Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

U. of I. Flash Index up in May

The U. of I. Flash Index rose slightly in May to 106.2 from its 106.0 level in April, reversing three months of decline. The index reached its post-recession peak in January, and then declined slightly each month until May. Throughout 2014, the index has stayed above 100, the dividing line between economic growth and contraction.

Recently revised results for national Gross Domestic Product growth during the first quarter of 2014 indicate that the national economy actually declined by

1 percent during this period, which is consistent with the lower Flash Index readings the preceding months.

“As noted last month, most observers believe that this is the result of the unusually harsh winter and does not suggest a long-term decline in economic activity,” said J. Fred Giertz, who compiles the index for the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. “The announcement of the first quarter decline had little, if any, impact on the financial markets.”

There was good news in regard to unemployment in the state with the announcement that the unemployment rate fell to 7.9 percent from 8.4 percent the previous month. This is a positive trend, but Illinois’ unemployment rate is still well above the national average of 6.3 percent and is very high for this stage of the recovery.

Both individual income tax and sales tax receipts were up slightly in real terms from the same month last year while corporate tax receipts declined.

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Announcements Marcelo Garcia, professor of civil and environmental engineering at The Grainger College of Engineering.

Illinois faculty member elected to National Academy of Engineering

Champaign, Ill. — Marcelo Garcia, a professor of civil and environmental engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

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Dating is not broken, but the trajectories of relationships have changed

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Engineering Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Nishant Garg, center, is joined by fellow researchers, from left: Yujia Min, Hossein Kabir, Nishant Garg, center, Chirayu Kothari and M. Farjad Iqbal, front right. In front are examples of clay samples dissolved at different concentrations in a NaOH solution. The team invented a new test that can predict the performance of cementitious materials in mere 5 minutes. This is in contrast to the standard ASTM tests, which take up to 28 days. This new advance enables real-time quality control at production plants of emerging, sustainable materials. Photo taken at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by Fred Zwicky / University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)

Researchers develop a five-minute quality test for sustainable cement industry materials

A new test developed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign can predict the performance of a new type of cementitious construction material in five minutes — a significant improvement over the current industry standard method, which takes seven or more days to complete. This development is poised to advance the use of next-generation resources called supplementary cementitious materials — or SCMs — by speeding up the quality-check process before leaving the production floor.

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