Among Illinois Tech’s lineage of innovators and problem solvers, Rohit Prasad (graduated in 1999 with a master of science in electrical engineering) holds a very unique distinction as the Vice President and Head Scientist of the ubiquitous online retailer Amazon’s virtual voice-responding assistant, Alexa.

Professor Edward Kraus of the Illinois Tech Chicago-Kent College of Law is not without fault. He operates the Vaccine Injury Litigation Clinic as a clinical professor, teaching classes and hosting students as interns or clinicians at his practice. Investigating the situation, I interviewed Professor Kraus twice in the last two weeks to shed some light on both the law and the man behind the Vaccine Injury Litigation Clinic.

Prior to the Darsh Wasan lecture on November 12, TechNews members David Arnold, Grace Arnold, and Ethan Castro were given the opportunity to interview Rohit Prasad. Prasad is best known for his work on Amazon Alexa and currently works as the Vice President and Head Scientist on Alexa Artificial Intelligence.

When we started SeekNow, we wanted to have the app released by November 2018. It was a far stretch, because both Prince Hodonou and I knew we had a rough semester coming our way. But we took it as a challenge.

With the Kaplan Institute officially open as of the October 25 ribbon-cutting ceremony, no doubt many Illinois Tech students, staff, and faculty members are curious as to the layout and operational functions of the building. Thus, guided tours of the new building were held the following day with the building’s architect, John Ronan, as well as the Executive Director of the Kaplan Institute, Howard Tullman. Through these tours, the two laid out many of the building’s core design features, as well as their visions for the space to be used by all Illinois Tech students to pursue innovative ideas and collaborative synergy.

The first new academic building on Illinois Tech’s Mies Campus in over 40 years, the Ed Kaplan Family Institute for Innovation and Tech Entrepreneurship (Kaplan Institute) officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and press conference on the afternoon of Thursday, October 25.

The most recent installment of the Future of Higher Education forums was held on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 23 in the MTCC Ballroom, packed to capacity with Illinois Tech students, staff, and faculty, with a follow-up forum repeating the same process on Tuesday, October 30 in Morris Hall at the Downtown Campus.

Although for many it may be far too early to start seriously planning out the summer of 2019, the Lewis College of Human Sciences has already been advertising some very unique opportunities for interested Illinois Tech students: faculty-led study abroad opportunities.

In approaching TechNews for a potential article idea, African Student Organization (ASO) Service and Outreach Chairperson, as well as Resident Advisor (RA) for the second floor of Fowler Hall within McCormick Student Village (MSV), Bizimungu Obedi relayed to our paper the rather dynamic story of how he more or less accidentally set up a partnership between ASO and St. James Church (located just north of Keating Sports Center at 2907 S Wabash Ave).

On the afternoon of Saturday, October 20, Union Board hosted the 14th annual Pumpkin Launch, which occurred at 1 p.m. on Ed Glancy Field. Two teams competed this year: Illinois Tech Robotics (ITR) as well as the Society of Physics Students (SPS).