Limitless Magazine Fall 2025

Grainger Engineering’s POETS center uses new thermal management techniques to make electric transportation more efficient, more compact, and safer. Now, after 10 years, it is entering a new era of technology transition and collaboration between universities and industry.

Local startup Hinetics, a member of the POETS center, has developed the first fully integrated superconducting motor in the world without liquid cryogen cooling and is working to commercialize the technology for aerospace applications.

At a time when machines are mediating everything from how humans connect to how we make decisions, some fear that these technologies have become dehumanizing. Yet some researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign see potential for something very different: they believe these technologies hold the key to building systems that help make society more humane. 

When Calypso, the third-generation Illini Solar Car, crossed the finish line at the 2025 Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP) in July, its team had two reasons to celebrate: they had secured their first win, and they had beaten the lap record in the single-occupant vehicle class. Over the course of three days, Calypso was driven for 223 laps to win first place in the competition at the NCM Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky.