Volume 3, Issue 1: Print Version

I was mad at myself, how could I have let time slip so quickly. I knew I should try to get to my room as soon as possible but it was so rare that I had a night free of academic stress.

My heart was beating out of my chest, I was extremely on edge. I dialed the number I was told to save in my contacts during orientation for times like this.

“Hello”

“Hello - is this public safety?”

“Yes, is this an emergency?”

“Well no, but I am near Keating and I was wondering if I could get a ride to SSV?” I mean this was not an emergency but I did not feel comfortable walking the distance across campus alone this late.

“Yes sure will be there soon”

I hold my coat tighter around me to prevent the icy breeze from penetrating.

“Hello - I am calling again it has been almost 20 minutes and no one is here”

“Hi - yes you again. Can you meet the officer in front of Galvin Library?”

“Galvin? I said I was at Keating”

“Yes, I heard you the first time but the officer cannot come to you so if you meet them they can escort you”

I was too frustrated to even respond. Galvin was across from SSV - what was the point in even meeting the officer.

I tried to explain that I could not do that - but they seemed very uninterested and that I was an inconvenience to their quiet nights.

I grasp onto the comforting cylinder filled with toxins in my pocket and unlock it to ease my nerves as I start walking towards my destination.

I was hyper-aware of everything around me trying to constantly survey my surroundings.

The shadow behind me had been trailing me at least a block - but I was not sure. Was I being paranoid?

I could see the Michigan blue emergency beacon covered in cobwebs in the distance. I should press it just to be safe - but what if I am overreacting? Everyone will think I was being dramatic.

Only three more blocks and my mind will be at ease.

I should have tried public safety again instead of giving up.

I pull out my phone and FaceTime a number I knew would always answer.

“Hey what’s up?” my friend greeted me. I looked at her weary-eyed and responded, “not much.”

I quickly open my messages and text her that I was alone and think someone was following me. She immediately started telling me about her day and how “she was waiting for me in my room” until I reached the doors of my destination.

I finally release my breath and slump my shoulders as I am greeted by the heat of my empty room.

Event Update

By: Christina Majercak, Events Manager

We are beyond excited to be able to kick off the semester with the first ever WiSTEM in-person event. Founding an organization in the midst of a pandemic restrained the opportunity to host socially interactive lunch events. Although we were able to host seventeen successful events, an open avenue for in-person events will allow WiSTEM to accomplish so much more this coming year. As many students have noted, even though we were all able to interact virtually, in-person conversations and meetings are well-missed and are known to create more cherished relationships among the IIT community.

Last year we ended the semester with Prepping for a Productive Summer. The event entailed a presentation focusing on how to ensure a productive summer even without an internship or research involvement. A speaker from Career Services, Tiara DeGuzman, provided many examples for how to continue to develop professionally while still maintaining an equal balance between time off and work. A great take away from this event was to plan personal and professional goals. It is very important to focus on all aspects of one's life and not just narrow it down into one topic. Focusing one's improvement in many areas will ultimately lead to greater satisfaction with reaching frequent smaller goals. Overall, the event sparked ideas for all attendees on how to continue to be the great students they are with pursuing their drive over the time off school.

Our first event on August 26th focused on bringing back the excitement of on-campus events. The event Sweet to be Back was a social gathering that was set to be held outside where students came to interact and enjoy some sweet treats. Multiple tables were set up each with different sweets and discussion topics tailored around introducing useful resources around IIT. There was also room for casual discussions and catching up amongst peers. The goal of this event was to connect students back together and to begin forming the well-missed connections. First year students were allowed opportunities to discuss campus tips with our upperclassmen representatives. Hopefully, our representatives were able to provide a valuable perspective of their time on campus and can share all their experiences to enhance the first-year experience. The social hour featured prizes as well as the opportunity to learn about how to get more involved with WiSTEM. Most importantly, the event was held outside to enjoy our last few weeks of summer!

WiSTEM was very excited to see interdisciplinary mingling as well as like-major interactions! With the help of introductions, students were able to meet people of their respective majors and begin to discuss what their new school year holds. Being able to identify student partners or simply having a friend in class has shown to make the semester more enjoyable. One of the greatest takeaways was watching members introduce themselves to each other with the phrase “Oh I have seen your name in class Zoom calls all last year”. It was such a valuable experience to allow returning students to finally put faces to the names that they had read off their screens all last year. We hope that our members can continue to hold their community interactions throughout the semester as well as continue to build relationships throughout our later events. The event was the perfect start to the new in-person experience.

WiSTEM will be hosting events every three weeks on Thursday during lunch hours. Event locations and times will be updated on our Google Calendar. Most events will be held in-person this year, but there may be a few that were deemed to be more productive in an online setting. Currently, there is a plan in place to allow for live streaming and recording of each event. As seen before recording and slides will be uploaded following each event. Please join our mailing list to get up to date on our upcoming events! We look forward to another amazing year with WiSTEM.

You'll Find a Friend in Me

By: Alison Yurchak, Biomedical Engineering Representative

Though Illinois Tech has publicly offered a multitude of resources, many of the best resources that I have found are personally the lesser known if not untouched resources in one’s typical college experience.

First, one of the most useful resources that I have used in primarily academic success, is to simply be friendly to nearly everyone that I have come across on campus. I do not mean this as simply smiling at the two or three people extended from your friend group, but as to, at literally any time, smile, connect and most importantly share a joke with anyone I interact with on campus.

Though this may seem socially daunting to many, and of course incredibly awkward at times, I believe that most people at Illinois Tech have overlooked the best resource network they may ever have in their academic careers: their fellow student body.

Within a year at this university, including the start of the pandemic, I could proudly say that if I were to be stuck in a situation with any student, we would have mutual contact.

I wish to repeat that this is the most overlooked network on campus as within every small situation, I have had a person to turn to.

Whether it be losing someone’s email, questions about a specific course, professor, company and even where to go near campus for a lunch interview, I spent no more than the time it took to send a text message to the person of interest rather than pondering who or what would be the answer.

This still may seem pretty standard of the “be nice to everyone” anecdote, but truly we all know very few actually execute this, and as a result I have been told that I unapologetically talk to everyone I cross paths with. I simply could not be more pleased with the observation.

From this, I am convinced that a snowball effect occurred. For once I had a connection with people in my major, who know friends or family in my industry or in professional organizations, I found it nearly impossible to not have been advised in nearly every matter I have pursued. I have befriended people who have landed me my current internship out of state, connections with those who came before me in my sorority and athletics, and most importantly those that have made my time at Illinois Tech enjoyable and educational. This has ranged from assistance in choosing classes, professors, jobs, clubs, positions, dorming, studying techniques, soft skills and hard skills.

Though it has only been two short years at Illinois Tech, I do think I have gotten more out of my “resources” than most. I do not think many people have done what I have done to such an extent, for better or for worse reasons than simply being friendly and laughable.

However, within the many friendly, goofy, serious and minute connections I have made with the student body, I can say my approach has paid itself back in ways that other resources on campus never will.

Editorial: The Detrimental Rise of IIT Gossip Pages

By: Barien Gad, President

In the present digital age at a university filled with tech-talented students, it is no shock that there exists a significant social media presence for the school. However, this piece will not focus on the amateur running the official Illinois Tech Instagram page, putting up low-quality infographics that make us nostalgic for the old days we were too young to even experience.

This month’s editorial will be highlighting the detrimental rise of Instagram gossip pages and their ultimate demise. To start, we need to define what a gossip page is. For the sake of formalities, we will use the Oxford Dictionary definition: “casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details that are not confirmed as being true.”

The first and probably least problematic gossip page is @IllinoisTechMemes. @IllinoisTechMemes made its first appearance on September 21, 2019, with a post discussing a minor flood in MTCC and continued to post daily about common topics of frustration such as the poor housing conditions of MSV and the highly despised unlimited meal plan. The posts are funny and more importantly relatable, it makes sense that to date the page has accumulated more than 1.5k followers - which is the most of any gossip page on campus. I chose to include it in the gossip page list as it pertains to our previously outlined definition.

There are incidents where names are mentioned both directly and indirectly discussing school politics —see the multiple posts directly naming previous President Cramb. Or posts that acknowledge that the new president of the university would become fated to endless memes like president cram previously was and any person of power tends to become. Rather than including the subject’s name, the page used a meme of Cramb to draw similarities in races and put a mustache to specifically identify the member. Either way, @IllinoisTechMemes did identify specific individuals and make accusations without the support of evidence. Its large platform reaches most of campus and uses humor to share on-campus opinions of both students, as it accepts meme submissions, and of the anonymous owner of the account. While the page is entertaining and has yet to make any serious accusations, it is important to remember that this platform has the power to do great harm.

Next is @iit.revealed, an Instagram page that allows students to anonymously submit content for posts through a Google form; in the form, they define themselves as, “a group of former students, alumni, parents, and faculty that have had to endure the denial of their humanity during what should have been an affirming and joyous time for all of us. We want to empower you to share your truth in solidarity with the many other victims of Illinois Tech’s unchecked culture of anti-blackness, racism, xenophobia, islamophobia, homophobia, sexism, and abuse.” True to their words, @iit.revealed is committed to posting on serious matters in a “for the people, by the people” perspective.

I truly believe it was created to bring attention to on-campus issues and act as an anonymous forum for students to voice their concerns and experiences. However, the Instagram page is undeniably a gossip page as it does discuss and report on other individuals without providing details to support its claims. The platform’s posts vary from addressing on-campus racism among the community to making sexual assault allegations against other students and faculty, which are extremely serious and sensitive issues.

The anonymous platform is powerful in opening conversations and publicly holding both students and faculty accountable for their actions. In their posts, the account blocks out names, however, they do a lazy job intentionally making it easy to tell who is being discussed by revealing the last letter or including the individual’s title. As well, in some posts, the account goes as far as to include the initials of discussed parties. At some point, there were temporary Instagram story posts made that revealed all the names of mentioned parties.

Again, I want to stress, the account makes extremely serious accusations that are insensitive to the victims on social media for the entire community to see. Accumulating a total of 480 followers, the page tests the limits of true animosity in reporting. While the reporter might remain anonymous, the names of perpetrators and victims are easily deducible. And while it might be socially acceptable to a certain extent to publicly out perpetrators for their wrongdoings to warn and protect the community, it is morally unacceptable to share the traumas of victims so publicly and unfiltered. Especially since it seems some of the accusations made are from bystanders and not involved parties.

Rumors and gossip stem from some truth, failing to include evidence and basing the post on the word of anonymous students reporting creates room for the harmful spread of misinformation. I worry about the platform’s carelessness in revealing identities, and its attempt to pursue justice could easily make it subject to multiple false claims that do nothing but harm.

It seems Instagram agrees to see as they deactivated the account in the past, and they keep reappearing under new usernames. This is a platform that can easily be abused by students frustrated with their peers or faculty and can be used as a weapon to destroy careers and reputations through false accusations. That is the primary flaw of this page, there is no evidence behind the claims made which allows for false accusations.

While it might be socially acceptable to a certain extent to publicly out perpetrators for their wrongdoings to warn and protect the community, it is morally unacceptable to share the traumas of victims so publicly and unfiltered.

Ultimately public shaming is not a way to solve or address issues on campus either, especially topics of great gravity, particularly in increasing rehabilitative efforts and helping perpetrators hold themselves accountable for their actions. Evidence proves over and over again, public shaming is not an effective form of punishment and rarely works in preventing repeat offenders.

But even more grave than these gossip pages is the fact that the community feels so failed by the administration in addressing issues of sexual assault and racism that they turn to create their own coalition to punish and protect their communities by sharing humiliating experiences. I say humiliating because I understand many of these shared experiences are only being shared out of disparity for the failed system meant to protect them.

Why is it that so many individuals are reporting on the university’s neglect and turn to anonymous Instagram accounts to share others and their own stories at IIT? What does this say about the justice system at our university and what does the university's lack of actions say to potential offenders? @iit.revealed is a dangerous platform and if it keeps going unmonitored it will cause more harm than good; however, I do acknowledge the pure intentions underlying the platform.

What do these pages tell prospective students? When searching IIT on the Instagram search bar, these are the first pages to pop up due to their large following. Are these pages doing community service and being transparent with on-campus politics and antics or are they presenting a false narrative on the experiences of students as none of the claims are backed by evidence? Is it the community's obligation to advertise the flaws in our university's justice system or is it the university’s responsibility to become more transparent in how they approach on-campus conflicts?

Finally, the worst and most horrid transgressor of all the gossip pages is @iit.confessions.

@iit.confessions not only feeds in harmful stereotypes about minority students on campus, but it has also become an unfiltered public platform filled with sexually harassing comments targeting both students and faculty, and I make these claims with solid evidence, unlike these gossip pages.

@iit.confessions’ first post was in October of 2019. The page is quickly approaching its second anniversary, accumulating more than 700 followers and more than 800 confessions posted. The Instagram gossip page @iit.confessions accept anonymous submissions on a google form stating, “Send us your confessions about IIT and the people in it, just fill out the form using the link bio. We accept all forms of tea.” The platform uses the new-generational term “tea” to escape the stigmas and harms connotated with the previous word “gossip” even though the two are interchangeable in this case.

The platform encourages the use of names because animosity only goes so far in stirring conversations and they recognize that part of gossip is identifying individuals.

The page has a simple aesthetic, each post including a blurb of the confession next to a poor and entertaining edit of Kermit the frog drinking a cup of Lipton red tea. Posts vary from students complaining about being single to classifying certain faculty as “DILFs” to a ridiculous amount of sexual posts about students —especially male students of color.

The posts are crude and are a form of sexual harassment. The page obsesses over certain students as they are popular topics of discussion. Student’s body parts, such as their calves or their bottoms are constantly mentioned. I am shocked by the lack of efforts from the Title IX office and the university as a whole to dismantle the page. These so-called confessions are dehumanizing and vulgar, at times going as far as describing in detail sexual fantasies about students and faculty.

The page has one intention and it is to gossip, but in doing so they are also violating the individuals they are discussing. And sure, you can message the page and have any post written about you taken down, but the internet is a permanent place and these posts that are including the first and last names of students are out there forever creating a digital footprint. Especially posts that undermine individuals and minimizes them to topics of sexual gratification.

I know students will be quick to defend the page and argue it is meant for humor and that all the accusations are light and have no real meaning behind them. To that, I say you are part of the problem. It is not being “sensitive” to not want students or faculty sexually harassed on social media. It is not that “I can’t take a joke”, it is the fact that once we start excusing such blatant forms of sexual harassment we start to blur the lines of what is appropriate and what is not and we start to invalidate the experiences of these victims. Many of the individuals discussed can be categorized as victims of online sexual harassment, and every time anyone likes any of the posts they are complying and supporting the harassment. @iit.confessions need to be taken down immediately, no matter how sickly entertaining it might be to some. It is harmful and outright disrespectful. To the individuals who started the page, shame on you for creating a platform and keeping it up just for the community to publicly attack one another.

There is a reason we are trained on topics of cyberbullying from a young age. We are trained to notice the signs, report them, and not partake in them because of the inevitable damage. But as social media continues to engrave itself in our everyday lives, we create new ways to participate in mass bullying by liking and sharing posts. The minute you use your platform to support these pages, you become part of the problem. By simply following the mentioned accounts you are supporting their actions. Liking those posts makes you partly responsible for the consequences.

Upcoming Events

Programming Workshop

Join us on Thursday, September 23rd at 12:50PM CST for an opportunity to learn essential programming languages SolidWorks, Python, R, and LaTex, taught by our very own representatives and Illinois Tech faculty.

Join virtually using the following Zoom link.

Feel free to reach out to wistem@iit.edu if you have any questions.

Follow Up on the Last Editorial: The Perpetrated Culture Behind Covid Study Days

By Elizabeth Karagiannes, Representatives Manager of WiSTEM

As the Covid pandemic decides to continue to grace us with its quite unwelcome presence, it’s time to take a look at not only the decisions that will be made moving forward, but also a reflection of the decisions that have already been made for us by the university in the past. Last semester I took a stab at expressing some of the University’s game time decisions in response to the CoronaVirus. A virus that has plagued us for so long now, that grammar check has finally recognized and accepted words such as covid and corona without the judgmental squiggly line. So that begs the question, aren’t we all exhausted and done with this pandemic by now?

It is for this reason, unlike the school’s decision on spring break, that I am applauding and thankful to the school for requiring that its students receive the vaccine. I have always considered myself a moderate when it came to covid, I respected and supported the majority of people's decisions within reason over the course of 2021. I’ve had friends and family alike who’ve decided wearing a mask is not their prerogative, then those people who would not leave their room without a mask, those who were willing to go to parties and bars, and then those who preferred to isolate themselves to a select few people. All of these decisions I have respected to a certain point. Everyone has their values, morals, and desires in life, and they differ from person to person. Believing in one thing or another doesn’t make anyone a bad and selfish or a paranoid and naive person. It comes down to a person’s logic, knowledge, and values. I think everyone could live their life with a little more compassion and understanding for how others decide to live theirs, but again to a certain extent….

It is my hope that Illinois Tech makes it as hard to get out of the vaccination requirement as it is to get out of their unlimited meal plan.

My criticism of the school's decision on whether we should not have spring break or not came from a place not necessarily on my stance on how best to conduct my life during a pandemic. How I decide to live my life in the way I best see fit during a pandemic is my decision, and not one I would use to make a decision over a group of people who inherently will have contradictory views. Instead, my sentiment on spring break came from a place of logic and a discernment of people's actions. There were other factors and dominos that relied on having a spring break such as mental health, financial incentives, and the futileness of covid study days. In the end I knew that the group of people who were not as vigilant and receptive of regulations covid brought would not be deterred from traveling on and off campus to other states despite not having a spring break. Logically, it just did not make sense. There was too much collateral damage to justify a decision like the one that was made; however, again if I am to be fair I can not come down too hard on this decision. It was a game day choice, in an unprecedented situation with thousands of differing opinions and values to take into consideration.

A screenshot from a mass email sent by the Illinois Tech Office of Marketing to students, staff and faculty

Now you might be asking yourself how I could possibly be a moderate if I am gladly embracing a max vaccination requirement? The answer to that is quite simple. To start with, the selfish reason I desire the vaccination requirement is that I want to enjoy my remaining years of college, not having to worry about on and off covid restrictions; however, the more important reason is I want to be part of the effort that helps put the final nail in the coffin of the mass spreading of the covid 19 virus and its variants.

The cold hard reality is that, if more people don’t get vaccinated and we aren’t reaching herd immunity, there’s more possibilities for viscous and highly contagious variants to mutate and possibly force us to start the whole vaccine process all over again. For example, the Delta variant is already more contagious and has a higher probability of penetrating through the vaccine than the original strain. For those who are not getting vaccinated, would you really rather have to face another lockdown and miss more irreplaceable years than we already have? Already, Chicago and the CDC have recommended that we go back to wearing masks in public places. If we want to move forward on campus and be able to attend all classes, go to club events, have social events, and go back to not wearing masks, getting vaccinated is the only solution to achieving that. If we aren’t to get the vaccine then we are risking another Zoom university education.

Of course there are always exceptions due to health conditions, religious obligations, or moral standings, but like with anything there is a limit to what is legitimate and what is used as a shield due to lack of research. It is my hope that Illinois Tech makes it as hard to get out of the vaccine requirement as it is to get out of their unlimited meal plans. I want to make it clear, I am not trying to sit here and tell people who’s right and who's wrong in how they are responding to the Coronavirus, but merely pointing out the detrimental consequences that are bound to happen. It will be a tough and expensive price that everyone will have to pay if one is to think we all shouldn’t have to get the vaccine because enough already have, or to make the decision without taking the timely consideration to read papers from the top doctors and minds in the world.

I’m ready to get back to school, and before I graduate I would like to be in a classroom, see everyone's smiles, or more realistically their confusion, without a mask obstructing it. Masking up and social distancing was what allowed us to have hybrid classes last semester, now the vaccine is what is going to hopefully take us all back to normalcy. It may not be what we want, or the easiest decision, but getting vaccinated is our best chance at going back to life as it used to be.

I’m ready to get back to school, and before I graduate I would like to be in a classroom, see everyone's smiles, or more realistically their confusion, without a mask obstructing it

IIT's Hidden Gems

By Angela Petrone, Digital Media Officer

As a freshman, essays can be intimidating. As an international student, researching can be a nightmare.

I wasn’t always a STEM person, in fact I spent the majority of my time in high school studying ancient classics and philosophy.

I was never too bad at researching or writing…in my own language.

I even got accepted elsewhere to pursue creative writing degrees before I chose my current Bachelor of Science in Digital Humanities at Illinois Tech. I never thought writing would be a problem for me.

The truth is academic papers aren’t always as accessible as one would wish, and it takes a lot of patience for a foreigner —even with a good understanding of the English language— to fully understand a complicated argument, let alone formulate one themselves.

During my first year at Illinois Tech I wasn’t directly exposed to the college experience as it is supposed to be: I still don’t know where campus is exactly because I’ve never even been there. I attended college from home, in Italy. This meant feeling lonely most of the time, and not really having anyone who could be there and help.

This also meant not being able to practice my English as much as I could have done in pre-pandemic conditions.

I had to write my first essay for a sociology class in October 2020, and I wasn’t sure how that was going to look like. I spent a week brainstorming on a blank google doc, I had no clear idea where to begin or where to find reliable sources. I was lucky enough to have not one or two, but four out of six of my first semester classes have a session entirely dedicated to the resources offered by Illinois Tech to succeed in writing and researching.

These sessions were life changing for me. I didn’t even know there was a physical library, let alone ARC and the library website, from which you can conduct filtered research for whatever you are looking for, and even request access to papers that aren’t currently available.

Find out more about Galvin Library here

I must say I didn’t learn how to use the website effectively until my second semester when I really had to dive deep into researching for a couple of upper-level classes, but you can do better than me.

Going to library.iit.edu, you can sign in to your I-share account with your Illinois Tech credentials, the same ones you use to log into the myroom or myiit portals.

Remember to sign in: only when you sign in you can do things such as saving books or papers to read later, send out requests to access currently unavailable material, or create different lists of saved items so that you can work on separate projects at the same time. Another feature I couldn’t live without is the ability to review your search history…you know you need it too.

One challenging aspect of using this website is the overwhelming amount of results that come up with most search words. I suggest you never "Search Anything", as the search bar suggests, but instead click on "advanced search". Apply as many filters as possible —but be careful about how those might limit your results.

I personally feel like it is better to get 20 highly-specific results because I applied too many filters than 3000 because I didn’t. You do you. Another tip: choose your search query wisely. The more specific it is, the better the results. Most importantly, choose at least 2 queries and make sure those encapsulate different aspects of the topic you’re searching for.

Last but not least: most of the time you’re lucky enough to find a citation for the works you’re consulting.

I can’t assure it will be easy at first, but using this website often will improve the quality of your sources for research projects…or at least that worked well for me.

Featured Woman in STEM: Dr. Yuhan Ding

By Tiffany Wong, Treasurer

Dr. Yuhan Ding, Senior Lecturer of Applied Mathematics

Biography

Dr. Yuhan Ding started her academic journey majoring in Information and Computational Science from Shanghai University of Shanghai, China. Her interest in mathematics stemmed from her father being a math teacher and encouraging her to go into the field. Her research is mainly focused on establishing an adaptive algorithm in function approximation. With different input functions, the algorithm can choose the sample points adaptively. Currently, she is working on how to build an adaptive algorithm to choose the optimal kernel basis functions and sample points in high dimensional cases.

When she was doing her undergraduate degree at Shanghai University, she decided to start her Master of Science in Pure Mathematics at Shanghai University. After she finished her Master's degree, she knew that she liked computational math better since she likes the coding part of the field a lot. In the very beginning, she found work as a Scoring Analyst at an IT company. Through her colleagues at that company, she got exposed to the technical field and also learned about how the overseas education pipeline works. Even though she was incredibly grateful for the opportunity, she knew deep down that it was ultimately her dream to pursue a PhD degree.

Before coming to Illinois Tech, Dr. Ding always had academia in mind when it came to her plans. She looked into the different overseas opportunities there were for PhD programs linked with Shanghai University. Funny story, when asking Dr. Ding about her decision behind choosing Illinois Tech she said she didn’t know it was located in Chicago. It was only after her acceptance that she realized the location and found out that her father’s colleague was located here as well. She mentioned that after realizing Illinois Tech is in Chicago, she thought about Michael Jordan coming from here and how he’s a hero so it would be cool to relocate to Chicago.

It’s important to make time for what we think we’re interested in...these are the formidable years of our lives that shape who we will be later on.

After her acceptance, she spent the next five years at Illinois Tech studying towards her Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, with Dr. Fred J. Hickernell as her academic advisor. In December of 2015, she graduated with a 4.0 GPA and successfully defended her dissertation on Guaranteed Adaptive Univariate Function Approximation. After graduation, she went into teaching by starting as an Assistant Professor at Illinois Tech and Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania.

Misericordia University is a teaching-oriented university, where Dr. Ding needed to teach at least 4 courses per semester. It was similar to Illinois Tech, as it was a small university and the classes had no more than 20 students. She started with teaching some Computer Science courses and it was certainly different from what she learned from her education. Dr. Ding found herself having to learn a lot of the material she had to teach the semester before she was scheduled to teach it and the more advanced the Computer Science courses were, the harder it was to acclimate to them because it simply wasn’t part of her interest. Upon asking her to reflect on her time there, she said that it was tough on her because she had to self-teach herself to teach her students and although the different topics she taught were interesting, she liked the way math courses were taught more. She noted that she liked how math is well-structured.

After that, she made the final decision to come to Illinois Tech to teach. This decision was heavily influenced by the established familial feeling she had with Chicago. Dr. Ding likes that Chicago is a city, but it isn’t as big as other cities like New York City. Chicago is also a very diverse city, where you can see all different kinds of people and cultures from neighborhood to neighborhood. She has met many friendly and nice people here, including the brothers and sisters in Christian fellowships and church. She loves how she never intended to come to Chicago, but she now has a home here and she likes that some parts of Chicago remind her of Shanghai. Another redeeming factor is that Chicago has incredible food, and it’s great that the food here is similar to the dishes she had back at home in Shanghai. It’s her home away from home.

Impressions

Although Dr. Ding is excited about the research fields she specializes in, her main passion is learning to teach and teaching to learn from her students. When asking fellow math majors about their experience with Dr. Ding, all of them had nothing but positive takeaways and glowing reviews from taking a course with her. Many have expressed gratitude for how understanding and aware she is of the personal issues students have, and they think she’s just rad.

Curious about this myself, I asked her if there’s any special reason for this.

Dr. Ding was taken aback by the outward praise from her students. She recalled that during her first year of teaching at Misericordia University, she was not as understanding as she tries to be now. After her first few years teaching, she learned that all students have their backgrounds and scenarios happening behind closed doors. She stresses that she learns from her students as much as they learn from her. She is constantly learning about how to be understanding and patient with them and she understands that students have outside responsibilities, like working and studying for other courses that make it hard to balance with their personal lives.

Having been one of Dr. Ding’s students myself, I see this shine through her efforts in communication and dedication to helping students as much as she can. There’s no ulterior motive behind her actions to be considerate of as many students as she can, and during one of our talks, she stated that she just loves her students wholeheartedly. It’s always an incredible learning experience for her, and one of her biggest motivations is her desire to communicate and share her knowledge with her students. When communicating with students she explores new points of view that help better her teaching for next time. She values the differences in everyone’s understanding of the course because those differences allow her to teach the same topic in varying ways so that it’s widely understood.

If it’s one thing she hopes her students can take away from taking a course with her, it’s the love she wants to share with them. She hopes for them to understand the course wholly and stresses that her job as an educator isn’t to challenge students but to add to their knowledge and display how what they’re learning can be used in the future.

Needle in the Haystack

When browsing through the Illinois Tech faculty site, I saw that there are only 6 female faculty members in the Applied Mathematics department. When asking Dr. Ding about this fact, she noted that when she was a student in the department, she remembers there only being one female faculty actually. When I asked her how she felt about being one of only six female faculty members in her department and if this impacts her in any way, Dr. Ding stated that she really doesn’t consider herself that much different from her fellow male professor coworkers. She believes that she, along with her coworkers, just has to do what she is responsible for in order to get through her work. Regardless of their gender, all her fellow coworkers are really nice to her and it sets a good example of what she should strive to be for up and rising new professors.

Although Dr. Ding doesn’t notice the gender difference in her day-to-day work at Illinois Tech, her age is something that sets her apart from others. I asked her whether she feels the need to prove herself since she is younger, and she agrees that there’s a subconscious need to do so. It’s one of her biggest motivations and she finds herself making a lot of time available to her students and superiors. Dr. Ding attributes her eagerness to respond to her students and emails to her personal life being less hectic than other professors. She points out that many professors in the Applied Math department have an established family and have children already, so it makes sense for their time to be split between students, children, and personal time. On the other hand, she’s not at that stage in her life yet, so there are fewer factors that compete to require her attention consistently. She is always connected to her email and replies at any time during the day, so it’s a boundary with her work life that she’s actively working on to improve.

Reflection

Some of Dr. Ding’s future goals range from improving her teaching to furthering her research fields. Right now, she is a part of the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) program, where she is mainly writing budget proposals for the research experience plans for undergraduates. She hopes to get funding so that for the next three years this program can continue to house other undergraduate students and be a creative outlet for STEM-related research. As for her teaching plans, she wants to learn to plan courses more efficiently and upgrade the teaching strategy she currently uses.

As the COVID-19 pandemic guidelines are changing to allow for in-person instruction, she is excited to go back to the classroom to teach and get feedback from students. To be in person on campus and have face-to-face communication with her students again is very helpful in critiquing her lesson plans.

After talking to Dr. Yuhan Ding, I deeply felt the passion she has for teaching others and learning from them just through her words. As a student myself, I asked if she had any advice she wished to give fellow readers of Words of WiSTEM. Dr. Ding says that at this stage of our lives, we are a sponge —no, not Spongebob Squarepants,— and it’s so important for us to take time to learn more about what we think we’re interested in because these are the formidable years of our lives that shape who we will be later on.

Your knowledge belongs to you, no one can take that away from you.

New in STEM: Will AI Take Over the World?

By Nabilah Siddiqui, Computer Science Representative

“Not only did it save my life but it left me whole in so many different ways,” says Krista Jones (Bender, 2017). “[It] avoided some of the scars, emotionally and physically, that most people who go through cancer treatment are left with” (Bender, 2017).

In 2011, Krista Jones was diagnosed with an extremely rare type of cancer (Bender, 2017). Throughout the next few years, Jones began visiting her doctor frequently, and was given several operations in hopes of removing the tumor that put her life at stake. However, Jones’ final treatment was built using algorithms for big data - some of the computer science advancements in terms of today’s A.I. technologies. That plan allowed Jones to undergo a surgical operation, which miraculously saved her life, leaving her free of cancer. Today, Jones is the managing director of Work and Learning at MaRs Discovery District in Toronto, an innovation hub that houses A.I-driven health tech startups like Deep Genomincs and Cloud Dx (Bender, 2017).

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been dominating the conversation in terms of the major emerging technologies in computer science, many people such as Jones are convinced that artificial intelligence is the future of healthcare. Through AI, technology is making life easier since they have the potential to solve a variety of problems. AI can be one of the first technologies that are able to find cures to diseases, the first to reduce costs (cheaper products & services) through an increase in the use of robotics, and the first to eliminate human error. Thus, AI has the potential to solve a wide variety of problems.

How artificial intelligence is gradually transforming the world is an interesting aspect to explore, and experts such as Andrew Ng. - the founder and CEO of Landing AI - say the rise of artificial intelligence will make most people better off. This is the point when many people start to question: “Will AI take over?” The answer is yes, there is certainly a possibility that AI will take over the world from a positive perspective. AI has already proved itself to be very useful, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, which is the time of the writing of this article. It is inevitable that emerging technologies related to AI are slowly gaining more recognition. For example, a new study published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Technology Review examines how a new generation of powered robots is taking over warehouses, which wouldn’t have been made possible without the use of AI (Hao, 2021).This new generation of robots was developed and headed to work in the months right before the first reports of Covid-19. Built on years of breakthroughs in computer programming languages, these robotic technologies could pick up all kinds of objects with remarkable accuracy and speed, helping sort products into packages at warehouses. With the new robots’ ability to manipulate objects of variable shapes and sizes in unpredictable orientations, AI could introduce companies to different types of automation in production. The technology then proved its usefulness when the pandemic hit. As the demand for electronic commerce or e-commerce skyrocketed and labor shortages intensified due to the Covid-19 pandemic, AI-powered robots have become a necessity for manufacturing companies. For example, Knapp, a warehouse logitists technology company began incorporating robotic technologies into its manufacturers services during late 2019, says it now has “a full pipeline of projects” from a global perspective, and has significantly helped mass-produce “robot pickers” that are capable of working alongside hundreds of thousands of human workers (Hao, 2021).

Not only did it save my life but it left me whole in so many different ways

In addition to reducing costs (cheaper products and services) through the increased usage of robotics, AI offers several opportunities in cancer research. AI’s use in exploding biomedical research and health care - including across all dimensions of cancer research is where the potential applications for AI are vast. In fact, it is inevitable that AI excels at recognizing patterns in large volumes of data, extracting relationships between complex features in the data, and identifying characteristics in images that cannot be perceived by the human brain itself. According to the National Cancer Institute, it has already produced vast results in radiology, where clinicians use computers to process images rapidly and detect cancer cells (2020). For example, in 2019, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first ever AI software to process images at a rapid rate and assist radiologists in detecting early signs of breast cancer occurrence (2020).

It is inevitable that AI technology has transformed thousands of lives in ways one cannot imagine. It has transformed businesses by incorporating robotics in their services, allowing companies to manufacture products in an efficient and accurate manner during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has allowed scientists to develop softwares that is able to detect cancer cells. It has certainly enhanced the speed, precision, and effectiveness of human efforts. As AI continues to impact every industry and every human being, it shows others that AI technologies are leading society to a brighter and better future.

References:

Title IX Training

By Barien Gad, President of WISTEM

“Umm, yeah you can read this section on your own time.”

“Yeah, that is there if you need it but that will not be happening in my class.”

“Yeah this is kind of bad and I will not tolerate it.”

Many professors fail to devote adequate time to discussing Title IX in a classroom setting and this is negatively impacting the learning environment of many students. It is time we hold the administration accountable for not training their faculty or students properly on this matter.

How effective is the Title IX training required of all members at Illinois Tech? At what point does the convenience of online training undermine the retention of information?

How many students take the training seriously and how many just skip through it? I hear of students completing the training for each other, students blocking the email reminding them to complete the training, and students never completing the training.

Inside scoop: my freshman year, I never received an email about training or anything Title IX related. I was just confused as to why everyone was complaining about some training they had to complete and was grateful I did not have to do it.

How many professors take the training seriously and how many skip through it? Classified administrators have anonymously disclosed that there is a key that gets passed among faculty members to pass the training.

Dr. Nick Menhart has been the only one among my professors to publicly discuss Title IX and accurately educate his students on what qualifies as Title IX misconducts. He was the first person I encountered who ever defined the term “hostile work environment” or explained how to file Title IX complaints. How was I supposed to know that I was experiencing hostile work environments if I never knew how to define them?

In fact, I am very confident that I could have easily gone all of my time at Illinois Tech without any formal education on Title IX in the classroom setting.

I know these conversations are difficult, but we need to have them. I know the words rape and assault are chilling to hear, but we cannot sweep them under the rug. We must educate the Illinois Tech community about these topics, so that students are cognizant of their severity. Students should be able to bring up these issues without fear of repercussions, so we can finally start addressing issues of gender based discrimination and sexual assault.

Recently, a peer of mine shared how excited she was to have her first women professor this semester and how that specific professor had also been the first to ever explicitly establish classroom expectations with regards to Title IX and appropriate behavior.

I propose that all professors spend at least ten minutes discussing Title IX. This short time commitment will make a tremendous difference for so many students.

The conversion should go along the lines of: “This is the Title IX section, Title IX focuses on preventing sex based discrimination and protocol regarding misconduct. In this classroom, there will be zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind. Microaggressions will be reported and students will be asked to leave the classroom. Microaggressions include any comments directed towards any population of students that make any students feel uncomfortable. Legally, I am required to report any incidents that violate Title IX as I am a mandatory reporter.”

I firmly believe that in clearly establishing these standards at the beginning of the semester, students will be less inclined to participate in any Title IX violations in the classroom environment.

As well as Title IX, here are some organizations not affiliated with the university that you can reach out to for support, guidance, and information:

Understanding Your Options

By: Ursula Hersh, Co-Founder and Co-President of the Female Empowerment Movement

The Title IX process can be incredibly difficult for students: it is easy to feel overwhelmed, trapped, and disempowered. Unfortunately, many of our legal and social institutions fail to support survivors of sexual violence. However, it is important to know that there are resources for student survivors. Many organizations offer advocacy services (legal and medical), counseling, and support groups. If you or someone you know has experienced something that constitutes a violation of Title IX (harassment, assault, stalking, or other forms of sexual misconduct), it is important to be aware of the different courses of action that are available.

If you feel comfortable doing so, you may report the incident directly to the Title IX Office. The two primary contacts for the Title IX Office are Virginia Foster (foster@iit.edu), the Title IX Compliance Coordinator, and Esther Espeland (eespeland@iit.edu), the Deputy Title IX Compliance Coordinator. An anonymous report can also be filed at iit.edu/incidentreport. More information about anonymous reporting can be found here: Confidential Reporting

This page explains the confidential reporting options available. Both Resilience and the Student Health and Wellness Center have licensed practitioners on staff to provide confidential emergency and ongoing support to individuals who have experienced sexual misconduct.

Resilience (https://www.ourresilience.org/) is not obligated misconduct to the university. They will listen to you and make you aware of all your options. This is an organization that has partnered with IIT to help provide resources, but it is entirely distinct from the university. Resilience can offer you legal advocacy that will help you understand your rights under Title IX. They can also assist you in seeking accommodations and in navigating a case with the Title IX Office if you decide to pursue that. Resilience also offers free support groups and counseling.

CAASE (https://www.caase.org/) is another organization that offers free legal support. While Resilience employs ‘legal advocates,’ CAASE has a team of attorneys who specialize in both criminal and civil cases. They offer services to support students who are pursuing Title IX cases. CAASE also provides pro bono representation to individuals pursuing civil court cases. Examples of these would be no contact orders, which come in a variety of forms. Learn more about civil no contact orders here: Starting a case to get a civil no contact order.

CAASE also offers pro bono representation in criminal cases, but they do have a limited capacity. Even if they are not able to take on your case they will still help direct you to resources.

Resilience’s legal advocates, although they are not attorneys, have a comprehensive knowledge of the legal system and will work to support you in any way they can. They will review your options with you and are happy to accompany you to any meetings (in court, with the school, or in another context) to provide both support and advocacy on your behalf.

If you have experienced sexual misconduct outside of Illinois Tech, organizations like Resilience and CAASE are still here to help. In many cases, they can help you get accommodations for your classes even if you are not pursuing action via Title IX. If you are interested in pursuing a case outside of Illinois Tech, whether it be civil or criminal, these organizations can give you more information and guidance.

Another completely valid option is for students to decide not to take action through Title IX or other legal/criminal avenues. However, it is important that this is a freely made decision, not a coerced or pressured one. Checking in with an organization like Resilience can help clarify your options. Even if you decide not to pursue a case, they are there to help you in many other ways. They can work to help you obtain educational accommodations even if you are not pursuing a case against someone. Support groups and trauma-informed counseling can also be incredibly beneficial. KAN-WIN and Greenlight Counseling are two other Chicago-based organizations that offer free counseling services for survivors of sexual violence.

No one should have to experience sexual violence. Students should not have to fight for their rights and protections. We need to fundamentally reassess the way that institutions handle cases of sexual misconduct and work to change our campus environment.

Chicago-based organizations that support survivors of sexual violence:

Resilience: https://www.ourresilience.org/
CAASE: https://www.caase.org/
KAN-WIN: http://www.kanwin.org/
Greenlight Family Services: https://greenlightfamilyservices.org/

More details can be found under our linktree.

Female Researcher: Missy Cummings

By Elizabeth Karagiannes, Representatives Manager

“What does that make me?”

Missy Cummings has had quite the life story so far as a fighter pilot, researcher, and senior professor, but one question that has always been a constant is: “What does that make me?”

A blanket question without the proper context given, but a question that has its origins from when she became one of the first female fighter pilots in the United States Navy. The best of the best are selected to carry the title of fighter pilot in the Navy, and unfortunately in the 1980’s women were rarely granted access to it. When Cummings showed up, she was far from welcomed in what was considered a boys club. Just one of what I would assume to be many challenging interactions with her fellow colleagues took place when she showed up to the squadron on the first day during a golf tournament. As a middle grade officer, she walked down with another female officer to the pitch where they were promptly thrown “a couple of Hooters uniforms” and were told by her colleagues they could “drive the beer carts.” Reflecting on this moment Missy Cummings said, “I threw the Hooters outfits back at them. I wasn't going to put up with it. I didn’t feel like I needed to impress them and I think they resented it. They still do” (Cummings 2020).

The friction between her and her male colleagues did not stop there, unsurprisingly, but it was when she was drinking with one of these colleagues that she heard that pivotal question mentioned above. In a moment of drunken stupor this man said to her, “I know it’s not politically correct to say this, but I really don’t like flying with women. If you can do what I do, if you can drop bombs and strate targets as well as I can, what does that make me?” (Cummings 2012).

Now I can say for one, that would make him petty, but Cummings had a much more profound look on the question when it came to pursuing her later academic career in autonomous vehicles and the ethical, and social impact of autonomous technologies. After receiving her B.S. in Mathematics from the US Naval Academy, M.S. in Space Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate school, and her Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia, Cummings went on to become a senior professor at the Duke University Pratt School of Engineering, The Duke Institute of Brain Sciences, and the Director of Humans and Autonomy Laboratory and Duke Robotics. It is at Duke that she conducts her research interests. Besides escaping the battle of being an unwelcome female fighter pilot, Cummings ultimately decided to go into research after seeing the flaws in aviation which resulted in 36 people she knew within three years die because of aircraft design flaws.

However, Cummings was very determined and focused on what she wanted to research in aviation, and that was Human Supervisory Control. The infamous question, “what does that make me?”, is what fueled this determined passion. The question came into focus after seeing two important advances in aviation technology; the first one being the Mode One approach featured on a F-18, which allows the aircraft to land itself on a carrier and will always do so more accurately than a pilot; the second being the Tomahawk Missile which could be launched from any carrier and will always hit it’s target within a meter, something that no human could ever do. Seeing these two advanced pieces of technology start to overtake her responsibilities in the military led Cummings to sympathize with her male colleagues as she began to wonder “what does that make me?”.

Unlike her male counterpart who pouted at the thought of becoming less special or even obsolete, Cummings decided to put herself in a place where she could be invaluable and part of the future. It was at this point that her controversial and popular project, Micro Aerial Vehicle Visualization of Unknown Environments (MAV-VUE), came into fruition. In this project Cummings and her students created a UVA (unmanned aerial vehicle) where the whole cockpit was distilled onto an iPhone. To give some perspective on how efficiently and elegantly this UVA worked, random individuals off the street were given three minutes to learn how to work the cockpit. After which these random individuals were able to fly the UVA, find the targets they were supposed to take pictures of with the UVA, and then land the UVA. That may not seem that impressive, but let me put it this way, Cummings took a job that requires years of training and millions of dollars spent for that training into a job that anyone off the street could learn in three minutes. If you thought her male colleagues were upset when she showed up as one of the first female fighter pilots, then you can only imagine the amount of hate mail she received after releasing the findings of MAV-VUE. Not only could women fly the machines, now anyone could. A very satisfying way indeed to get back at those co-workers, but this was not the reason Cummings was pursuing Human Supervisory Control for.

While Cummings has a plethora of traits and accomplishments, the one that stands out the most is her boldness and willingness to say and do what is right, no matter the backlash.

Cummings' prominent goal in all her research was to find the correct balance of human and machine. To her it is not about replacing humans, but instead finding a symbiotic relationship between the two. An important part of Cummings research is not only progressing technology, but also seeing how this technology impacts society and its’ ethical ramifications. The perspective that Cummings has is that there are certain tasks such as flying, landing, and aiming that require a lot of repeatability and precision where machines reign supreme, as they are not tethered to neuromuscular lag or bathroom breaks. Then there are tasks that humans overtake such as knowledge based situations which require un-encountered scenarios that demand creative thinking. Therefore, an example of automated technology being used not to replace humans, but instead redefine their role could be in the medical field. The situation Cummings uses as an example is a medic helicopter being controlled by an iPhone to fly, land, and pick up a wounded soldier, have that soldier kept stable by an automated critical care system, until teams of highly trained and specialized trauma surgeons can save the soldier through innovative and trained knowledge. Humans aren’t replaced, they are just put into new roles.

Besides breaking down boundaries and being an instrumental contributor to the automated technology community, Cummings is an outspoken powerful woman in STEM. While Cummings has a plethora of traits and accomplishments, the one that stands out the most is her boldness and willingness to say and do what is right, no matter the backlash. Besides her career as a fighter pilot and researcher, Cummings has spent a great amount of her time criticizing and educating the public and congress on the dangers of AI, specifically in vehicles. Whether it was publicly criticizing Elon Musk or speaking in front of congress, Cummings has stayed true to her well-backed research and realistic viewpoint of where technology should be in our lives. She stands as a poignant example of what it means to be a woman in STEM, and If I am to leave you with anything today it is Missy Cummings own words on what it means to be a confident, strong woman in STEM: “Even as a senior professor in engineering, I deal with sexism. In fact, I think I deal with it more now as a senior professor than I did as a fighter pilot.

I can get mad about it, or I can just choose to keep going. I let my work speak for itself. Keep having a positive attitude and just keep pushing forward instead of ruminating over what you know is unfair treatment” (Cummings 2020).

Thank You for Reading

Chief Digital Editors: Barien Gad and Angela Petrone

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