On Campus With Rashid

In an era of rapid technological change, shifting workforce demands and growing public scrutiny of higher education, institutions across the country are being called upon to adapt – and to prove their value in tangible ways.

At The Grainger College of Engineering, we see these challenges not as obstacles, but as opportunities. With world-class faculty, bold research and a deep commitment to student success, we are uniquely positioned to lead through this moment and to shape the future of engineering and computing education and research to be what it can and should be.

In this issue of Limitless, you will learn how Grainger Engineering is leading efforts to prepare students for the future of work through our blended degree programs. Following the success of our Computer Science + X programs, we are proud of our latest effort – the X + Data Science initiative – which combines data science courses taught by faculty in our Siebel School of Computing and Data Science with subjects ranging from astronomy to molecular and cellular biology. X + DS offers students from various academic departments across campus, not just those in engineering, an opportunity to acquire the skills they need to succeed in a data-driven workforce.

You can also read about how our college’s research is driving real-world impact. In 2025, we are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Center for Power Optimization of Electro-Thermal Systems (POETS), which was established with funding from the National Science Foundation. The center’s research has helped enable electric aviation, with affiliated research groups demonstrating the lightest megawatt motor ever built for aviation, among other achievements. This new motor is being commercialized by a Champaign-based start-up company.

In Chicago, Grainger Engineering recently launched a coalition of industry, academic and government partners to address the Energy Compute Nexus and develop more-sustainable computing. Driven by the computing and energy demands of artificial intelligence, the group will work to imagine and design new energy-efficient computing platforms as well as more agile energy systems for powering an ever-growing number of data centers.

Through it all, Grainger Engineering is designing systems with humans in mind. Researchers are developing virtual-reality-based systems that are helping to train healthcare workers and police officers in empathy for the benefit of society.

Together, these efforts reflect our unwavering commitment to innovation with purpose. At Grainger Engineering, we’re engineering a better tomorrow, not for the glory but for the good.

Rashid Bashir
Dean, The Grainger College of Engineering