TechNews STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SINCE 1928 McCormick Tribune Campus Center Room 221 3201 South State Street Chicago, Illinois 60616 E-mail: editor@technewsiit.com Website: http://www.technewsiit.com 7:: ”=5 STAFF Editor-in-Chief Kori Bowns Opinion Editor Austin Gonzalez Sports Editor Nathan McMahon IT Manager Pranava Teja Surukuchi Business Manager Kyle Stanevich Copy Editors Vijai Baskar Kristal Copeland Shireen Gul Sharath Ramesh Anoopa Sundararajan Layout Editors Shreya Jha Ruby Le Sijia Wu Xiaoyu Zhang Distribution Manager Khaleela Zaman Financial Advisor Faculty Advisor Vickie Tolbert Gregory Pulliam MISSION STATEMENT Our mission is to promote student_discussion and bolster the IIT community by providing a ' newspaper that is highly accessible. a stalwart of journalistic integrity, and a student forum. TechNews is a dedicated to the belief that a strong campus newspaper is essential to a strong campus community. GENERAL INFORMATION TechNeWS is written. managed. and edited by the students of, and funded in part by, Illinois Institute of Technology. The material herein does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Illinois Institute of Technology or the editors, staff, and advisor of TechNews. There will be no censorship of TechNews publication by the faculty or staff of IIT. Sole authority and responsibility for publication and adherence to the values set forth in this policy rests with the TechNews staff. This paper seeks to bring together the various segments of the Illinois Tech community and strives through balance and content to achieve a position of respect and excellence. TechNews strives for professionalism with due respect to the intellectual values of the university and its community. All material submitted becomes the property of TechNews. and is subject to any editorial decisions deemed necessary. S U BM ISS IO N S TechNews is published on the Tuesday of each week of the academic year. Deadline for all submissions and announcements is 11:59 pm. on the Friday prior to publication. Articles. photos, and illustrations must be submitted electronically to the TechNews website at technewsiitcom. EDITORIAL POLICY The editors reserve the right to determine if submitted material meets TechNews‘ policy and standards. For more information about our editorial standards, please email assteditor@technewsiit.com. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters to the editor may be submitted by anyone, but are subject to review by the Editor—in-Chief. All letters—to-the—editor become the property of TechNews upon submission. TechNews does not accept or publish anonymous letters or stories. ADVERTISING Legitimate paid advertisements, from within or outside the IIT community. which serve to produce income for the paper, are accommodated. TechNews holds the right to deny any advertisement unsuitable for publication. Media Kits are available upon request. Ad space is limited and is taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. Contact the Business Manager at business@ technewsiit.com for more information. LOCAL 3 NATIONAL ADVERTISERS To place an ad, contact us via email at business@technewsiit.com. Letter from the Editor: is. | Tuesday, january27th, 2015 Welcome to TechNews! Hello and thanks for picking up TechNews! 0n belialfofthe stafi‘ofTechNews. happy New Year and welcome to the Spring 2015 semester. V hope that your semester will be full ot‘exutement, learning d challenges for you to overcome. llT has the advantage of being a small school in a big city, and our student body is as unique as our campus. providing students the opportunity to learn so much from each other. 'l‘echNews is all about promoting and supporting the 111‘ community. TechNews the student newspaper of Illinois Institute of 'l'echnology since 1928, serves to promote student discussion by pro\ IL ing a newspaper and professional public forum that is highly accessible and represents views from all segments of the III community. Anyone at HT is always welcome to submit their work for inclusion in ’l' . ews. Our writers cover a variety of topics each semester; our Opinion section regularly includes takes on uni ' y policy as well as students" views on politics. 'I lie Campus section provides coverage of any campus event, from a small general body meeting to Homecoming to administrative meetings: the uni rsity community wants to hear about the things that are happening on campus, and writers are welcome to share any part of it. The Arts and Entertainment section features writers’ experiences in the city, including reviews of restaurants. movies, and music Students are also welcome to submit comics, riddles, and puzzles for our Slipstick section. Lastly, the Sport section includes recaps of sports on a uni\ eisity, local, national, or international scale. TechNews also isn‘t only about writing; several students contribute by submitting photos and working on our copy editing, layout, or management staff. A strong campus HEW" ' per is part ofa strong campus community, d wed love to have the opportunity to shar ur work and passions with others at ll'l'. To learn more a )Lll TechNews, please drop by a weekly Writer‘s Meeting, held every Sunday afternoon at J. p.111. in our otlice, located in MTCC room 221. If you'd like to submit any content for the paper or ask any questions, feel free to send me an email at editorei'technewsiit.com. Sincerely, Kori Bowns Editor-in-Chief, TechNews TEDxIlT prepares for upcoming event ' Olumurewa Oguntade TECHNEWS WRITER It was only a week ago that planning began for TEDxIIT 2015 and already, a lot of progress has been made. TEDxIIT is a student organization on campus with the mission “To create a world class TED-like event which is innovative, mind-opening and attention- grabbing, featuring inspirational and energizing speakers from the [IT community,” and a vision “To inspire the greater community by spreading positive ideas and action to impact the global humanity.” The first planning meeting was held on Thursday, Ianuary 15, and was facilitated by Amy Lee Segami, TEDxIIT Founder and IIT Alumna (BS ME 1979; MS MMAE 1982). Also present at the meeting were the Faculty Advisor, Professor I.D Gershbein, from the IIT Stuart School of Business (MS I/OPsyc 1985; MBA 1989) and Chair of the Advisory Board, Yoetzin Diaz (BArch 2014). All three advisors are IIT alumni who set great examples of giving back to the IIT community by offering meaningful mentoring and practical coaching to current students. The main agenda for the first meeting was the selection of the executive board and committee chairs. A majority of the 30 students present nominated themselves, and in some cases provided brief manifestos. It was a successful process resulting in the election of the executive board: Rahul Ainapur as President, Sarath Chandra as Vice President, Sai Krishna as Secretary, Vishak Chandra as Treasurer and Prakhar Iajoo as Communications. . Leaduoawere also-elected for the follom‘ng committees: Speakers, Hospitality, Marketing, Public Relations, Fundraising, Sponsorship, Maintenance, Production, and Volunteers. The second meeting, held on Thursday, January 22, began with updates from the executive board and committee members. Progress reports on assigned tasks for the past week were shared and everyone was excited to hear about the incredible amount of work done. The team was particularly excited about the positive feedback reported from the promotion efforts. About 70 new students had signed up to be a part of TEDxIIT. The string of successes continued with the accomplishment of the main agenda for the second meeting—the selection of a theme. Through a lZO—rninute session of brainstorming, debate, and discussion, the planning team was able to distill more than 90 ideas into one single concept: ‘X-FUSION.’ The theme for 2015 was agreed upon unanimously because it met the selection criteria. It is simple, crisp, powerful, innovative, universal and very inclusive, since ‘X’ could represent a variety of things to different people. This will ultimately allow for the spread of rich and diverse ideas at the event slated to occur sometime in April. There is still time to get involved with TEDxIIT. The planning team encourages new members to attend the weekly meetings held every Thursday, at 6:30 pm. in the MTCC, Room 516. According to Segami, members have a lot to gain from participation. She said, “You will learn strategic planning, problem solving and innovative collaboration. You will learn the tips, tools and techniques of how to put a major global TED-like event together and actually deliver it live on campus for the world to witness.” Participation is open to the entire [IT community - students, faculty, alumni and staff. Bring your idea's, energy and passion! To learn more about TEDxIIT, visit TEDxIIT. com and sign up for the mailing list to receive updates. The organization can also be contacted at TEDxIIT@iit.edu. Illinois TeCh Robotics hosts FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff Kori Bowns EDITOR-IN-CHIEF For over a decade, Illinois Tech Robotics has been supporting the endeavors of youth Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education through many partnerships with FIRST Robotics. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) . On January 3, 2015, ITR’s students returned to campus early to put on the Chicagoland FIRST Robotics Competition kickoff event. _ The FIRST Robotics Competition was founded in 1992 and is an international high school robotics competition where teams of students and mentors work during a six week build season period to build robots weighing up to 150 pounds that play in a competitive challenge that changes every year. These competitions culminate in a world championship held in St. Louis, but they begin with local kickoff events held simultaneously around the world on the first weekend of January each year. At kickoff events, teams from the local area come together and watch a live broadcast that reveals the challenge for which teams will have to build their robots. As the live broadcast concludes, teams of students receive the set of rules for their challenge as well as a kit of parts that contains components that they will find useful when building their robot. Many kickoff events also hold workshops that allow teams to meet, exchange ideas, or learn new skills that will help their team succeed. The Chicagoland kickoff hosted by Illinois Tech Robotics in Hermann Hall welcomed more than 250 students from 28 teams and their mentors, parents, and supporters. Many team representatives were from Chicago or nearby suburbs, but the Chicago kickoff also assisted teams from Iowa and Brazil. After the broadcast concluded, volunteers helped teams receive and inventory their kit of parts, review rules for the competition, lean programming techniques, and discover effective fundraising ideas. The event was possible thanks to months of preparation on behalf of Illinois Tech Robotics members as well as the help of dozens of volunteers on the day of the event. The Chicagoland kickoff is just the first of many volunteer events that Illinois Tech Robotics will be involved with this semester, including hosting a FIRST Tech Challenge competition on campus, working as key volunteers at the Midwest Regional FIRST Robotics Competition at University of Illinois at Chicago, and volunteering at the FIRST World Championship event. Those interested in volunteering their time with FIRST or otherwise getting involved with Illinois Tech Robotics can contact the organization at robotics.iit@gmail.com, join the organization on Hakaink, or join weekly meetings held Friday evenings at 7pm in their robotics lab in 3424 S. State Street.