ll- la:!ilii:!a campus@technewsiit.com | Tuesday, September13th,2016
Staff Spotlight: Ken Chatman, Post Office

Khaleela Zarnan
TECH N EWS WRITER

If you stopped by the post office in
MTCC at all in the past year, you surely saw
him. But you probably don’t know much ab out
him. His name is Ken Chatman, a fourth year
computer engineering student at Illinois Tech.
Last year, one week before school began, he
was searching for job opportunities on campus
in Iobs4Hawks and sent in his resume for a
job at the post office. To his surprise, he got a
call just one hour later. They were looking for
someone immediately, and he got an interview
on the Monday of the first day of classes; and
we all know the outcome of that interview.

Chatman’s job entails giving out
packages and running errands of mail to
various offices on campus. However, his
favorite part about the job is interacting
with the people who come to the post office
window. He has met so many interesting, new
people at that counter. If you have interacted
with Chatman, then you know how friendly
he is. He may be a little soft—spoken, but that
ever—smiling face is always able to brighten a

Technology improvements for the new

Office of Technology Services

Welcome Back! The Office of
Technology Services (OTS) has been hard at
work over the summer to make your academic
experience at Illinois Tech even better in the
2016—2017 school year.

Before shining a light on some of
those improvements, though, OTS wants youto
know ab out HAWKi, Illinois Tech’s free mobile
app for both Apple and Android devices,
which debuted in March of this year. From
August 15—25 alone, HAWKi was downloaded
over 1000 times with more than 17,000 visits.
HAWKi enables students to access their grades,
class discussions, class schedules (which can
be synced with their devices” calendars), class
rosters, Illinois Tech news, holds, events, and
more. HAWKi is the first student mobile app
at the university that combines the services
of both Banner and Blackboard in one app.
Best of all, OTS partnered with the Student

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Government Association (SGA) in the design,
content selection, and naming of the app.

As for work done on behalf of
students over the summer, OTS once again
teamed up with the SGA to explore the look,
feel, and content that Illinois Tech students
wished to see on the myIIT portal. As a result
of this collaboration, many new services/
links are accessible via the portal, specifically:
MyRoom, handling the management of room
assignments, board plans, andhousing updates;
MyParking, handling the management of
parking accounts; Hakaink, connecting
students with activities and events happening
on campus; Sprintax, providing free federal
tax preparation services to international
students; and Cbord, providing students with a
dashboard on their current balances for Board,
TechCash, and Bonus Points.

All OTS—managed PC labs have
been upgraded to Windows 10. Additional
PC kiosks and printing release stations were
introduced at the Downtown Campus, together

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Photo by Khaleela Zaman

with a full refreshment of the PCs in computer
labs in Alumni Memorial and Crown Hall on
the Mies Campus.

OTS deployed yet another
useful Blackboard application, Blackboard
Community, which allows professors to target
information for students on a specific subject
or field of study. Blackboard Community
allows for the sharing of data/content without
the need for shared drives or emails.

In response to students’ complaints,
OTS focused on two process enhancements: it
streamlined the university’s billing practices
for housing and meal plans and the student
Job s4Hawks hiring process.

Ophir Trigalo, Vice Provost and
Chief Information Officer for OTS, comments,
“I am pleased OTS was able to bring so many
technology improvements to our Illinois Tech
community. OTS prides itself on being a
service division of the university, and our staff
works hard to continuously make processes
smoother and transactions easier for our

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day.

Rude customers are “probably
the one thing [he does] not like.” Those line
skippers—the ones who just walk right up
to the window while all the other people are
waiting in a long, long line—those are the ones
he is referring to. Other than those people, his
favorite part about Illinois Tech is definitely
the “friendly environment.” The people are
willing to help; “it’s like a shielded world from
the real world.” Chatman has truly “enjoyed
the time [he has] been here.”

Ken Chatman is an exemplary
member of the friendly community of Illinois
Tech, always willing to help anyone who might
walk up to the post office, whether they are
just picking up a package or they have a more
involved question. Next time you are passing
by, consider saying more than just spitting out
your mailbox number, because more might
come out of a simple conversation than just
the transfer of your package. If anything,
Chatman’s smile will leave you smiling.

schoolyear

students, faculty, and staff.”

Finally, there are two important tips
to keep in mind. First, Illinois Tech and OTS
will never send you an email or call to ask you
for your username or password. Occasionally,
members of the Illinois Tech community will
receive deceptive emails claiming, for example,
that their password is required to ensure that
they will be able to continue to send and
receive emails. This is a scam. Report such
fraudulent emails to the OTS Support Desk.

Second, speaking of the OTS
Support Desk, which is located on the second
floor of the Galvin Library, please remember
that Support Desk staff are available to help
you with your technology—related concerns,
24—hours a day, Monday through Friday, and
over 20 hours on the weekend. If you have
any questions or need assistance, either stop
by the library, go to http://support.iit.edu, call
312.567.3375 (on campus x7DESK), or email
supportdesk@iit.edu.

315t Street bus is back

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Photos courtesy of The Bridgeport Alliance

 

Tuesday, September 13th, 201 6 |

 

campus@technewsiit.com

5

Illinois Tech MSI summer interns inspire thousands of guests

Kori Bowns
TECH N EWS WRITER

Well over one million guests visit
Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry
(MSI) in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood
each year. While many Illinois Tech students
are aware of the museum, fewer know the
unique opportunity they have to get involved
with the museum’s mission to “inspire the
inventive genius in everyone.”

Each semester, undergraduate
students from IIT have a service learning
opportunity at the Museum of Science and
Industry through the MSI Internship Program.
Students apply to spend a few days during the
semester volunteering at the museum, leading
science demonstrations to the museum’s
general audience. Volunteers who complete a
required minimum number of volunteer hours
at the museum also qualify to apply for a paid
internship at MSI over the summer.

While the majority of Illinois

Tech students were on summer break, seven
undergraduates joined MSI as paid full—time
interns where their responsibilities primarily
included presenting science demonstrations
to over 20 thousand guests. Each day, the
interns could be seen on the main museum
floor interacting with MSI’s wide audience,
including families, tourists, school groups, and
other guests of all ages and backgrounds. The
“live science experiences” shows, presented by
interns, vary every year. This year, the interns’
experiences included guiding guests through
dissecting a cow eyeball, a live chemistry
demonstration, a play about digestion, and
more!

For nearly a decade, Illinois Tech
students have reported incredible increases
in their confidence and public speaking
skills as a result of participating in the MSI
internship program. Wildaline Serin, 3rd
year engineering management major, worked
as an intern at MSI this summer. “I feel more
comfortable talking to people about science

concepts, which I wasn’t very comfortable
with before,” she said. “I think it will be very
important for me to be able to explain science
and engineering concepts to other people;
to be able to not just do engineering but to
be able to speak about it.” Participants in the
volunteer and internship program continually
say that their work at MSI empowered them
to be better communicators and leaders in
their science and engineering fields; they have
found the practice in communicating their
knowledge to be a boost to them academically
and professionally.

Participants have also enjoyed
having the opportunity to share their passion
for science and engineering with others in
a hope to inspire them to pursue a technical
career. Liza McQueney, 2nd year mechanical
engineering major, said, “My favorite part of
working at MSI is getting to inspire young
kids. I was inspired to go into engineering by a
museum exhibit, so it’s really important for me
to be able to pass that on.”

After being selected through an
application process, Illinois Tech students who
volunteer at MSI choose several days in the
semester to volunteer. On these days, they are
trained at the museum to present small—scale
live science experiences and practice their
presentation skills. After improving over the
course of the semester and presenting a variety
of demonstrations alongside other volunteers,
they become eligible for a full—time paid
summer internship.

The MSI—IIT internship program is
only open to IIT undergraduate students. In
order to apply, interested students must attend
information sessions, which will be held this
week on Tuesday, September 13; Wednesday,
September 14; and Thursday, September 15.
All of the information sessions will take place
at 12:45 pm. in Rettaliata Engineering Center
room 102. Contact Patrick Fina, Coordinator
of Campus Life, at pfina@iit.edu with any
additional questions.

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Photo by Kori Bowns