Tuesday, March 5, 2013 | TechNews campus@technewsiit.com UTSAV GANDHI 5 TEDXIIT speakers, topics chosen Shreeyeh Rajan TECHNEWS WRITER Last week, the TEDxIIT team met with President Anderson and Vice Provost Jerry Doyle to discuss various ideas to run the TEDxIIT event smoothly The speakers for this year’s event have been shortlisted and this is what TEDxIIT organizer, Amy Lee Segami had to say about them: “Speakers selected this year include two trustees, two aluan two faculty members, one student and four speakers from the come munity Topics are going to range from grow, ing economy, high tech and decarbonization to philanthropy and entrepreneurship From Dr: Manu Vora, the alumnus who won the highest Alumni Metal Award to the very first Lady Colonel Jill Morgenthaler, now retired, the speakers all have exponential ideas worth sharing with the whole world“ Are you interested in entrepreneur, ial spirit, businesseoriented ideas and econome ic solutions? Well, we have speakers for that! Ever heard professionals say “It’s not what you Galvin an know, it’s who you know"? Networking is one of those skills that don’t just come with a col, lege degree: Avelo Roy, a serial entrepreneur and spiritual aspirant, will tell you how ime portant it is to build meaningful relationships while working your way to the top: An alumni and trustee acknowle edged for his business strategies: Joel Krauss will be expressing his aspiring ideas on how Chicago’s commitment to entrepreneurship has spawned an ecosystem that wasn’t in place five years ago: We will also welcome James Howe ard Stone, an economist and business execue tive once again onstage to present his insights on how to create exponential employment growth Nik Rokop, the Managing Director of Knapp Entrepreneurship Center and one of the top 100 Tech visionaries in Chicago, will discuss how unsuccessful starteup businesses develop confidence, leadership and a valuable network of res ources: Another speaker, Neil Milsted, a Senior Software Engineer in the Chicago area who works with the state of the art technoloe gies involving software applications, telecome “OUHCES extended hours, NEH Grant Utsav Gandhi & Pattie Piotrowski CAMPUS EDITOR & RESEARCH GUIDE @ GALVIN LIBRARY On the Students Speak Survey, extra hours at the library, especially Friday eveningsiwhen some commuter students have class starting at 6:25 p:m:iwere re, quested, and Galvin Library has responded! Already open on the lower level 24 hours, 5 days a week, the space can get crowded when the OTS Night Owl Lab closes at 7:00 am, so Galvin Library will be opening the upper level one hour earlier on Monday through Friday mornings Starting Monday, March 4th, the library will open the upper level at 7:30 am: and give students access to more tables, printers, scanners and study space: After spring break, Galvin Library has plans to extend Friday evening hours: Read Tech, News in the coming weeks for more details or check the library hours at http://library iitedu/hoursl: Galvin Library is also currently taking part in the LibQual survey and by taking their survey students will give them feedback they can use to enhance services, collections, and spacernow and in the years to come: More than 1000 libraries world, wide have taken the survey, allowing them to measure themselves on key data points against libraries at peer and aspirant insti tutions: The survey is for all students, face ulty and staff and takes about 10 minutes to complete: Respondents will have an oppore tunity to win one of four $25 Amazon gift certificates Enter your IIT email address at the end of the survey to be included in the drawing: Your responses are confidential You can access the survey at http://library iitedu/surveyl: Galvin Library has also been ch07 sen to be the recipient ofa 2013 grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities issued in cooperation with the American Library Association Entitled Muslim Joure neys Bookshelf, the grant consists of twene tyethree books, three films, access to Ox, ford Islamic Studies Online, and is part of the NEH’s Bridging Cultures initiative: Gale vin Library staff submitted its winning prof posal by collaborating with various univere sity departments and student organizations across campus to put together a calendar of monthly events for 2013 that will feature titles from the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf and the university community will be in, vited to participate in film screenings, book discussions, handseon art sessions, lectures by scholars and much more: The first event was this past week and was a film screening of the Prince Among Slaves, with a discussion immedi ately following Prince Among Slaves ref counts the true story of an African Muslim prince who was captured and sold into slave ery in the American South: The second event on your Muslim Journey is the Women’s Cultural Exchange, held on March 6th in the Collens Welcome Center (MTCC) at 12:55 pm: Celebrating the grant, this year the focus will be on women in Islam and the bookshelf provides more than a few titles about or authored by women: The third event to plan for is a book discussion scheduled for Thursday, March 28 in Galvin Library “Dreams of Trespass" by Fatima Mernissiis is a memoir relating the author’s time spent in a Moroce can harem in the 1940’s and 1950’s: Far different from the stereotype of a harem, the author writes of the chang ing political and social attitudes, but she also relates discussion and debates on moi rality, ethnicity, and more: However, the most memorable descriptions tell the stories of the women and their dreams of trespass into the outside world of men: munications and artificial intelligence is going to talk focused on augmented reality, how the paradigm of computer usability is changing and the effects of changing from static to dy namic and from ‘virtual’ to ‘realT Ever got fruse trated on how to solve a Rubik cube? Neil has coded prototype software that solves a Rubik’s cube by using the webcam and instructs the user step by step! Considering IIT’s reputation for its architecture school, we wouldn’t run this event without talking about architecture and its ime pact on global issues: Sara Beardsley, a licensed architect, will examine how to reduce carbon emissions so that we can envision cities as environmental sanctum rather than places of pollution Another architect, Ann F: Clark uses her architectural knowledge to help rebuild communities in Haiti and she will explain how future architects can help improve third world countries: Other than entrepreneurship, tech, nology and architecture, the TEDxIIT team has also brought in speakers who focus on social and personal issues: A wellereputed aue thor, TV/film producer and director, Cheryl Jefferson will discuss why female empower, ment is now considered the dance of death: Cheryl was crushed to understand that Middle Eastern belly dancers are honor killed to main, tain their family’s pride: She has written several books based on criminal traditions such as honor killings and child marriages: As Cheryl Jefferson puts it, “Ultimately, my success is no longer about bestseller lists but about international laws with real teeth and the street level reality of saving lives 3 ' Another reputed speaker known for her nickname, “The next Oprah", Dr: Nina ElliseHervey will talk about ways to live our lives holistically by emphasizing the mental, spiritual and physical aspects of life: Last but not the least; we have an IIT fourtheyear psye chology student, Jacqueline Roche giving us a talk about her personal life: Achieving the life that she has now wasn’t easy and she will take us through the road that made her who she is today Want to know more about the speakers? Join us at our preeevent at the BOG on March 281 Women's Day focuses on STEM fields at IIT Kori Bowns BUSIN ESS MANAGER When only about 25 percent of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) workforce of today are women, it’s no wonder that universities like IIT aim to in, crease the number of female students inter, ested in scienceerelated fields: This past Sature day, Illinois Tech invited 9th712th grade girls and their parents from local communities and beyond to learn a bit more about STEM fields and HT At the most welleattended Wome en’s Day yet here at IIT, students nearly filled the Wishnick Auditorium to capacity as IIT Alumna, Lucy Hynes, opened the day with a presentation about her experiences as a wome an in engineering: Hynes, Electric Distribution Manager of the Department of Public Utilities, Electric for the City of Naperville, received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Illinois Tech in 1988: She spoke to her audience about her decision to pursue Electrie cal Engineering and how IIT had a role in her education After Lucy’s keynote, students got to attend two workshop sessions of their choose ing: The 10 workshops offered were varied in their style and delivery, but all aimed to in, crease the student’s interest in postsecondary education, dispel any myths about a science, based fields, and answer any questions stu dents had about STEM fields in general, or an academic career at IIT One workshop hosted by the IIT Afe rican Student Organization (ASO) featured a rapid design challenge where students broke up into small groups of four or five and ate tempted to build the tallest and most stable tower possible out of dry spaghetti noodles and marshmallows with a time limit of 30 min utes: At the conclusion of the activity, the ASO students related the activity to their academic careers in the STEM fields, where they often have to tackle difiicult problems and work to gether in teams to accomplish tasks: Toward the end of the day, interested students had the option to stick around and go on a undergraduate studenteled campus tour and learn a little more about the student life and academic options at Illinois Tech: Over, all, Women’s Day is a unique opportunity for IIT and female students alike, allowing young women to find a potential career path that in, terests them and letting our school showcase the options that we offer for students of all backgrounds and interests: Women's History Month launches IIT Lewis College ofHuman Sciences, Humanities Department To kick off Women’s History Month, the IIT Department of Humanities has orga nized a Women’s History Month trivia night at the BOG, which will follow a standard pub trivia format ~ students will compete in teams of up to 5 people, writing down answers to the questions announced over the PA: Question categories will range from history to music to video games, but with an emphasis on inter, esting and influential women: Teams will come pete for prizes and bragging rights: Everyone is welcome (students, staff, and faculty): It’s a fun, no pressure event, and we hope folks will come join us! Women’s History Month looks at how conventional and unconventional women throughout history have changed the world we live in today Women’s History Month is a space to talk about people who identify as women and how their roles in society mate terithat means anyone can participate in the festivities, not just those of us who iden tify as women! It’s also a space to talk about how the dynamics of gender create categories like women, men, interesex people, transgene der people, and people who live between the genders: It gives us an opportunity to think about what these categories mean for how we organize our social, political, and economic in, stitutions and how we define our collective or personal goals and dreams: The Humanities Department, in partnership with the Office of Student Life, has created a program for March that includes a BOG game night (Thursday, March 7 from 7 pm: to 8:30 pm: in the Bog), a campus film showing of the trans comingeofeage story Girl Inside (Wednesday March 13th, 8:30 pm, MTCC auditorium), and a luncheon with speakers on Women in Technology (Tuesday March 26th, 12:3072:30pm, MTCC ballroom): We hope the campus community will be able to join us in any and all ofthese events! For any questions please contact humofiice@gmail: com: