The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is focusing the intellectual and scholarly talent of our university to examine systemic racial inequities and injustices that exist not only in our communities but in higher education itself. The Chancellor’s Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program provides support for academic research and the expansion… Continue Reading

Fall 2021 saw the grand opening of two highly anticipated projects at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: the Siebel Center for Design and the Campus Instructional Facility. Both of these state-of-the-art learning spaces feature enhanced teaching technologies and provide an environment where students and faculty alike are encouraged to innovate, create, and explore. Siebel Center… Continue Reading

Illinois’ research leads the way in innovations to help the world address the issues that threaten our global society. Here, research drives life-changing innovations, permeates our classrooms, and fuels our outreach. From cancer and COVID-19 to computing and social sciences, Illinois is known as a place that accelerates the translation of research to real life impact…. Continue Reading

In 2021, Illinois researchers constructed the K-12 Shield Playbook, an online guide to help schools navigate the COVID-19 reopening process. Members of the Shield Illinois team collaborated with experts at the College of Education and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications to make the resource accessible online for free.  The playbook was based on the… Continue Reading

During the 2021-2022 school year, Illinois adopted Canvas as the campus-supported Learning Management System (LMS). Canvas is a cutting-edge LMS that streamlines support and maximizes future resources in online learning.  The selection of Canvas is the culmination of large-scale research that included a multi-semester, cross-campus pilot program as well as surveys and feedback from instructors… Continue Reading

A new, innovative family of undergraduate degree programs is preparing Illinois students to lead the future of digital transformation. X + Data Science degrees, known as X + DS, combines Data Science with other disciplines to provide a new pathway to foster education and extract knowledge. The X + Data Science degree programs at Illinois… Continue Reading

In 2021, IBM and The Grainger College of Engineering launched the Discovery Accelerator Institute, a large-scale collaboration designed to increase access to technology education and skill development. Combining the strengths of academia and the industrial sector, the institute will serve as a new model of academic-industry partnership and aims to spur breakthroughs in emerging areas… Continue Reading

The Mental Health Task Force created new resources to enhance the Illinois experience. The initiative implemented a comprehensive wellness website and a pilot of the Faculty and Staff Mental Health Ambassador Program. The committee also secured grant funding for wellness spaces, dedicated work to creating mental health statements for syllabi and contributed to the system-wide… Continue Reading