’s mountain-sized demands for energy. Rather than hunting for new sources of energy,...

Features

An Advocate for Immigrant Communities

IIT Clinical Assistant Professor of Law Ana Mendez Mencini (LAW ’01) says her students learn early on how high the stakes can be for their clients.

Online Exclusives

Slideshow: U Farm IIT

U Farm IIT On a hardscrabble patch of land between the Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority house and the Triangle fraternity house—where even grass has a tough time growing—a lush and fertile project showcasing a variety of green life is rising. With its roots in a student initiative through the IIT...

Vice President for Marketing and Communications

Jeanne Hartig

Editor

Chelsea Kalberloh Jackson

Contributors

David Chong
Marcia Faye
Richard Harth
Michelle McKenzie-Voigt

Art Director/Design

Nancy Niequist Schoon

Design

Scott Benbrook
Marty Schalm
Nancy Niequist Schoon

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

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Visionaries. Change Makers. Innovators. Driven by Passion and Imagination

Summer 2013

Inside this Issue

President’s Message

Letter from the President

Features

Visionaries. Change Makers. Innovators.

Features

A Portal to the Future

Features

ReVITALization: Academic Buildings for the Future

Features

Vanguards of Advanced Technology

Features

Work-Centric Prosthetics

Features

Cancer as Cure

Features

The Newness of Nowness

Features

Cool Storage: New Ways to Stockpile Energy

Features

An Advocate for Immigrant Communities

Online Exclusives

Slideshow: U Farm IIT

Vice President for Marketing and Communications

Editor

Contributors

Art Director/Design

Design

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

Send Letters to

Download the Summer 2013 Issue