Illinois ITE attended the 6th Annual STEMapalooza Expo hosted by Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana. This event occurred on Saturday, March 25 from 10:00 am to 2:00 PM at the Friendship Center in Country Club Hills. The goal of STEPapalooza was to inspire girls to explore the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Approximately 30 organizations attended the event as Girl Scouts circulated to participate in hands-on activities that relate to STEM.

Illinois ITE provided laptops with the traffic control game “Gridlock Buster” available to play. Gridlock Buster is an online traffic control game developed by the University of Minnesota and applies concepts vital to traffic engineering. The game incorporates the concept of delay and queue in a fun and easily understandable way. Players must control the traffic signals to ensure maximum capacity through the intersection. Illinois ITE was able to explain the role of traffic engineers to both the Girl Scouts and the attending parents. Illinois ITE would like to thank the organizers of this fun event and looks forward to future collaborations with the Girl Scouts of Great Chicago and Northwest Indiana.

Thank you to ITE board members Josh Harris, Ashley Hochstatter, and Monica Shei for volunteering for this event!

Feel free to play Gridlock Buster here: http://www.its.umn.edu/GridlockBuster/

The Illinois Section of ITE (ILITE) held the annual Student Day Career Fair + Luncheon on Friday, March 3, 2017 at the Illinois Institute of Technology campus in Chicago. Student Day is a career fair and networking event targeted at Illinois transportation students and companies.

This year, the morning career fair session was attended by students from several Illinois universities, out of state universities including Wisconsin and Kansas, as well as representatives from eleven companies. Students and employers were encouraged to discuss opportunities from full-time, part-time, and even internships during the event. Thanks goes out to all of the companies who attended this year:

· Civiltech Engineering, Inc.

· DAMA Consultants

· Gewalt Hamilton Associates, Inc

· AES Services

· TranSmart Technologies, Inc

· Christopher B. Burke Engineering

· Clark Dietz

· AECOM

· Cambridge Systematics

· CH2M Hill

· ESI Consultants

· TranSystems

We were even visited by MWITE Student Affairs Director John Davis this year to provide more information on the upcoming Midwestern ITE conference in Madison and being an ITE member.

As part of the pre-registration for the ILITE Student Day Career Fair, students were provided the opportunity for a free résumé review by Rachel Cantor Fogarty of RC Associates, LLC. Students electronically submitted résumés and received comments back from Rachel the week before the ILITE Student Day Career Fair, giving them plenty of time to make updates before meeting with potential employers. Many thanks to Rachel for another year of this free service!

After the career fair portion of students and professionals sat down for lunch where they could talk more informally. Students and professionals were encouraged to sit with each other so that each of the two sides could have representation in the discussions at each table.

The Illinois Section of ITE would like to sincerely thank all of the students and professionals that joined us for this year’s Student Day event! We would also like to thank Rachel Cantor Fogarty of RC Associates for providing complimentary résumé reviews for the students. The Section always welcomes any comments and suggestions about the Student Day event that may help us improve the event next year and beyond. See you next year!