THE DAILY ILLINI
THURSDAY September 6, 2018
80˚ | 65˚
The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
WWW.DAILYILLINI.COM
Vol. 148 Issue 4
Innovation center welcomes director
Political groups spur voter registration
BY THERESE POKORNEY
Students encouraged to cast votes early
ASSISTANT DAYTIME NEWS EDITOR
William Sanders, Electrical and Computer Engineering head, has been named interim director of the Discovery Partners Institute, a new world-class innovation center led by the University System. The DPI is an interdisciplinary research institute in Chicago and is a branch of the Illinois Innovation Network. According to the DPI website, the program will promote entrepreneurship by empowering inventors. This year, Illinois approved $500 million in capital funding to develop the center, which is expected to house cutting-edge research. The state also used the money to create the INN, a virtually connected network of regional hubs that will spread the institute’s impact across Illinois. Sanders directed two campus-wide research centers during his 20 years at Urbana-Champaign, serving as founding director of the Information Trust Institute and director of the Coordinated Science Laboratory. “These accomplishments of innovation, leadership and creativity are what made Sanders the ideal candidate for the position,” said Jan Dennis, assistant director for University relations, in an email. “At the Information Trust Institute, he built the institute from the ground up, growing it to about 100 faculty members from 28 departments,” she said. “This enabled ITI to create interdisciplinary research teams to address important societal-scale problems related to cybersecurity and trust.” Dennis said Sanders will work closely as a member of the leadership team, with the chancellors, provosts and deans of all three universities in the Illinois system. Edward Seidel, vice president for economic development and innovation, will continue to help oversee development of DPI and IIN, Dennis said. Sanders will be in charge of launching and operating the DPI, as well as designing initiatives to accelerate job creation and economic growth through research. Sanders will also lead all facets of planning and operations. Sanders did not respond for comment at the time of publication. tpokor3@dailyillini.com
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BY HEATHER SCHLITZ ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
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KAREN LIU THE DAILY ILLINI
Charmaine Gutierrez helps Aaron Brannen shave his face during one of her morning shifts. Some students with disabilities on campus choose to hire their own personal assistants to help them with their daily tasks.
Supported independence
The people behind independent living for students with disabilities BY KAREN LIU NEWS EDITOR
Every morning, as the sun hits his eyes, Aaron Brannen is ready to start his day. But there is one catch — he needs to wait for his personal assistant to help him out of bed. Brannen, senior in Media and former Illini media employee, was diagnosed with cerebral palsy and has compromised motor skills due to complications at birth. Like many other students with disabilities on campus, Brannen relies on the help of his PAs to carry out many daily tasks. Brannen currently has
a team of five PAs, all students at the University. They help him get out of bed, get dressed, use the bathroom, shave, shower and any other needs he might have. Alexis Halcomb, senior in FAA, has been Brannen’s PA for the last year and a half. The two went to high school together along with the same church. Halcomb said in an email that while she never planned on taking on a part-time job in college, she agreed to help when Brannen reached out to her. “It helps me stay responsible and keep an organized
schedule,” she said. “I also believe it was also the right thing to do because I know if I was in his position, I would want someone who I was familiar with to help me with daily tasks over a stranger.” Halcomb said it was extremely challenging to get the hang of the job at first, especially with tasks such as transferring Brannen in and out of his wheelchair and finding the willpower to wake up for a morning shift. But working with Brannen helped Halcomb learn about different types of accessibility facilities in buildings, rooms and other places on
New medical training center opens to students BY MADALYN VELISARIS STAFF WRITER
Three years after the $10 million gift from University alumnus Bill DiSomma, the Jump Simulation Center is now open for medical training for Carle Illinois College of Medicine students. The center is home to several new technologies, including a simulated operating room and simulation mannequins, according to the Jump Simulation Center’s website. Rashid Bashir, executive associate dean and chief diversity officer of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine and professor in Engineering, said he hopes the Jump Simulation Center will expose students to a realistic medical environment. “It is like a mini, mock hospital where medical students can come and get trained on various medical procedures through the use of simulation tools and simulation environments and also simulated patients,” Bashir said. Artificial patients range across all genders and ages. The mannequins have technologies placed in them to simulate different medical conditions, so students can gain practice with procedures and exams, he said. “The priority is for the Carle Illinois College of Medicine students, but then after that we have a
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campus. Halcomb said seeing the difficulties of getting around on campus using a wheelchair makes her more aware of the importance of accessibility as an element of spaces. The job also brought the two long-time friends closer together. Halcomb said the two talk about their lives every day and give each other advice on the problems they face. “We both can tell when either one of us is having a bad day, and just being able to talk about that with each
Naomi Canino, intern with Illinois Public Interest Research Group and junior in ACES, nervously approached students by the Alma Mater with a clipboard in hand last week, trying to register students to vote before the November midterms. “It was a great time, but mainly students weren’t interested, and I think that’s because they were rushing to classes,” Canino said. “I joined PIRG because I felt like what they were doing in getting more students out to vote was a great thing I wanted to be a part of.” Illinois PIRG is one of the many organizations injecting itself into campus life and attempting to get college students, well-known for having a low voting turnout rate, to register to vote before the November midterms. According to Hadley Tuthill, campus organizer for Illinois PIRG, the organization registered around 2,000 students prior to the 2016 election. Canino thinks she registered 20 or 30 students during her clipboarding sessions. In a meeting that the University YMCA convened, representatives from seven organizations gathered to discuss their different strategies for boosting voter turnout in the November midterms, including hosting tables outside of residence halls, using online voter registration tools and going over the nuts and bolts of how to effi-
QUENTIN SHAW THE DAILY ILLINI
The Jump Simulation Center officially opened its doors to students on campus on July 27. The center offers medical students realistic settings and equipment to help them get used to working in a hospital environment.
governing committee that we have set up and any entity on campus and beyond that wants to partner,” Bashir said. He said those who wish to use the center’s servic-
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es can put in a request that faculty will review. Kesh Kesavadas, director of the health care engineering systems center and professor in Engineering, said the Jump Simulation Cen-
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ter can be used by students of all majors to develop and test new technologies. “The simulation center can also be used by engineers to try new technologies. Like a new sensor, or
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something like that,” Kesavadas said. “They can see how it can be figured inside a hospital.” The Jump Simulation SEE SIMULATION | 3A
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