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IIT's Best show their work
(Abstracts) at the April 1997
The 1st
Annual IIT Undergraduate Research conference was a great success. Many
students indicated that they wanted to be part of the 2nd UGR conference. As I
dashed across campus ,
after a late fall snow storm, I reflected on being bigger and better this time.
Anticipating a much larger event, Maben Jimenez joined the steering committee
and we were ready to work.
A number of our students had now presented nationally and won
1st place prizes
including Alberto
Quintana's engineering award earned at the NSF meeting in Detriot and Diego Carlton's award at the
NSF conference in California
. Recent presentations in New Mexico and here in Chicago also added to our
in-house expertise.
ETC became the central location for
planning. Abstract forms were designed and generated by Cheryl . Completed Abstracts were returned, sorted, compiled, and printed
for dissemination. Prof. Johnson and
Maben did public relations work
and visited faculty offices in search of presenters, judges, and
attendees.
An IIT-UGR co mmittee was convened
to provide advice. Prof. Fouad Teymour from the Chemical and Environmental Engineering Dept.
suggested our speaker, Chem Eng alumn Rich Chylla from Johnson Polymers
Corporation who agreed to speak. Posters were put up everywhere. Directions for
abstract submis sion were mailed to students identified as having done research
and to all IPRO
instructors.
Rick Thomas and Shane in Herman Hall (HUB) worked with us to provide quality
space and an attractive layout. They helped to design poster space needs, locate
outlets and AV needs (more computers-more outlets and T1 connections-a sign of
increasing sophistication), food, and auditorium seating. The final plan used
most of the HUB space.
Dr. Chylla came early and relaxed
with the old man on the bench while discussing organic chemistry with me. He was
a student in my class many years ago. As noon approached I surveyed the HUB
setup just prior to students arriving with their posters in tow. The place
became a beehive activity but we were ready.
A n umber of tough, but
fair-minded Professors from the first IIT UGR, such as
Prof. Ken
Schug of the Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences (BCPS) Department, and the ever friendly
Prof. Sheldon Mostovoy
of the Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering (MMAE) Department agreed to judge
again.
New judges included Prof. Candace Wark of the Mechanical,
Materials, and Aerospace Engineering (MMAE)
Department and a visitor from the Cleveland NASA facility, Dr. Don Palac, also
came in for the conference and agreed to be a judge and say a few words. NASA
sponsors a number of IIT students.
Maben assumed the job of hostess and manned the door, handing out abstracts and
showing presenters where to set up. One of the first to arrive at noon with his
poster board was Tom Jacobius who is responsible for industrial liaisons. He
said his daughter put his poster on group learning (think IPRO ) together.
Tom was
responsible for getting the < A HREF="http://www.cocacola.com/home.html">
Coca-Cola company to sponsor our conference and provide free cola enjoyed
here by IIT faculty and staff. Students showed up at high noon and started to
arrange their posters and props. Sean Holly who worke d with Prof. John
Zasadzinski, BCPS, was among the first. I had never seen so many computers
wheeled into area in so short a time.
Dr. Jim
Karagiannes of ETC and the Undergraduate College helped Mike to set
up their computer to demonstrate hyper-linked tutorials. We were happy to see Psychology students presenting
this year. This research on gender thinking in the decision making process
attracted a crowd. The audience could become part of the data set by taking a
short quiz.
Andy Zloza and Donna Jauregui were among
the first to be up and ready. Their colorful rotating DNA computer model
attracted attention and drew a crowd. Their research on viruses used as gene
therapy devices captured th e interest of Prof. Teymour of the Chemical
Engineering Department (ChemE). 
Dean Carol Snow and Marci and Brian from the Admission's Office offered a
special pri ze, The Class Act Award, for the most creative presentation and came
as a group to pick their winner. Consultations with the UGR Conference brass,
Cheryl and Pete, helped them to narrow down their choices.
Kim Terrell, a
junior in Computer Engineering, an AMP Scholar, NASA
Scholar, and Student Coordinator for the UGR Conference, could not get out of
presenting her work on "unordered queues" this year just because she was UGR
staff. IIT students ca n do it all! Ketan
Mody took time from his duties as UB Outdoor Rec Director to
explain his research.
Internationally infamous battery expert, Dr. Gene Smotkin admires the
biochemistry research of Alex Kay atani on vitreoscilla hemoglobin. Prof. Ben
Stark of the Biological, Chemical, and Physical Sciences (BCPS) Department, and faculty PI of this
project poses with the proud and graduating Alex who is off to fill his ROTC commitment.
Prof. Bob
Foley of MMAE discussed high temperature effects of reheating titanium
powder with his student Dave Mahaffe. Prof. Paco Ruiz of the MMAE Dept.
asked Kee Choi, now graduated and the
currently the Technical Manager at ETC,
and Ben Merbitz about the viability
of his hyper- linked interactive tutorials.
Mark Richmond, an
AMP Scholar, who
participated in the summer Bridge honors program
discusses the ETC interactive tutorials with Obi. Many of IIT's top
administrators came to visit and admire the creativity of our students. David Baker, VP of External
Affairs, a strong advocate of technology, is impressed with the forefront uses
of computers in student research projects.
Some projects were presented by IPRO (InterPROfessional project)
Groups. IPROs are IIT's team projects that engage students over several
semesters while seeking solutions to important problems. Anat Mor-aui explains
Post-occupancy to a fellow student. Faculty attendance was high an d they
listened intently to the presentations. Rich is into judging.
Mekita Davis and her IPRO group
representating the Electrical and Computer
Engineering Department (ECE), discuss UHF transmitter characterics. IPRO
students lead by Said Al Hallaj were working with Prof. Robert Selman of the CHE
battery group to study the use of photovoltaic heating devices.
VP Hassan Nagib stopped to listen
to a project that models cDNA using a sunwork station and large screen for
visualization. Prof. Philip Na
sh from the MMAE Dept. has questions about a project by Jennifer Kraszewski
on the molecular analysis of human deletion syndrome. This work was done at the
Los Alamos Genomics Division in NM.
Kamesh Sankaran was leader on an IPRO
project involving reducing the noise of elevated train lead by Prof. David Williams of MMAE.
Nate and Mehdi were also part of the team that researched ways to reduce sound
wave propagation in buildings-ie cut noise in IIT dorms that are near the CTA EL tracts
Prof. John Kallend, Dean of the Undergraduate College, who has provided a
prize on behalf of the UGC, and Sue Sitton listen to a participant. Mean while
Prof. Ken Schug quires Kam esh (on his 21 birthday) about the IPRO noise
reduction project. Easy answer, slower trains make less noise! Kamesh was
involved in several different project displayed at the conference. He was also
voted ETC's top tutor this year.
Prof. Dean
Chapma n of the BCPS department and his student Tom Pugsley examine the
applications of diffraction enhanced imaging. Prof. David Venerus of the Chemical and Envi ronmental Engineering
Dept. shares ideas about IPRO projects with industrial liaison Tom
Jacobias.
Prof. Tom Wong of
Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept. (ECE) and Prof. Morris Chang of the Computer Sciences an d
Applied Mathematics (CSAM) Dept. share
ideas. NASA visitor, Dr. Don Palac tries out the WWW resume generator, one of
many excellent projects promoted by Prof. Matthew Bauer of the
CSAM Dept. as Prof. Jim Roberge, CSAM,
looks on. Prof. Bauer's groups also displayed projects online JAVA editors and an "upgrade" decision making
process. 
Prof. Morris Chang (CSAM) has one of the most popular IPROs
involved with an integrated digital design and testing laboratory. The large
group had a three table "lab-prototype" setup and was very together and vocal.
Their energenic demonstrations attracted large crowds with Prof. Chang activly
involved.
Bonnie
Welcker was involved in two presentations, one, fronted by Profs. Ali Cinar
and Peter Johnson on mollusscicidal contro l of shellfish populations here being
discuss with Prof. Peter Lykos of the
BCPS Dept. and the other on explosive taggants presented with follow student
Fabio Buffa shown explaining their work to the judge.
Keith McKee, Director of the Bachelor of
Manufacturing Technology (BMT)
Program takes the gender love test given by Patricia Guilbeault which was
part of a psychology experiment related to gender differences. Prof. Margaret
Huyck of the Institute of
Psychology discusses test results with P at. 
President Collens
toured the conference and admired the IPRO projects as well as the indivudual
efforts of IIT's students. Jose
Herrera rests at the end of the confe rence. His project with Profs. Peter Johnson and Susan Feinberg of the Lewis Department of the
Humanities was on interactive web scripts as applied to a web-based survey.
Jose spent Christmas in Puerto Rico
visiting IIT friends.
Michael Theemling, who has helped with
many pre-college and ETC projects gave his last presentation as the audience
headed to the Auditorium to hear the speakers, await the judges results, a nd
the awards presentation.
Dean Kallend and Prof. Teymour, an active member of the adhoc UGR conference
committee, discuss the conference's success.
Finally, good things do
not just happen. The Second Annual Undergraduate Research Conference Committee
drew its member s from all parts of the University and worked hard to ensure the
2nd UGR Conference's success. A round of applause for them-clap, clap - or a
raise?? Special thanks to the participants, judges, and those who contributed
prizes. Check out the Awards Ceremony by
clicking the 1st place image.
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