Tuesday, March 6, 2012 I

TechNews

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UTSAV GANDHI

7

Academic, educational colloquia series continues at IIT

By Swasti Khuntia
LAYOUT EDITOR

The Applied Math Department at IIT
hosted two colloquia last week. The first
colloquium was organized on Monday on
“A Joint Statistical Model for Social Network
and Behavior” by Dr. Liping Tong, assistant
professor at Loyola University, Chicago.

She talked about how an individual’s
behavior may be influenced by the behaviors
of friends, such as hours spent watching
television, playing sports, and unhealthy
eating habits. Citing an example, she said
two children who enjoy playing the same
sport are more likely to become friends.

Dr. Tong talked about actor—based
Stochastic modeling (ABSM) methods for
the coevolution process, which turns out to
be useful when dealing with longitudinal
social network and behavior data when
behavior variables are discrete and have limited
number of possible values. Unfortunately,
since the evolution function for behavior
variable is in exponential format, the ABSM
can generate unrealistic results when the
behavior variable is continuous or has a large
range. To counter the ASBM’s disadvantage,

Dr. Tong has proposed a coevolution
process so that the network evolution is based

on an exponential random graph model and the
behavior evolution is based on a linear model.

The second colloquium was organized on
Wednesday,thetopicbeing“NumericalApproach
to Solve Tumor Growth Model with a Free
Boundary.” The lecture was delivered by Wenrui
Hao, PhD candidate at University of Notre Dame.

He talked about the recent progress on
a tumor model with PDE, the stability of the
solutions, the bifurcation diagram extensions
beyondthe bifurcation point andthe intersection
of bifurcation diagram for different bifurcation
branch, and possible other types of steady state
solutions. Hao also explained his new numerical
approach, which is based on Numerical
Algebraic Geometry, to explore free boundary
problems arising from tumor growth models.

The Chemistry Department at IIT
continued their colloquium this week on the
topic “Lithium—ion Batteries: Current State
and Beyond.” The talk was delivered by Dr.
Ilias Belharouak, materials scientist and battery
specialist, Chemical Science and Engineering
Division at Argonne National Laboratory.

Starting the talk, he spoke about the
journey for materials design and how
discovery was unveiled in the light of the
most recent developments in lithium—
ion batteries. He also discussed on the
implementation of the very challenging
lithium—sulfur and lithium—air batteries.

The high cost of cobalt and relatively low
specific capacity of LiCoOZ have been major
obstacles against the application of these batteries
in transportation where the battery energy
density should significantly increase to meet
the goals for plug—in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs),
and essentially for electric vehicles (EVs). Dr.
Belharouak explained how research groups
have been under the challenge of inventing and
developing new advanced positive electrode
materials whose main characteristics is to store
more and more electricity per mass and volume.

The Biology Department organized a
colloquium on “Interplay between HIV and
Wnt/Beta—Catenin Signaling: A Tug of War
between Protection and Pathogenesis in the
CNS.” The talk was delivered by Dr. Lena Al—
Harthi, professor, Department of Immunology—
Microbiology, Rush University Medical Center,
Chicago. Prof. Al—Harthi’s research over the past
15 years has focused on HIV/host interactions,
with a special emphasis on bridging basic
and clinical science in the HIV/AIDS field.

Because of her experience in HIV
molecular biology, immunology, and, for
the past 5 years, in NeuroAIDS, she has
been able to probe mechanistic questions
that are clinically relevant to HIV/AIDS.
Recently, her group has identified the fi—catenin
signaling pathway as an important regulator
of HIV replication in multiple compartments,

including the central nervous system.

Through multiple NIH funded studies,
she is investigating the molecular pathway
by which fi—catenin inhibits HIV replication,
its impacts on HIV neuropathogenesis,
and the role of host and viral factors in
modulating fi—catenin interaction with HIV.

On Thursday, the Physics Department
organized an interesting colloquium on “A New
Approach to Intro Physics at the University of
Illinois.” The talk was delivered by Mats Selen,
professor, Department of Physics, University of
Illinois at Urbana—Champaign. Starting the talk
with how all have facedthe problem that students
come to class unprepared to learn; assigned
readings from the text are usually ignored
and most students are seeing the material
for the first time as you present it in lecture.

The Physics Education Research Group
at the University of Illinois has developed a
suite of online prelecture activities to address
this problem, including animated Multimedia
Learning Modules to present students with the
required concepts, and checkpoint questions
to provide pre—lecture feedback to both
students and professor. Several published
studies of this approach show a significant
improvement of student knowledge and a
striking improvement in their attitude toward
our calculus based intro physics classes.

 

OCL Leadership Summit encourages student involvement

By William vaongsa
TECHNEWS WRITER

There is a stigma with being an IIT student.
“IIT students never leave their rooms.” “IIT
students don’t know how to have fun.” “There
is never anything to do on campus.” This
mentality has been passed down from class to
class, slowly spreading this belief that IIT is not
a good university and you will be unhappy your
entire time here. In my two and half years at
IIT, I realized how untrue these statements are.
I decided to go to events that IIT and student
organizations of IIT would sponsor. Some
events and programs hit the mark while others
miss it, but the point is that there was always
something to do. I never had an issue occupying
my time once I started looking. Between RA
programs, student organization events, and
exploring Chicago with your friends, IIT is a
gemstone of a university. The Student Activities

IPRO 372:

Fund is used to subsidize and sponsor so many
events that other universities can only dream
of. Skydiving? Ski trips? Tickets to sporting
events, movies, and Broadway in Chicago? We
even have traditional university events, such as
Homecoming, sporting events, Spring Formal.
The student body expects the university to hand
them events. News flash: the events are being
handed out. You need to know where to look.

The strange thing is that students don’t
understand that the events and programs that
happen are planned by students just like them.
That’s right, most events that are planned on
campus are planned by someone who could be
sitting in your class right now, or eating lunch
across from you in Center Court, or walking past
you in the residence halls. They’re hoping that
their event goes well, that the decision they made
to get involved in their student organization
instead of research will pay off in the end. And
why shouldn’t it? Being involved with a student
organization teaches you a lot, in terms of

Global Construct
Collaborative

By Hannah Rosenthal
TECHNEWS WRITER

First question: do you like music?

If the answer is yes, at 9:00 pm, this
Thursday, March 8, come on over to the IIT
Tower Auditorium and join IIT A Capella
as well as IPRO 372 Global Construct
Collaborative for Raise Your Voice: a benefit
concert that will help spread education to
impoverished communities around the world.

IIT A Capella has generously donated
their time and talent to help Global Construct
Collaborative take off. Launched from the
IPRO 2.0 program last fall, this team of thirteen
IIT students has organized to train and inspire
leaders in impoverished communities to
self—sufficiently conceive and construct safe,
sustainable shelter. The team is currently
collaborating with partners in Mexico to
design, build, and implement a trade school
across the border from Pharr, Texas this May.
Before this school becomes a reality, the team
needs to raise $10,000. Help them make a
difference by bringing a $5 donation this
Thursday as you enjoy listening to the IIT A
Capella groups and select student musicians!

And if you don’t like music? You

can still help—if you’re up for the challenge!

Second question: how would you survive
if you could only spend $2 USD per day?

You could find out! From April 9 to 13,
Global Construct Collaborative is hosting the
Two Dollar Challenge and is inviting you to
spend up to five days and four nights living
on $2/ day or less. Nearly half the world lives
every day on less than $2 USD. This challenge
is designed to increase student empathy
and awareness of what it’s like to eat, sleep,
and bathe within such a limited budget.

Participants in the challenge will enter
in teams similar to a marathon and collect
sponsors to donate a dollar amount per
day that they complete the challenge. All
of the raised funds will support Global
Construct Collaborative and the school we’re
currently designing in Mexico. The team
that raises the most money before the last
day of the challenge will win free admission
to a pasta dinner at the end of the week!

If you’re interested in learning more about
Global Construct Collaborative, the Two Dollar
Challenge, or if you’d like to join, or lead ateam,
please e—mail collaborate@globalconstruct.
info. You can also check out our website
for more information: globalconstruct.info.

 

working on a team, working with professional
staff members, and great interpersonal skills.
Yes, you are in college to learn, but who
says you can have fun at the same time?

If you are a student leader on IIT’s campus
and agree with everything I wrote, have you
heard about the Student Leader Summit?
The Summit is planned for Saturday, March

10, from 10:00 am. to 6 pm. and is aimed at
bringing together student leaders on campus to
learn from workshops and facilitate discussion
with each other about how to better improve
campus life. The summit isn’t just open to
student leaders though. If you have an interest
in getting involved or want to meet the students
that are involved, this is the venue to do so.

 

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