The group works closely with a small number of industrial partners with whom we have identified common interests and goals. If your company would like to become an industrial partner, feel free to contact us directly.
We also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of private and governmental sponsors. Topics of grants/gifts include the following.
DARPA
• “Modeling and Measuring Scientific Creativity,” 2024-2025
National Science Foundation
• “GCR: Synthetic Neurocomputers for Cognitive Information Processing,” 2021-2026
• “NSF I-Corps Hub: Great Lakes Region,” 2022-2026
• “Expeditions: Mind in Vitro — Computing with Living Neurons,” 2022-2029
• “Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems (CROPPS),” 2021-2025
• “Pushing the Boundaries of Classical and Quantum Information Processing Toward Enhanced Security and Energy-Efficient Reliability,” 2021-2024
• “Efficient Strategies for Pandemic Monitoring and Recovery,” 2020-2023
• “Foundations of Belief Sharing in Human-Machine Systems,” 2017-2021
• “Towards an Information Theory of Attention,” 2016-2018
• “Food and Data: Interoperability through the Food Pipeline,” [Midwest Big Data Hub and CCC] 2016
• “Matching Non-Native Transcribers to the Distinctive Features of the Language Transcribed,” 2015-2018
IBM
• “Discovery Accelerator Institute,” 2021-
• “Center for Cognitive Computing Systems Research,” 2016-2021
• “Toward Cognitive Systems for Scientific Discovery,” [IBM Faculty Award] 2014
Zhejiang University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute (ZJUI)
• “Center for Heterogeneously Integrated Brain Inspired Computing,” 2023-2026
• “Center for Pathogen Diagnostics,” 2020-2025
• “Universal Compression of Deep Networks at the Information-Theoretic Limit,” 2018-2023
ARPA-E
• “Rapid AI based Dissection of Ashes using Raman and XRF Spectroscopy (RADAR X),” 2021-2023
USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• “Neuronal Basis of Feeding Behavior in a Plant-parasitic Nematode,” 2021–2025
• “Comparative Connectome of the Soybean Cyst Nematode and Establishment of an Online Anatomical Atlas,” 2018-2019
Department of Energy
• “Objective-Driven Data Reduction for Scientific Workflows,” 2021-2024
Army Research Laboratory
• “Internet of Battlefield Things (IoBT),” 2021-2023
Discovery Partners Institute (University of Illinois)
• “AI-Aided Co-Creation Platforms to Enhance Human Wellbeing,” 2021-2022
Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
• “Social Music Curation, Exploration, and Co-Creativity for Anti-Racist Teaching in K-12 Classrooms and Community Groups via Inclusive Artificial Intelligence,” 2021-2022
Facebook
• “AI Tools for Localized Concrete Formulation,” 2019
• “Smart Concrete for FB Data Centers,” 2019-2020
• “Smart Concrete for FB Data Centers II,” 2021-2022
Interstellar Initiative (New York Academy of Sciences and AMED [Japan])
• “Age-dependent Trajectory of Exosomal Protein Distribution in Healthy Aging and Alzheimer’s Pathology,” 2020-2021
NVIDIA
• “AI-Aided Music Co-Creation Platform to Enhance Human Wellbeing,” 2022-
Google
• “Neuroscience Discovery with Deep Learning,” 2021-
DARPA and MARCO
• “Systems on Nanoscale Information fabriCs (SONIC) Center,” 2014-2017
• “Energy Efficient Image Storage and Compression with RRAM Arrays,” 2017
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
• “Compression of Structural, Cartographic, and Multimodal Cell Data,” 2018-2019 
FACE Foundation (Thomas Jefferson Fund)
• “Reliable Artificial Intelligence on Energy-Efficient Hardware,” 2018-2020
Air Force Research Laboratory
• “UMIMMI: Universal Multivariate Information Measures for Multisensor Inference,” [Phase I] 2016-2017
• “UMIMMI: Universal Multivariate Information Measures for Multisensor Inference,” [Phase II] 2017-2019
Center for Digital Agriculture
• “Virtual Farming Networks for Smallholders through Digital Communities of Trust,” 2019–2020
General Dynamics Corporation
• “Human Gesture Analysis Recognition and Computer Vision Assistance for Tactical Environments,” 2019
National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office (Singapore)
• “Crowdsourcing, Choice Modelling, and Prediction for Healthy Eating,” 2019-2020
Siebel Energy Institute
• “Incentives, Choices, and Analytics for Electric Vehicle Fleets in Jointly Managing Urban Traffic and the Smart Grid,” 2017
Illinois OTM
• “Machine Learning for Nanopore Bio-Detection,” [I-POC Award] 2016-2017
Los Alamos National Laboratory
• “Computational Creativity for Materials,” 2016
Illinois Learning Science Design Initiative
• “Investigating the Neural Correlates of Learning in Cognitive Training,” 2015