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WINTER 2007 innovation COVER STORY: How to Get by design Ahead in Business? Tap into Innovation A SERIES OF MIRACLES TUNNEL VISION Professor’s ROBERT PRITZKER AND JOHN ROWE IIT Students and Faculty Help Wind Tunnel Research Defi nes The Former and New Board of Trustees Rebuild After Katrina a 40-Year Connection with IIT Chairs Weigh in on the Future of IIT LETTER FROM THE Last month the fi rst real snow of the winter started to fall…and fall, and fall on the Chicago area. It was December 1, and schools were closing, trains were running behind schedule, and the “City that Works” kicked into high gear to clear expressways and shovel us out from under the blanket. And while students on a typical college campus might hope for a “snow day” on such an occasion, the students of IIT had another focus in mind—IPRO Day. Nearly 400 students set their alarms even earlier to ensure they were ready to battle the snow and present their projects—from hybrid electric school bus designs to an analysis of public perceptions of nanotechnology— before a group of eager faculty, project sponsors, fellow students, alumni, and friends. So while the weather was not on our side, the quality and the scope of the IPRO presentations, as well as the enthusiasm of our students, could not be dampened. The innovative spirit of the IPRO program, now offi cially housed in Stuart School of Business, is being bolstered by a new joint-degree program between the Stuart School and the Institute of Design. This issue’s lead story, “Innovation By Design,” describes ID’s focus on a “user-centered” approach to design, a direction used by companies to develop the hugely successful iPods and RAZR cell phones. As ID Director Patrick Whitney notes, most companies know how to make something, but not necessarily what to make. This new joint program will be an important part of Dean Harvey Kahalas’s focus on strategic competitiveness. And university business is yet another major topic in this magazine issue with “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” an article on the transition of Board of Trustees leadership from outgoing Chairman Robert Pritzker to new Chairman John Rowe. You also will learn more about world-class wind tunnels and the lifetime commitment to teaching of Hassan Nagib, the father of the IPRO program, as well as get a taste of the compelling civic-mindedness of our students in “A Series of Miracles,” a story about a group of IIT architecture students—led by Professor Frank Flury—who used a design/build approach to rebuild a new community center in Gulfport, Miss., an area devastated by Hurricane Katrina. I guess the old adage, “neither snow, nor rain, nor gloom of night…” certainly holds true for the commitment of our students, faculty, and staff, who are as steadfast as ever in their pursuit of education—even while in the midst of another Chicago winter. Lew Collens President WINTER 2007 iitmagazine CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER Rose Milkowski MANAGING EDITOR Chelsea Kalberloh Jackson CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jeff Borden Catherine Bruck Patty Cronin 15 Richard Harth Vince LaConte A SERIES OF Jeff Kelly Lowenstein Abigail Nall MIRACLES One year ago, Gulfport, Miss., ART DIRECTOR residents were only beginning Nancy Niequist Schoon to deal with the aftermath of DESIGN Hurricane Katrina. With the unexpected help of strangers from IIT, Gulfport Scott Benbrook Nancy Niequist Schoon has a new community center—and a few new friends. Jessica Serafi n IIT MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED THREE 18 TIMES A YEAR BY THE OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING. YESTERDAY, TODAY, © 2006 AND TOMORROW 20 COVER STORY With the retirement of Robert A. Pritzker SEND LETTERS TO: INNOVATION as chairman of the IIT Board of Trustees, BY DESIGN IIT Magazine incoming Chairman John W. Rowe says he’s Offi ce of Communications At companies and Marketing got big shoes to fi ll. According to Pritzker, throughout the world, 3300 South Federal Street the shoes are a perfect fi t. Suite 503 the M.Des. degree Chicago, IL 60616-3793 is challenging the traditional M.B.A. OR EMAIL [email protected] Learn why IIT’s SEND ALUMNI NEWS TO Institute of Design is [email protected] worthy of the buzz, Founded in 1890, Illinois Institute and how a partnership of Technology is a private Ph.D.-granting university that with Stuart School of awards degrees in engineering, Business is shaping the sciences, mathematics, architecture, law, design, 24 business innovation. psychology, and business. IIT takes an interprofessional A MIGHTY WIND approach to research and A world-class wind tunnel and commitment to teaching. By reaching across geographic boundaries, academic teaching have elevated the career of alumnus disciplines, and the professions, and Distinguished Professor Hassan Nagib. IIT prepares students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex global workplace while DEPARTMENTS conducting a substantial program of applied and basic research 2 Letters with the goal of transforming lives and inventing the future. 4 Campus News Armour College of Engineering 10 Faculty News Center for Professional Development 12 Research Briefs Chicago-Kent College of Law College of Architecture 26 Alumni News College of Science and Letters Institute of Design 36 Rewind Institute of Psychology Stuart School of Business writeback! IIT Magazine welcomes all signed letters to the editor and edits letters for content and clarity. Please send correspondence to: IIT Magazine • c/o Letters 3300 South Federal Street • Suite 503 • Chicago, IL 60616 Email: [email protected] Magazine Letter Prompts Sometime later, I obtained civilian clothes and went to work at the University of Chicago assisting Alumnus to Write In brilliant scientists in the development of the atomic On page two of the magazine [fall 2006] I saw a bomb. Many times I walked up and down the fi rst note from a fellow graduate from the class of 1949. I nuclear reactor called the “West Stands Pile.” I decided to write and bring my relevant past to date worked with men like Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard, to the school. and Arthur Compton. I did not know until after the I started my mechanical engineering education war that these men were Nobel Prize winners. I have in 1937 at Cooper Union in New York City but certifi cates of commendation from General Leslie had to stop because I was employed in an essential Groves, Secretary of War Henry Stimson, and others. letters capacity relative to the wartime activities. Thus, In 1946, rather than continuing to work at the I only received about one-third of the required University of Chicago as a civilian, I decided to engineering education. continue in the consulting engineering fi eld and In 1942, having joined the United States Corps entered Illinois Institute of Technology studying of Engineers, I was stationed at Fort Belvoir as a mechanical engineering. In January 1949, I received combat engineer. After basic training, I my bachelor of science in mechanical engineering. I was interviewed by a Naval Commander, also took a graduate course in air conditioning and presumably because of my extremely have used the knowledge most of my life. I owe a high marks in both the Army General great deal to the instructor whose name I may not Classifi cation Test and the Mechanical recall. In any event, I owe so much to IIT. Aptitude Test. I worked abroad primarily in the electric Just as I was called to go on maneuvers, generating fi eld as the supervisor of engineering and I was advised to get ready to travel to construction. I worked in New Delhi, Talcher, and Chicago. I was given a phone number Calcutta in India and Milan, Italy. Then in the last to call on arrival. I called asking for the 40 years, I specialized in HVAC and plumbing. I was commanding offi cer and was told to wait in the mechanical contracting business for a number in the railroad terminal building holding a of years. magazine or newspaper in my left hand, and I am 87 years old and still working as a I would be approached by someone who would take construction estimator and as the registered care of me. This really was secretive stuff. professional engineer inspecting and writing reports Some time later, a person in civilian clothes of new construction at the Dulles International approached me and asked me to follow him out to a Airport outside of Washington, D.C. waiting car with a driver. I, of course, was in Army I have been registered in nine states, including uniform. We drove along Lake Michigan with the Illinois, but now only in Maryland, Virginia, and gentleman pointing out sites of interest. Eventually, the District of Columbia, where I work. I am still he dropped me off at a hotel on the South Side of playing golf and breaking 90—even though my Chicago, giving me a room number to call. I had to game is shorter. obtain civilian clothes. —Harris H. Levee, ME ’49 “The man pitched eight solid innings, and he cleaned his hands after the fi rst one.” —Physics Professor Porter Johnson in USA Today, explaining how it was likely low temperature, high air pressure, and humidity—not ball doctoring—that worked in favor of Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers in Game 2 of the World Series. QUOTABLE 2 iit magazine Letter from Former Black Knight Another Black Knight Recalls Sparks Response Purpose of Group Regarding the letter from Marshall B. Taylor M.D. I read Mr. Taylor’s letter on the Black Knights, and [fall 2006]: it brought back many memories of good times and I was a member of the Black Knights in 1942.