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INTO THE SWEET 16 No. 13-seeded Illinois volleyball advances after four-set victory over Marquette SPORTS, 1B
MONDAY December 9, 2013
THE DAILY ILLINI The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Washington, Ill., residents push forward to holidays BY CLAIRE HETTINGER STAFF WRITER
The morning weather in Washington, Ill., was fine, except Zach Schildt thought it looked like it was going to rain. The 21-year-old left his home on Sunday, Nov. 17 and drove to work at 7:45 a.m., and in his absence, a 170 mph wind ravaged his hometown and tore his home into pieces a little more than a week before the holiday season began. For any of Washington’s residents who lived in one of the 1,000 homes destroyed or damaged in their town, it is hard to imagine what the holiday season may bring now that they no longer have a place to hang their stockings. However, the season is famous for its miracles, and the stories from Washington are no exception. Nancy McMullen, another Washington resident, learned about the tornado warning when she was shopping at the local Dollar General. At first, she stayed put, planning to wait out the storm. In another part of town, Schildt was working at Todd’s Service Center, the local auto service business, which has a police scanner. He heard the radio buzz about a tornado touching down in a field somewhere in Washington. He grabbed his phone and texted his friends to tell them about the approaching funnel. As McMullen idly waited, she changed her mind. Desensitized by previous false alarms, she didn’t expect that outside, conditions were perfect for a tornado to form at any moment. She wanted to make it home before the hail started. Considering the looming heavy rain, she avoided the crowded main roads and instead chose to drive through the subdivision behind the store. As she traveled homeward, she saw the clouds forming into a tornado. She watched it touch down, growing larger and larger until it was a massive funnel. “All I could see in my mirror was that tornado,” McMullen said. About a minute after the police report, Schildt looked outside to see a “giant, huge, swirling, crazy looking — I can’t even describe it” storm cloud approaching. He said it sounded like a lawnmower-chainsaw-huge-train approaching in the distance. That’s when Schildt decided
BRIAN YU THE DAILY ILLINI
Dave Boutcher, a senior software engineering at Akuna Capital, answers a question as part of a panel at the Big Data Summit. The conference was held at the I Hotel Conference Center in Champaign on Friday.
University takes advantage of growth in Big Data field BY MARYCATE MOST STAFF WRITER
A message pops up on a smartphone screen: “Twitter would like to use your current location.” At that moment, with the simple tap of the screen, the owner of the phone has become a contributor to big data — huge sources of information that scientists and companies compile to use in their research, marketing plans and business strategies. On Friday, the University’s Research Park hosted the Big Data Summit at Champaign’s I Hotel, which gathered leaders in big data to discuss future applications and analyses in this field. “The purpose of this event is to really start a discussion with companies who are on the Research Park and with other companies ... about how they can utilize big data and data analytics,” said Laura Bleill, assistant director of external relations at the University’s Research Park. Big data has become an increasingly popular topic in science and research in recent years, said Michael Welge, Research Park big data executive-in-residence. In the past two years, 90 percent of world data was created, which calls for more data storage and analytics, Welge said. “There’s been data analysis going on for 25 years,” Welge said. “The data set sizes because of the numbers of sensors placed in the field and the number of applications on your phone are producing vast amounts of data
PHOTO COURTESY OF ZACH SCHILDT
The Schildt family home was destroyed during the Nov. 17 tornado that devastated the area. Only the front wall now stands. he had to leave. There was no place for him to take cover at the garage. He figured since he was dead anyway if the tornado was coming at him, he would try and find someplace safer to hide. Anxiety raced through McMullen’s veins as she raced the tornado home. She noticed the funnel was heading in her direction, so she double-checked the intersection ahead of her and ran the red light. Schildt ran out into the street in panic and tried to get one of the passing cars to give him a lift. Nobody stopped. In the distance, he saw the flashing lights of a police vehicle, so he ran to it and the officer unlocked the doors and let him in. McMullen made it into her driveway and, still thinking the tornado was heading toward her,
rushed to the front door, and her husband let her inside. The subdivision which Nancy had driven through mere minutes before was destroyed. “My husband and I decided I missed (the tornado) by a minute and a half,” she said. “Everything around where I was driving in the neighborhood is just total mass destruction. There are no homes — it was in the direct path of the tornado.” Schildt’s home, the only one he’s ever lived in, is in a similarly destroyed neighborhood — with his father inside at the time of the storm. The policeman dropped Schildt off at Hardee’s, where he then immediately tried to contact his family. His calls would not go through, and he spent the next 10 minutes deciding what to do. As soon as he remembered
his mother was right across the street at the church, he ran to make sure she was okay. Schildt’s panicking mother explained that she had been talking to his father just before the phone went dead. His last words were, “It’s coming toward the house.” In an attempt to see if his dad was OK, Schildt and his mother drove toward their neighborhood in a friend’s car, but had to turn back because downed power lines made it too dangerous to drive through the residential area. Back at the church, they waited for some word from him. His dad showed up 40 minutes later in their neighbor’s car. He informed them that everything was gone, but Schildt didn’t
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BY ZILA RENFRO STAFF WRITER
John A. Rogers, a University professor of materia ls science and engineering, is the recipient of this year’s S m it h s o n i a n M a g a z i ne American Ingenuity Award for the category of physical sciences. The Smithsonian M aga zi ne a nd Rogers’ colleagues have called his research in the past year “revolutionary.” Rogers is responsible for a host of different inventions, many of which contribute to the medical industry. His most-noted brainchild this year is his research on flexible electronics. Turning his cell phone around in his hands, Rogers explained that the inner workings of a phone depend on a series of silicon chips. The silicon is a hard, rigid material, which is why the phone is also rigid. “For a phone, this kind of geometry is fine,” Rogers said. “But if you want to take this kind of (electronic) functionality and use it to study the body or deliver electrical stimulation to the body ... it’s not a very good shape because the body is soft and textured.” While one of the solutions could have been to use stretchy plastics or rubbers for medical devices, silicon is still a much better conductor of electricity.
BY ELEANOR BLACK STAFF WRITER
HASAN KHALID THE DAILY ILLINI
Fast-food workers around the country are on strike again in 100 cities with supporters rallying in 100 more last Thursday, marking over a year of sustained unrest among low-wage workers in the US. This time members of the Central Illinois community will rally in support of their effort to improve their lives, known as the ‘Fight for $15.’ The group gathered at McDonald’s on Neil and Kirby in Champaign at 5 p.m. on Thursday. everybody, it would help get the economy going again.” University physics professor George Gollin, who is running for Congress in Illinois’ 13th district, also discussed the larger econom-
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ic impact low wages have. “When you do a real full accounting of things, what you find is that to get cheaper hamburgers, cheaper goods, we’re having to put tax revenues into
important programs like food stamps and other forms of aid,” he said. “You pay either right there at the counter when you buy some-
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that describe behavior and characteristics — that can be very valuable to companies.” In the Research Park, companies have started to use these massive data supplies to make their businesses more lucrative. For example, Anheuser-Busch uses its lab in Research Park to analyze consumer habits and trends in order to create more effective marketing plans or to predict the number of products consumed by each region of the country, said Bud Analytics Lab Director Rafael Pinterich. “With big data we can go into a deeper relationship with our
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Therefore, Rogers and his fellow researchers perfected ultra-thin silicon, changing the silicon material from rigid to stretchy, which better suits the body. Rogers’ ideas for how ultra-thin silicon can be used in medical devices are extensive. “With a pacemaker, you just have one wire connecting into the tissue,” Rogers said. “But if you could wrap the whole heart with an integrated circuit, then you could pulse it and stimulate it in a much more complex and sophisticated way.” Rogers is a lready i m pl e m e nt i n g f l ex i bl e electronics commercially. A company called MC10, founded by Rogers, worked with Reebok to release an electronic skullcap this past July. Athletes who play contact sports can wear the form-fitting skullcap under their helmets, and a stretchy electronic inside the cap can measure and record the physical severity of any hits to the head. Besides flexible electronics, the American Ingenuity Award also recognizes Rogers for his development of medical devices that not only stretch and flex, but also dissolve. Rogers foresees this being useful, for example, for when medical devices are no longer
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1. Hockey fans watch the game in Canada. 2. Hockey fans tweet about the hockey game and Budweiser. 3. Budweiser analyzes vast amounts of data gathered from tweets and pinpoints the moments when most people are drinking Budweiser: after a goal is scored. 4. Budweiser creates marketing campaign focusing on the red light that flashes when a goal is scored.
UI professor Rogers awarded for ‘revolutionary’ research
C-U workers protest for higher wages Despite the cold, ChampaignUrbana community members stood outside the McDonald’s, located at 1605 S. Neil St., carrying signs and chanting phrases such as, “Keep your burgers, keep your fries, make our wages supersized!” The rally was one of hundreds taking place Thursday in support of the “Fight for $15” movement. The movement seeks to raise minimum wage to $15 and give fastfood workers the right to form a union without retaliation. Ricky Baldwin, co-chair of Central Illinois Jobs With Justice, said the movement has been gaining political strength throughout the country. On Tuesday, the Washington, D.C. City Council unanimously voted to endorse the state’s minimum wage from $8.25 to $11.50 per hour — one of the highest in the nation. The legislation will be put through a final vote and sent to the Washington, D.C. mayor, Vincent Gray. “It would be so much better if McDonald’s and other corporations — who can afford it — would pay more,” Baldwin said. “Then those workers would have more money to spend, and it would help
When social media and Big Data combine
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