Fall 2012 Rising to the Challenge: STEM Education at IIT science • technology • engineering • mathematics KORI MILROY AND JASON TENENBAUM RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR RESEARCH Tomato Study, Safety in steOut-of-This-World Endeavors The Scientist,m the Politician, and the Pentium Chip the OR, Biological Membranes from the President “The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance— the idea that anything is possible.” —Ray Bradbury Every day, in every city in the world, the work of scientists, technology professionals, engineers, and mathematicians is on display. It can be seen in the bridges we drive across, the tunnels that house our subways, the interconnected electronic devices we use, and the buildings in which we live and work. It can be found in the electric power grids that provide energy to our hospitals and homes, the algorithms that help us crunch data, and the materials that make our airplanes fast as well as safe and fuel-efficient. STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) produce innovators and problem solvers extraordinaire—professionals whose impact is far- reaching and life changing. It was a team of engineers who created the first portable cell phone—and an engineer who took those first steps on the moon. Physicists are celebrating the recent discovery of the Higgs boson, the missing link in the theory of sub-atomic particles—and consumers are eagerly anticipating the next generation of smart phones and life-benefiting pharmaceuticals. IIT is committed to educating the STEM professionals of tomorrow. Our students will be the individuals who will drive future innovation—just as many IIT alumni, including those featured in this issue, continue to do. But providing them a solid curriculum in STEM fundamentals is only the beginning. We also must ignite within our students the passion to create, discover, and lead—and to teach them to view mistakes as opportunities to retool, learn, and improve. We also must instill in them the importance of guiding future generations to pursue innovation. One of the key ways that we will inspire our students is through our Innovation Center [page 3]. This facility is and will remain a university priority in the coming years. The Innovation Center will be a portal to the future, combining the power of higher education with Chicago-style imagination, determination, and boldness to fuel innovation. I look forward to telling you more about this exciting new facility and what it will mean for IIT’s students, faculty, and research endeavors, as well as Chicago Public Schools students and the local enterprise that also will benefit from it. By focusing on STEM, innovation, and the community, IIT will be a place where anything is possible. John L. Anderson President iitmagazine VICE PRESIDENT FOR MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS Jeanne Hartig EDITOR Chelsea Kalberloh Jackson CONTRIBUTORS Fall 2012 Marcia Faye Richard Harth Michelle McKenzie-Voigt Elyse Doll (PSYC 4th Year) A CHALLENGE FOR THE FUTURE ART DIRECTOR As the global economic landscape changes, IIT alumni, Nancy Niequist Schoon students, and faculty are raising the bar in Science, Technology, DESIGN Scott Benbrook Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education. Marty Schalm Nancy Niequist Schoon 10 KORI MILROY (M.A.S. SED ’11) IIT MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED Shmoos in Space THREE TIMES A YEAR BY THE IIT OFFICE OF MARKETING 12 RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR (M.S. CS ’88) AND COMMUNICATIONS. Ahead of the Curve IIT Magazine is a 2012 recipient of the Publicity Club of Chicago 14 JENNIFER KANG-MIELER Silver Trumpet Award for Excellence Remedying OR Safety Issues in Newspapers or Magazines. ARMOUR COLLEGE DEAN NATACHA DePAOLA © 2012 15 Op-Ed: STEM Education and IIT Engineering Themes IIT Magazine is printed on SFI certified recycled paper. 16 RUTH AGUILAR (PSYC 4TH YEAR) Read it, share it, recycle it. It Takes a Team to Aid a Child SEND LETTERS TO JASON TENENBAUM (AE ’07) IIT Magazine 18 Office of Marketing Liftoff to Infinity and Communications 3300 South Federal Street, Suite 503 21 DAVID GIDALEVITZ Chicago, IL 60616-3793 New Membrane Research Takes Shape OR EMAIL [email protected] 22 ILLINOIS TECH ROBOTICS SEND ALUMNI NEWS TO Where Steel Meets Science [email protected] 23 INSTITUTE FOR FOOD SAFETY Founded in 1890, Illinois Institute AND HEALTH of Technology is a private, Ph.D.- granting research university that More Than a Pretty Face awards degrees in engineering, the sciences, architecture, law, design, psychology, humanities, applied science, and business. IIT MISSION STATEMENT To provide distinctive and relevant Departments education in an environment of scientific, technological, and professional knowledge creation 2 LETTERS and innovation 3 NEWS BRIEFS IIT Armour College of Engineering IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law 24 ALUMNI NEWS IIT College of Architecture IIT College of Psychology 36 REWIND IIT College of Science and Letters IIT Institute of Design IIT School of Applied Technology IIT Stuart School of Business ADA STATEMENT Illinois Institute of Technology provides IIT MAGAZINE qualified individuals with disabilities reasonable accommodations to participate ONLINE-ONLY in university activities, programs, and CONTENT! services. Such individuals with disabilities requiring an accommodation should Read extended coverage of stories call the activity, program, or service featured in the print edition as well director. For further information about IIT’s resources, contact the IIT Center for as special online-only content at Disability Resources at [email protected]. www.iit.edu/magazine When Opinions Collide In your last issue of IIT Magazine [spring 2012], you printed a commentary by Eric Swab [DSGN ’60], a 1960s-era Institute of Design student. It was highly critical of Crown Hall as a classroom for architects. He says, “…the first floor is about as impractical as a class space as requiring the architecture students to draw those walls of bricks with perfect mortar joints in ink! The building is totally wrong for the Chicago environment—cold, leaky, and putting students in jeopardy of being injured from broken glass when the Windy City was living up to its name. Sound control was non-existent....” This is a National Historic Landmark. It is the iconic symbol of IIT. It has marshaled hundreds of thousands of dollars from alumni for its restoration and is beloved by a huge majority of its architectural graduates. I cannot conceive any reason you may have had to print a personal opinion, by someone who was a non-architectural student 40 years ago, one who never had a class in the space he condemns, when that opinion is so negative, so narrow, so shallow, and without substance! This is like criticizing the hairstyle of Albert Schweitzer! I would like to offer a response to Mr. Swab as a person who was a student in Crown Hall for the five- year degree program in architecture from 1956–1961, then as a graduate student and teaching assistant in 1962, and then as an assistant professor teaching in the space from 1965 through 1969. I disagree totally with Mr. Swab’s remarks quoted above. Please consider the following: • Architectural classes are not like engineering lecture classes. The open laboratory was similar to drafting rooms in architectural offices. It offered great opportunities for interaction between classes where students could learn from each other and from the rich diversity of projects at various levels of complexity. • Crown Hall, by its design and closely integrated course structure, encouraged collaboration and teamwork. It was far ahead of its time and in stark contrast to the isolated designer or engineer operating without collaboration with other professionals and other disciplines. • The wall of glass provided very good lighting from all angles—key in architectural drafting. • The open space and free-standing partitions provided flexibility to rearrange the use of space for changes in curriculum and class size, and for displays of student work including large-scale models. • The open space lent itself to many functions other than teaching. I will never forget the all-school Write Back dance with Duke Ellington rocking the place. • As a student and teacher, I did not have a problem with the acoustics and do not remember when there was a conflict between two teachers speaking with their classes at the same time. Most of the lab work IIT Magazine welcomes was one-on-one with the teacher or team projects requiring open and flexible space. all signed letters to • Buildings constructed in the 1950s often did not incorporate air conditioning. Many architects’ the editor and edits offices were not air conditioned at the time Crown Hall was built, and the budget did not permit air letter for content and conditioning. clarity. Please send • The comments about being too cold, and suffering from leaks or wind-blown glass, are simply correspondence to: gross exaggerations. Similarly, his swipe at one project in one course was made with absolutely no comprehension of the purpose, value, nor nature of the brick construction course. Architects are IIT Magazine builders, and this course, taken in perspective of the entire curriculum, was a key to understanding the c/o Letters rational philosophy and problem-solving thrust of one of the world’s great schools of architecture. 3300 South Federal Street, Suite 503 Pete Pointner (ARCH ’61, M.S. CRP ’62), FAICP, ALA, ITE Chicago, IL 60616 [Thank you for sharing your viewpoint. To be clear, Mr. Swab did not write an article for the magazine; he Email: submitted a letter to the editor in response to a brief article on Crown Hall that we published in the immediate [email protected] prior issue of the magazine. Furthermore, his personal opinion stemmed from his direct experience as a former student in the building. Letters to the editor need not reflect the opinions of anyone on the magazine’s staff or at the university.