CHICAGO, Ill. – At the end of the Spring semester, Illinois Institute of Technology’s Interprofessional Projects Program (IPRO) announced the Spring’s IPRO Day award recipients. Seven different Tech student-athletes were part of Innovation Showcase winning projects.
Four women’s volleyball players (Irena Grauzinis, Claire Fraeyman, Reya Green, and Cassie Hansen) and one men’s volleyball player (Allan Huang) were part of the 10-person “Science of Volleyball” IPRO. Looking to improve Illinois Tech’s volleyball programs and asking the questions of how volleyball players can improve on the court and avoid injury, the group created a virtual volleyball information database, designed a motion tracking system using Kinect, and developed an active ankle brace.
"We are the pioneers that set the foundation now for a smart-technology collegiate athletic program to come - perhaps even the ones to fund it years from now,” said Huang. “When we look back to see how far we've come, starting from just an IPRO that sparked our curiosity, it goes to show that the smallest things can become the greatest gifts."
Vignesh Rajagopal (Men’s Basketball) and Issac Gewarges (Men’s Cross Country and Track and Field) were two of nine working on the “Developing an Anti-Gravity Interferometer” project, which took a look at Albert Einstein’s equivalence principle and the idea of antimatter. The group setup an apparatus to draw conclusions about the behavior of antimatter.
“This project was great not only its helping me learn about the amount of attention to detail that goes into collaborative projects, but also in helping me develop leadership skills,” said Rajagopal. “As the project manager, it was valuable to interact with classmates from varying backgrounds. At a more fundamental level, it was insane to me how big the ramifications of this project would be for the physics world.”
The IPRO Program consists of student teams from the sophomore through graduate levels, collaborating with sponsoring corporations, nonprofit groups, government agencies, and entrepreneurs to examine challenges and issues pertaining to the group’s interests and fields of study. Held each year at the end of each semester, IPRO Day allows the Illinois Tech community and invited guests the opportunity to speak with each group about their projects. Teams are evaluated by a panel of professionals, faculty and graduate students to determine award winners.