Embracing and partnering with the community is one of the key elements of UIC’s strategic priorities. And 16 students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) are taking this mission to heart and using their engineering knowledge and skills to help four Chicago nonprofits.

UIC's robotics team, the Chicago Engineering Design Team (EDT), won the Second Place Caterpillar Autonomous Award at the 2017 NASA Robotic Mining Competition. The competition, held at the Kennedy Space Center, challenged teams to design and build a robot that can dig and collect basaltic regolith simulant and autonomously navigate a simulated Martian terrain—objectives designed to help NASA find innovative ways to excavate well-insulated water ice. Chicago EDT beat 44 teams including Purdue University, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, and UIUC in its fifth year participating in the competition.Visit chicagoedt.org for more information.

Engineering graduates received their degrees May 6 from Peter Nelson, PhD, dean of the college, and Karen Colley, PhD, dean of the Graduate College. Trina Roy (MS ’95), Senior Software Developer at Pixar Animation Studios, gave the commencement address. Kevin Lynch, Vice President of Technology at Apple, received an honorary doctorate of engineering, the second in the College’s history, for his contributions to society as one of the world’s preeminent software developers and technology innovators, including leading the software development team for the Apple Watch. Two faculty members were honored for their excellence in teaching: Jamison Szwalek, PhD, clinical assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, recipient of UIC’s Silver Circle Award, and Wenjing Rao, PhD, associate professor of electrical…

Our Engineering Expo will be on Friday, April 21, 2017 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It will take place at the UIC Forum, 725 W. Roosevelt Road.

Three College of Engineering alumni—Samantha Melchiori (BS '05), digital and analytics site director, Caterpillar; Martin Logan (BS '01), chief information officer, Guaranteed Rate; and Rohit Pasam (MS '04), CEO, Xaptum—along with Peter Nelson, dean of the College, were among the innovators named to Crain’s Chicago Business’s 2017 Tech 50 list, which highlights those at the forefront of Chicago's technology scene. Read more here.

Emeritus Professor Suresh Aggarwal, of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UIC, has been selected to receive the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Energy Systems Award for 2017.

Donor, volunteer, mentor, advisor, instructor, friend: Christopher Burke has for more than a decade shared his time, resources, and business acumen with UIC’s College of Engineering. Recently, the College celebrated the investiture of Farhad Ansari, PhD, as the inaugural recipient of The Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Professorship, the first endowed professorship in the UIC Department of Civil and Materials Engineering.Dr. Ansari (PhD ’83), UIC Distinguished Professor, currently serves as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and as a faculty member in the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering. Acknowledged as the pioneer in applying optical fiber sensors for structural health monitoring, he has consulted on and designed structural monitoring systems for bridges around the world, including New York’s Brooklyn…

A new iPhone keyboard prototype called BiAffect that can track and predict bipolar mood episodes won the Mood Challenge, a New Venture Program initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study mood using mobile devices. The UIC team, led by Peter Nelson, PhD, dean of the College and professor of computer science, and Alex Leow, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and bioengineering, won semi-final and final rounds to develop their prototype through Apple's open-source platform called ResearchKit and test it among users through Apple's TestFlight app. BiAffect will receive $200,000 to launch publicly in the App Store and help advance bipolar research.Read more in UIC News, or watch on WTTW's Chicago Tonight.