uicnews.uic.edu May 17 2017 Volume 36 / Number 32 uicnews.uic.edu For the community of the University of Illinois at Chicago Celebrating the / pg. 5 Class of 2017 Photo: UIC Creative & Digital Services Faculty groups Legendary East Meets Softball team foster ideas restaurant West highlights crowned for discoveries remembered collaborations league champs in UIC archives 3 6-7 12 Facebook / uicnews Twitter / uicnews YouTube8 / uicmedia Flickr / uicnews Instagram / thisisuic & uicamiridis 2 UIC News | Wednesday, May 17, 2017 Speech team finds success in first year By Tim Goldrick — [email protected] Left to right: Brittany Neloms, Meghna Peesapati, Sunil Dommaraju, Jacob Krol, Damon Horn, Michael Martinez, Nidhi Khare and Kristen Trandai. UIC’s Speech and Forensics team is making a name for itself during its first year on campus. “I feel like our team has a new sense of confidence because of how we’ve done this season,” says Dommaraju. Great collegiate programs that almost consider each performances and discuss up- much that doesn’t have a nez said. “You’re not going to be aren’t built overnight. But the other family. coming tournaments. Each op- speech team?’” Martinez said. able to have ownership of such inaugural year for UIC’s Speech “When we stepped on to portunity for competitive “They tweeted back at me, ‘Well, success like that if you go to an and Forensics team can be that national stage, I never exposure was vital, given that start one.’ My complaint ended already established program characterized as a step in the imagined that this could hap- the team consisted of individu- up turning into something because all that infrastructure right direction. pen.” als ranging from zero to a lot of where UIC almost challenged is already built out. We’re build- With only 10 undergraduate Although it may seem cut experience. us to start a team.” ing it as we go.” students and limited funding, and dried, speech competitions “I’ve never done speech be- Martinez and fellow under- Next season is dedicated to the team placed 22nd out of 80 are much more complex than fore,” said Sunil Dommaraju, a grads answered the call in a taking another competitive universities at the National Fo- standing up and talking in front sophomore in bioengineering. clear way. step. rensic Association’s National of judges. There are three dif- “It’s a learning process. Just Now, they are looking to “I feel like our team has a Tournament last month in Eau ferent genres of speech: public by watching competitors and grow the program into one of new sense of confidence be- Claire, Wisconsin. address, interpretation and lim- picking up the subtle tech- the nation’s best. Team mem- cause of how we’ve done this It was a pleasant surprise, ited preparation. Individuals niques, you grow a lot.” bers are recruiting Chicago season,” Dommaraju said. even for the club’s founders. must be ready to perform one The team wouldn’t have high school students using a “We entered not knowing “When this first started, I had of the forms on contemporary formed if it wasn’t for Martinez pitch centered on leaving a leg- what we were doing, and now no idea what we were getting topics that affect society. taking to social media to acy. that we’ve placed at this nation- ourselves into,” said Michael With all these nuances, UIC question why there wasn’t al- “If high school students al tournament, I feel like next Martinez, president of the team achieved its first-year success ready the infrastructure to com- come to our program, they will year we just want to show up at and a sophomore in finance through intensive preparation. pete. get the chance to shape this tournaments and be known as and biological sciences. “I just For the entire school year, “I was upset and I tweeted at program into something that is a recognizable force.” wanted to compete. Now, this the team met weekly to draft UIC asking, ‘Why are we the going to be incredibly competi- For more information, visit has turned into 10 individuals new speeches, evaluate past only college in Illinois pretty tive on the national scale,” Marti- uicspeech.wixsite.com/home Want to contribute a story? E-mail Christy Levy at [email protected] uicnews.uic.edu UIC News | Wednesday, May 17, 2017 3 UIC Red aims to create consistent look for campus websites By Francisca Corona — [email protected] A new campus initiative is and they can be trained in a improving the look and feel of couple of hours,” said Jodi all UIC websites. White Jones, assistant dean for The UIC Red multisite net- communications for the Col- work, a WordPress resource, lege of Urban Planning and allows university departments Public Affairs (CUPPA). The to build and manage custom- college’s new website, avail- ized websites that also meet able at cuppa.uic.edu, is one standards set by the university’s example of how the platform ongoing branding efforts. can be used to create The goal is to “provide a con- UIC-branded websites that are sistent and recognizable brand tailored to the needs of each to prospective students, faculty, unit. staff and the public,” Provost “Within the structure of the and Vice Chancellor for Aca- website, there are different demic Affairs Susan Poser components that you can add wrote in a campus announce- or remove,” Jones said. “You’re ment. able to use text, photos, graph- Two presentations on UIC ics to communicate your mes- Red, led by the Office of Digital sage and there’s a wealth of Communications, are sched- components to choose from uled: 2 p.m. May 24 in the Mo- that can be structured to your The new website for the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs was created using the UIC Red multisite network. Two presentations are planned to provide an overview of the UIC-branded sites. lecular Biology Research audience.” Building auditorium, and May Technical support, provided 31 during the IT Pro Forum in by Digital Communications, is needed, and group training together to provide a really ing consultations should email Student Center East. also readily available. Training sessions are planned for the helpful, cost-effective process,” [email protected] “Anybody can come in who sessions for individuals future. Jones said. For more information, visit has never worked on a website and units can be scheduled as “All those things have come Units interested in schedul- red.uic.edu Faculty foster ideas for discoveries By Francisca Corona — [email protected] More than 200 faculty mem- “We negotiate finding fund- bers across campus are engag- ing and give [faculty] whatever ing in enthusiastic discussions support they need to develop about their research in the large, multidisciplinary propos- hopes of forming new collabo- als,” Dutta said. rations and developing innova- In 2016, Dutta helped UIC tive ideas for discoveries. researchers secure a two-year, Workshops hosted by the $300,000 grant from the Na- Office of the Vice Chancellor for tional Science Foundation to Research (OVCR) began this fund a STEM education pro- spring, but all faculty members gram called INCLUDES, Inclu- are invited to participate in the sion across the Nation of working groups, which will con- Communities of Learners of tinue this summer and fall. Underrepresented Discoverers The groups focus on areas in Engineering and Science. related to UIC’s research “It’s small and it’s a pilot [pro- strengths and priorities: social gram], but it allows us to apply justice and community dispari- for a $12.5 million award down ties, urban infrastructure, func- the road,” Dutta said. tional and regenerative University leaders hope the materials, the brain, personal- groups will help shape the di- ized medicine/genomics and rection of UIC’s future research. big data. “We’re looking to help re- Faculty members across campus are participating in workshops to talk about their research and form new At the request of Chancellor collaborations, says Mitra Dutta, vice chancellor for research (Photo: Roberta Dupuis-Devlin) searchers get the car moving,” Michael Amiridis, the research said Anthony Halford, director themes were identified by the of sponsored projects in the OVCR, with help from the uni- research, brainstorm and prob- on in another college or on an- ferent kinds of expertise to- Office of Research Services. versity’s Research Advisory lem-solve, which could poten- other side of campus that may gether. We need to take “But ultimately, this has to be Council, Dean’s Council, Senate tially lead to cross-campus impact their own,” she said. “We advantage of what we have.” driven by them.” Research Committee and facul- collaborations, said Mitra Dutta, are a full-service university. We Dutta’s office helps partici- For more information on the ty. vice chancellor for research. have so many different disci- pants identify and pursue a va- groups or to sign up, visit Working groups allow faculty “[Faculty] might not know plines in our different colleges. riety of funding opportunities, research.uic.edu/research_ to come together, share their about related work that’s going It’s easy to put people of all dif- too. workshops 4 UIC News | Wednesday, May 17, 2017 University initiative aims to recruit exceptional faculty By University Relations The University of Illinois System will $10 million each year, and the three uni- embark on a three-year, $60 million versities will collectively match a total of initiative to recruit world-class faculty to $10 million per year for three years. its universities in Chicago, Urbana- The funds are to be used for new fac- Champaign and Springfield.