Among a very small community of liquid-phase TEM researchers, Qian Chen is creating new methods that expand the limits of electron microscopy.

It took a little extra time, but the doors finally swung wide into the long-awaited Siebel Center for Design (SCD) in August 2021, ushering in a new and expansive era of innovation and collaboration on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus.

The Siebel Center for Design and registered student organizations are a ‘perfect  match for each other.’ In July, llini Solar Car rolled Brizo out of The Garage, a studio space at the Siebel Center for Design.

It’s no small thing to fly a small thing on another planet. 

The Coordinated Science Laboratory started as the Control Systems Laboratory 70 years ago, as the Cold War dawned. It was an era in which science was ascendant. Communications were going global. And the military and national defense were on many minds.

IBM and The Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign plan to launch a large-scale collaboration focused on the rapidly growing areas of hybrid cloud and AI, quantum information science and technology, accelerated materials discovery, and sustainability to accelerate the discovery of solutions to complex global challenges. 

When a vehicle travels faster than the speed of sound, its exterior surface becomes extremely hot — risking the safety of the people and cargo inside. Molecules in the flow around the vehicle collide and change, creating a shockwave. This hypersonic environment is difficult to understand and even more difficult to study. We asked Marco Panesi to clarify some of the mysteries of hypersonics and tell us what he and his colleagues are working on to better understand the phenomenon.

The Center for Power Optimization of Electro-Thermal Systems focuses on increasing power density in electrified mobility – that is, the amount of power that can be delivered in a given weight or amount of space. The POETS team looks at the technology behind electrification of everything involved in moving goods and people on land, air, and sea.

Various studies show that people of color are disproportionately exposed to air pollution in the United States. However, it was unclear whether this unequal exposure is due mainly to a few types of emission sources or whether the causes are more systemic.

Monitoring the progression of multiple sclerosis-related gait issues can be challenging in adults over 50 years old, requiring a clinician to differentiate between problems related to MS and other age-related issues. To address this problem, researchers are integrating gait data and machine learning to advance the tools used to monitor and predict disease progression.

Vilas Dhar is an optimist. Where a cynic sees pitfalls, he champions technology’s capacity to advance the interests of even the most vulnerable populations. Where a fatalist accepts that we’re hurtling toward more inequality, he envisions generations of new technologists trained to promote justice. Where the blinkered miss opportunity, he embraces the idea that technology is integral to tomorrow’s nonprofits and that nonprofits are integral to tomorrow’s tech.