Welcome, it's my great pleasure
to welcome you all today.
I'm Shlomo Engelson Argamon,
Interim Chair of the
Department of Computer Science,
at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
This is all very strange.
None of us ever expected
that your graduation
would be like this.
And it should not have been like this.
We should now be on campus together,
celebrating you and your
accomplishments with your parents,
your family and your friends,
as you all truly deserve.
I'm looking forward to
the day that we can safely
invite you back to campus to
celebrate commencement with us.
And I really hope that you can come,
so that I congratulate
you properly, in person.
Now, to begin our virtual
celebration today,
I would like to introduce
Dean Lance Fortnow,
Dean of The College of Science.
>> Welcome, to the Illinois
Institute Technology,
College of Science graduation.
I'm Lance Fortnow, Dean of The College,
and I'm excited to welcome
students, parents, family, and friends
to this year's ceremony.
I truly wish I had the opportunity
to address all of you in person.
But we are living in extraordinary times
that require extraordinary measures.
My own daughter's graduating
college next month
in a ceremony much like this one,
and I know the experience
just won't be the same.
Nevertheless, I'm happy that
we can share this day together
and that can we can still
make this moment special.
Each of you deserves it.
After spring break, the
University made an incredible
and quick shift to fully
online instruction.
I want to thank the faculty and students,
who made the transition
as smooth as possible,
which allowed us to get to this day.
I also would like to thank
the parents who have supported
their children throughout
their time at Illinois Tech,
especially these last
few weeks, when your nest
may not have been as empty
as you had envisioned.
The disciplines in the College of Science
have played critical roles in
dealing with the coronavirus.
Advances in computing have
allowed us to learn, work, shop,
visit friends and family,
and entertain ourselves,
all from the comfort of home.
Mathematicians model
the spread of the virus,
enabling society to understand
how to flatten the curve.
In the end, it will not be
to politicians or to CEOs,
but the scientist who'll
lead us out of this crisis.
These incredible times have
brought the importance of
science back to the forefront
of our minds and hearts,
as we follow the data and information,
which guide our vital responses
to the emergent situation,
and help us save lives.
Our biology faculty here at
Illinois Tech have directly
helped in the fight,
creating solutions for virus
testing and helping companies
test potential vaccines.
I cannot be more proud of them
for their incredible work.
The world after the virus
will be very different from our world
just a few months ago.
Trends we were already
seeing have accelerated,
online shopping, entertainment at home,
working from anywhere, and
online education to name a few.
The education you've
received at Illinois Tech,
particularly in the College of Science,
has prepared you well for
taking on responsibility
of leading the post-virus world.
Out in the depths of
this virus, I see hope.
We stay home not just
to protect ourselves,
but to protect everyone.
We all support our frontline defenders,
and the medical workers those who ensure
we get the food and supplies we need.
Every evening at 8 pm in
the South Loop of Chicago
where I live,
the apartments come alive.
People flash lights, scream,
honk horns and play music.
For a few short minutes every
night, we celebrate that
we are all in this together.
When the coronavirus
becomes just a memory,
let us keep that feeling of togetherness.
As Illinois Tech grads, you will be at
the front lines of shaping the future.
And as you do, don't dwell on
how the virus brought us down,
but on how it brought us up
to make us stronger together.
As you build your own lives,
remember that we must
continue to work together
to build a better America
and a better world.
This is my first and last commencement
as the Dean of the College of Science.
Next month, I will transition over
as the Dean of Illinois Tech's
New College of Computing,
with Computer Science
and Applied Mathematics
joining Information Technology Management
and Industrial Technology Management.
Biology, chemistry, and physics
will join a new Lewis
College of Science Letters.
These changes reflect the growing roles
our disciplines play,
across academics and society.
And I look forward to the
exciting opportunities,
of this new chapter for the university.
Please enjoy the rest of the ceremony,
and I'll see you at the other end.
>> Thank you, Dean Fortnow.
Today is a day of celebration.
As we gather together to
recognize your accomplishments
and honor each of you as a
2020 Illinois Tech graduate,
of the Computer Science Department.
I only wish we could now
be together in person,
with your parents, family,
and friends, to share
this great moment of your graduation.
Congratulations.
Your hard work at Illinois Tech has laid
a foundation for your
future professional success.
You are now graduating into a
world of enormous challenges.
The reverberations from this
pandemic will echo economically
and socially for many years to come.
And for you,
your final year at Illinois
Tech has sadly been disrupted.
And you may soon or
already be facing personal
challenges as well.
If so, I pray that you
meet and overcome them
with grace and with dignity.
Amidst these challenges,
you're graduating Illinois Tech
to the very field that will
be central to addressing them.
Indeed, without your field,
we could not even hold this event today.
Ironically, computer
scientists, stereotypically
and socially inept geeks,
are the ones now enabling people to remain
connected with one another all over
in these difficult times.
For Computer Science is not and cannot,
just be pure technical
brilliance walled off
from the messiness of human
relationships and interactions.
The systems that we create
mediate and shape human
society in profound ways,
both beneficial and harmful.
Many of you, I expect, will
become great innovators,
researchers, developers, entrepreneurs.
I urge you don't get lost in
the many fascinating technical
complexities of our discipline.
Always carefully consider the
larger computational system
of people and relationships,
and cultures within which
your work is embedded.
This is both a technical
and a moral imperative.
We now see misinformation
rampant, spread and encouraged
as a side effect of algorithms
that make social media
efficient and monetizable.
We are slowly realizing
how self-driving car modes
encourage reckless behavior,
how holes in system
security inevitably lead
to terrorizing children
through internet-enabled baby monitors,
or video conferences through zoom bombing,
all just for the lols,
and it goes on and on.
The future of our field
and its powerful effects
on the world depend
crucially on us maintaining
a fundamentally human perspective.
This will affect not only
the applications we develop,
but the very nature of the field itself.
Illinois Tech was founded 130 years ago,
on the dream that a
first-rate technical education
would enable individuals to
change the world for the better.
We have endeavored to
give you that education.
The rest now is up to you.
Graduates of 2020,
I cannot wait to see what
wonders you each create.
Dream high and celebrate your successes,
both large and small.
As of today, you're all
Illinois Tech alumni.
Bear that title proudly as
you move on in your lives,
and please stay in touch
with the Computer Science Department,
with Illinois Tech and with each other.
Wherever you may go,
we here at Illinois Tech will follow
your future accomplishments
with keen enthusiasm.
Congratulations.
Today's undergraduate commencement speaker
will be introduced by
Professor Cindy Hood,
Associate Department Chair.
>> It is my pleasure to introduce
our undergraduate speaker, Moueed Salameh.
Moueed is graduating with a
Bachelor of Science degree
in computer science.
He's the kind of student who,
in his own very humble way,
has really made Illinois
Tech a better place
during the four years he's spent here.
Moueed is that student who, in class,
asks those questions that other students
haven't even thought of.
His questions prompt great discussion
and a deeper understanding
of the material.
Moueed has also been
a dedicated TA for us.
He's helped countless students
understand difficult concepts and complete
their programming assignments.
In addition to helping
students, Moueed has also
provided valuable
suggestions for instructors.
I'm very excited to say that
Moueed plans on continuing
his education
at Illinois Tech in our graduate program.
Please welcome Moueed Salameh.
>> I want to start by saying
thank you for the incredible
honor of contributing to
the commencement ceremony.
Of course, gratitude is all
I have for everyone at IIT.
Over the last four years,
I've truly come to consider
this wonderful place as my home.
I'm from Syria, and ever since
my mother took us with her
to the US, when she was pursuing her PhD,
I've had my heart set on obtaining
my own degree from a US University.
So when I say that attending
the Illinois Institute of Technology
has been a dream come true for me,
I'm not just using flowery language,
or being hyperbolic.
Spouting off vague platitudes
and echoing banal cliches
can often be much easier
than it perhaps should be.
And being sincere can
often be far more difficult
than it ought to be.
Throughout my life, I've
hidden behind many things,
as I'm sure some of you have as well.
It can be rather simple
to pretend to care,
or in many cases to not care.
It can be quite easy to pretend
to be something we are not.
We buy into the personas we
construct and run with the lie.
These past few years,
I'm proud to say that I've
abandoned many masks that I used
as a means to obfuscate
and obscure the real me.
And that was due in no small
part to my time here in IIT.
Whether it was a professor
that saw through the facade,
and cared enough to dig deeper,
a classmate that did not just stop
at the bare minimum
niceties, or quite frankly,
an assignment that did
not particularly care
about how good you thought
you were at programming.
Because the truth does not
just take your word for it.
My academic pursuit at IIT
has been consistently
the only area in my life
that not only required me to push
and be sincere with myself,
about my own shortcomings and strengths,
but also demanded as much of me, and more.
By now, I think I skillfully
dodged the topic for long enough.
What does it mean to be sincere?
For me, the most permanent
facet of sincerity
is being sincere with oneself.
That in itself comes
in a plethora of forms.
It comes in the form of
acknowledging that person
inside of you that is normally concealed
from those around you,
be they a stranger or a loved one.
Recognizing why that
part of you is shrouded,
be it by choice
or circumstance, and addressing
it in any way possible.
It comes in the form of truthfully
assessing your own capabilities,
and discerning what you
are equipped to accomplish,
and what might be too much to undertake.
This admittedly does not
come as easily to me.
I've lost track of the number of times
that I've held myself
back from pushing into
the chaotic unknown, opting to
stay safe in my comfort zone.
I was never want to believe
in my own abilities.
So I was very fortunate to
have met numerous mentors
and even more friends that have
provided me with the courage
and confidence that I needed,
in my time of doubt and apprehension.
Finally, I want to say a few words about
IIT's response to the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
I do not presume to speak
for all of my peers.
Nonetheless, at the risk
of sounding too forward,
I would like to offer the
most heartfelt appreciation
I can muster to
the IIT staff and faculty.
We have all unexpectedly
found ourselves in the most
uncertain times in recent memory.
And IIT has been a
constant beacon of safety,
stability, and much needed certainty.
I will forever cherish my time here IIT,
and I will look back fondly
at the countless memories
I have formed.
I will keep moving forward
with the invaluable lessons,
experiences, and inspirations
I have accumulated.
And I sincerely hope
that my fellow students
in the class of 2020 feel the same.
Thank you for listening.
>> My name is Bogdan Korel
and I am an Associate Chair
of the Computer Science Department at IIT.
I have today the honor of
introducing Keith Bateman,
as a graduate student speaker
for this Computer Science commencement.
Keith is an exceptional student.
He joined our department
as an undergraduate student in Fall 2015.
This semester,
he's graduating with two degrees,
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science,
with summa cum laude honors,
and Master of Science in Computer Science.
As an undergraduate student,
he was already interested in research.
He was a research assistant
on the National Science
Foundation grant with Dr. Sun.
He coauthored a research paper
that has been submitted for publication.
Now he plans to join the PhD
program in our department.
In addition, he was member
of IIT ACM Programming
Competition team, and helped
to win a regional title.
This was a great achievement.
And now, please join me in
welcoming Keith Bateman,
as a graduate student speaker
for this year's computer science.
>> In a way, our graduation is special.
I'm sure you've all
thought about this already,
but we will always be
the class that graduated
during the coronavirus pandemic.
That's the reason you're
watching a prerecorded speech,
instead of getting to see me in person.
And it's also the reason
that I get to be more meta
than is generally acceptable
at graduation commencement speeches.
I became interested in
computers in high school
in a class that taught
basic Java programming.
I was the type that never
felt that I fit in anywhere.
For the longest time,
I was just a programmer,
and I was only that,
because I happened to be
good at it, and it guaranteed
that I would have a marketable
skill after college.
Part of the reason I picked
Illinois Tech over other schools
was that to me it always felt like
a place for highly technical people.
This immediately made it my
type of place, because here,
I could just be myself, and
nobody would criticize me for
it, because everybody
else is the same way.
Over the years,
I met some mentors,
and I learned how to think about computers
in new and interesting ways.
But while my heart was always in the work,
I caught disillusionment
with my job prospects.
Sure, computer science presents
a very marketable skill.
And I could always get a job
at some big Silicon Valley
tech company or other and
get paid a lot of money.
That's what a lot of my friends did and,
it's a great way to earn a living,
but it's never been for me.
Then I could do a
startup--that's the third choice
that they give to every single
computer science graduate.
You could either work for
big corporate conglomerate A,
big corporate conglomerate
B, or a startup.
Well, at a startup, you
have no job security.
And eventually, all the code
that you write is going to get
bought up by either big
corporate conglomerate A
or big corporate conglomerate
B, and that's if you're lucky.
So I had to do something else.
Life was creeping up fast,
and I was getting all those
hints for family drops
when you're 20 years old,
and haven't had a job yet.
So we started looking for an internship.
I wasn't picky,
and I really had no clue what
I wanted other than some money
and a line or two on my resume.
Then, out of nowhere,
the Computer Science
Department at this school
offered me an opportunity.
Professor Sun came to me and
my friends with the offer
to do a research experience
for undergraduates
at the scalable computing
systems lab over the summer.
Pay was pay, and the job was
something that felt different
from anything I had ever
considered doing in the past.
So I took it and I ran with it.
Now, for my friends,
this was just another
line on their resumes.
But for me,
I felt that I finally
had found a career path.
I kept working at it.
I wrote lots of code.
I proofread lots of papers.
I learned a lot about
high performance computing
and parallel and distributed processing.
I met people working for this lab
whom I now consider both
work colleagues and friends,
from all over the place--
people from China,
from India, from Spain, and
Cuba, and even from Greece.
It's really been a home to me.
And now I'm going on to do a PhD,
all because of a single opportunity
that I received at Illinois Tech.
I love this school because
it gave me an opportunity
when it seems that nobody else would.
It's a place where we can
finally be a part of something.
When outsiders think of Illinois Tech,
they might not see the sense
of belonging that I do,
to them, maybe we fade
into the background.
The story I heard when I first got here
was that other people think
of us as this ivory tower,
this sort of clandestine
and mysterious organization,
doing silent work, where nobody can see us
and we can't see the light of day.
And that was always meant
to be a negative stereotype.
But personally,
I keep thinking of it as a
sort of magical way to say
that what really defines us as a school
is that we are simply a bunch of people
who see an opportunity, buckle down
and work hard to make it into a reality.
To my fellow graduates, and
all of our support systems,
I would like to say congratulations.
We've all worked hard
and earned our degrees,
and that's something to be proud of.
Thank you.
[MUSIC]
>> By virtue of the
authority vested in me,
by Illinois Institute of Technology,
I confer degrees upon
all of you who fulfilled
all the requirements in your
respective fields of study.
And I admit you to all
the rights, privileges,
and obligations connected
with your degree.
Congratulations.
I now ask our faculty and staff to join me
in congratulating you,
whose achievements we honor here today.
>> Congratulations, graduates.
Seems like just yesterday,
I was welcoming you at orientation,
and it's been a pleasure
to watch you develop
to this point and achieve
this great accomplishment.
We're looking forward to
seeing what you do from here.
Best of luck.
>> Congratulations, 2020 graduates.
We're so proud of all
your accomplishments.
It has truly been an honor
to be part of your journey.
Please keep in touch, and come
back and visit us sometime.
>> Congratulations, graduates.
I've loved getting to
know you and work with you
over the past few years.
Best of the luck.
I'm very proud of what you've achieved.
And I know you're going to
go on to do amazing things.
>> Dear graduates,
congratulations, you made it.
I hope you had a great time at IIT.
I know that I had a blast
being your teacher and advisor.
All the best for your future endeavors.
And I'm really looking forward
to see the great things
that you will accomplish in the future.
Congratulations again.
>> Hello, this is Gruia Callinescus.
And you may remember me
from being in my courses
on algorithms or serial computation.
First of all, congratulations
on graduating.
And, second, I wish you success.
>> Hi, class of 2020.
Congratulations on your big benchmark.
Best wishes for a bright
future and let's keep in touch.
Hi, Christopher, Eric,
Laura,
Mohit, and Penuf.
>> Hi, class of 2020.
My name is Dawn DeBartolo
I work in the CS office.
Some of you may, or may not have met me.
Either way,
I would like to wish you all
a congratulations on this day.
And best of luck to you in the future.
Always remember, we are CS family
and you are welcome anytime.
Please come back and say hi.
Best of luck.
>> Hi, my graduates.
During this unusual time I
want to wish all my best.
Congratulations on your graduation.
You are our CS love.
We love you very much.
Health, happiness, and much
success in all you pursue.
Bye, bye and good luck.
Love you.
>> Hello, Computer Science 2020 graduates.
I want to wish you health
and happiness in your future.
Good luck.
Keep in touch with the
department and let us know
what you are doing.
Stay safe and healthy.
Congratulations.
>> Congratulations, everyone!
Seeing your success
is always the best part
of become a faculty.
I want to give special thanks for my
former PhD students,
Dr. Christopher Hannon
and Dr. Jiaqi Yan.
I'm always very proud of you.
>> Greetings and congratulations
to all graduates of Computer
Science Department at IIT.
All the faculty are disappointed
that we could not celebrate
in person with you, and
your families and friends.
But rest assured,
we are proud of your accomplishments,
especially the challenging last six weeks
of your final term.
Again, congratulations.
And undergraduates, please keep in touch.
Share with me how your
career after IIT progresses.
You know I'll always reply
to your email promptly.
>> I want to thank each of you
for attending this virtual ceremony.
And I extend my warmest congratulations
to our graduates today.
You can all be very proud
indeed of your accomplishments.
It has been a true pleasure
for all of us to teach
and to get to know you.
We're honored to have you among the alumni
of our Computer Science Department,
and extend to our best wishes
for a lifetime of professional
success and personal fulfillment.
I hope before not too long to
be able to congratulate you
personally as well.
Thank you all.
And again, congratulations.
>> Congratulations again
to all the students and
let me now welcome you all
as alumni of Illinois Tech.
Again, I'm aware circumstances
would have allowed us
to meet together in person today.
You are all welcome to join
the class of 2021 in a joint
graduation ceremony next year,
or visit us for homecoming, reunions,
or any time, come by and say hello.
You'll always be part of
the Illinois Tech Community,
and are always welcome.
If you ever need further education,
or just want to learn new
things, we'll be here for you.
You don't leave Illinois
Tech when graduate,
you bring Illinois Tech with
you and everything you do
throughout your lives.
This concludes our graduation ceremony.
Congratulations again and stay safe.
