   

6 CAMPUS

UTSAV GANDHI

campus@technewsiit.com

  

   

| Tuesday, October 29, 2013

  

|EEE@|IT hosts Halloween BBQ, IEEEXtreme programming competition

Swasti Khuntia
LAYOUT EDITOR

The Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Student Chapter
at IIT organized a BBQ party last Friday as a
part of their various events during the course
of Fall Semester. The theme of the BBQ party
was chosen as “Halloween BBQ party” because
of the Halloween month and also to make the
students feel relaxed and better after the stressful
mid-term week.

Although the weather was chilly,
still a large number of students turned up. Dr.

Chi Zhou, Associate Professor in the Electrical
and Computer Engineering Department, and
IEEE@IIT’s faculty advisor, coordinated the
event along with IEEE executive body members
Eric Tendian, Jai Sathyanarayanan, Juan
Wang, Rohit Agarwal, and Swasti R. Khuntia.
IEEE@IIT, in the mean while, is planning for
another industrial tour in this Fall Semester.
The only industrial tour in this semester was
the Microsoft Technology Center tour in
Downtown.

IEEE@IIT also hosted the
international programming competition in the
HT campus from Friday 7 pm. to Saturday 7

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pm. The event is called “IEEEXtreme.” It is an
international competition in which teams of
IEEE Student members, supported by their IEEE
Student Branch, advised and proctored by an
IEEE member; compete in a 24-hour marathon
time against each other to solve a bunch of
programming problems. It can be called as a
virtual online competition.

This year, there were five groups
consisting of 13 students from HT. These include
both graduate and undergraduate students.
And, all these groups are sponsored by IEEE@
HT and IEEE-Chicago section. Robert Burke,
IEEE@IIT Branch Advisor, says that this year’s

representation and preparation is one of the best
as compared to last year. And, he hopes that at
least one team from HT is a winner.

Last year, there were 1900 teams
worldwide. The word “Xtreme” in the name is
because the contest goes on for exactly 24 hours
non-stop. The teams of three-programmers
are given a set of problems, for which they are
meant to write a program to solve the task. And
they have a variety of programming language
to choose from. And this includes C, C++, C#,
Java, and Python to name a few. We hope for the
best, and wish this year at least one team from
HT is a winner.

 

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Photos by Swasti Khuntia

SWE-IIT Social Butterfly event creates buzz for professional acumen

Ioannas Joseph
TECHNEWS WRITER

The goal for most, if not all
students after graduating from college after
whatever level of degree are to become a
professional and thus build a reputable
career. More often than not, this requires
one’s attendance at a networking event
sponsored by a corporation. The Social
Butterﬂy was conceptualized by the Society
of Women Engineers- IIT chapter (SWE)
to enhance one’s skills of social interactions
within a professional setting. Roselle Grant,
SWE-IIT’s president explained that it
stemmed from a conversation with their
past Section Representative, Rebecca
Wingate.

The idea was proposed to
other professional student organizations,
namely the HT chapters of the National
Society of Black Engineers (NSBE),
Society of Hispanic Professional
Engineers (S.H.P.E.) and the Transfer
Student Organization (T.S.O) in an eﬂfort
to garner interest from a larger percentage
of the student body.

On Tuesday, October 15, the
event was realized and facilitated by Ms.
Pat Smith Pierce, the CEO and Founder
of The Insight Communication Group
which provides communication services
consulting to a number of to Chicago-land area
corporations. Piece also holds a numerous
workshops on Communication at IIT in

collaboration with the Career Management
Center. The event realized approximately

 

forty-eight (48) in attendance, filled with
enthusiastic and engaging minds.

Pierce’s first piece of advice for
attending a networking event with a potential
employer, or to building a professional network,
is to never attend on an empty stomach.

Pierce then went into
the social graces one
should exhibit at these
gatherings. First, never
overfill your plate.
Second was to try to not
speak with your mouth
full, and the third was
to not overﬁll your plate.
No, the repetition is not
a matter of redundancy
but a point of reiteration
of the social graces. The
purpose of these events is
a more social one and
is not intended to be
dinnertime meal. The
events usually involve
a lot of interactions
and communication,
and not adhering to
the graces could result
in messy clothing and
unprofessionalism.
Pie r c e t h e n
went into what
the content of the
conversation should
be and urged everyone
to ask questions. These
types of questions can
be centered on sports or culture, basically
anything which may catch their attention. The
aim is to hone in on the individual’s interest
and thus develop a conversation. Some types of

questions which should deﬁnitely not be asked
about are political afﬁliation and anything too
personal.

Pierce then went into her activity
for the event. Participants were advised to get
a plate of ﬁnger foods provided and engage in
conversation with someone whom they had not
known before, for 10 minutes. This resembled
speed dating. For three rounds, participants
were engaged in light conversation in the hope
of breaking the nervous spells, and to make use
of the social graces Pierce taught. By the end
of the evening, conversations would stop and
it became a forum where students were sharing
what they had noticed, and were asking Pierce
about different situation such as a cash bar
at these events or little customs they should
adopt. Pierce’s response was simple, “Don’t
drink... I usually have water.” Pierce was truly
impressed by the turnout and how engaged
participants became.

“I thought it was very successful
in terms of attendance, the diversity of the
students and the facilitator did a great job...
and it was not too long or drawn out or just
a PowerPoint presentation,” stated Roselle
Grant, SWE-IIT’s president as she spoke of her
opinions at the end of the event.

Pierce currently has three other
workshops scheduled at IIT’s campus for
the remainder of the semester. The two
part workshop on Communicating Clearly
on November 6 and 13 and a Non-Verbal
Communication workshop on November 20.

Photos byjoannasjoseph