BUSINESS
The Digital Marketing online certificate offered by the College of Business received Coursera’s "Most Coveted" designation. Coursera determined that digital marketing was one of the skills learners were most eager to gain in 2015. The course had one of the highest completion rates and graduates were most likely to share certificate credentials on LinkedIn. The certificate is one of the seven specialization options for the iMBA program.
EDUCATION
Anjalé Welton, a professor of education policy, organization and leadership, received the 2015 Jack A. Culbertson Award at the 29th annual University Council for Educational Administration Convention in San Diego. One of her nominators, Donald Hackmann, a U. of I. professor of education policy, organization and leadership, was on hand to present the award to Welton. Established in 1982, this award recognizes unique contributions of outstanding junior professors while honoring Culbertson, who inspired many young professors during his tenure as UCEA executive director.
ENGINEERING
Three physics faculty members – Brian DeMarco, Matthias Grosse Perdekamp, and Vidya Madhavan– have been elected fellows of the American Physical Society.
DeMarco's research program in atomic-molecular-optical physics at the U. of I. focuses on solving outstanding problems in condensed matter physics using ultra-cold atoms trapped in an optical lattice.
Grosse Perdekamp works in experimental nuclear physics. He currently carries out experiments at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York, and at the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.
Madhavan, a condensed matter physicist, recently moved her research program from Boston College to Illinois. She investigates fundamental problems in quantum materials where interactions between the spin, charge and structural degrees of freedom lead to emergent phenomena.
Computer science professor Klara Nahrstedt has been named to the inaugural list of “10 Women in Networking/Communications That You Should Know” by Networking Networking Women, a program of SIGMOBILE. Nahrstedt is the Ralph and Catherine Fisher Professor of Computer Science and the director of the multidisciplinary Coordinated Science Laboratory at Illinois.
Computer science professor Lui Sha was named a co-recipient of the 2016 IEEE Simon Ramo Medal, “for technical leadership and contributions to fundamental theory, practice and standardization for engineering real-time systems.” IEEE Medals are the highest distinctions that the the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers presents, and the medals reflect the significant and broad IEEE interests and purposes.
Paris Smaragdis, a professor of computer science and of electrical and computer engineering, recently received a National Science Foundation CAREER award to pursue research in computation and sound, specifically in scaling source separation to big audio data. Smaragdis is an expert in working with machine learning techniques and signal processing as it applies to audio data.
FINE AND APPLIED ARTS
The College of Fine and Applied Arts Office of Communications has won three awards in a national competition. The awards – for a new website and college strategy brochure packet – were announced this fall by the University and College Designers Association.
The college strategy communications were honored with an award of excellence in the internal publications category, and the new college website was recognized with a gold award in the website “entire site” category as well as a judge’s choice award.
The 2015 UCDA awards are posted online.