Tuesday, February 11, 2014 | TechNews TEDxllT returns to campus for spring events Nirja Shah TECHNEWS WRITER TED talks at IIT have made a major impact in the last few years, not only at IIT, but also around the immediate Chicagoland community and the world around us, especially with the power and reach of social media. This year is definitely no less. Following the previous themes of “Breakthrough”, “Gaining Momentum” and “Exponential,” this year’s theme is “Infinite Impact.” All of the board members and Ms. Amy Lee Segami, TEDXIIT founder, have worked for hours to come up with a theme that follows the legacy of TEDxIIT’s themes for the past couple of years. So, what is TED? Google ‘TED talks,’ there are extremely motivational speakers in the videos, inspiring everyday people to do wonders. Ms. Segami, the founder of TEDxIIT brought the TED talks to IIT. Anyone related to IIT can be nominated as speakers for the TED event that occurs every April: the students, alumni, professors, or any staff who made any impact to the IIT community. For this, they request all the students, staff member and faculty to nominate anyone who they think deserves to share their story of success, so that it can have an infinite impact around the globe at the TEDxIIT event this year. The following is the link to nominate a speaker: http://tinyurl.com/myc67ee. Remember, all the guidelines for speaker nominations are mentioned here. Being a TED speaker is a great honor, so spread the word and start nominating! The deadline for nominations is February 19. TED events are what you make out of them, so the team will be more than happy to have you in the planning committee. All TEDxIIT meetings are held every Friday from 8 am. to 10 am. in the Tower. For more information about joining the TEDxIIT committee, email nshah53@hawk.iit.edu or tedxiit@gmail.com. Newly remodeled SGAflwe‘btsjtegpes live today Austin Gonzalez OPINION EDITOR SGA’s website has been outdated for a while now and in need of some noteworthy replacement. SGA called on one of HTS most prolific web developers and my friend, Tameem Imamdad, to give the site a much-needed makeover. The old SGA page was pretty much dead; some people were even surprised there was one to go to! Imamdad spent a large part of his winter break working with the leader of the SGA’s Communications Committee to complete the massive overhaul. “The hardest part was simply getting access to everything. A website is not something you can build carelessly; it has got to be the main page and really put forward a good image of HT as a whole. The site and documentation I started with was half—baked,” said Imamdad. The new site throws out much of the old design and brings SGA’s page to the front of technology. The design of the site is the currently trendy flat page design similar to those of Microsoft and Google. The front page now features a slider and easy to navigate drop-down menus as opposed to a web of hyperlinks. Further down on the front page, an events calendar and Senator Spotlight are proudly displayed. The site is even mobile optimized for students to stay up to date on the go with their multitude of touch devices. This site is part ofSGA’s plan to create a better connection with the student body. The site is prebuilt with expansion in mind—posts and even new pages are easy to create and aimed at non-techies, and do not require any coding skills. Students can now like and share their favorite posts on social media like Twitter and Facebook. Perhaps the best feature is that the site is search optimized so posts can easily be found, giving students greater visibility of their work. There are a few plans for the future but it largely depends on the technology. There is hope for Vote Box—IIT’S petition page similar to petitions.whitehousegov—to be integrated with the site. Online voting and election results of SGA, with any luck, are something to look forward to in the future. Imamdad says that the biggest goal for the future is to “just keep doing it right.” The new site will go live today, Tuesday, February 11, at sga.iit.edu. Be sure to check it out! @Afistturu shirt What prompted yen gets $913.19: I decided to join SGA as a way to better represent my college. I believe that the students of Armour College need to have their voice heard in all matters of MT. I want to strengthen that connection by com- municating with students in all fields and disciplines on what we can do to build a better school. In addi- tion, being a senator would allow me to communicate with faculty and administration and have a higher purpose in it all. What aspect of the uaiaersity experience are you most passionate about improving?: I think the most important part that ”T needs to improve on is its clubs and activities. ”T has a plethora of them yet as a member of many organizations, I find that communication, networking and contacting between students and other organizations cumbersome. Every club should be able to run in an efficient manner and should adopt a universal policy in working with the student body and with each other. I think the most important part that ”T needs to improve on is its clubs and activities. ”T has a plethora of them yet as a member of many organizations, I find that communication, networking and contacting between students and other organizations cumbersome. Every club should be able to run in an efficient manner and should adopt a universal policy in working with the student body and with each other. Coo! fact about youth Guilty pleasures include baking obscene amounts of desserts and Kpop.