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Design contest winnerDr. Peter Johnson of the IIT Chemistry department has just announced the winners of the freshman lab design contest. The contest, which was begun in February, offered a $250 prize to the best idea for the renovation/re-design of the freshman chemistry lab. Several teams were entered in the contest initially, but the contest proved to be too time consuming for many students. However, several teams persisted. The best design was submitted by Ginette Pereira, a chemical engineering major, and Lynn Perry, a senior architectcure student. They will split the $250 in first prize money. Oddly enough, each started out as an individual entrant before they decided to pool their resources. The prize money for the contest was donated by Dohn Mehlenbacher from the Physical Resources Department and Dr. Kenneth Schug, chairman of the chemistry department.According to Dr. Johnson, some of the suggestions that were made by the winning team were the creation of a |
"high tech lounge" which would include 5 to 8 IBM PC's, a VCR machine and video monitor. This would allow the students to view tapes of the experiments to see how they are to be performed before going into the lab. The PC's would provide a direct link with the newly created "Project Hawk" by allowing the students to prepare their lab reports and manipulate their data immediately
after the lab session. In addition to the lounge, the freshman lab would be divided into two smaller lab rooms rather than the single large room that serves as the current lab. The lab renovation project is being funded with $200,000 of Illinois grant money. Dr. Johnson feels that the sort of involvement that was generated by this contest is important to IIT since it gives students a chance to solve real world problems and to see the fruits of their efforts. He hopes that other departments will follow suit and seek student input when renovation or upgrade projects are under consideration. |
