News

Alleyne wins Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award

MechSE professor and Associate Head of Undergraduate Programs Andrew Alleyne has won the Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring Award, an honor that recognizes faculty members with graduate instructional programs that have demonstrated excellence, innovation, and impact through graduate student mentoring.

After Oculus Rift: Lavalle returns to campus

In spring 2014, both the business and technology news pages excitedly announced Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of Oculus VR, the maker of a virtual reality gaming headset called Oculus Rift. CS Professor Steve LaValle, an Illinois alumnus (PhD EE ’95), has a special insight into the development of VR technology. Since taking leave from the university in September 2012, LaValle helped lead Oculus’ R&D efforts as its head scientist.

Mitra develops verification tool for trustworthy cyber-physical systems

Over the past few decades, information systems have increasingly replaced human operators and processes, with technology assisting in everything from flying aircraft to regulating heartbeats. As the movement toward more autonomous systems continues, there is a growing need to ensure that these systems are safe and reliable before they are deployed – especially in fields where failure could be fatal.

Belabbas receives NSF CAREER Award

A new paradigm has emerged for control systems. During the past 20 years, engineers and theorists have shifted away from control systems that are centralized, where one agent, the leader or control center, broadcasts commands and information to every other agent. Increasingly, researchers are realizing that many control systems – from decentralized power distribution systems to auction systems – can be configured as a collection of interacting autonomous agents.