Tuesday, February 21, 2012 I

TechNews

campus@technewsiit.com

AIAS annual global FORUM
coming to Chicago in 2013

By Ryan Gann
TECHNEWS WRITER

Around 9:00pm on Sunday, October 8th,
1871 a fire started southwest of Downtown
Chicago Firefighters did everything they could
to fight the blaze, but strongwinds whipped the
fire into an uncontrollable state, which soon
engulfed the city Tuesday morning, October
10, some much needed rain helped to stop the
blaze, but unfortunately, the fire had destroyed
over 18,000 buildings and left athird of the city’s
population homeless:

Fasteforward 142 years and 81 days to
December 28th, 2013: Thousands of students
will arrive in the great city of Chicago for
FORUM 2013, expecting a week of excitement
and opportunity , a week they will not soon
forget: FORUM 2013 will be a chance for
every member of the American Institute of
Architecture Students (AIAS) to explore the

world of architecture in Chicago:

The city’s architectural heritage is
considered to be among the finest in the
world: Arguably the birthplace of the modern
skyscraper, Chicago has been surpassing its
limits ever since its destruction in 1871:

FORUM is the annual meeting of AIAS
and the premier global gathering of architecture
and design students: Each year, FORUM hosts
over 1000 students from around the country
and around the world (Puerto Rico, Canada,
and Dubai):

The conference provides students with
opportunities to learn about important
issues facing architectural education and the
profession, to meet students, educators and
professionals with common interest, and to
interact with some of today’s leading architects
through keynote addresses, tours, workshops,
and seminars:

Every year, FORUM is held over the
New Year holiday, hosted by chapters from

aroundNorth America that have been voted
upon two years in advance:

iitAIAS bid to host this conference this
past year at FORUM 2011 in Phoenix, Arizona
Through a bid packet, presentation, and
advertising material, the Council of Presidents
voted upon Chicago as the location for FORUM
20131 This will bring vibrancy to not only the
organization but to the College of Architecture
and University This conference will bring
emerging professionals and relevant discussions
to IIT’s campus and the city of Chicago: As
architects fight to define the importance of
architecture in the urbanized environment,
AIAS works to define the involvement of
students in this change:

Daniel H: Burnham once said, “Make no
little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s
blood and probably will themselves not be
realized Make big plans; aim high in hope and
work, remembering that noble, local diagram
once recorded will not die:"

UTSAV GANDHI

Ca reer fair
(continued from page 1)

chance to get a position:

4) What advice would you give to
students before they come to the career fair?
How can they prepare themselves?

Shirlean also encourages the stue
dents who are not seeking a job or an intern,
ship to attend the career fair She feels that
it is a great opportunity to network and also
gives you an exposure towards what employ,
ers are seeking in their potential candidates
She jocularly mentions that a lot of compa
nies give out freebies, which is another in,
centive:

The Career Management Center
has done a commendable job by bringing
these opportunities to IIT students: There
are jobs for every major, from engineering to
humanities: We, as students, can do our part
by attending the career fair A good turnout
would encourage the companies to come
back and hire more of our students in the
coming year

If you are interested in helping with the
planning process please email aias@iit:edu: Be
sure to check out our blog for continued updates
and information, iitaias:wordpress:com

 

||T students design new exhibition space at Farnsworth House

By Utsav Gandhi
CAMPUS EDITOR

On September 14, 2008, rain poured down
on the Fox River valley in Plano, IL, causing the
river to spill its banks and flood Mies van der
Rohe’s Farnsworth House: The flood damaged
the house and the furniture within, specifically
a large wardrobe that was added to the house
at the request of Mies’ client, Edith Farnsworth:
Unlike the other, smaller pieces of furniture
in the house, the 12 foot by 6 foot by 2 foot
wardrobe is too large to be removed from the
house in case of another flood:

With the existing visitor center not able
to accommodate this large piece of furniture,
a need exists for additional exhibition space

to temporarily display this historic piece
of furniture until a mitigation plan can be
implemented which offers permanent protection
for the house and its contents:

To solve this problem, Whitney French,
director of the Farnsworth House, sought the
help of a designebuild professor at Mies’ own
Illinois Institute of Technology Professor Frank
Flury has led many successful designebuild
studios at IIT, including the recent AIA award,
winning Field Chapel in Boedigheim, Germany

Professor Flury presented the project to
his students, and over the past two semesters
the team has designed an adaptable exhibition
space that addresses the Farnsworth House’s
need to display the wardrobe and can also be
used for events, such as lectures and exhibitions:
Early concepts for the design were rectilinear

and simple, drawing on the Farnsworth House
for inspiration.

After many iterations, critiques from
their professor, and advice from practicing
architects and engineers, the team decided it
would be more appropriate to design in the local
vernacular, something more similar to the farm
buildings that are scattered over the landscape

Since the new exhibition space is situated
about a halfemile from the Farnsworth House,
adjacent to the visitor center and visible from
the road, a farm building seemed appropriate:
Another problem the design team looked to
solve was how to provide handicap accessibility
to the Farnsworth House: In the end, the studio
designed a contemporary roundbarn with a new
gently slopingpath circling the “B arnsworth" on
its way to the Farnsworth House:

The design is simple and compact; the
round floor plan creates a natural exhibition
space: The interior walls are segmented while
the exterior walls feature vertical board and
batten siding to create a continuous curve:
The walls are free from openings, providing
extensive display space while a simple and
elegant lantern sits atop the space to allow the
penetration of natural light

Permit drawings have been submitted
for review and now the team is seeking in,
kind donations of construction material and
equipment, as well as monetary donations For
the monetary donations the Barnsworth Studio
has also set up a kickstarter page: http://www
kickstarter:com/projectsfbarnsworthstudio/
barnswortheexhibitionecenter

 

Applied Math

By Swasti Khuntia
LAYOUT EDITOR

The Applied Math Department at IIThosted
an interesting colloquium, “Computational
Insights into the Social Life of Zebras (and
other animals)":

The lecture was presented by Dr: Tanya
BergereWolf, Associate Professor, Laboratory
for Computational Population Biology

SGA Vote Box:

By Kelly Lohr
SGA VP OF COMMUNICATIONS

Building upon the tremendous initial
response, VoteBox, the online suggestion
toolbox launched last semester by the IIT
Student Government Association (SGA)
continues to receive a high level of traffic: It
is slowly, but surely, cementing a method for
students to directly convey the changes they
wish to see on campus:

With the SGA executive board closely
monitoring the popular suggestions and
following up by contacting the associated
departments, never before has student voice
made such a strong impact on literally all levels
of administration As was announced by SGA
President Elnaz Moshfeghian in a previous
TechNews issue, VoteBox achieved its first
major victory recentlyia simple suggestion to
convert The BOGto a commuter lounge during
the day is now a reality, with a grand opening
ceremony planned on the 23rd of this month:

SGA Communications Committee hopes
to make an effort to highlight some of the most
popular trending topics on VoteB ox every week
in a bid to encourage more student voting and
inputiafter all, these changes are for the benefit

Colloquium analyzes social lives of zebras

in the Department of Computer Science
at University of Illinois, Chicago: In this
invited talk, she showed how computational
approaches can be part of every stage of the
collection of photographs, thus designing a
novel computational framework for analysis of
dynamic social networks:

The lecture started with the basic concept
of Dynamic Networks: How do diseases/
information spread through individuals’
interactions?, How do they emerge? How do

structures (communities) change with outside
circumstances? She emphasized on the need to
change the way we study nature:

Recent technology, sensors, images and
genotyping are giving biologists access to data
about social interactions, which are orders of
magnitude richer than anypreviously collected:
Such data offers the promise of answering some
of the big questions in population biology: Why
do animals form individuals as leaders and
to what degree do they control the behavior

of others? Unfortunately, in this domain, our
ability to analyze data lags substantially behind
our ability to collect techniques used in their
research:

The various research projects undertaken
by her students in the US as well as abroad (in
Africa) was a subject of interest in her talk

How the method affects the life of the zebra
was very well explained in due course of the talk
Dr: Tanya insisted that computational methods
must be concurrent:

Keeping track of trending topics, updates

of the students more than anyone else:

Student Nathan Howard shared the
following idea in late October 2011 and it has
now been given a “completed" tag by Elnaz, with
an indication that the associated administration
has been contacted:

He suggested getting “spot lights
on Seigel Field 7 it is used by most of the
athletic clubs on campus, including Ultimate,
Soccer, and Greek Football, but there are no
lights to allow playing at night" To this, Elnaz
responds, “There are plans to turf Stuart Field,
which already has lights, so it can be used for
intramurals as well as varsity sports: We’ve
heard to expect the turf in Fall 2012 but we’ll
keep you updated" Keep reading TechNews for
more updates!

Another popular suggestion, garnering 25
votes, was to make it easier for IIT students to
come in as guests into dorms: The suggestion
was to install a dual scan system where the
resident scans their card first (with the CDA
then hitting a “Guest" button on his computer)
and then the guest proceeds to scan their ID:
This would allow the computer to register them
as a guest and also checkthem out on their way
out: This eliminates the current procedure of
entering in information and getting a photo
taken.

Gokul Butail, VP of Student Life, labeled
the project as “Planned" and said that “the
new software on the front desks of various
dorms is not working as it is supposed to be:
It is designed to store pictures of the guest
accompanying the resident: As soon as the
software gets fixed, guests wouldn’t have to get
their pictures clicked again and again" But the
practice of getting the photograph taken is in
the interest of security and hence will not be
discontinued completely

Another anonymous user suggested that
the university establish a 727hour email response
policy This would make it a requirement for
professors, departments, and ofiices to respond
to emails from students within 72 hours: The
SGA believes this is a fantastic suggestion
and urges the student body to vote for this
suggestioniafter all, is there anything more
exasp erating than endlessly expecting a reply to
a super important email, only to receive it too
late or, worse, never? To vote for this suggestion,
go to sga:uservoice:com and type “Establish a
72 hour email response policy" in the search
box in the right hand corner: Once enough
votes are received, they promise to pursue this
matter further!

An anonymous user posted in early
November of last year, “Make the campus more

pedestrian friendly , simply enforce the rule
that the cars must stop for pedestrians crossing
State Street:" Accompanying suggestions
included installation of flashing lights, a sign
saying “motorists must stop when flashing" and
the declaration of the campus as a speed trap
(with the help of the CPD) so that motorists
have to slow down out of fear of being ticketed:
Elnaz responded with a photograph, which
accompanies this article: It shows a sign you
may have seen while walking around the
campus yourself

Finally, a suggestion was shared by Dorian
Karter, an SGA senator for the College of
Sciences and Letters who is responsible for
setting up VoteBox, to establish AirPrinting
in order to allow printing from the iPad: He
believes that the challenges associated with
this could include installing a printer in each
building or making the existingprinters visible
as AirPrinters: The iPad, however, would be
needed to be connected to MyIIT in order to
deduct money from the printing credit account:
Vote for this suggestion if you think the OTS
should take up the project!

Keep reading TechNews for more updates
and go online to vote/suggest Changes that YOU
want to see.’ Remember, it is sga.uservoice,com
and any/all suggestions are welcome.l