By Karl Rybaltowski EDITOR-IN-CHIEF With a quick glance outside, the name may be deceiving, but the spring semester is here And while it may seem cliche’ at this point, this semester is going to be a time of transi7 tion Students are graduating, organizations are picking new leadership teams, and IIT staff are implementing changesl TechNews is no different, and we are looking forward in de7 termining how to best improve the newspaper That said, this is a perfect time to reflect upon what we’ve already done, and assess how well we have served you and the IIT community in our efforts You’ve probably had your fair share of it: the surveys, feedback forms, and evaluations for IPROs, professors, student organizations and even the overall IIT experience Behind each and every one of those pieces of paper or online forms is a group of people that, in their own way, is attempting to improve the univer7 sity experience for everyone There’s one other important thing to keep in mind when averting your gaze from survey7 takers or deleting e7mails asking for feedback: this stufi’works It’s for your Fall may have been for collecting feedback, but spring is the time of change It’s time to walk the walk, now that we’ve got your talk University departments If" / are coming up with action plans for improv7 ing service to students, while organizations are hard at work affecting change themselvesl TechNews is part of this process, too, though much of it has been under the hood, so it’s worth going over in a bit more detail Content We’re constantly working on getting qual7 ity content to IIT students Our staff made the decision to more aggressively pursue events coverage pre7emptively, rather than exclusively reviewing what has already happened To pro7 vide more guidance to writers, we developed an editorial calendar We made a greater effort to communicate effectively between our tal7 ented staff and writers We’ve also introduced features such as the Person You Should Know series, work on IIT’s community involvement, dedicated space for SGA news, and made Sex7 Tech an actual advice columnl We introduced How To Chicago (a city events calendar) and playlists from readers, writers and staff In short 7 we’ve been busy Presentation It’s been about a year since the new layout was unveiled, and reaction has been over7 whelmingly positive In the past semester, we also made the greatest effort to date of elimi7 nating errors, and owning up to them when they did slip through Web Presence We moved our website offsite in order to get online ad revenue, in the process decid7 ing to rebuild it from the ground up Not only did we want to make it look nicer, we wanted to make the entire experience 7 whether just reading articles or submitting them 7 more in7 tuitive and interactive for the user As with any entirely new venture, there have been some snags in the updating process, and we’re cur7 rently working on getting those fixed Organization Between tightening up internal communi7 cation (providing all staff with a Google Apps account specifically made for us), revising the production cycle and workflow, and com7 pletely overhauling our advertisement process, we’ve been busy in terms of our organization The result is, we’d like to think, a much more responsive staff But there’s plenty more to go 7 the payroll system can still be frustrating, and we’re always looking for ways to run things more smoothly The Fun Stuff We’ve hosted contests in the newspaper and introduced The First Day of the Rest of My Life, a comic that hopefully better resonates with (and entertains) students We started a Photo of the Week competition (which you’re welcome to submit to) We’ve worked on main7 taining visibility on campus This semester we’ll additionally be co7hosting a Bog event technewsiit.com Opi ion 2-3 Campus 34,6 AErE 5,1-8 The Slipstick 9 Sports 10-11 F .3. L :2 § E u m r m M i‘ a a g E, and trying even more new things Now that you’ve got it all in front of you, TechNews wants to hear from your Below is a link to a feedback survey 7 help us out, be hon7 est, and watch as the paper gets even better just because you voiced your opinion And if the satisfaction of doing your part is not enough, there are prizes: T7shirts, buttons and more! Thanks for supporting TechNews 7 we do it all for your wants YOU! (to tell us what you think) http://tinyurl.com/tn-survey Take the survey Win prizes Feelgood Robotics kicks off at IIT By Ryan Kamphuis STAFF WRITER Over 500 high school students were on campus the morning of Saturday, January 8 as IIT played host to the 2011 Chicago FIRST Ro7 botics Competition Kickoff The FIRST Robotics Competition is a ro7 botics league where teams of high school stu7 dents work together to design and construct a fully7functional robot in six weeks These ro7 bots compete against each other by playing a game that changes every year The game is an7 nounced simultaneously to all teams through a live satellite broadcast that is viewed at Kickoff events worldwide The Chicago7area kickoff was attended by teams from Indiana, Iowa, and all across Illinoisl At the kickoff, teams gathered in the Her7 mann Hall auditorium to watch the live unveil7 ing of the 2011 FRC game When the broadcast was over, the teams broke apart and took part in brainstorming sessions and educational workshops that were held in the HUB and Wishnick Halli During all of this, teams were able to pick up kits of robot parts that all teams receive as part of the competition This year’s Chicago FRC Kickoff was or7 ganized and run by members of the Illinois Tech Robotics student organization Members of the group began planning the event in late November, and worked up until the night be7 fore to ensure that everything was ready for the event This included everything from lin7 ing up speakers, ordering catering, building a full scale mock7up of the game field the robots will be playing on, and preparing the HUB to handle the hordes of people that would be at7 tending Kickoff The Illinois Tech Robotics organization was founded as an outreach group to allow IIT students to support FIRST in the Chicago area It does this by organizing and hosting events like the Chicago FIRST Robotics Competi7 tion Kickoff and the Illinois State FIRST Tech Challenge Championship It also does this by connecting IIT students with robotics teams throughout Chicagoland to assist them in building their robotsl As it gained members, Illinois Tech Robotics also began building its own robots and taking on new projects, such as organizing a brand new college7level robot7 ics competition that will take place in St Louis this April After the kickoff event teams will spend six weeks building their robots, and then join again in late March to compete against each other in an attempt to win a trip to the nation7 al competition The regional competition takes place at UIC because oflack ofspace at IIT, but Illinois Tech Robotics still plays a major role in organizing the regional and helping things run smoothly during the competition