Illinois Innovators
62 episodes - English - Latest episode: 6 months ago - ★★★★★ - 3 ratingsAs one of the world’s top ranked engineering programs, our students, faculty, and alumni set the standard for excellence. We drive the economy, reimagine engineering education, and bring revolutionary ideas to the world.
We solve the world’s greatest challenges. We look toward the future and find ways to make it a reality. Leading the innovation of virtual reality. Designing electronic tattoos to treat seizures. Building safer global water systems. Converting algae to biofuel. Exploring fusion energy.
We do the impossible every day.
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Episodes
Can we create food from air, water and electricity?
November 01, 2023 17:40 - 24 minutes - 22.6 MBIllinois researchers believe they are getting close to producing food anywhere on the planet — using only air, water and electricity. Join Lauren Laws as she sits down with principal investigator Ting Lu, and co-PIs Mohan Sankaran, Keith Cadwallader to learn more about this DARPA-funded project.
Physics for the masses, one song at a time
September 27, 2022 18:55 - 1 hour - 55.1 MBA shared love of physics, music and education outreach has been sparking a creative partnership between Maggie and Fahad Mahmood for the last 14 years. The couple is continuing their musical journey in the Physics Department at The Grainger College of Engineering by writing song parodies, which celebrate and teach all things physics.
Cancer and Engineering with Rohit Bhargava
January 25, 2022 17:13 - 40 minutes - 55.6 MBOn this episode of Illinois Innovators we're joined by Founder Professor of Bioengineering Rohit Bhargava. In March 2005, Professor Rohit Bhargava was the first external hire to join the Department of Bioengineering as it launched. Now he is an established researcher in chemical imaging and digital pathology techniques and has led the Cancer Center at Illinois since it was formed in 2011. As the Cancer Center at Illinois enters its second decade, he reflects on its unusual approach to cancer...
Tackling Hypersonics with Marco Panesi
October 13, 2021 20:22 - 16 minutes - 22.6 MBOn this episode of the Illinois Innovators Podcast, we explore hypersonics. When a vehicle travels faster than the speed of sound, its exterior surface becomes extremely hot — risking the safety of the people and cargo inside. Molecules in the flow around the vehicle collide and change, creating a shockwave. This hypersonic environment is difficult to understand and even more difficult to study. We asked Marco Panesi to clarify some of the mysteries of hypersonics and tell us what he and his...
Engineering for Good with Vilas Dhar
August 10, 2021 20:15 - 35 minutes - 49.1 MBVilas Dhar is President of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, a $1.5 billion global philanthropy advancing artificial intelligence and data solutions to create a thriving, equitable, and sustainable future for all. He earned bioengineering and computer science degrees from The Grainger College of Engineering in 2004, followed by a JD from New York University School of Law and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He spoke to us in June, sh...
AI Agricultural Robotics with Girish Chowdhary & EarthSense
December 09, 2020 17:48 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MBConversation with Prof. Girish Chowdhary from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and his team at EarthSense. They share about their work in AI robotics, sustainable agriculture, and how to address labor shortages in ag.
Improving Wind Farm Efficiency with Lucas Buccafusca
August 11, 2020 02:10 - 20 minutes - 18.8 MBOptimizing wind turbine efficiency can save millions and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Grainger Engineering doctoral student, Lucas Buccafusca, is helping make it happen.
Mapping the Nation's Food Supply Chain with Megan Konar
November 20, 2019 17:43 - 29 minutes - 27.1 MBEver wondered where the food on your plate came from? While it is much easier at Farmer’s Markets or Farm-to-table restaurants for the consumer to know its origination, supermarkets and restaurants are a little more complicated. A group led by Megan Konar, an assistant professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has created the first comprehensive map detailing the food chain within the United States. The team cites 132 Freight analysis f...
Ann-Perry Witmer on the importance of environmental and cultural factors in humanitarian engineering
November 15, 2019 22:24 - 35 minutes - 32.2 MBAs the world assesses how they can support projects in non-industrialized countries, a new study brought to light just how important cultural and environmental factors are when providing humanitarian engineering aid in these regions. Ann Perry Witmer, a lecturer of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, joins the program to discuss her study on how contextual engineering improves the success of projects in non-industrial societies. It takes ...
Ann Perry Witmer on the importance of environmental and cultural factors in humanitarian engineering
November 15, 2019 22:24As the world assesses how they can support projects in non-industrialized countries, a new study brought to light just how important cultural and environmental factors are when providing humanitarian engineering aid in these regions. Ann Perry Witmer, a lecturer of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, joins the program to discuss her study on how contextual engineering improves the success of projects in non-industrial societies. It takes ...
Nenad Miljkovic on discovery, which can de-ice surfaces in seconds
October 24, 2019 15:47 - 32 minutes - 44.2 MBNenad Miljkovic's research group, collaborating with colleagues at Kyushu University of in Japan, discovered a method to de-ice surfaces in a matter of seconds. The method does so by using 1% of the energy and point 0.01 percent of the time. Professor Miljkovic talks about the discovery and how it could impact a number of industries. His is the principal investigator of the Energy Transport Research Laboratory, the associate director of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Center and an associa...
Hector Silva discusses relativistic theories of gravity in black holes and neutron stars
October 03, 2019 20:18 - 30 minutes - 41.8 MBIf modifications of Einstein’s general relativity do exist in nature, could they leave observable imprints in astrophysical systems and in gravitational wave observations? Hector Silva, a postdoctoral research associate with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Department of Physics discusses his observations specifically as it relates to black holes and neutron stars. A native of Brazil with a PhD from the University of Mississippi, Silva earned the Gravitational Wave Internation...
How Internet of Battlefield Things will change future of warfare with Tarek Abdelzaher
September 12, 2019 21:12 - 28 minutes - 26.2 MBIn 2017, the U.S. Army began outlining plans for the Internet of Battlefield Things, allowing military to be connected on the battlefield the same we are connected in our homes. It includes not only common consumer items like smartphones, wearable devices, cameras, etc., but provides analytics to help predict and perceive the enemy’s movement, for instance or to give machines the autonomy to carry out a course of action based on the programmed intent. The $25 million Army Research Project lea...
Spectroscopic imaging, 3D printing and cancer research with Rohit Bhargava
August 23, 2019 19:41 - 32 minutes - 45.1 MBThe is world’s leading expert in spectroscopic imaging and the Director of the Cancer Center at Illinois, Rohit Bhargava joins the show to talk about several ways engineering is playing a role in solving diagnosis and treatment of a variety of cancers. His group has developed a 3D printer that makes highly precise scaffolds of living organs such as the heart.
Inventables CEO Zach Kaplan on how his company is using 3D carving to help build small businesses
July 31, 2019 18:35 - 30 minutes - 42.3 MBInventables is a 3D carving company that is helping ignite a revolution in digital fabrication. They are helping others start companies using their products, which include powerful machines, software, and materials. Zach Kaplan, the company's CEO discusses the unique technology, the Inventables business model, and his active role within the Chicago VC community.
Power electronics expert Philip Krein talks electric vehicles and solar power
July 29, 2019 16:25 - 38 minutes - 52.9 MBProfessor Krein talks about how he is helping shape the future of advanced energy applications, specifically in electric vehicles and solar power. A recent article in the IEEE Spectrum Krein, a research professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois, detailed the ways the Colleges are prepping the next generation of manufacturers, which includes training in artificial intelligence and robotics. The past chair of the IEEE Transportation Electrification Community...
Illinois Computer Science Department Head Nancy Amato
June 25, 2019 10:59 - 28 minutes - 26 MBGet to know Nancy Amato, the first woman to lead the Department of Computer Science at Illinois. In addition to some interesting personal background, she discusses her research in robotics, how the computer science field has become even more interdisciplinary, the success of the CS + X degree, and the upcoming Rising Stars Workshop, a gathering of top female CS PhD students.
EHT Science Council member Charles Gammie on the first photos of a black hole
May 20, 2019 11:30 - 34 minutes - 31.3 MBOn April 10, astronomers announced that they had captured the first images of a black hole through the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) – a planet scale array of eight ground based radio telescopes forged through international collaboration. University of Illinois Physics Professor Charles Gammie, is a member of the EHT Science Council and co-led a group which provided the theoretical analysis. The team developed sophisticated computer code to make running and analyzing the simulations as effi...
Retired Navy ROTC Commander on the historic ties between Illinois Engineering at the U.S. military
May 13, 2019 19:19 - 32 minutes - 29.6 MBThe Illinois College of Engineering and what was then the Department of Military Science have similar beginnings, dating back to the 1870s. Those ties strengthened following the world wars. Today science and technology are intertwined with the United States military. Of note is that 55 Illinois engineering students are enrolled in the ROTC program at Illinois. On the latest Illinois Innovators, host Mike Koon talks about those ties with Joe Rank, a Vietnam Veteran, two-time University of Illi...
Kimani Touissant on advances and the future in nanomanufacturing
April 25, 2019 21:20 - 46 minutes - 42.3 MBContinued advances in various fabrication processes and technologies have led to rapid developments in both top-down and bottom-up approaches to nanomanufacturing (nanoMFG). The nanomanufacturing (nanoMFG) node at Illinois presented its first two-day workshop on focusing on data-science enabled advances in nanomanufacturing and nanotechnology to explore future opportunities in nanomanufacturing. The Director of the Nanomanufacturing Node, Kimani Touissant joins the program. He is an associate...
Gul Agha shares research on wireless sensors used to monitor bridges and civil infrastructure
March 26, 2019 05:00 - 31 minutes - 29.1 MBGul Agha, professor of computer science and Director of the Open Systems Laboratory at the University of Illinois, joins the program. His widely cited work, "Actors: A Model of Concurrent Computing in Distributed Systems," provided a basis for a number of research projects in concurrent programming. Actor frameworks have been used to program Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook Chat, the British National Health Service Portal, and hundreds of commercial cloud applications. Together with Professor B...
Professor Lav Varshney talks AI, Blockchain, and how it relates to science & urban planning
March 15, 2019 19:10 - 28 minutes - 26.4 MBLav Varshney, who leads the Information and Intelligence Group at the University of Illinois, talks about a number of topics related to artificial intelligence. Earlier this year, Professor Varshney led a session on Blockchain and the Scientific Method at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences annual meeting in Washington. The chief scientist for Ensaras, Inc., he and the company began working with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago to develop a s...
Quantum Information Science -- the Next "Space Race"
February 08, 2019 16:02 - 32 minutes - 30.1 MBQuantum information science has been called the next technological “space race.” And the University of Illinois is positioning itself to be at the forefront of that race. In November, the U of I pledged $15 million for the formation of the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center (or IQUIST). Two of the leading experts in the field, Illinois physics professors Brian DeMarco and Paul Kwiat join the show to discuss its vast future applications. Both professors represented the ...
Women and Ideas in Engineering series featuring PhD student Sakshi Srivastava
January 03, 2019 20:44 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBA native of India, Sakshi Srivastava came to Illinois to study engineering, earning a bachelor of science degree in 2015 and a master of science in 2017. She has served as a research assistant under associate dean and ECE professor Jennifer Bernhard on investigating the role of antenna parameters in reducing interference. She has also worked as an intern at Microsoft. Most recently, she is featured in a chapter of a book co-authored by Illinois engineering’s Laura Hahn and Angie Wolters title...
MakerGirl CEO Stephanie Hein
December 06, 2018 20:24 - 16 minutes - 15.4 MBMakerGirl, a non-profit founded at the University of Illinois in 2014, has a mission to inspire the next generations through educational STEM sessions led by college mentors and instructors. In less than four years, they have impacted 3,000 girls in 18 states. This year they are expanding to Northwestern University and have hired their first CEO in Stephanie Hein, who joins us to talk about the organization.
Interviews from the 5th Health Care Engineering Systems Symposium
October 19, 2018 19:50 - 1 hour - 63.8 MBThe University of Illinois hosted the 5th Health Care Engineering Systems Symposium, which brought experts to discuss simulation/virtual reality/augmented reality in health care and education, wearable computing, voice user interface, artificial intelligence in health care, medical and social robotics, and assistive living technologies. The program includes interviews with Darrin D’Agostino, Executive Dean, College of Osteopathic Medicine and Vice President for Health Affairs at Kansas City U...
Nadya Mason on first year of NSF-funded Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center
October 04, 2018 18:17 - 29 minutes - 26.6 MBAlmost 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 specializes in condensed matter physics.
Illinois research professor Deepak Kumar discusses advances in biofuels
September 28, 2018 20:13 - 30 minutes - 28.1 MBIn 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 developing fermentation technology for high solid use in the corn ethanol process.
Naira Hovakimyan on how drones and ride sharers could team up for package delivery
September 24, 2018 16:28 - 28 minutes - 25.8 MBIf 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 Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering Naira Hovakiyman and her team has received an NSF pro...
Alison Dunn discusses designing hydrogels that interact with biological tissues
September 11, 2018 19:37 - 26 minutes - 24.5 MBAlison 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 visit https://bit.ly/2NySVHr.
Cybersecurity: Preventing hackers from achieving their plan with Adam Bates
July 26, 2018 16:29 - 30 minutes - 27.4 MBWhen 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 grand plan and prevent them achieving that plan. His work has attracted interest from VISA and th...
Chief Technologies CEO Kyle Chandler discusses today's engineering of fire safety equipment
July 16, 2018 20:24 - 50 minutes - 68.6 MBKyle 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), primarily used in large-scale petrochemical facilities.
How safe are our bridges and what to do about it with leading civil engineer Neil Hawkins
July 09, 2018 18:11 - 35 minutes - 32.3 MBOne 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 Earthquake Engineering Research Institute and the Post-Tensioning Institute.
Optimizing Space Travel in the 21st Century with Koki Ho
June 26, 2018 19:12 - 28 minutes - 38.8 MBThe 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-Champaign, and his team have been exploring how these missions can be completed efficiently.
Dibbs founder Kathleen Hu on decreasing food waste
June 06, 2018 20:52 - 22 minutes - 20.1 MBIt 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 excess food at grocery stores to local food pantries. They’re on a mission to reduce food waste ...
Data Analytics and the Future of Healthcare with George Heintz
May 29, 2018 19:46 - 25 minutes - 23.2 MBThe 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 researchers.
Health Data Analytics Summit
May 14, 2018 19:20 - 1 hour - 59.5 MBRevolutions 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 one-day summit. We caught up with several of the presenters after their talks to get their take ...
CS professor Tarek Adbelzaher on how information spreads through social media
May 07, 2018 14:52 - 36 minutes - 33 MBTarek 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.
Cyber infrastructure systems and security with Klara Nahrstedt
March 12, 2018 19:01 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBKlara 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 monitoring of oil and gas cyber-physical infrastructure. She also touches on quality of service managemen...
Academy for Excellence in Engineering Education Director Laura Hahn
February 27, 2018 19:22 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MBLaura 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 Engineering: Twelve Stories from Illinois, in which Laura is the co-author. The book, which highlig...
Generating electricity from nuclear waste with Aries Loumis, CEO of Lumos Industries
February 12, 2018 17:33 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBThe 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.
Why even changes in non-extreme weather can affect an ecosystem with Praveen Kumar
January 29, 2018 21:09 - 29 minutes - 27.2 MBWhile 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.
Robotic Surgery and Cancer with Kesh Kesavadas.
December 18, 2017 17:08 - 28 minutes - 26 MBContinuing 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.
The Doctor's Office of the Future with Stephen Boppart
December 11, 2017 20:44 - 22 minutes - 20.4 MBWhat 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.
Why Cancer Research Needs Engineering Part I: Rohit Bhargava, Director of Cancer Center of Illinois
November 16, 2017 17:14 - 26 minutes - 24 MBThis 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 Cancer Center of Illinois joins the program.
Professor Andrew Ferguson: Targeting data-driven computational vaccine and design
November 14, 2017 21:17 - 24 minutes - 22 MBCreating 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 fitness landscapes for computational vaccine design. This is another way that technology is maki...
Aditi Das: Converting Omega 3 fatty acids to cannabinoids to elicit anti-pain relief
November 09, 2017 20:27 - 20 minutes - 18.9 MBThe 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 novel endocannabinoid epoxides that are anti-inflammatory.
Chao Zhang on how TrioVecEvent and geo-tagged Tweets can be vital in emergency situations
October 27, 2017 16:19 - 32 minutes - 29.3 MBNatural 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 can help locate those in most need of help.
Autonomic Energy Systems co-founder Tony Griffin talks cellphone battery life and preventing fires
September 15, 2017 17:31 - 27 minutes - 25.1 MBStartup 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.
Graphene: What a new manufacturing method could mean for the future of this wonder material
September 15, 2017 17:12 - 28 minutes - 26.5 MBAs 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.