News
On July 13th WGN-TV news featured a story about a new microbrewery that will be located in the same building as the Plant where IIT students have been working on an indoor vertical farm as part of IPRO 336. The microbrewery will be taking advantage of the plants grown in the farm. See the video here.
iPads were distributed to all first year students in the 2010-2011 academic year.
In May, 2011 students were surveyed on their usage. View the results here.
The May 2011 issue of Discover Magazine includes an article about The Plant, the four-story indoor vertical farm located in the Chicago Stockyard's neighborhood, which has been the focus of IPRO 336 since fall 2009. The article notes that developer John Edel and student collaborators at Illinois Institute of Technology are working on a customized system for converting waste into fertilizer and a means of power generation. View the full article here.
April, 2011 - Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education released a report of the ongoing efforts to improve retention and graduation rates. View the entire report here.
IPRO 335's students' efforts are featured in an April 13 Chicago Tribune article, "IIT class designing solar chargers for Haiti's schools."
IPRO 335: Developing Technology to Improve Education in Haiti is a group of eleven IIT undergraduate students who are working to improve the conditions of education in Haiti by supporting the implementation of the One Laptop Per Child Program. The group's goal is to foster collaboration between partners in the US and in Haiti and to create a sustainable energy solution that will enable the children to charge their XO laptops. This semester, IPRO 335's main focus is to design and implement a solar solution to provide power for the laptops, schools and Internet connectivity. The group will travel to Haiti in May to install a pilot solution in Lascahobas. In order to accomplish this, the students need to raise $37,000 in the coming months. View the full article here.
April 1, 2011 Engineering for Change discusses IIT IPRO 335's efforts to install solar panels at Haitian schools to provide electrical charging stations for One Laptop Per Child computers. The article also includes comments from IIT Engineers Without Borders President Dhara Shah. View the full article here.
An April 10, 2011 Chicago Tribune article interviews John Edel the sponsor of Spring, 2010 IPRO regarding aquaponic farms. The team is continuing to research the technical feasibility of, and business opportunities for, an urban farm on the south side of Chicago. John Adel, plans to provide approximately 200,000 square feet of space to the development of this urban farm. He has provided test facilities to allow the team to begin testing various agricultural systems. View the full article here.
A Campus Technology article on March 1, 2011 discusses retention rates at universities throughout the nation and explains that IIT built its own student retention system, the IIT Early Warning System, led by Senior Lecturer of Computer Science and Director of Undergraduate Academic Advising Matthew Bauer. The system automatically generates customized e-mails each week, containing course-specific lists of students that are sent to every teacher with freshman and sophomore courses. In their replies, the teachers put notes next to the names of any students with attendance or academic problems and the notes are then reported to the students’ academic advisors. View the full article here.