IIT - Inventing the Future

This past Saturday, IIT held Women's Day 2009 (WD09) in The McCormick Tribune Campus Center. A total of 31 young women from Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota joined us with their parents for a total count of 66 guests. A variety of hands-on sessions were held, allowing these 10th- and 11th-grade students to explore their areas of interest in the fields of math, science, engineering and business.

Sessions included:

Going the Distance with Airplanes

Led by current IIT students from the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), guests used principles of aerospace design to build airplanes out of plastic straws and packing tape.

The Basics of "Sweet" Sound Structures

Of equal importance to both Civil Engineers and Architects, current students taught the basics of building a sound structure using "sweet" materials such as marshmallows, toothpicks and straws.

The Marketing of Designing New Products

This session focused on two key aspects of the marketer's job: product development and positioning. Guests, working in groups, designed a new edible product.

Physics & The Optical World We Live In

The most popular session of the day, Julia (Physics, Class of 2012) guided guests through experiments involving optical devices to demonstrate how they really work and how they affect our daily lives.

Computation in Everyday Life - I and II

The Department of Computer Science's Senior Lecturer Matt Bauer and Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Cindy Hood led these sessions, which focused on how we already use advanced ways of computational thinking every day, and how that makes us all computer scientists.

Guests were also treated to complimentary continental breakfast and lunch. In addition to the sessions, we had a student panel, an optional parents' chat, and an optional campus tour. The weather was beautiful, and the event was a huge success.

Take a look at our gallery for photos from WD09.