Lab Tours

University of Illinois Research Park

For the past 14 years, the Research Park at the University of Illinois has offered technology-based businesses the opportunity to perform collaborative research with the faculty and student of the university. Approximately 90 companies are currently housed at the Research Park, including household names such as Abbott Laboratories, Caterpillar, Deere & Company, State Farm, and Yahoo as well as start-up companies that are the product of University of Illinois research teams. Over 400 student interns work with these companies, making contributions in internal R&D and product development. In addition, the corporations have research relationships with the University that have resulted in sponsored research, curriculum and teaching contributions, faculty consulting, and sub-contracting of federal grants.

Caterpillar Champaign Simulation Center

The Caterpillar Champaign Simulation Center (CSC) functions as a regional center of excellence for advanced virtual product development in the analysis areas of Information Analytics, CFD/Underhood Thermal, Machine Performance, FEA (non-linear structures), and Statistical Tolerance Analysis/Dimensional Engineering. CSC also functions as a pipeline for engineering talent in product design, electronics software & hardware development, and virtual product development.

National Center of Supercomputing Applications

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) provides computing, data, networking, and visualization resources and services that help scientists and engineers across the country. Established in 1986 as one of the original sites of the National Science Foundation’s Supercomputer Centers Program, NCSA is an interdisciplinary hub and is engaged in research and education collaborations with colleagues and students across the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The NCSA is home to Blue Waters, the fastest supercomputer on a university campus; Blue Waters can perform 13 quadrillion calculations per second. Based on the 2014 Annual Report, projects that utilized Blue Waters includes simulation of turbulent stellar hydrodynamics, the influence of strong field space-time dynamics, high-resolution climate simulations, quantum simulations of nano systems and biomolecules, and high Reynolds number turbulence simulation.

Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering

Alleyne Research Group (ARG)

We are a systems and control lab in the Mechanical Science and Engineering Department at the University of Illinois directed by Professor Andrew Alleyne. Our work consists of dynamic modeling of complex systems as well as the development and implementation of advanced control algorithms on a number of different experimental test beds. For more info, visit http://arg.mechse.illinois.edu/.

The Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Center (ACRC)

Since its founding, the ACRC has provided a forum for industry to coordinate and share precompetitive research on compact, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly technologies. Graduate students, post-doctoral associates, visiting scholars and faculty conduct research in acoustics, dynamics, control systems, design, materials, and the thermal sciences. The ACRC research program is driven by a range of industry and academic interests, and this partnership drives highly innovative and multidisciplinary advanced research.
For information on membership contact one of the ACRC Co-Directors, Predrag Hrnjak (pega@illinois.edu) and Anthony Jacobi (a-jacobi@illinois.edu) or visit https://acrc.mechse.illinois.edu/.

Ewoldt Research Group

Professor Ewoldt conducts fundamental research in fluid mechanics and rheology of complex fluids motivated by both their unavoidable and opportunistic novel functionality. Work often involves interdisciplinary collaborations and is a combination of experiment and theory. Complex fluids are ubiquitous in nature and in man-made applications and research, therefore, extends from biomedicine to robotics.He studies rheology, non-Newtonian fluid mechanics, mathematical modeling, and design involving soft materials. For more info, visit http://web.mechse.illinois.edu/research/ewoldt/index.html.

Renewable Energy & Turbulent Environment Group

This research group, led by Professor Chamorro, aims at providing fundamental insights on the role of turbulence in problems of high practical interest, including renewable wind and hydrokinetic energy technologies, structure of the atmospheric boundary layer over complex terrains, scalar transport in complex topologies, flow-structure interaction, vortex induced vibrations, and turbulence measurement instrumentation. For more info, visit http://chamorro.mechse.illinois.edu/index.htm.

Dullerud Research Group

Professor Dullerud’s research is focused on control of complex systems, including multirate and asynchronous systems, nonlinear systems along trajectories, distributed systems, and application of simulation and optimal control to mechanical, electrical and biomedical systems. He is currently a principal investigator in a large, interdisciplinary research effort sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research on cooperative networked control of small uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs). The main goal of the project is to develop a rigorous theoretical foundation, along with scalable analytical tools and paradigms, to construct networked systems and to verify their performance. For more info, visit http://mechanical.illinois.edu/directory/faculty/dullerud.

Tortorelli Research Group

Professor Tortorelli conducts research leading to the theoretical development, computer implementation, and application of design and analysis methodologies in solid mechanics, structures, heat transfer and fluid mechanics. He investigates design sensitivity analyses and their applications in optimization, and uses the sensitivities to solve inverse heat conduction problems, in both transient and steady-state, linear and nonlinear systems. For more info, visit http://mechanical.illinois.edu/directory/faculty/dtortore.

Hutchens Research Group

Professor Hutchens conducts research in the Solid Mechanics & Materials fields, particularly in soft materials, small scale mechanical characterization, cellular solids, osmosis, and active materials. For more info, visit http://mechanical.illinois.edu/directory/faculty/hutchs.

Instructional Lab Tour 1

This tour will consist of a tour of the Ford Rapid Prototyping Lab as well as our instructional Sandcasting and Injection Molding Lab. The Ford Lab consists of several rapid prototyping machines as well as a 3-D scanner. You can touch and feel rapid prototyped samples and see the machines at work for yourself. In addition, you will get a chance to see our Sandcasting and Injection Molding lab, where you may take a sample home with you!

Instructional Lab Tour 2

This tour will consist of tours of our Fluid Dynamics Lab, Heat Transfer Lab, and our Innovation Design Studio. The Fluid Dynamics Lab features a wind tunnel used in some experiments. The Innovation Design Studio is a space for students to design and build mechanisms and machines for their design courses in the MechSE curriculum. Come take a look at some of the projects too!

ESPL Tour

The Engineering Student Projects Laboratory (ESPL) is where Illinois engineers are able to work on and build large-scale projects. Complete with a full machine shop, the ESPL houses Formula SAE, Baja SAE, Formula Electric, iRobotics, EcoIllini, and several other organizations working on their projects. The tour will consist of a tour of the ESPL, including a look into the machine shop as well as a brief overview of the projects that are being pursued at the University of Illinois!