Illinois Innovators

Get 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.

Get 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.

On 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 efficient as possible. Professor Gammie joins Illinois Innovators to discuss the significance of the discovery, the role the Illinois team played in the project, and what’s next.

On 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 efficient as possible. Professor Gammie joins Illinois Innovators to discuss the significance of the discovery, the role the Illinois team played in the project, and what’s next.

The 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 Illinois graduate, a retired U.S. Navy Commander and former Naval Instructor for the Navy ROTC program at Illinois.

The 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 Illinois graduate, a retired U.S. Navy Commander and former Naval Instructor for the Navy ROTC program at Illinois.

Continued 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 Professor in the Departments of Mechanical Science and Engineering, and Bioengineering, and an Affiliate Faculty in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois

Continued 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 Professor in the Departments of Mechanical Science and Engineering, and Bioengineering, and an Affiliate Faculty in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois

Gul 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 Bill Spencer, he co-directs the Illinois Structural Health Monitoring Group. The project pioneered research applying wireless sensor networks and distributed computing to continuously monitor the structural health of civil infrastructure such as bridges.

Gul 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 Bill Spencer, he co-directs the Illinois Structural Health Monitoring Group. The project pioneered research applying wireless sensor networks and distributed computing to continuously monitor the structural health of civil infrastructure such as bridges.