Illinois Tech ACM-W members at the Anita Borg Conference.

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is the oldest and broadest professional society for those of us in the computing professions. We just concluded the Annual Conference of the ACM Special Interest Group for Information Technology Education (ACM SIGITE 2020) where ITM faculty and students presented nine papers and posters. Participation in ACM “offers critical benefits that empower computing students who are committed to self-improvement and success in their chosen fields” as well as opportunities to network, learn, and grow. For a limited time, ACM is offering FREE one-year student memberships! (Student membership is usually $19.) Benefits of membership include:

• Communications of the ACM – the trusted source for computing professionals, features emerging technologies, IT trends, news, opinion, research and practical applications
• XRDS – published by and for students – featuring research highlights, opinions, upcoming events, and grant/funding opportunities
• Custom collection of online books, videos and courses by SkillSoft covering the most in-demand skills, software, and technologies for computing professionals
• ACM TechTalks – webinars featuring the most sought-after speakers on today’s hottest computing topics
• ACM ByteCast – podcast conversations with researchers, practitioners, and innovators who are at the intersection of computing research and practice
• And many more

So do it! Join today at https://www.acm.org/studentjoin. It’s free for a year. And while you’re at it, interact with your fellow Illinois Tech ACM members through one of our ACM student chapters: Illinois Tech ACM and Illinois Tech Association for Computing Machinery-Women (ACM-W). For more information on ACM student membership, see their brochure at https://itm.iit.edu/data/ACM-brochure-student.pdf.

Happy September 1st or in COVID-19 times… March 185th! We’re pleased to announce that Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) has their #WiCyS2021 applications for scholarships, grants, and fellowship awards OPEN! This opportunity is what WiCyS lives for… to pay it forward ❤️
Apply here: www.wicys.org/scholarships-grants-and-fellowship-awards

Free is always good, and beyond our Microsoft DreamSpark Premium there are a variety of free tools available to students such as Autodesk 3D Software including AutoCad, RipTiger Software, and even professional prototyping software such as Axure. See the full list of freebies as well as student discounts at https://slickdeals.net/f/8500607-2016-students-freebies-offers-software-membership-free-more.

How much space do you have on your MyIIT Google Drive? If your answer was anything less than infinite, you were wrong. According to an announcement on the Google for Education Blog, Drive for Education is available to all Google Apps for Education accounts at no charge and includes Unlimited storage. No more worrying about how much space you have left or about which user needs more gigabytes. Drive for Education supports individual files up to 5TB in size.

We need students to help with the 2015 ACM Special Interest Group in IT Education (SIGITE)/Research in Information Technology (RIIT) Annual Conference, September 30th through October 3rd. The Conference location is at DePaul University in the loop, on the eighth floor of the DePaul Center at 1 E. Jackson Blvd. This is an 8-minute ride on the Green Line, getting off at Adams & Wabash.

SIGITE is the leading academic conference in the information technology field. IIT School of Applied Technology is a Platinum Sponsor for this year’s Conference and we have three student research papers being presented. We would really like to see IIT ITM well represented in pokies this effort. For additional details and to sign up to volunteer, please go to http://www.itm.iit.edu/SIGITE15 .

Thanks! We know we can rely on ITM students to pitch in and show DePaul how committed we are!

Frustrated with the same old questions, Professor David Lydic rips open his shirt in the middle of class…

Dr. Lisa Wade, writing in the Sociological Images blog, pretty much nails things college professors hate: Professors’ Pet Peeves. And of course, all of your faculty are tempted every term to follow the lead of David Lydic of Austin Community College as shown in the picture at the right… Anyway, if you take heed of Dr. Wade’s cogent advice, we can all have a more pleasant semester!

The IIT School of Applied Technology new student breakfast kicked off the new school year on August 16th in the lobby of Perlstein Hall. All of the ITM full-time faculty as well as a substantial representation of our adjunct faculty were on on hand to meet and greet our new students. An extensive photo gallery of the event can be viewed on Facebook.

Gamma Nu Eta invites you to a Halloween Party at The Bog on Friday, November 2 from 8 pm – 1 am. It is free and and open to ALL IIT students. It is a costume party and it includes free food and non-alcoholic beverages (there is a cash bar). There are prizes for the best costumes. Sponsored by Gamma Nu Eta, BOG Events Fund & SAF. Questions – ubbogvp@gmail.com. (Photos are now on Facebook…)

Our own Information Technology and Management Organization challenges IIT students to learn, build and create cloud infrastructure and applications in an event they have named IIT on da Cloud. In this four-day event open to all students at IIT, students can learn about cloud computing, build the infrastructure of a private cloud, and create applications that can run on it. Recently, cloud computing has been used as a popular marketing term to attract a target market, which has led to many misconceptions and misunderstandings about what cloud computing actually is. ITMO’s goal is to help educate students about cloud computing and give them hands-on experience using this technology. Rumor has it that there may be a team competitive aspect to the event! For more information and to register, visit the IIT on da Cloud website at http://itm.iit.edu/iitCloud/.

Congratulations to the Information Technology and Management Organization (aka ITMO) for placing third–really second; ask an ITMO member to explain why–in the IIT Pumpkin Launch! You can now see the photos on Facebook…