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  • a smiling woman in front of a multiple-panel computer screen with faked images on it

    UIUC experts advise how to protect yourself from deepfakes during election season

    Oct 21, 2024 1:15 pm

    With a general election coming soon on November 5, deepfakes are a growing concern. AI-generated images, videos and audio recordings are being used to spread misinformation, at a time when voters are relying on digital media to learn about candidates and their campaigns.

  • scientist working in a lab

    Discovery Partners Institute announces 2024 science team grants

    Sep 23, 2024 4:15 pm

    A rapid-detection sensor for toxic gas, an AI tool for agriculture and the inaugural arts and theater program at Jane Addams Hull-House Museum were among five research proposals selected for the 2024 science team grants from Discovery Partners Institute, part of the University of Illinois System. 

  • Fabio Miranda, assistant professor of computer science, works with urban visualizations at the UIC Electronic Visualization Laboratory. (Photo: Martin Hernandez Rosas/UIC)

    Researchers join national project to turn urban data into healthier cities

    Sep 10, 2024 3:30 pm

    University of Illinois Chicago scientists will play a key role in realizing that potential through a new computing platform they are building for researchers and the public that can be used in different cities and around the world. UIC will bring strengths in visual data analysis, civil engineering and government and community partnerships to design accessible computational tools for environmental justice, transportation and other public priorities.

  • Coleman Little tries out the shower in his housing unit prototype at the Year End Show. (Photo: Alexander Eisenschmidt/UIC)

    UIC architecture students explore big and small ideas for housing shortage

    Aug 19, 2024 1:30 pm

    At Home with the Collective challenges architects to reimagine housing from the individual unit up to large buildings and neighborhoods. The project’s aim is to create affordable living spaces for people — such as refugees, the elderly or Native Americans — who suffer most from the housing shortage.

  • Two fishing boats on water near an oil spill

    UIC team reveals how pollution remains in water after oil spill cleanups

    Aug 5, 2024 4:30 pm

    Oil drops from underwater oil spills can break into tinier droplets at the surface that remain suspended in the water, according to research from the University of Illinois Chicago. That means cleanups after disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill may be removing less oil from the environment than was thought.

  • D.K. Lee is a professor of crop sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is part of a team studying solar panels on farmland. Photo credit: Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco/WBEZ

    UIUC researchers growing crops underneath solar panels to use land twice

    Jul 19, 2024 2:15 pm

    Researchers at Solar Farm 2.0 are investigating how crops such as grains and soybeans grow with solar panels obstructing their full view of the sun. This counterintuitive practice is called agrivoltaics, a nascent industry that partners solar developers looking for large plots of land and farmers looking to make additional income.

  • A man standing outside a pickup truck with a large tornado in the background

    UIUC storm chasers measure 300 mph winds in recent tornado

    Jul 1, 2024 11:15 am

    In a chase straight out of a movie, the Department of Climate, Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences' Flexible Array of Radars and Mesonets (FARM) team intercepted the deadly Greenfield, Iowa tornado to deploy instruments and radar that measured wind speeds over 300 mph. 

  • Three wooden pegs are clustered on the right, each with an envelope symbols and hearts over them. On the left is a wooden peg with a burglar symbol on it. Lines with hooks reach out to the envelopes. Meant to convey the danger of online romances when you don't have a clear idea of the identity of the person romancing you.

    NCSA team develops phone app to teach users to spot online scams

    Jun 17, 2024 2:15 pm

    DeepCover is a phone game application in which users play games like Match 3, word finding, and other popular games, particularly among older adults. As the game starts, you create an agent and start a mission to help stop a scam. As you work through puzzles and prizes allowing you to customize your character, you’re given short tips about how to identify scam behavior. 

  • a graphic showing causes and relationships in our environment related to climate change

    UIC CUPPA students develop climate action plan for suburb

    Jun 3, 2024 2:00 pm

    With the assistance of two groups of graduate students from the University of Illinois Chicago, River Forest officials have started work on creating a climate action plan for the village. Village President Cathy Adduci said she attended the April 30 presentation, which she called “great” and said she was “quite impressed with our collaboration and partnership with UIC.”

  • two men fly a drone in a Chicago park

    UIC researchers advance technologies to power unmanned vehicles

    May 13, 2024 10:15 am

    A new $6 million collaborative agreement between the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and engineers from the University of Illinois Chicago will develop fuels and technologies for sustainable aviation and autonomous vehicles. These innovations could help commercial aviation transition to sustainable fuels and improve the use of drones for package delivery and rescue operations.

  • a farmer on a tractor in a farm field

    Extension program educates farmers about job-specific hearing loss risks

    Apr 30, 2024 4:15 pm

    University of Illinois Extension's Josie Rudolphi works to educate the farming community on the prevalence of hearing loss within its ranks, and to encourage both testing and preventive measures such as the use of noise-canceling headphones or ear plugs.

  • A man and a woman loading a box of food into a vehicle

    UIC, Rush join forces to prevent food waste

    Apr 15, 2024 10:00 am

    As part of the Sustainability at UIC program, the Food Recovery Program diverts otherwise-wasted food to communities in need on the city's West Side.

  • a screenshot of the Moon viewed inside the Aónikenk app

    UIC doctoral student designs Moon app, team wins NASA competition

    Apr 1, 2024 1:45 pm

    A University of Illinois Chicago Earth and Environmental Sciences doctoral student's Moon-mapping app won big at the 2023 NASA International Space Apps Challenge. Juan Manuel Losarcos will be honored at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. this summer. 

  • A man walking through a Red Line subway station, with two numbered dots overlaid. Credit: Kasie Nette | Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago

    UIC urban studies students seek rider feedback to improve CTA stations

    Mar 11, 2024 3:30 pm

    If you could improve one CTA "L" stop, how would you do it? That's the question at the core of a project helmed by UIC College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs students. Their survey focuses on three of the busiest stations in the transit system, on the Blue and Red lines.

  • Scientific visualization of the AI-guided assembly of a novel metal-organic framework with high carbon dioxide adsorption capacity and synthesizable linkers. Building blocks, predicted by generative AI, are shown on the left, while the final AI-predicted structure is shown on the right. Credit: Xiaoli Yan/University of Illinois Chicago and ALCF Visualization & Data Analytics Team

    UIC, UIUC scientists use AI to identify new materials for carbon capture

    Feb 26, 2024 10:30 am

    Carbon capture is a critical technology in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and other industrial facilities. However, a suitable material for effective carbon capture at low cost has yet to be found. The research teams are using generative artificial intelligence (AI) to dream up previously unknown building block candidate materials.

  • The Medical Evaluation Response Initiative Team at UICOMR

    UICOMR program that helps Rockford child abuse survivors receives grant

    Feb 12, 2024 2:00 pm

    The Medical Evaluation Response Initiative Team (MERIT) is the only program in the Rockford area that provides specialized, pediatric expert medical exams in a child-friendly atmosphere to suspected victims of child abuse and neglect. The Department of Child and Family Services, Children’s Advocacy Centers, law enforcement and physicians in Northern Illinois rely on MERIT to provide objective, balanced and defensible diagnoses and offer insight into children’s experiences and treatment needs.

  • Strawberries

    Extension using grants to improve food resilience, infrastructure in 2024

    Jan 31, 2024 10:45 am

    In 2023, the University of Illinois Extension, in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Agriculture, conducted statewide listening sessions in rural and urban areas to gain an in-depth understanding of experiences, barriers and opportunities within the Illinois food system.

  • plastic tableware and cutting boards in front of a collage of ocean pictures

    UIUC professor gives tips on reducing, reusing, refusing plastics

    Jan 16, 2024 1:00 pm

    Cutting boards, non-stick pans, mixing bowls, even tea bags: in the kitchen, plastics can be hidden in plain sight. It’s something that Jessica Brinkworth, an anthropology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, realized once she began looking for ways to cut down on plastic use in her own kitchen after her workplace started doing the same.

  • A map of the new USDA plant hardiness zones

    State Climatologist Ford: Managing Illinois' changing plant hardiness zones

    Jan 3, 2024 3:15 pm

    Trent Ford is the Illinois State Climatologist for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The latest USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Maps (released in November 2023) show a drastic change in a warming of average temperatures.


  • Greg McLaughlin standing with a box of strawberries in front of a truck. ©Journal Communications/Nathan Lambrecht

    Real Impact: Innovation, compassion feed southern Illinois communities

    Dec 1, 2023 4:00 pm

    State funding helps make Dixon Springs Agricultural Center a magnet for research, information, and interaction. Funding also supports innovative and environment-friendly tactics like high tunnels that benefit the region.  

  • Hancock County farmer Bryan Stevens walks near his fields with his wife, two tween daughters and their goat

    Real Impact: Partnering to bridge the digital divide reaps rural benefits

    Dec 1, 2023 3:45 pm

    “When farmers succeed, their communities prosper,” said Jay Walsh, who oversees the University of Illinois System-led Illinois Innovation Network, which is helping unite key partners in the broadband mission. 

  • Engineering students Shraddha Zina (from left),Barbara Beltran, Jenny Iype and Raudel Rodriguez standing in front of the solar refrigator they designed, built and installed. Also, a chicken.

    Engineering students build solar refrigerator for Chicago nonprofit

    Dec 1, 2023 3:45 pm

    The UIC student organization Engineers for a Sustainable World recently designed, built and installed a solar refrigerator for The Love Fridge Chicago at its Chicago Patchwork Farms location. 

  • The state tour delegation on a boat in the Illinois River.

    2023 statewide tour activates new partnerships, builds on those in motion

    Dec 1, 2023 3:30 pm

    From workforce development to enhancing rural healthcare, expanding broadband internet access to recruiting more underrepresented students, the University of Illinois System addresses real-world challenges to further bolster the state’s social, cultural and economic viability.

  • Trees on a college campus

    A cooler Chicagoland: DPI, ComEd partner on precision planting to help urban areas

    Dec 1, 2023 3:15 pm

    DPI uses sophisticated analytical techniques to evaluate how tree canopy coverage reduces temperature and energy demand amid our world’s changing climate. For example, on a typical day the temperature within a block can vary as much as 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit with quality tree shade compared to open sidewalks.