UIC College of Engineering

UIC’s Engineering Design Team (EDT) brought the heat to this year’s Engineering Open House at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with a strong showing by all three robots entered into the contest by their teams. In the objectives competition, EDT’s ground robot Stella placed second out of 32 teams, and team Air’s drone made it to the semi-final round. Team DevastatingWin lasted three rounds in the combat robot tournament. The two robot contests take place simultaneously at the Engineering Open House—one is skills-based, the other a robot brawl. The Midwestern Robotics Design Competition (MRDC) was started in 1987 and is one of the oldest continuously-run robotics competitions in the country. This annual two-day contest is completely student-run. It involves multi-level…

Some senior design projects don’t go beyond Expo. However, a group of students from the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering are working with Fermi National Laboratory on a project that will go much further. In fact, it’s slated to be launched into space. Team 29, which is made up of Alexander Bulger, David Laczak, Eloise de Castelnau, Jose Luis Salinas, and Christopher James, is working with Fermilab, a laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics, to develop a thermal vacuum chamber testing station for the CubeSat (small satellite) program. “The team has been tasked with retrofitting a pre-existing vacuum chamber, and implementing a heating/cooling system that is automated and can cycle through the target temperatures of -100°C to 100°C,” Bulger explained. “Utilizing the engineering design…

In many instances, Chicago’s aging infrastructure is a problem. For five creative seniors in the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering, it’s an opportunity. The team of Griffin Fuller, Alyssa Solomon, Jack Timmins, Pengcheng Wang, and Qin Wang are reimaging El Paseo, Spanish for “The Trail,” which is an urban greenway slated for construction in the Little Village and Pilsen neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side. An urban greenway is a bike and walking trail that is featured in the city sphere while being surrounded by the natural environment, or green vegetation and flora. “Our inspiration came from observing the engineering marvel of other makeshift thoroughfares such as the Bloomingdale Trail on [Chicago’s] North Side and the High Line in New…

The university’s core missions focus on promoting learning and discovery. The College of Engineering’s book dedication initiative provides a way to capture the multiple dimensions of the learning and discovery experienced by our own faculty members as they progress through their careers. When faculty members are promoted to a new faculty rank, the College invites them to select a book that has had a profound effect on them as scholars and as human beings. The book may be, but need not be, related to their research or area of expertise. All selected titles are added to the UIC Library’s collection bearing a bookplate that recognizes the faculty member and explains his or her motivation for choosing the book. We…

The UIC Fine Arts Review Committee has spoken, and local Chicago artist Christine Tarkowski has come out on top in the College of Engineering’s search for a public art commission for its new Engineering Innovation Building. Tarkowski’s The Second Law of Thermodynamics: ENTROPY was selected after the committee reviewed votes and comments from students, faculty, staff, and other members of the UIC community. The other two finalists for the art commission were Conduit by Rachel Beach of New York, Nano Vanitas by Todd Slaughter of Ohio. Models and digital presentations from the three finalists were displayed in the lobby of the Engineering Research Facility last month and the UIC community was invited to view the models and vote on their favorite. The results were reviewed by…

When John E. Major (MS ’82) first connected with the UIC College of Engineering, it was to set up an industry partnership for an off-campus master’s degree program at Motorola—and he thought the best way to encourage others to participate was to lead by example, so he enrolled himself. Today—after many years of service and leadership—he is the recipient of the college’s highest honor: an honorary doctor of engineering. “John Major is recognized around the world as one of the most influential forces in the wireless telecommunications over the last 50 years: as an innovator, entrepreneur, business strategist and executive," says Peter Nelson, dean of the College of Engineering. John Major’s career began as an engineer at Kleinschmidt-SCM in 1967,…

The UIC Engineering Experience Camp has expanded! Due to growing demand, the College of Engineering summer camp will immerse students in activities designed by multiple engineering departments: bioengineering, civil and materials engineering, mechanical and industrial engineering, electrical and computer engineering, and computer science. “Engineering isn’t a subject grade-school students encounter every day, so the camp provides an inspiring look at the ways engineers change the world,” said the camp’s director, Clinical Associate Professor Yeow Siow of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. “We’re offering them a week of hands-on activities and challenges that will introduce them to the creative aspects of engineering while also getting a sense of what life will be like as a college student.” UIC’s College…