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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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