Tuesday, OctoberZOth, 2015 | TechNews campus@technewsiit.com Society of Women Engineers hosts week of events Adedoyin Adeniji TECH N EWS WRITER Canvases, Paint brushes, pizza, and good conversations! This was how IIT’s Soci— ety of Women Engineers (SWE) chapter’s spirit week began. The events coordinator, Joey Yeap, says the week was planned with the aim of pro— moting SWE on campus and giving members a chance to bond and de—stress. On October 5th, SWE began their spirit week with a painting social at The Bog. This was the first of many events that were to happen that week. Members gathered at The Bog and painted whatever their mood dictat— ed. The spa night that happened on Tuesday was the perfect de—stressing event. Listening to some old R&B tunes while receiving a pro— fessional massage and drinking hot chocolate on a somewhat cold night definitely had the power to turn anyone’s week around. Thursday was trivia night which also happened at The Bog. There were 11 teams of three people each and the questions were from science, general knowledge, math, and technology. The teams were made up on the spot which even made the night all the more fun and hilarious. The week ended with an airplane competition on Friday which was hosted by both the National Society of Black Engineers and SWE and partially sponsored by Armour College of Engineering. The competition be— gan at 4 pm. on Siegel Field. Originally, five teams had registered to participate, but two teams dropped out at the last minute leaving just three teams to compete. The three teams had an hour to build their airplane from scratch with self—provided materials. The ma— terials they had chosen to work with included cardboard, drafting paper, newspaper, and wood, which unexpectedly worked out in the end. There were some worries while building the planes; the weather had gotten cold and windy, which made constructing and creating a little difficult, but the teams were able to work around it. At 5 p.m., the teams launched their airplanes. The competition was judged based on distance. The teams were given two chances to launch their gliders. Two of the teams had a draw, so a tie—breaker was introduced into the competition. At the end of the day, a team call— ing themselves the Wrong Brothers emerged as the winners of the competition. ||T NECA student chapter_takes 2nd in national competition Dr. Daniel Tomal ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, IIT SCHOOL OF APPLIED TECHNOLOGY The IIT NECA Student Chapter won second place in the National Electrical Con— tractors Association (NECA) Green Energy Challenge held in San Francisco on October 3, 2015. A total of 20 universities competed in the challenge and top three finalists earned the privilege to compete in the finals. Iowa State University won first place, followed by IIT, and Penn State University cap— tured third. The five IIT NECA student chapter members who competed in the finals, under the guidance of advisor Dr. Dan Tomal, ad— junct professor in Industrial Technology and Management, were Alex Wall (Electrical Engi— neering), Dan Went (Electrical Engineering), Tim Tyrrell (Industrial Technology and Man— agement), Sam Valtierrez (Industrial Technol— ogy and Management), and Bianca Panczak (Architectural Engineering). As a result of winning, the IIT NECA Chapter was awarded an engraved glass trophy, an all—paid trip to San Francisco, and a check for $3,000. The trip was sponsored by the Electrical Contractors’ Association of the City of Chicago (ECA). ECA has been a fan— Energy. Ideas. ELECTRI'S Resear lnternational Can the Talent lnifiatilv ' t e, brln t current mdl g he MOST . “dge and skillsto yc fl ac . workforce ‘ E and ‘ It ch. Education. and ters together with 2015 ELECTRl International , Dali Wente NECA Green Energy Challenge tastic supporter of the IIT chapter and IPRO projects at IIT. They have afforded the students over the past years wonderful educational ex— periences through field trips, guest speakers, tours, and resources. The NECA competition goals are to engage university NECA chapter members in an awarding educational experience in the electrical and energy services industry. The competition requires students to compete in technical skills vital to careers in the energy field and professional and time management, oral, and written communications. The NECA IIT chapter developed a 40—page energy audit report that centered on energy analysis, techni— cal lighting retrofit, EPA benchmarking, criti— cal load and micro grid, energy storage battery system, schematic estimate, and finance plane. The students also used the NECAWORKS en— ergy economic screening tool to support their conclusions. The competition required the teams to conduct an energy audit of a campus build- ing. The IIT chapter members selected the IIT Tower and conducted the audit as part of the spring 2015 IPRO 338 project, working with the IIT Office of Energy and Sustainability. The IPRO project was sponsored by ECA. “I know the team worked hard on this IPRO project and we’re proud of their accomplishment,” noted Jeremy Alexis, Director of HTS IPRO program. The competition was intense and the IIT team put in numerous hours of preparation and practice for the event which required them to make a 15 minute formal presentation to a panel of five judges, selected from around the country. Dr. Bob Carlson, Dean of the School of Applied Technology, praised the team: “I’m proud of this team since I know that they have been trying for the past few years to make it to the nationals. This helps to give recognition to IIT at a national level, especially beating out so many top—notch schools.” In addition to winning second place in the competition, the IIT NECA Chapter also won second place in the Outstanding Chapter of the Year, again being edged out by Iowa State. “This is a wonderful opportunity for our university chapter to gain out—of—class experience and at the national level,” said Alex Carlson, Director of HTS Office of Campus Life. The Green Energy Challenge is an annual event the IIT NECA Chapter plans to enter the 2016 competition as part of the spring IPRO project. The next national competition will be held in Boston. 5, DVCtduCtle and 'llllJLlH" - Light fixtures replaced with LED equivalents , Reuofit with Green Light Power Packs (GLPP) Lighting - Occupancy and daylight harvesting sensors - $309,472 annual savings from LED retrofit -Sso,ao3 annual savings from daylight harvesting .f'. ,. .j’ Q‘lal - 250 kW 20,000 sq. ft. solar canopy array - Electrical vehical charging stations , Connected directly to IIT Tower grid - 250 kWh ore-existing onssite battery , Frequency regulation for added revenue «whbfllldlng Automation System -fig£‘§ee v-iaeits with synchronous belts JWI'WEfilm on all windows . usfla‘blefrequency drives on pumps 52”.“? total annual savlngs Heating & Cooling Iranian , $1,097,050 in annual savings - $4,000,609 in total initial cost - 3,65 years for return on investment - 4.5 months work with concurrent projects EALEETRI INTERNATIONAL Photos courtesy of Dr. Daniel Tomal SGA Senate Meeting Recap Genevieve Hutntnel TECHNEWS WRITER The Student Government Asso— ciation (SGA) at IIT held its biweekly sen— ate meeting last Wednesday, October 14. The meeting ran very smoothly and the new senators seem to be settling into their positions well. The first order of business at the meeting was the president’s report. The President, Rahul Wadhwani, discussed a few topics, including getting SGA on Student Speak. Student Speak is an online survey that all IIT students are encouraged to par— ticipate in. The goal of the survey is to find out how much students know about various groups and projects on campus and gather students” opinions about these groups and topics. The survey offers the chance to win prizes to students who participate. SGA would like to encourage all students to take this survey because it will help SGA find out how much students know about the organi— zation and will hopefully give SGA an idea of what they need to improve or change, if anything. The next topic that Wadhwani discussed was the Alumni Career Panel. On Saturday, October 24 from 10:30 am. to 1:00 pm. in Herman Hall, a panel of alumni from all over the country will be gathering to talk to students and offer them advice and answer questions. This is a great opportuni— ty for students to develop connections with alumni that are working at big name compa— nies. Students who attend and meet with the alumni also have the opportunity to partici— pate in job shadowing with members of the panel. Following the president’s report was a report by the Vice President of Com— munications, Subarno Saha. Saha talked about the media advisory board, which is looking to gather representatives from all of the media related organizations on campus to work together and help each other im— prove and reach out to more students. The organizations that will be part of this group have been contacted and the board is await— ing their responses. There is also an interest in gath— ering representatives from all of the com— munity service groups on campus to put together a community service committee. This committee will then be able to organize events together, such as the donation drive that is currently in the works. Continue to keep an eye out for senators on the bridge. For the next couple of weeks, there will be senators on the bridge every day. The senators will be there to an— swer any questions students have about the role of a senator, how students can be more involved on campus through SGA, or any other questions students might have about SGA in general. Also covered at the meeting was the voting in of new Judicial Board mem— bers Poshak and Citlalli, who were both vot— ed in after a brief introduction and question session. The next topic discussed was a proposed project of trying to get a second entrance/ exit put in the north end of MSV. The main problem with this project is that any entrance/ exit in MSV must be staffed at all times and there has to be funding in or— der for that to happen. The meeting ended with the pre— sentation of three new student organizations that were seeking approval for official status. Three organizations presented: Art and Dig— ital Design, the Armed Forces Honor So— ciety, and the Electronic Gaming Club. All three received approval with little debate. The SGA senate meetings are held on a biweekly basis in MTCC and all stu— dents are encouraged to attend. The senate meetings provide students with a great op— portunity to learn about events and organi— zations that are happening on campus and offer the chance for anyone to voice their thoughts and opinions on what is happen— ing on campus.