Tuesday, April 10, 2012 I TechNews campus@technewsiit.com UTSAV GANDHI Mock Trial Association comes to campus, encourages awareness By Raviteja Maddireddy TECHNEWS WRITER The first successful student body meeting of the Mock Trail Association was organized on Thursday, April 5. This student organization is being headed by Roy Chon (President) and under the guidance of Faculty Advisor Dr. Marget Power. This new student organization has been formed to help students in improving their public speaking skills, confidence levels and teamwork skills. Also the Mock Trail Association plans to host events which aim to bring awareness of the United States legal systems among IIT students. Roy Chon, in the meeting, said the organization will showcase guest lectures on the legal system and organize mock trails at campus and will help in training of the students in public speaking. He also promised that, apart from learning, the students will have lots of fun in the meetings by meeting new people and making new friends. These training sessions will help students to deliver speeches even under intense pressure, which is an important skill to develop. So, this is a great opportunity for the students of IIT to improve their personal skills by taking part in the upcoming events of the organization. This organization is inspired from the American Mock Trial Association. IIT’s Mock Trial Association is planning to participate in Foreign Language Program offering classes By Utsav Gandhi CAMPUS EDITOR After months of hard work and deliberation put in by the Illinois Tech Student Government Association (SGA), following up with what was an oft—repeated student suggestion, the Foreign Language Program has finally seen light and materialized into a concrete deliverable. The class begins next semester. Scheduled as COM 125—Intro to Language and Culture I: Spanish, it will run Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:00—6:15 pm in Siegel Hall 204. Sarah Lim, from the College of Architecture, is one of the primary senators responsible for the success of this program. Her hard work, recently concluding with meetings with Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs Mike Gosz, persuaded the administration and faculty over the last couple of years to drive the addition of this course—and subsequent Spanish L&C classes—to the schedule. As of now, the Humanities Department does not have a teacher for the class, but it hopes to find a native—speaker for the job. The enrollment cap for the class will be 20, and for now there will only be a single section offered, though that could change if demand warrants. The course attributes are communication requirement and humanities requirement at the Standard Tuition Rate. As a current brief course description, the department drafted the following. “The first of a two—semester sequence, this course and its sequel will introduce students to a particular language and culture, which will change annually. This may be repeated for different languages. An important thing to note is that this course does not satisfy the mandatory HUM 102, 104, or 106 general education various competitions with other universities and is also aiming to conduct a national—level trial event on IIT’s Main Campus, potentially before the end of this year. Mock Trial Association is also looking for students who are interested to fill vital positions in the organization. Students interested in this organization can register by attending next student body meeting or by mailing to mta@iit.edu. The next student meeting will be on Thursday, April 12, in E1. “EXT. semester requirement.” The school has kept up their half of the bargain and now the challenge is to get students to sign up for this class! Spanish is an extremely useful language to learn for international students especially, as it is very widely spoken in the United States. Knowing to speak it fluently might greatly increase job prospects, since multilingual employees are an invaluable asset to any company. As the course has only been approved to be a humanities requirement and a communications requirement, the SGA is still looking into making it a part of the general education requirement for all IIT students. Chase Innovation Challenge encourages team-work in Chicago By Matt Otten TECHNEWS WRITER Six teams comprising 25 students took part in the Chicago Innovation Chase semifinals on the weekend of March 10. The Chicago Innovation Chase is acollegiate entrepreneurship and innovation program run by Eurekatory, a not—for—profit organization seeded in Chicago. The Chase consists of an annual partnership, with participating universities from around the country, which includes a national inter—collegiate student innovation and Entrepreneurship competition, with a regional semi—finals competition taking place at each participating campus, and the National tournament. For the year 2012, the Chicago Innovation Chase Finals Tournament will take place from Sept 6—10, 2012 and has participating campuses in Georgia, Pennsylvania and Washington. The teams at IIT all had to work on the overarching problem of mass communication in highly volatile situations. Each team was assigned a specific situation, which included biohazards, hostage situations, escaped felons, bank fraud, and riots. The weekend centered not just around solving the problem, but developing that solution through all the stages that an entrepreneur would have to go through. This included design, market research, prototyping, a business plan, and ended with a presentation akin to the type of presentation one would give to a group of investors. This forced participants to learn not only about the different stages of ideation, but also about working in a high pressure situation, as all of these tasks had to be completed within 2 hour blocks. As undergraduate David Vidal puts it: “The Chicago Innovation Chase was an amazing experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. I had no idea what to expect coming into the competition but through those 3 days I gained so much. It goes without saying that when you work hard as a team on a problem you learn about leadership, brainstorming, and teamwork. The Chase goes beyond all that. I learned what it meant to think on my feet and how it feels to take feedback and apply it. I practiced presentation skills and quick cooperative problem solving. I engaged in real world deadlines and learned what it meant to refine, refocus, and fine tune a complex idea and product. Above all else, I learned what it truly meant to be an innovator. Thanks Chase!” The students were not the only ones involved in the weekend: five IIT faculty, four IIT staff, and nine industry experts judged each small section of the competition, as well as providing feedback and support to the teams along the way. These experts, from both within the IIT community and outside of it, as well as the organizers, Jodi Houlihan and Daniya Kamran, were instrumental in making the weekend a success. Of special note was IIT’s School of Applied Technology Dean Bob Carlson, as he sponsored the Chicago Innovation Chase at IIT, and was both instrumental in ensuring the weekend happened, as well as providing great insight to the students participating. They were able to mentor the teams, providing a level of knowledge that made all of the good ideas into great, well—developed solutions. In addition to the experts, several high school students, Tori Taylor, Nadia Ahmed, and Ana Barnette, acted as news staff, creating newsletters which succinctly informed the participants of what each team was doing, as well as the most current scores. The weekend ended with final presentations from all of the teams, followed by an awards ceremony. Team MAU, comprising Matt Otten, David Vidal, and Urba Mandrekar, were awarded first place with their idea of a reconnaissance quadcopter and supporting software to be used by authorities in riot and riot—prone situations. They will continue on to the finals, which are to be held in Chicago September 6—10. In the finals, teams from all over the country will compete in an advanced ideation process, each with a different problem. For more information, visit leadthechase. com or eurekatorycom. Student-Faculty Cookout Photos by Kyle Pancham A A Applied Mathematics EI Buildinc, Room 208 A IO West 32”d Street A Chicago, IL 60616-3793 A 3I 2-567-8980 3I 2-567-3I 35 Fax wwwimatlmiitiedu clmclth@iitieclu Committee: Igor CiaIenco I.UIU Kang Hemanshu KauI Shuwang Li Michael PeIsmaier .- I.’ -.. ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Transforming liveanverIting the Future. 4“ HT Math Contest Organized by Department of Applied Mathematics Sponsored by ”T SIAM Student Chapter I2:45-Iz40pm, El 102 Wednesday April II, 2011 Open to all ”T undergraduate students None of the problems require any advanced mathematics The winners will receive monetary prizes and certificates The results will be announced during the Menger Event, April 23 If you have any questions email us at weeklyproblem@math.iit.edu Looking forward to your participation!