The culmination of the fall semester’s Interprofessional Projects (IPRO) Program was held on IPRO Day on November 17 when 60 IPRO teams exhibited their semester-long work throughout Hermann Hall. Dedicated panels of workplace professionals, faculty, and graduate students spent the day judging the IPRO projects, and voting on the best exhibits.

The IPRO Program would like to thank all of the students, faculty, Illinois Tech partners, guests, judges, and sponsors for making this the best IPRO Day yet.

Following the exhibit judging and lunch, IPRO Day participants gathered in the Hermann Hall Ballroom for the closing award ceremony, where the winners of the Dean’s Choice, and the Top Tracks were announced.

Dean’s Choice Awards:

• Lewis College of Human Sciences: 9C. SVN Team: Retractable Sitting Volleyball Net – A new net system for Sitting Volleyball, an adaptive version of volleyball for people with disabilities.

• Stuart School of Business: 5C. Passbooks – Passbooks gives students and educators the textbooks they want. Students can easily select their readings from a digital database by chapter, slashing the extra cost of buying a full textbook.

• Armour College of Engineering: 7D. Autonomous Steel Corrosion Inspection Optimization [ASCIO] – Exploring solutions to maximize the maintenance cost effectiveness through inspection of steel bridge structures. An autonomous active and passive solution that aims to improve current bridge inspection techniques by providing inspection agencies, governmental offices or private operators a set of tools that reports current performance of steel structures as well as when they are expected to fail.

• School of Architecture: 6D. The Young Farm – Recombined: Pembroke Township, IL is one of the country’s poorest communities, suffering from a lack of infrastructure to sustain economic growth. Using an existing plot of land, students designed a recombinant farm with the goal of attracting economic opportunities such as tourism and local crop production.

• College of Science: 2B. WePro: A portable kiosk that presents a virtual reality sneak peak of the Field Museum in high traffic tourist areas of Chicago.

• School of Applied Technology: 8E. BOSSA Platform: The Bluetooth Sensor Array, is a platform that uses sensor technology to solve real world problems (like finding the indoor location of an emergency caller in a tall building). The team developed smartphone applications, BLE firmware, databases, location-calculating algorithms, mapping code and BlueTooth sniffers to meet the challenge.

Track Winners

Track 1: Illinois Tech + Local Community Innovation): 

Winner  – 1C. En Mi Cuadra Pilsen La Cultura Vive
Our vision is to contextualize murals within architecture and produce narratives that discuss the role of community murals and architecture in the Latinx community of Pilsen.

Winner – 2F. Biomimicry at the Field Museum
A prototype based on the challenge statement “How might we teach 5th and 6th graders about biomimicry using props and artifacts at the Field Museum?”. The solution was an interactive activity called “Plant Your Feet Into Biomimicry” where students on field trips to the Field Museum can learn about how plants mimic characteristics of other plants in nature to benefit themselves and better their chances of survival in certain environments.

Honorable Mentions
2C. STEM-W: Bringing a set of educational tools and STEM learning to students who have access to The Field Museum but are unable to utilize its recourses due to lack of funding through their schools. The team created STEMCase, a portable STEM experience, which includes scientific tools, (such as microscopes,) and a curriculum built to enhance teachers’ lessons and students’ STEM knowledge.

2A. YouBEEdia: The Chicago Bee Library lacks technology and marketing to attract the community, especially children and teens. This Library also lacks motivation for youth to consider STEAM careers. As STEAM students, we are using our backgrounds and investigating other YOUmedia centers and assessing community needs to plan an effective YOUmedia program at the Bee.

Track 3: Innovation: Better Connected

Winner – 3C. Innovation Cube
A company that uses a new internet platform that connects inventors with consultants (engineers, patent lawyers, advertisers etc.).

Track 4: Innovation for Sustainability

Winner – 4A. Innovation of Motor Design
Increasing the packing density of copper wires in electric motors to reduce the cost of electric motors

Honorable Mention – 4D. VaultEye
Improving underground monitoring of electrical vaults for damaging or hazardous conditions (increased water levels, corrosive materials, smoke/poisonous/explosive gases) without putting the safety of vault workers in danger.

Track 5: Innovative Explorations + Startups

Winner – 5D. Mobility Ramp Improvements
Making mobility ramps, lighter, easier to move, and handle, with a focus on cost efficiency.