Illinois ITE attended the 7th Annual STEMapalooza Expo hosted by Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana. This event occurred on Saturday, March 24 from 10:00 am to 2:00 PM at the Friendship Center in Country Club Hills. The goal of STEMapalooza is to inspire girls to explore the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) by providing hands-on activities for the 400 girls who attend. ILITE has collaborated with Girl Scouts for the past few years and hopes to continue inspiring young girls to pursue STEM subjects.

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 and Monica Shei and ITE member Bryce Wegner 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 2, 2018 at the University of Illinois - Chicago campus. 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, as well as representatives from seven 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:

AECOM
Baxter & Woodman
Clark Dietz
Hanson Professional Services, Inc
HDR
Jacobs
Lochmueller Group

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! 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!