Fueling Innovation

Read the latest stories about how the University of Illinois System is fueling innovation at home in Illinois and beyond.

Researchers have created a model that can calculate the energetics involved when one organism stabs another with its fangs, thorns, spines or other puncturing parts.

The Discovery Partners Institute is among the recipients of a $7.5 million CyberInfrastructure Center of Excellence Award from the National Science Foundation. The funding will support a five-year project to improve science gateways. 

A new University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study is the first to suggest an investment in new infrastructure capable of harvesting oceanic water vapor as a solution to limited supplies of fresh water in various locations around the world.

UIUC researchers developed a new class of chemical building blocks and a next-generation molecule-making machine to assemble them into complex small molecules with 3D twists and turns.

The Illinois Department of Public Health and the Discovery Partners Institute today announced a statewide system to monitor the virus that causes COVID-19 and its variants in wastewater, providing public health officials with early warnings of a potential outbreak on a county-by-county basis.

The University of Illinois Springfield Music Program and the Illinois Symphony Orchestra (ISO) have joined forces in a new Partnership in Education and Civic Engagement intended to enrich the cultural, educational and career-training opportunities of UIS students, to enhance music education in the Springfield-area and to extend the reach of both organizations into the community.

Researchers visually captured the structure of MXenes - synthetic compounds with promise for energy storage, sensing, and superconductivity - using the world-class electron microscopy resources and expertise at UIC to reveal novel structures with intriguing properties.

Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign tested the limits of rotary blade design to find an efficient, but quieter option.

Eight University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign projects are among 26 to receive the first C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute awards for artificial intelligence techniques to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign highlights a recent visit from the director of the National Science Foundation, and shares how federally funded research at our nation’s universities creates new companies, industries, opportunities, and jobs—and the tech-savvy, educated workforce needed to fill them. 

Researchers at UIC, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Hamburg, have imaged an exotic quantum particle that can be used as a building block for future qubits and eventually the realization of quantum computers. More...

A new type of breast cancer drug developed by researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago can help halt progression of disease and is not toxic, according to phase 1 clinical trials. 

A team led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Grainger College of Engineering produced a prototype emergency ventilator in just 12 days.

Engineers at the University of Illinois Chicago are among a collaborative team that has developed a material that could give fuel cell systems a competitive edge over the battery systems that currently power most electric vehicles.

Researchers need datasets of spatial audio that mimic what is sensed by the ears of a real listener. Acoustic head simulators provide a solution for generating such datasets.

Eben Alsberg, UIC, and colleagues report on a hydrogel-based carrier that can deliver small interfering RNA molucules directly to where they are needed. More...

“Distillery Labs, the network of Illinois Innovation Network hubs, iVenture Accelerator and others – we are all on his side with resources and want to see the We Hear You team succeed.”

Operating robotic scissors, University of Illinois Chicago Chancellor Michael Amiridis snipped a ribbon to officially open the University of Illinois College of Medicine Surgical Innovation & Training Laboratory, on Sept. 15. 

Urbana mechanical science and engineering professor João Ramos developed a human-operated robot which relies on human reflexes to remain upright during locomotion. More...

A University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign team of researchers has developed a new manganese-based catalyst that can change the structure of druglike molecules to make new drugs, advancing the pace and efficiency of drug development. More...

Aadeel Akhtar, an M.D./Ph.D. student at Illinois, developed a control algorithm to give prosthetic arm users reliable sensory feedback. More...

The UIS Innovation Center will receive $15 million in state funds as part of the $500 million appropriation for the Illinois Innovation Network and the Discovery Partners Institute.

A new study from UIUC, Reed College, and Portland State University explores the benefits of investing in rooftop gardens, which can reduce the impact of stormwater runoff. 

Researchers at UIC found that patients with dry eye disease experienced reduced signs and symptoms of the condition in response to a new eye drop treatment that targets ACPAs. More...

In an effort to streamline the process of diagnosing patients with multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, researchers used digital cameras to capture changes in gait – a symptom of these diseases – and developed a machine-learning algorithm that can differentiate those with MS and PD from people without those neurological conditions.

An approved drug normally used to treat fungal infections could also do the job of a protein channel that is missing or defective in the lungs of people with cystic fibrosis, operating as a prosthesis on the molecular scale. More...

Researchers at the Beckman Institute are the first to observe structural chirality, a biological property important to photosynthesis, emerging in achiral conjugated polymers. Their discovery could help enhance flexible solar cell design and increase access to affordable renewable energy.

University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign researchers are partnering with healthcare professionals so they're able to dispel incorrect perceptions their patients have based on unreliable sources.

A team of researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is using sonification – the use of sound to convey information – to depict biochemical processes and better understand how they happen.

A multidisciplinary team of University of Illinois at Chicago researchers received a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to form a new data science institute. More...

Burnt pistachio shells are injected deep under farmland using a machine normally used to aerate golf courses. UIUC ACES professor emeritus Gerald Nelson is conducting the field trial.

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has awarded $8 million over four years to UIC to lead a multisite, interdisciplinary center focused on research, training and technique development in the study of materials in extreme conditions.

Thanks to a $6M NASA grant, professor Naira Hovakimyan leads the way toward making  flying cabs a reality. And passengers won’t even need a driver.

The Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities has been formally recognized for its leading role in fostering humanities research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with an elevation to institute status.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed the most complete computational model of a human cell to date. More...

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers developed tiny walking “spinobots,” powered by rat muscle and spinal cord tissue on a soft, 3D-printed hydrogel skeleton. 

This Forbes article breaks down why the University of Illinois is a top college for entrepreneurs.

This fall, UIC celebrates the opening of three health care simulation centers, run individually by the university’s College of Medicine, College of Nursing and College of Pharmacy. More...

The researchers modified an electrodialysis method for efficiency and cost savings to provide a broadly accessible way to create drinking water through desalination.

Innovate Springfield, a downtown Springfield innovation and business incubator, has become part of the University of Illinois at Springfield under an agreement aimed at expanding economic growth, entrepreneurship opportunities and social progress in the capital city. More...

They studied how chemical signals from contracting muscles promote healthy brains. Their findings reveal how these signals help grow and regulate new brain networks, while also pointing toward ways of improving brain health through exercise.

Electrochemistry is the study of chemical reactions that generate, or are driven by, external electrical currents. Because the field is expanding so significantly — and quickly — there is a growing need to attract scientists to careers in electrochemical science and technology.

The new facility will house a high-throughput plant phenotyping facility designed to monitor the growth of grasses such as miscanthus and specialized strains of sugarcane and sorghum that could be developed into biofuels.

To design better rechargeable ion batteries, UIUC engineers and chemists collaborated to combine a powerful new electron microscopy technique and data mining to visually pinpoint areas of chemical and physical alteration within ion batteries.

Waterhemp is a weed that plagues corn and soybean fields across the Midwest. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have discovered that a single gene is responsible for its ability to survive soil-applied herbicides.

A rocket named Intrepid III might imply that it’s the third in a series of successful rockets. But the truth is, Intrepid III was born out of the failed launches of Intrepid I and II. The “III” reflects the determination and resiliency of the students who overcame two devastating failures with one outstanding success.

Gabe Tavas founded SymmetryWood, one of many startups born at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, his alma mater. A research powerhouse, UIUC is part of the University of Illinois System, which prioritizes innovation that improves lives in the state and beyond. 

The student-led Illinois Solar Decathlon is competing with more than a dozen national and international collegiate teams to design and build the most sustainable, cutting-edge house powered by renewables.

In an advance that will help scientists track coronavirus variants in wild and domesticated animals, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign team report they can now detect exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in any animal species.

Scientists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and its partners developed a breakthrough process to transform polyethylene into polypropylene, which could reduce greenhouse gas emissions.