News Bureau

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- A contest at the University of Illinois that gets under way Aug. 30 will give student teams the opportunity to compete for $20,000 in prizes by drafting a plan for developing a technological idea into a viable commercial venture.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The Technology Entrepreneur Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has announced the first-round winners in the first annual V. Dale Cozad Business Plan Competition. (Editors: See list.)

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The Technology Entrepreneur Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has announced the finalists in the first annual V. Dale Cozad Business Plan Competition. (Editors: See list.)

When Karin Dahmen hears the crackling noise in a bowl of crisped-rice cereal, her thoughts turn to earthquakes.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Ultrathin superconducting wires can withstand stronger magnetic fields than larger wires made from the same material, researchers now report. This finding may be useful for technologies that employ superconducting magnets, such as magnetic resonance imaging.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of 20 universities selected to participate in the 2007 Solar Decathlon, a competition in which teams of students from colleges and universities in the United States, Europe and Canada compete to design, build and operate homes powered exclusively by solar energy.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Wild and wacky Rube Goldberg machines, "robot wars," and more than 160 fun-filled exhibits await visitors to "Beyond Imagination," the 86th annual Engineering Open House at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

A Minute With™... George Gross, a professor of electrical and computer engineering

A Minute With™... Amr Elnashai, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the United Kingdom

George Gross is a professor of electrical and computer engineering and at the Institute of Government and Public Affairs. He discusses the higher electric rates that went into effect on January 1, 2007. He was interviewed by the News Bureau's business and law editor Mark Reutter.

A Minute With™... Robert H. Dodds Jr., a professor and head of the department of civil and environmental engineering

A Minute With™... Prasanta Kalita, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering

Firefighters battling wildfires like those devastating Southern California, or even a smaller structural fire, have to endure temperatures in the hundreds of degrees. A study at the Illinois Fire Service Institute on the U. of I.'s Urbana campus is examining an enhanced version of personal protective equipment that is lighter, less restrictive and uses a firefighter's exhaled breath to cool the body and help combat heat stress, which researchers believe contributes to many of the on-the-job deaths and injuries firefighters suffer each year.

A Minute With™... computer science professor Sheldon Jacobson

A Minute With™... Amr S. Elnashai, the director of the Mid-America Earthquake Center

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Imagine tiny cracks in your patio table healing by themselves, or the first small scratch on your new car disappearing by itself. This and more may be possible with self-healing coatings being developed at the University of Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Excess fuel consumption caused by excess driver and passenger weight has increased in the past two years, with no end in sight.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Metallic carbon nanotubes have been proposed as interconnects in future electronic devices packed with high-density nanoscale circuits.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - By integrating a solid-state electron emitter and a microcavity plasma device, researchers at the University of Illinois have created a plasma transistor that could be used to make lighter, less expensive and higher resolution flat-panel displays.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - By pushing carbon nanotubes close to their breaking point, researchers at the University of Illinois have demonstrated a remarkable increase in the current-carrying capacity of the nanotubes, well beyond what was previously thought possible.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon, holds remarkable promise for future nanoelectronics applications. Whether graphene actually cuts it in industry, however, depends upon how graphene is cut, say researchers at the University of Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A new imaging technique developed by researchers at the University of Illinois overcomes the limit of diffraction and can reveal the atomic structure of a single nanocrystal with a resolution of less than one angstrom (less than one hundred-millionth of a centimeter).

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Scientists at the University of Illinois have successfully demonstrated a microwave signal mixer made from a tunnel-junction transistor laser. Development of the device brings researchers a big step closer to higher speed electronics and higher performance electrical and optical integrated circuits.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A new ink developed by researchers at the University of Illinois allows them to write their own silver linings.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - In the classic fairy tale, "The Emperor's New Clothes," Hans Christian Andersen uses the eyes of a child to challenge conventional wisdom and help others to see more clearly. In similar fashion, researchers at the University of Illinois have now revealed the naked truth about a classic bell-shaped curve used to describe the motion of a liquid as it diffuses through another material.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A new process for creating ultrathin, ultrasmall inorganic light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and assembling them into large arrays offers new classes of lighting and display systems with interesting properties, such as see-through construction and mechanical flexibility, that would be impossible to achieve with existing technologies.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A team of students from the University of Illinois won second place today (Oct. 16) in the 2009 Solar Decathlon design competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. - Researchers report that Helicobacter pylori, the only bacterium known to survive in the harsh environment of the human stomach, directly activates an enzyme in host cells that has been associated with several types of cancer, including gastric cancer.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A new study analyzing the impact of hand-held cell phone legislation on driving safety concludes that usage-ban laws had more of an impact in densely populated urban areas with a higher number of licensed drivers than in rural areas where there are fewer licensed drivers, according to a University of Illinois researcher.

A Minute With™... computer science professor Sheldon H. Jacobson

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Vaccine manufacturers and public health decision-makers need to collaborate in a more efficient and effective manner not only to reduce the likelihood of supply shortages for pediatric vaccines but also to maximize community immunity by using vaccine doses to increase coverage, according to research published by a University of Illinois researcher who specializes in statistics and data analysis.

A Minute With™... aviation security expert Sheldon H. Jacobson

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - In one University of Illinois lab, invisibility is a matter of now you hear it, now you don't.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Using detailed land analysis, Illinois researchers have found that biofuel crops cultivated on available land could produce up to half of the world's current fuel consumption - without affecting food crops or pastureland.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Researchers at the University of Illinois and Northwestern University have demonstrated bio-inspired structures that self-assemble from simple building blocks: spheres.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - John A. Rogers, the Lee J. Flory-Founder Chair in Engineering at the University of Illinois, is among the 68 new members elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Illinois researchers have documented the first observations of some unusual physics when two prominent electric materials are connected: superconductors and graphene.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Cardiologists may soon be able to place sensitive electronics inside their patients' hearts with minimal invasiveness, enabling more sophisticated and efficient diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Technophiles who have been dreaming of mobile devices that run longer on lighter, slimmer batteries may soon find their wish has been granted.

A Minute With™... James F. Stubbins, professor and head of the department of nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering

A Minute With™...  James F. Stubbins, professor and head of nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The batteries in Illinois professor Paul Braun's lab look like any others, but they pack a surprise inside.

A Minute With™... Rizwan Uddin, a professor of nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - With the first observation of thermoelectric effects at graphene contacts, University of Illinois researchers found that graphene transistors have a nanoscale cooling effect that reduces their temperature.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The pen may have bested the sword long ago, but now it's challenging wires and soldering irons.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - In an advance that could open new avenues for solar cells, lasers, metamaterials and more, researchers at the University of Illinois have demonstrated the first optoelectronically active 3-D photonic crystal.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Taking their cue from biological circulatory systems, University of Illinois researchers have developed vascularized structural composites, creating materials that are lightweight and strong with potential for self-healing, self-cooling, metamaterials and more.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Engineers have developed a device platform that combines electronic components for sensing, medical diagnostics, communications and human-machine interfaces, all on an ultrathin skin-like patch that mounts directly onto the skin with the ease, flexibility and comfort of a temporary tattoo.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A new physics-based theory could give researchers a deeper understanding of the unusual, slow dynamics of liquids composed of large polymers. This advance provides a better picture of how polymer molecules respond under fast-flow, high-stress processing conditions for plastics and other polymeric materials.

CHAMPAIGN, lll. - Researchers have engineered new sensors that fluoresce in the presence of compounds that interact with estrogen receptors in human cells. The sensors detect natural or human-made substances that alter estrogenic signaling in the body.