Illinois Innovators

Almost a year ago to the day of this recording, the University of Illinois announced the opening of the $15.6 million NSF-funded Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center and Professor Nadya Mason as the center’s director. The goal of the center is to build highly interdisciplinary teams of researchers and students. One of the rock star physicists on the Illinois campus, she speci...

In this episode, we talk alternative fuels with our guest Deepak Kumar, a research assistant professor in the department of agricultural and biological engineering with a focus on sustainable production of biofuels and biomaterials. He is a part of several projects, one of which is called PETROSS (Plants engineered to replace oil in sugcane and sweet sorgum). He is also leading a project developin...

If you live in a metropolitan area, then you are no doubt familiar with gridlock on the highways and roadways. An even greater percentage of those vehicles creating that gridlock are making deliveries, whether it be lunch from a favorite eatery, important B-to-B documents, or simply a package purchased through Amazon. What could delivery service look like in the future. University of Illinois Prof...

Alison Dunn discusses her NSF Faculty Early Career award to study how hydrogels interact with biological tissues. Her work also has the potential to further develop general rules for designing hydrogels with specified surface requirements. The assistant professor of mechanical science and engineering at the University of Illinois specializes in "non-traditional" tribology. For more on the project...

When you think cybersecurity, you’re probably thinking about measures to keep hackers out of your network. Adam Bates, is focused on next steps after an attack begins. The assistant professor of computer science at the University of Illinois was granted a National Science Foundation CAREER AWARD to advance the use of data provenance, the goal of which is to identify the attacker, figure out their...

Kyle Chandler, the founder and CEO of Chief Technologies, a Pennsylvania based manufacturer and engineering firm of specialized hazard control systems, discusses engineering behind modern fire equipment. Chief Technologies builds a variety of fluids handling (large pumping and fire retardant proportioning systems) and delivery devices (systems used to target and flow water streams on fires), prima...

One of today’s major concerns is the deterioration of bridges. Most recently a pedestrian bridge under construction on the campus of Florida International University collapsed killing six people. Neil Hawkins is an expert in reinforced and prestressed concrete and prestressed concrete structures subject to static and dynamic loadings. He is past Director of the American Concrete Institute, the Ear...

The United States has set an ambitious goal of sending a manned mission to Mars during the first half of this century. This will likely mean several more trips to the moon, something we haven’t done in nearly 50 years. Combine that with other potential space missions, and logistics will be a big issue. Koki Ho, an assistant professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana...

It is estimated that about 30 percent of consumable food products are wasted, but that number is much higher in the United States. Conversely about 13 percent of Americans are food insecure. Kathleen Hu, a senior in Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering at the University of Illinois, is providing a solution through a startup called Dibbs, a technology platform and organization to connect e...

The show tackles the topic of how data analytics has an ever-growing presence in the future of healthcare. The guest is George Heintz, the senior program manager for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Healthcare Engineering System Center’s Health Data Analytics initiative. He serves as a liaison between HCESC and healthcare providers, the health care industry and other healthcare res...

Revolutions in big data analysis are shaping healthcare delivery worldwide—technologies that can analyze, classify, and manage patient data and outcomes. To foster collaboration and to shape the future of Medical Informatics and Health Data Analytics, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign—in collaboration with healthcare providers, industry representatives, and academic researchers held a...

Tarek Abdelzaher, a professor of computer science with an emphasis on cyberphysical systems at the University of Illinois, leads a group of researchers studying how information spreads through social media and the effects that information has on people’s beliefs as it moves. The project began as part a $4 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant.

Klara Nahrstedt, a professor of computer science and director of the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois, discusses her involvement in several National Science Foundation and Department of Energy cyber infrastructure projects. Those include building advanced real-time security in cyber-physical systems (smart grid and electric vehicles) and secure sensor networks monitorin...

Laura Hahn, the Director of the Academy for Excellence in Engineering Education (or AE3), joins Illinois Innovators to talk about AE3 initiatives like the Strategic Instructional Innovations Program (SIIP) and the Illinois Engineering First Year Experience, which guides freshmen to people and resources they will need in their College experience. She also talks about the book, Women and Ideas in En...

The startup Lumos has developed a safe renewable system, which not only stores and cools nuclear waste, but uses it for electricity. Its CEO, Aries Loumis, a graduate of Illinois' Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering program, stops by to not only talk about their technology, but advocate for the future of nuclear as a continued energy source.

While much of the rhetoric around climate change centers on extreme events such as floods or droughts, today’s guest Praveen Kumar, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Illinois, contends frequency and intensity of non-extreme or everyday precipitation events are changing and having a noticeable effect on the ecosystem.

Continuing the series on "Why Cancer Research Needs Engineering," Kesh Kesavadas, Director of the Health Care Engineering Systems Center and professor of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign discusses robotic surgery and its impact on treating cancer patients.

What will the doctor's office of the future look like? In our continuing series on Why Cancer Research Needs Engineering, Stephen Boppart, Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering and Director of Imaging at Illinois, foresees more engineering and technology integrated into the doctor-patient relationship.

This year alone in this country 600,000 people will die from the disease and 1.6 million will be newly diagnosed. In the fight to win, a new generation of researchers will use engineering to advance prevention, diagnosis and treatment. Rohit Bhargava, a pioneer in the field of digital molecular biology, a professor in bionengineering at the University of Illinois and a founding director of the Can...

Creating a vaccine typically takes a lot of trial and error and testing. However, with machine learning and data-driven modeling, physicians can have a leg up in targeting specific vaccines. Since 2010, Andrew Ferguson, now an assistant professor of materials, science, and engineering at the University of Illinois, has applied statistical mechanical tools to develop data-driven models of HIV viral...

The anti-infammatory drugs of tomorrow may look a lot different than the ones we are used to as Professor Aditi Das explains. Her research focuses on understanding how fatty acids, in particular Omega 3 fatty acids, get converted into anti-inflammatory lipids signaling molecules by epoxygenases. Through a grant from the National Institute of Health, she is leading a research team on a discovery of...

Natural disasters put a strain on the infrastructure of those areas affected, from power, to water, to utilities. As victims seek emergency assistance and friends and family reach out to their loved ones, cell towers and 911 lines reach capacity and beyond, leaving it difficult to call for help. Chao Zhang introduces listeners to TrioVecEvent, which is demonstrating how geo-tagged Tweet streams ca...

Startup Autonomic Energy Systems, winner of the 2017 Cozad New Venture Competition, has developed technology which would extend the life of your cellphone battery while preventing fires from those lithium ion batteries. Co-founder Tony Griffin shares details on the technology and talks about the future of cellphone batteries.

As graphene's popularity grows as an advanced "wonder" material, the speed and quality at which it can be manufactured will be paramount. Sung Woo Nam and his team of researchers have developed a cleaner and more environmentally friendly method to manufacture the material using using carbonated water. He shares his findings and discusses the promising future of graphene.

Professor Deming Chen and his team of researchers are developing technology which allows security cameras to detect sounds of distress (such as gun shots, screaming, cry for help)and immediately notify law enforcement.