Greater Academic Distinction

Summer 2007

The Interprofessional Projects Program

It was an idea that was ahead of its time. In the mid-’90s, many universities began to respond to what industry leaders were telling them about college graduates: that they needed a more holistic education and the ability to communicate and be broad thinkers. President Lew Collens was listening. Then...

Summer 2007

New Program: Department of Biomedical Engineering

When I first met with President Lew Collens about starting a Biomedical Engineering department, there was not much broad interdisciplinary activity in that field at IIT. The department, which we started from scratch in 2002, now has 10 faculty members, about 150 undergraduates, and a graduate population of nearly 30...

Summer 2007

New Focus: Institute of Psychology

Prior to President Lew Collens’ arrival in 1990, some people thought of the Psychology department as primarily supporting undergraduate course requirements, not knowing that it had a history of graduating more Ph.D.s than any other department in the university. That changed after the National Commission for IIT. The university community...

Summer 2007

Expanding Overseas: IIT India

President Lew Collens has always been supportive of the university’s international expansion, which was a recommendation of the National Commission for IIT. So when Motorola contacted me in 1996 to see if IIT could offer master’s degree programs to its employees in Bangalore, India’s “Silicon Valley,” I was confident Lew...

Summer 2007

The Leadership Academy

Hand-in-hand with providing a robust academic experience, IIT has exhibited a growing commitment to developing the leadership strengths of its students. Through the Leadership Academy, which opened in 1998, our students are better equipped to advance to positions of leadership while as students and in their professional careers. IIT has...

Summer 2007

Teaching Better Teachers: Forming the Mathematics and Science Education Department

An early vision of IIT was to give back to the local community by preparing teachers to teach science and math in the surrounding Bronzeville area. During my initial discussions with IIT prior to joining the university, I stressed that IIT needed to have comprehensive master’s and Ph.D. programs in...