Technograph: November 2023 (ft. The DI Holiday Edition inside)

VOLUME 138: NOVEMBER 2023

GOING

QUANTUM • PAGE 11 •

DI Holiday Edition inside!

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Technograph || November 2023

Editor’s note EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

LIKA LEZHAVA editor@dailyillini.com

i

n the year 1885, Technograph was first published by and for engineering students at the University.

This new monthly publication gave students the opportunity to share innovations and discoveries while spotlighting themselves, their colleagues and their faculty. In 2019, the final edition of Technograph was released.

In its 135-year run, Technograph published a wide variety of engineering and technology-related content for its audience.

Ever since Technograph was taken off the press, The Daily Illini has paid annual tribute to its impact on the campus community by releasing

special Technograph editions. In this edition of Technograph, produced

by The Daily Illini, staff took a deep dive into the modern and constantly evolving world of engineering.

From the very first graphical web browser to the LED lightbulb, Illinois researchers have developed groundbreaking technology since the University’s founding in 1867. Most recently, the first publicly accessible quantum network was launched in Champaign, revolutionizing access to this new technology. You can read all about what this means and how to check it out on page 11. If you would rather start really, really small with quantum science, flip over to page 18 to read about professor Simeon Bogdanov’s research in quantum superresolution microscopy.

University engineers have made significant contributions to the study of medicine as well. To read about

the first engineering-based medical school in the world, located on Mathews Avenue in Urbana, head over to page 12.

Want to know about how the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering is expanding its rail engineering program? Flip over to page 15 to learn all about the innovations going on in RailTEC. Turn to page 21 to learn about the award-winning engineering program the University offers and how the Grainger College of Engineering continues to develop new ideas and concepts to continue to achieve greatness.

Ever wondered what makes the Illinois app run? It’s a software company called Rokwire! Turn to page 23 to read about how Rokwire has helped the development of what the app looks like today.

At the University of Illinois, we pride ourselves on our engineering program and all that has come from it. This edition of Technograph will showcase exactly that.

Editorial Team Editor-in-Chief: Lika Lezhava editor@dailyillini.com

Managing Editor for Reporting: Lisa Chasanov reporting@dailyillini.com

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ON THE

COVER

JACOB SLABOSZ THE DAILY ILLINI

In room 364 of the Loomis Laboratory of Physics, professors in Engineering Paul Kwiat and Gina Lorenz examine the optics setup responsible for the public quantum network along with the team of graduate students and researchers who worked on the project.

Find the Holiday Edition of The DI inside!

IN THIS

ISSUE

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28

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VOLUME 138

DESIGNERS

NOVEMBER 2023

Jacob Slabosz, Sophia Kim, Ava Rizzo, Cam Crowell, Julia Chung, Lux Lin, Morgan Hooker, Natalie Mora, Natalie Schneider, Nathan Yuan, Priya Datt, Shannon Moser, Sophia Ma, Talha Ali

In Technograph, The Daily Illini explores the technical happenings, research advancements and engineering milestones of the University. Discussing public quantum networks, advanced water purification, rail engineering and much more, Technograph provides a deeper look into much of Illinois’ groundbreaking developments that are often unfamiliar to many.

04 Intersecting Innovations: Bashir’s research in biomedical engineering 06 NSF grants $30 million for cell research, 4D mapping, minecraft 07 UI professor envisions plasma as new energy source 08 Liquid Rocketry at Illinois shoots for the stars Hunger: How an ACES startup is using robotics to revolution09 Terminating ize agriculture 11 UI launches world’s first publicly accessible quantum network 12 Carle Illinois College of Medicine on the frontlines of innovation 13 From theory to application: UI professor details new path to CU 15 RailTEC lays the track for all rail engineering programs 16 UI advances clean energy, innovates microreactor technology 18 Professor Simeon Bogdanov discusses future of microsopy research at UI Institute of Health awards $1.7 million grant to bioengineering 19 National research team 21 College of Engineering, Morgan State awarded intercollegiate partnership 23 Rokwire: The open source platform behind the Illinois app and more 25 Computing a brain: Mind in vitro 26 UI faculty develop adaptive building materials 27 NeuroTech aims to further cognition, semantics at UI 28 UI researchers purify contaminated water with solar energy 29 Opinion | Past innovations could save the games industry from its ‘Doom’ 30 Opinion | Data is the future of UI journalism Technograph || November 2023

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Intersecting Innovations:

Bashir’s research in biomedical engineering NEWS EDITOR

ELLA NARAG mnarag2@dailyillini.com

I

n an effort to combine medicine and engineering, Rashid Bashir, dean of Grainger College of Engineering, is testing ways to maximize technology for individualized health. His research focuses include nanotechnology for

personalized medicine and 3D bioprinting for drug screening.

Bashir, who was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine for contributions to the field of biomedical engineering, has been a faculty member at the University since 2007. He also helped to establish the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the world’s first engineering-based medical school.

A biohybrid system: miniature robots made of engineered cells Bashir’s lab, the Laboratory of Integrated Bio Medical Micro/Nanotechnology and Applications on campus, recently published an article titled “Remote control of muscle-driven

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Technograph || November 2023

miniature robots with battery-free wireless optoelectronics.”

The article introduced a battery-free biohybrid system — very tiny, centimeter-scaled walking robots. These robots were able to respond to commands and, because they were light-emitting, allowed for real-time communication at small magnification.

The team also engineered muscle

tissue for the basis of the robot, providing the biological aspect of the machine. Bashir described the project as the “use of 3D bioprinting and sort of fabrication technologies with scaffolds and living cells to develop what we call living machines.”

The goal of this specific experiment was to open doors to further research in these machines. According to the paper, they specifically wanted “a class of biohybrid machines able to combine biological actuation and sensing with on-board computing.”

The miniature robots were built in hopes to improve optogenetics, a biological technique that uses light to activate transgenic cells. Optogenetics required light sources to be near the muscles of interest, but the robots would allow the light to be manually commanded.

“Our work on biohybrid robots is very exciting and innovative … Someday we will have machines and devices around us that (are) made of living cells that can adapt, self-heal, learn and not harm the environment,” Bashir said.

Disease: diagnosis and detection Another aspect of Bashir’s research includes innovation in the detection and diagnosis of various diseases, including sepsis and cancer. The team focuses on developing “point of care sensors and different approaches to personalized diagnostics from bodily fluids,” he said.

Point of care sensors allow for expanded medical applications.

“Essentially, this means through an individual’s bodily fluids, like blood, saliva or urine, we can detect disease markers right at the personalized level,” Bashir explained.

Through nanotechnology and microfluidics, Bashir hopes to bring the lab to the patient. Implications of this research can impact society wholescale, he said.

In a recently published article titled “Advances in field-effect biosensors towards point-of-use,” Bashir and coauthor Sihan Chen reviewed recent de-

velopments in biosensors.

“It can have, you know, really a profound effect on medicine by lowering costs and increasing access and increasing quality,” Bashir added.

VedaBio

Bashir co-founded VedaBio on Oct. 17 with Anurup Ganguli, a University alum and former student of Bashir’s. VedaBio is a molecular detection group based out of California that received over $40 million in initial funding.

The main objective of VedaBio uses CRISPR to “revolutionize molecular detection,” the company’s website said. They did this through a new form of technology that Ganguli created, dubbed the CRISPR Cascade.

CRISPR is a gene-editing technology that allows scientists to selectively edit DNA but requires gene amplification through polymerase chain reaction.

VedaBio modified the pre-existing CRISPR technology to no longer require target amplification while still maintaining PCR-level accuracy in the Cascade.

Bashir noted this was something he was excited to see develop. The molecular diagnostic technique, Bashir said, was revolutionary in rapid detection and had much potential in the field of health and medicine.

Impact through engineering Bashir’s research across scientific disciplines through various projects has ultimately led to numerous awards and recognitions.

Besides the National Academy of Medicine, Bashir is a member of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.

“I am honored and humbled to be elected in NAM, and to lead the Grainger College of Engineering as the dean,” Bashir said. “I hope to do what I can to continue to make an impact on humanity at large using engineering solutions … at the convergence of engineering and medicine.”

DANIEL ZHOU THE DAILY ILLINI

Dean Bashir of the Grainger College of Engineering in attendance at Research Park for the fireside chat panel on Sept. 8.

Technograph || November 2023

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NSF grants $30 million for cell research, 4D mapping, Minecraft STAFF WRITER

PARK MITCHELL parkm2@dailyillini.com

S

ometimes, to make a big change, you have to start small — really small.

In September, the National Science Foundation announced it would provide $120 million in funding to establish four new Science and Technology Centers across the country. Thirty million of these dollars were granted to a new center housed at the University.

The new Science and Technology Center for Quantitative Cell Biology will be headed by professors Martin Gruebele and Zaida Luthey-Schulten. The center’s primary goal is to create detailed 4D — 3D plus time — maps of entire cells and potentially systems.

To accomplish this goal, the two professors have assembled an all-star team of scientists representing institutions ranging from Stockholm University to Harvard Medical School.

“The really big difference between an NSF center like this and people just doing research is every one of these people has published dozens to hundreds of papers,” Gruebele said.

The center’s $30 million is for the first five years of the center, but can be extended to a total of $60 million over the next 10 years.

The project’s first goal will focus on modeling a bacteria cell. The smallest type of cell still contains over two billion atoms and Gruebele and Luthey-Schulten want to simulate every single one, but not just to create a snapshot.

“We want to do it in x, y, z and time,” Luthey-Schulten said.

This new 4D map will help see every component of the cell, but also all of its processes.

“One of the ways you could think of this center is that it really tries to finally connect chemistry with biology in the sense that every biological thing in a

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cell is chemically represented,” Gruebel said.

The project’s main five-year plan will try to model a yeast cell, the simplest eukaryotic cell.

Eukaryotic cells provide a much more complicated environment than bacteria, with more organelles and processes.

Still, Gruebele and Luthey-Schulten are confident they will achieve their goal wihtin the alotted five-year period.

“A lot of the pieces people have already developed atomistic models or quite sophisticated models,” Gruebele said. “It’s just what’s missing is nobody has stuck all of these things together.”

The center’s 10-year goal would be to scale the modeling to a human cell. Not accounting for the complexity of a human cell, the sheer size of one will make the endeavor challenging.

“It’s two or three microns vs 30 microns in diameter, so a factor of 10 in length, but that translates into a factor of 1,000 in volume,” Gruebele said.

Much of the center’s computational goals must also be backed up by experimental information. An important component in gathering that information is through a super microscope called MINFLUX. Located in the basement of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, the device is closer to a modern telescope than a typical microscope and costs around $2 million.

The center hopes their cell modeling will not only progress scientific information but also have real-world applications.

“One of the ideas is we can use this kind of cell tool as a discovery tool,” Gruebele said.

A primary example of this is the cell model’s potential effectiveness in the medical world. According to Gruebele, it is often hard to understand what is causing side effects with new drugs, but new cell models could change that.

“This is a way to actually see how

does a cell actually change when you put a drug in it,” Gruebele said.

While being a hub of scientific development, the center will also focus on education. To engage younger audiences, Gruebele and Luthey-Schulten adopted a popular video game.

“NSF always wants to have outreach to the scientific community and to the general public, and that’s when we thought, ‘Huh, Minecraft,’” Luthey-Schulten said.

The popular game will be able to scale to its participants’ skills, anywhere from simple identification projects to coding within the game.

“By having people

play these games, we can actually learn some real science,” Gruebele said.

Gruebele and Luthey-Schulten said positions would become more available at the center starting this summer. To keep up with the project, you can go to the NSF Science and Technology Center for Quantitative Cell Biology’s website.

AMY SANCHEZ THE DAILY ILLINI

UI professor envisions plasma as new energy source CONTRIBUTING WRITER

MANASI BHARGAVA manasib4@dailyillini.com

I

n the vast expanse of the universe, an extraordinary state of matter reigns supreme — plasma. Composing the majority of the cosmos, plasma is a superheated state of matter in which electrons are torn away from atoms, forming ionized gas.

This unique form of matter holds the key to a revolutionary energy source, and David Ruzic, professor in Engineering, has dedicated his life to unlocking its potential.

For nearly four decades, Ruzic has been a guiding force at the University. He is currently nurturing 17 funded doctoral students and a team of dedicated research scientists.

His research efforts are fueled by industry funding, which not only drives cutting-edge research, but also supports the education and training of future scientists and engineers.

Scientists like Ruzic explore how plasma interacts with materials to revolutionize understanding of the universe and provide a clean, efficient energy source.

“Plasma has an increasing use in a wide variety of fields, and that’s why the plasma engineering field has been able to grow so much,” Ruzic said.

The sun — the most powerful source of energy in our solar system — relies on fusion to power its brilliance. Ruzic has focused his career on understanding and utilizing plasma, as well as working toward recreating fusion on Earth.

His focus is not on replicating the sun’s massive gravity-based confinement, but on harnessing magnetic fields to contain plasma in a vacuum system. However, achieving fusion on Earth presents unique challenges due to the extreme heat generated during the process.

The surface of the sun is incredibly hot, and replicating these conditions on Earth requires overcoming formidable

obstacles. The sun’s heat flux at its surface is a staggering 63 million megawatts per square meter. Handling this immense heat flux is no easy task, as it would instantly melt even the most robust materials.

“So the standard way to try to make a fusion device is, where the plasma hits, you’re going to use the element which has the highest melting point on the periodic table, that is, Tungsten,” Ruzic explained.

However, even tungsten cannot withstand the full 63 megawatts per square meter heat flux without melting. The challenge then becomes spreading the heat to a larger area. Current fusion projects, such as the ITER project in the south of France, have encountered issues due to their huge size and associated costs.

“The problem with it is, it’s so big and therefore so costly that even if it works and makes some net energy, no one in their right mind is going to pay for it because it’s not just that you have to make energy, you have to make energy economically,” Ruzic said.

As of now, 80% of the world’s energy comes from fossil fuels, contributing to the increasing levels of carbon dioxide emissions. Ruzic said he believes a transition to nuclear energy is necessary to mitigate the climate crisis.

In the United States, 20% of electricity is produced through nuclear fission, while France boasts an impressive 85%.

These statistics illustrate the potential of nuclear energy to replace fossil fuels, provided that cost-effective fusion energy becomes a reality.

To make fusion economically viable, Ruzic’s approach focuses on using magnetic confinement while optimizing the materials used in the fusion device. In contrast to the traditional choice of high atomic number materials like tungsten for the walls, he proposes using the lowest atomic number element possible: lithium.

Lithium is ideal for the fusion device’s wall because it can tolerate a significant

amount of lithium in the plasma without hampering the fusion process.

“Everything goes bad in the fusion reactor as the atomic number squared,” Ruzic said.

However, lithium’s low melting point at 180.5 degrees Celsius presents a challenge. To address this issue, Ruzic suggested creating a wall made of flowing molten lithium.

This method allows the section of the wall exposed to the plasma to become hot enough to facilitate the fusion process while avoiding lithium’s evaporation.

In Ruzic’s vision, the fusion device effectively contains the sun’s energy within a metal container. Unlike the sun, which radiates its energy into outer space, everything leaving the plasma hits the wall.

Alongside the intense heat, the wall saturates over time. This saturation means every hydrogen atom hitting the wall eventually returns to the plasma at the temperature of the wall, creating a thermal imbalance within the fusion device.

However, Ruzic provided a solution to

the given issue.

“If my wall is made out of flowing lithium, it turns out everything that hits lithium sticks,” Ruzic said. “It’s flowing so it can’t saturate because new Li is always coming in. It won’t fuse, it will just get sucked up chemically. So now, nothing goes back in and the temperature of the plasma is uniform.”

According to Ruzic, this allows for consistent fusion reactions throughout the entire volume of the device, making it possible to build much smaller, more costeffective fusion reactors that can produce the same amount of energy as their larger counterparts.

By making fusion energy economically feasible, this innovation paves the way for a clean and virtually limitless source of power, Ruzic said.

“In the 2030s, 15 years less from now, we can see a power plant, or at least a mockup,” Ruzic said. “First of its kind or something like that. It’s very exciting at this point.”

MANASI BHARGAVATHE DAILY ILLINI

A flowing liquid lithium limiter system used to course molten lithium on Nov. 2 in the Nuclear Radiation Laboratory.

Technograph || November 2023

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Liquid Rocketry at Illinois shoots for the stars CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ETHAN OSKROBA ethanro2@dailyillini.com

T

he Laboratory for Optical Physics and Engineering sits in the heart of the University’s campus in Urbana. Students walk past the building every day and may be unaware of the fact that, on the second floor of the lab, a coalition of dedicated student engineers is chasing history.

This is Liquid Rocketry at Illinois, a registered student organization that has fixed its gaze on exploits no college team has ever accomplished.

“The overarching long-term goal is to ideally be the first collegiate team to launch a liquid-powered rocket to space,” said Demir Can Erkiralp, sophomore in Engineering and the club’s president.

To etch their names in the history books, LRI would have to propel a flight vehicle above the Karman line — the legally agreed upon boundary of the atmosphere and the periphery of space, some 330,000 feet above sea level.

While the University of Southern California’s Rocket Propulsion Laboratory became the first undergraduate group to reach space back in 2019, they did so using a rocket powered by solid fuel. Liquid rocketry, the discipline practiced by LRI, provides its own unique set of challenges.

“It’s a very difficult, expensive and somewhat advanced form of rocketry,” said Colin Reedy, sophomore in Engineering and leader of the club’s pumps team, one of six specialized units on the LRI roster.

All rockets require two major components to function: fuel to power the rocket and oxygen to oxidize the fuel.

Unlike atmospheric vehicles, rockets must store and use oxygen, as there is no oxygen in space.

The main distinction between solidpowered rockets and liquid rocketry is

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Technograph || November 2023

PHOTO COURTESY OF DEMIR CAN ERKIRALP

Liquid Rocketry at Illinois conducts a cold flow test with liquid nitrogen as a cloud forms from water molecules condensing in the air from the boiling liquid nitrogen.

that in solid rockets, the fuel and oxygen are in solid form and are already mixed.

In liquid rocketry, the liquid fuel and oxygen are stored in different tanks and must be siphoned into the combustion chamber at an extremely precise ratio for the rocket to function.

While this process increases the efficiency of the rocket, one slight miscalculation or malfunction in liquid rocketry can have catastrophic consequences.

“A solid rocket engine wants to fire until it’s out of fuel and out of propellant and just stops burning,” Erkiralp said.

“A liquid rocket engine at every point at every step of the way wants to violently explode.”

While the task of launching the engineering equivalent of an explosive with an upset stomach over 62 miles into the air seems almost impossible, LRI’s willingness to go the extra mile is giving it a leg up in this rehashed version of the space race — specifically by its use of pumps.

“Pumps you can essentially think of as a turbocharger in a car,” Reedy said.

“The way a car works, you can turbocharge a car, make its engine run faster.

You can turbocharge, or pump feed, an engine and make it run faster or effectively stronger — you get more thrust

out of it for the given engine size.”

Pumps execute this function by adding pressure, which pushes the fuel and oxygen necessary in liquid rocketry together. Shoving the two propellants upon each other provides more force compared to the typical pressure-fed engines.

While pressure-fed engines are more convenient when building on a smaller scale — and thus more popular among collegiate rocketry teams — the rockets constructed by NASA and other forerunners in rocketry are all pump-fed.

It’s an added challenge, but one LRI believed is worthwhile in both the short and long term, helping the club’s current projects become lighter and more efficient while also preparing LRI’s members for their eventual career goals.

“It’s a lot of added complexity, but for the nature of the way rocketry works in the long term, it will be a lot more high performance and will enable us to make bigger leaps in the future,” Reedy said.

The current test stand LRI is working on represents a marked improvement over their first attempt. The club took what they learned from the initial prototype to create its smaller, more efficient and more portable successor, which should be the bedrock of several of their

future projects.

“I think it’s important to emphasize just how big of a challenge this is,” Reedy said. “If you look back in the history of some of these very famous space companies, some of the early ones from the ’60s, it took years for those initial developments to really get them anywhere past that Karman line or even for their orbit … A bunch of college students trying to accomplish a similar goal — that is a level of dedication and time that takes a lot of people, it takes a lot of effort and it’s a very big challenge.”

Members said liquid rocketry is an expensive discipline. If you’d like to financially support LRI, go to its GoFundMe. LRI is looking to add members with a passion for liquid rocketry regardless of major and is actively looking for more sponsors. To reach out about joining or sponsorship opportunities, contact liquidrocketinitiative.uiuc@gmail. com.

Scan the QR code to read the full story or visit our website, dailyillini.com, to read more content.

Terminating Hunger How an ACES startup is using robotics to revolutionize agriculture MANAGING EDITOR FOR REPORTING

LISA CHASANOV lisamc3@dailyillini.com

D

escribed by its first president John Milton Gregory as the “West Point for the working world,” the University of Illinois has aimed to stand at the forefront of labor innovation since its inception in 1867.

A deep commitment to revolutionizing the working class experience through technology is still at the core of the University’s mission, with new developments brought forth by faculty and students each year.

One recent project spearheaded by faculty from the College of Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences, a compact agricultural robot named TerraSentia, is building upon the University’s legacy by innovating upon the ways farmers work.

Girish Chowdhary, professor in ACES, founded a startup called EarthSense alongside Chinmay Soman, a research faculty member at the University, in April 2016.

“EarthSense was founded for addressing labor problems in agriculture and improving the quality of agricultural tasks overall,” Chowdhary said.

According to Chowdhary, the TerraSentia device, developed by EarthSense, uses artificial intelligence models to collect information for use in cross-breeding and other adaptations.

“The robot was specifically designed for helping with phenotyping,” Chowdhary said. “That means measuring plants so that breeders can choose the varieties they want to propagate more.”

Since the robot’s initial prototype was introduced in 2017, various features have been developed and implemented in new models.

“You can now attach different sensors and then the users can get the data from it,” Chowdhary explained. “It’s all geotagged and the robot drives autonomously — then that data can be used for measuring things.”

The EarthSense startup and TerraSentia have garnered attention from international news outlets ranging from Al Jazeera to The New York Times, spotlighting their contribution to the fight against food insecurity around the world.

TerraSentia has not yet been brought to commercial markets, but it has been tested in distinct contexts around the world. According to Chowdhary, the device’s testing has included both large commercial fields in Illinois and smaller farms in the developing world.

Shadi Atallah, professor in ACES, said the robot’s compact size and independence could make it a highly versatile solution, but researchers are not yet able to make any conclusions about its implementation among different groups.

“We can’t really say, ‘let’s go study the adoption of TerraSentia in developing countries to see,’ because it has not happened yet,” Atallah said. “Maybe five years or 10 years from now, we can look back and see if it is really a democratized technology.

That remains to be seen.”

According to Chowdhary, the robot can help farmers fight hunger through the streamlined development of newer, more resilient and more nutrient-efficient crops by agricultural researchers.

“Modern corn was bred by Native Americans 8,000 years ago … from a different crop called Teosinte,” Chowdhary said. “In the future, we need better crops because the population is growing really fast. If we can breed faster, then we can provide better food for people.”

Chowdhary explained that the robot, which uses high-resolution cameras, sensors and remote app integration to collect data, will reduce the need for demanding and menial labor on farms.

The American Psychological Association reports around 38% of workers are concerned about the introduction of AI in their work environments. As people begin to fear the

potential of AI-powered solutions further automating many industries, the introduction of robots like TerraSentia into agricultural work could exacerbate feelings of stress.

Chowdhary said the TerraSentia device has the potential to positively influence the labor market. According to Chowdhary, the robot will not automate any meaningful jobs.

“The labor technologies can be used in the robot to automate and grow more food, addressing hunger problems,” Chowdhary said. “Agriculture work doesn’t really pay that well, so these are (instances where) farmers have trouble finding labor. The idea is to take away those menial jobs, enabling people to focus their efforts on better opportunities.”

According to Atallah, menial and repetitive farm tasks are often more precise when performed by AI. “Now, the highly labor-intensive task of counting insects … could be automated, and

probably a little bit more precise than a person,” Atallah said. “(TerraSentia) could be providing fewer jobs in terms of number, but it’s going to provide higher quality jobs because these robots will need somebody to maintain them, somebody to operate them. This is going to be a higher-paying job in that context.”

Atallah explained the robot is primarily a research tool that aims to streamline data collection for farmers. According to Atallah, this kind of technology can be used to achieve a variety of goals, ranging from profit-related motives to humanitarian ones. TerraSentia’s impact, according to Atallah, will depend on the intentions behind its use.

“Whatever leads to profit goals could also be leading to goals of producing enough food in a certain location,” Atallah said. “(It depends on) who’s using the robots and the researchers using the robot to find these traits.”

AMY SANCHEZ THE DAILY ILLINI

Technograph || November 2023

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UI launches Quantum world’s first publicly accessible

STAFF WRITER

MICHAEL SWEENEY ms98@dailyillini.com

O

n Nov. 4, the first node of the University’s quantum network was installed in the Urbana Free Library in a live demonstration.

The Grainger College of Engineering launched the project.

The experiment mimicked the 2022 Nobel Prize-winning technology. This event marked the first time in history that the public has access to this technology.

“In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first phone call … I predict that we are about to witness a very similar game-changing, transformative moment for the globe,” said Susan Martinez, vice chancellor for research and innovation at the event.

The University and the Urbana Free Library partnered with the local nonprofit Urbana-Champaign Big Broadband to make this quantum network over optical fibers. Optical fibers are thin threads of glass that carry information in the form of light to computers.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a quantum network is like the networks you use every day. It allows you to share data quickly and surf the internet with ease.

However, when quantum physics gets involved, the capabilities are radically more extensive and powerful.

These networks harness the quantum characteristics of superposition and entanglement to enable near-instantaneous processes.

“Today we’re celebrating the fact that we’re able to send quantum particles of light, that’s the smallest bits of light, through (these fibers),” explained Virginia Lorenz, professor in Engineering. “Bringing (information) from the labs on the UIUC campus to the Urbana Free Library and back.”

This ability translates to accelerated communication, sensing and computation.

The official test launch was done on two entangled particles — One in the Loomis Laboratory of Physics and one in the library.

Entanglement should result in any alteration on the library particle to affect concurrently the laboratory particle. The demonstrators made alterations by changing the polarity of the library particle and as a result, the laboratory particle became altered. It successfully resulted in entanglement.

“Soon, with some upgrades, we’ll be able to do quantum teleportation,” said Paul Kwiat, professor in Engineering.

“That’s not the teleportation you may be familiar with … we’re teleporting information.”

These networks exist worldwide but unfortunately are only used for research. That is what makes this event so monumental.

“Anyone can come to this library

Network and interact with cutting-edge technology and do the test themselves,” Lorenz said.

The network gives local children the opportunity to gain an interest in STEM fields while playing with the technology of the future. Mayor Diane Marlin of Urbana stressed the importance of this achievement for the youth and how a vast number of doors have opened for children because of this installment.

This achievement adds to the state of Illinois’ quantum resume. With four of the 10 national centers for quantum technology residing in Illinois, the state is an industry leader in quantum applications, with Chicago being a hotspot. The University’s network will ultimately connect with the networks in Chicago according to Rashid Bashir,

dean of the College of Engineering.

“We hope that this will lead to new applications of these kinds of technologies,” Kwiat said. “My favorite example is the cellphone. The people who invented it had no idea (of) most of the applications. (They) didn’t know you were going to use them to order pizza.”

With this, Kwiat warns of the extent this technology will be used.

“This is going to be a very powerful technology,” Kwiat said.

Yet, he insisted that they are “working towards a technology that is available to everyone, serves everyone and is safe for everyone.”

“Technology like this will be as familiar to us as the internet is to us today ... we’re just limited by our imagination,” Mayor Marlin said.

JACOB SLABOSZ THE DAILY ILLINI

Equipment responsible for entangling photos inside of the Loomis Laboratory of Physics.

Interested in quantum superresolution microscopy?

Read it on page

18 Technograph || November 2023

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Carle Illinois College of Medicine on the frontlines of innovation CONTRIBUTING WRITER

SOFIA MARIN sofiabm2@dailyillini.com

T

he Carle Illinois College of Medicine is taking revolutionary strides as the world’s first engineering-based medical school, according to its website, to make health care interdisciplinary and medical curricula more innovative.

According to Mark Cohen, dean of the college and senior vice president of Carle Health, both faculty and students are now on the frontlines of the medical world and creative problem-solving approaches.

“It is the first school to fully integrate patient-centered design thinking, as well as engineering problem-solving throughout the medical school curriculum and experience,” Cohen said in an email.

Since the institute was founded in 2015, the college’s methods have gained traction as a proactive and modern approach to health care. According to Cohen, an additional 30 schools have adopted a similar implementation as the College of Medicine with the hope to make their medical students more than just doctors, but also physician innovators and health care revolutionists.

“What makes us unique from other medical schools is that we are not only training a diverse group of compassionate, competent, creative and collaborative physicians, but we are also training physician innovators,” Cohen said.

While in medical school, students are evolving to become world leaders, not just critical thinkers within the classroom.

Among them is Maggie Li, winner of the 2023 U.S. National Academy of Medi-

cine’s Healthy Longevity Global Grand Challenge for developing a wearable sleep enhancement device.

Now with $50,000 of prize money, she’s on track to prototype her innovation, which could possibly transform the experiences of millions of people with sleep apnea, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or other chronic issues affecting their sleep.

Another student at the forefront of world innovation is Bhargavee Gnanasambandam, who was named Illinois Young Innovator of the Year for Gynecological Cancer Innovation after creating a rapid test for HPV and cervical cancer.

Since 2018, the college has roughly doubled the size of its class to 64 students, which has expedited its research potential and expanded opportunities around capstone projects.

“The school has now graduated two

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classes of medical students who matched into the top residency programs all over the country,” Cohen said.

Now, there are classes specifically designed with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s One Health framework to put students in situations where they have to tackle complex and worldwide issues.

In the near future, the college hopes to accomplish even more.

According to Cohen, the hope is that students will have unique opportunities to flourish and innovate by connecting them to externships and international elective opportunities.

“Through interdisciplinary team science, the college continues to develop groundbreaking health care research that will advance the field and elevate the campus as a global leader in health care innovation,” Cohen said.

From theory to application UI professor details new path to CU

ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR

CONOR BLOUNT cblount3@dailyillini.com

A

n interest in mathematics began at a young age for Melkior Ornik, professor in Engineering at Illinois. Ornik participated in math competitions as early as fourth grade, an extracurricular which culminated in representing his country in the 2008 International Mathematics Olympiad.

In that particular year, it was a title that just five other Croatians and 534 people could boast world-wide. Ornik scored bronze in the two-day, six question event, and it only seemed natural to continue his mathematical studies in university.

His journey in higher education began at the University of Zagreb with a bachelors degree in mathematics. Despite his

highly applied area of focus in the present, a future in theoretical mathematics was what Ornik envisioned at the time.

“When I started doing my original math degree in undergrad, I was convinced that I was going to be a pure mathematician,” Ornik said. “Work on real analysis or functional analysis or whatever it is and just do straight up pen and paper work entirely.

Over time I think I realized, similar to my feelings about chess, I have a lot of respect for people who have the patience for it …

I just like to see something moving. So I started kind of moving a little bit towards applied math.”

Although never feeling a conscious need to flee the coop, Ornik’s next academic stop was quite far from home. He received his masters degree in mathematics at Queen’s University Canada, before com-

ANIKA KHANDAVALLI THE DAILY ILLINI

Professor Ornik in front of his student’s work on Nov. 13.

pleting a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto. During those years in the Great White North, his budding interest in applied mathematics came to a head.

“When I went to Queen’s, I was still in the math department,” Ornik explained.

“But the math department at Queen’s includes both pretty pure people and pretty applied people, I was on the applied side. I was working on controls and this was the first time I was actually working on controls.”

A decade after the beginning of Ornik’s graduate education, control engineering is still the focus. Both in the classroom and in his research, designing controllers that drive systems to desired states is at the heart of it all.

Ornik made his professional leap to the United States as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin after applying to a plethora of universities. He was unsure about shooting for faculty level so soon, but just a few months into his tenure at Texas and after some convincing from his advisor, the application process restarted.

“When I visited Aerospace (at Illinois), ECE as well, and saw everyone, I really felt at home,” Ornik said. “The Aerospace department is very welcoming. I felt like it was going forward, it wasn’t stagnating and I really liked the environment. When they made me an offer I said yes and I didn’t regret it for a single minute.”

The desire to being an instructor is deep rooted for Ornik, who described his life as a never ending pursuit of knowledge and the opportunity to pass that knowledge on to others as an ultimate form of satisfaction.

Ornik said he has been to over 40 countries and is always looking to gather as much information about the world as pos-

sible. He said the opportunities to discover new findings throughout the world has inspired his passion for sharing his learned experiences with his students.

“The opportunity to share this knowledge with people in the hope that there’s maybe some other people out there who also want to learn about things and who want to get smarter, that’s what really drives it for me,” Ornik said.

Consisting of 15 total undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral researchers, Ornik spearheads LEADCAT: LEArning, Decision, Control, AuTonomy. Ornik described his research group as one of the least experimental in the department.

Ornik said it’s through collaboration with other groups that LEADCAT is able to achieve the more material results that drove him to control in the first place.

“We have a great project on robotic manipulation of surfaces of granular media,” Ornik described. “One of my students is actually working with an actual robotic scoop and this is a collaboration with professor Kris Heuser in computer science.

Our pieces fit into these bigger stories, usually our piece is that we try to make it a theoretical engine for a lot of the applied work that’s going on.”

Because of this, Ornik is hesitant to claim the potential big picture rewards that his completed research would yield and has an incredible amount of respect for those who help bring his group’s theory to life.

“I don’t want to pretend that this is all my work and that if I just completed everything I am working on, all of that will magically work out,” Ornik said. “In the grand scheme of things, it takes a village.

It takes the people who know things that I don’t know anything about. Like, c’mon, I have no idea how to construct a robot.”

Technograph || November 2023

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Technograph || November 2023

RailTEC STAFF WRITER

JACK LARSON jacobrl5@dailyillini.com

L

ocated on the first floor of the Newmark Civil Engineering Laboratory in Urbana is an administrative office for a program that ensures the safety and efficiency of railways across the United States.

“We’ve got the longest-running and the largest rail center in the U.S.,” said Riley Edwards, senior lecturer and research scientist in the program.

Led by Christopher Barkan and Riley Edwards, the University of Illinois Rail Transportation and Engineering Center, is home to a prestigious program for rail engineering. It offers the largest course curriculum for rail in the country.

As the demand for jobs in the rail industry grows, the program has put its alumni in positions all over the world.

“What sets this program apart is that you can look at it as a foundation or as a core of the education in railway engineering in the U.S. and Canada,” said Ana Barros, head of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.

In addition to its curriculum, RailTEC also brings opportunities in the field.

The program sends its students to rail sites all over the country to get handson experience monitoring the structur-

al health and efficiency of railways.

“There’s only so much we can do to replicate real-life scenarios in a computer model or in the laboratory,” said Arthur de Oliveira Lima, research engineer at RailTEC. “We try to get out into the field to quantify demands.”

In other field trips, the program sends its students to seminars and conferences to grow their breadth of knowledge and experience.

RailTEC recently sent students to a test corridor in Stuart, Florida. This test corridor monitors and operates on Brightline — the new high-speed rail corridor that ranges from Orlando to Miami — which is one of the first highspeed railways in the United States.

David Wasilewski, graduate student studying civil engineering, was one of the students selected to go to Florida. “​We ended up riding the Brightline as part of that,” Wasilewski said. “So, Brightline is the first privately funded passenger rail operation in the U.S. in quite a while. Not the first ever, but the first in a few years. It’s significant because they’re trying to bring Europeanstyle high-speed rail to the U.S.” As all of the fieldwork and research produced by RailTEC is conducted in groups, teamwork is a pillar of their work. Members said the leadership within the program has created authentic camaraderie, resulting in a fun work

lays the track for all rail engineering programs environment that heightens the overall quality of experience.

“I’ve only been here about a year and a half and I already know everyone really well,” Wasilewski said. “I feel like I’ve known people here for a while. We’re all kind of a big friend group.”

Edwards said the closeness of the group is something that has been brought to his attention by sponsors.

“I’ve actually had sponsors that have noted how our students have interacted with each other even when I’m not watching,” Edwards said. “That has stood out to them, that they are encouraging and supportive of one another and collaborative in what they do.”

According to Edwards, he believed the quality of the work improves as a result of the kinship within the program.

“We see that when we combine the individual people and their giftings, whatever they come up with as a whole is always something that’s bigger than anything they can do individually,” Edwards said.

Lima suggested the social setup of the program is important because work done in the field is largely accomplished in groups.

“When we’re going out to the field, we typically develop a plan for what each person is responsible for and divide up tasks so that we can accomplish (everything) we have to in the least

amount of time possible,” Lima said. “It involves a lot of partnering on tasks.”

The program, which has put out nearly 150 publications in its 25-year lifespan, received a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to create a new research and development center that will operate with eight partner institutions including Rutgers University and Kansas State University.

“By bringing experts in different areas together, we are really developing a very strong team that can look at various aspects of rail,” Barros said.

The addition of the center will give the University the opportunity to do more research looking into broad issues in rail transportation.

“I’m excited about the new center,” Edwards said. “The first thing is combining forces with these other universities. They all have unique areas of expertise that further expand our reach here at the University of Illinois.”

While Edwards, who has worked in the program since 2007, said he is looking forward to the work and accomplishments of the program, he explained he continues to do the job because he wants to see the success of his students.

“It’s the highlight of my job and the reason I’m doing this,” Edwards said.

“It’s very much a family atmosphere.”

AMY SANCHEZ THE DAILY ILLINI

Technograph || November 2023

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UI advances clean energy, innovates microreactor technology STAFF WRITER

MARY PIACENTE marypp2@dailyillini.com

T

he University joined forces with the Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation to create and research the use of nuclear microreactors for clean energy.

Officially known as the Illinois Microreactor Research, Development and Demonstration Center, researchers under Caleb Brooks, professor in Engineering, are attempting to bring academic enrichment and a cleaner future of energy to the market.

Tomas Kozlowski, professor in Engineering, recently discussed his work and the potential benefits of the microreactor project at a seminar hosted by the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center on Oct. 25. Kozlowski outlined the current findings and what researchers hope microreactors will do for the future of sustainable energy.

Microreactors are small-scale versions of the large-scale reactors seen in a typical nuclear plant, Kozlowski explained.

Along with their transportable size, microreactors are factory-assembled, selfadjusting and are constantly being designed by multiple startup companies.

A core facet of the project is accessibility and education for students hoping to learn about nuclear power, according to the research center’s website.

Tim Grunloh, principal research scientist and associate director of the project, hopes a new microreactor on campus will generate student interest.

“We want to get students to experience using a research reactor and invite industry to come see research reactors,” Grunloh said. “We want to motivate investment in this and other technologies in the future.”

In addition to education and training, the project has a total of six main pillars that guide its mission and research. This includes safeguards and security, licensing and policy, integrated energy sys-

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Technograph || November 2023

DAMINI RANA THE DAILY ILLINI

The Illinois Sustainable Technology Center stands at 1 Hazelwood Drive in Champaign on a cloudy Nov. 3.

tems, control and operations.

Kozlowski also explained the project’s goal is to integrate microreactor technology into the general market, saying this technology is expected to be targeted toward institutions that want to invest in fossil fuel reduction, resilience and reliability.

The sustainability and infrastructure that microreactors provide were also a motivation for the program to work on college campuses like the University of Illinois. Campuses are large energy users with a workforce large enough to meet the needs of the energy project, Kozlowski explained.

“Many departments are reaching for microreactors for their convenience,” Kozlowski said.

The University has been home to its own reactor, named the TRIGA Mark II, for 38 years. However, according to Kozlowski’s presentation, no new University-based research reactors have been

notable in over 30 years.

With the introduction of a microreactor on campus, professionals and interested students can see demonstrations of the technology and creation of clean energy at a more at-scale size.

Kozlowksi emphasized the increased safety of microreactors, which cool naturally in comparison to the active cooling needed for typical nuclear systems.

“This new class of reactors that’s being developed has been shown to work and to be safe in several cases,” Grunloh said.

“The technology itself is not new, but the way that it’s being developed and put together and packaged is new.”

Kozlowski went on to highlight the importance of further research and development regarding microreactors. This includes the study of security, both cyber and physical, along with high-temperature water purification processes.

“For cybersecurity, all analog operators will be completely disconnected

from the network, deterring future hackers from getting sensors,” Kozlowski said at the seminar.

With the partnership’s current timeline, operations on the University’s microreactor are set to begin in 2028. In order for demonstrations and general research to begin, two licenses for site preparation must be submitted in 2024 and 2026.

According to the project’s website, projects such as the evaluation of the microreactor’s performance in the University’s microgrid and the use of microreactors in the production of hydrogen and fertilizer production are currently underway.

The Illinois Microreactor Research, Development and Demonstration Center was also recently featured in Nuclear News magazine for its mission to bring professionals and students together for the peaceful use of nuclear power.

NOVEMBER

2023

See more content on dailyillini.com

Holiday EDITION 2 | Hark! The her- 3 | Is ‘Die Hard’ a 4 | Keeping up with the 5 | Christkindlmarket brings ald Weezer sings Christmas movie? Illini this winter break German culture to Illinois

REVIEW

Hark! The herald Weezer sings

Weezer’s holiday album

Bell. The band touts hits like “Island in the Sun” and “Buddy Holly,” but their seasonal melodies are criminally underrated.

The 2008 album is 13 minutes and 50 seconds of pure bliss. Six well-known Christmas tunes are rediscovered in a way that only fans of Rivers Cuomo could understand. “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “O Holy Night,” “The First Noel,” “Hark!

The Herald Angels Sing” and “Silent Night” create a digestible album for the entire family.

To start off the album, the brilliant minds of Weezer brought forth “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” The song commences with a soft guitar strumming and the band passionately wishing their listeners — you guessed it — a

FEATURES EDITOR

LILLIE SALAS lmsalas2@dailyillini.com

S

crolling through dozens of holiday songs, you may find lackluster covers of the classics. You may long for something edgy to blast in your car speakers during the cold months.

What Christmas album could combine the joys of the holidays with the sweet angelic voices of the early 2000s?

You may think it’s too perfect to exist, but you’re wrong. “Christmas with Weezer” is a must-have in your holiday music repertoire.

The American rock band has nearly 14 million monthly listeners on Spotify and is composed of Rivers Cuomo, Patrick Wilson, Scott Shriner and Brian

ANYWHERE, ANYTIME.

STREAMING NOW ON THE ILLINOIS APP!

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The DI || Volume 153 Issue 5 || November 2023

PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID LEE / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Brian Bell (left), Rivers Cuomo (middle) and Scott Shriner (right) of Weezer during a performance on Sept. 2, 2017.

Merry Christmas.

This song is not the star of the album, but it does a good job of showing listeners what’s in store.

It’s hard to choose a favorite song from this album, but two songs stand out among the rest: “O Come All Ye Faithful” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.”

These high-energy songs are a nice change of pace from the others in the album. Sprinkled throughout the tracks, they provide a break from the relaxed vibes of the rest of the choruses.

With “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” bringing in 1.5 million streams and “O Come All Ye Faithful” having 2.8 million streams on Spotify, it may be easy to infer which one is the audience favorite.

But “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” reigns supreme over its competitor.

The beauty of this record is its potential to draw in diverse audiences.

Imagine a moody teenager with the staple emo fringe covering half of their face sitting on the lumpy couch in their grandma’s house. It’s Christmas Eve and their ears hurt from hearing carols lacking edge, electric guitar and risk.

Hurriedly, the teen grabs hold of a device and queues Weezer. Surprised, the adults enjoy the familiar sounds of their favorite Christmas ditties. How can this be? Weezer is singing about a holy night in an engaging way that all ages can appreciate? You better believe it.

Unfortunately, this album is far too short. More tracks would have made the album more complete.

Even with the lack of holiday music since 2008, this is a timeless collection of songs that is easy to revisit December after December.

So, this year, gather your loved ones, sit by the tree and do not hesitate to share your Christmas with Weezer.

BUZZ

Column: Is ‘Die REVIEW

Hard’ a Christmas movie?

NICOLAS ROACHO STAFF WRITER nroacho2@dailyillini.com

“Die Hard,” a 1988 action film released to critical acclaim, is often seen today as one of the best films in the genre.

However, the film is also talked about in another regard: whether or not it’s considered a Christmas movie.

After a skyscraper is hijacked by terrorists on Christmas Eve, police officer John McClane (Bruce Willis) realizes he’s the only person who can save his wife and the rest of the hostages.

The movie’s usage of the Christmas theme and setting is used as a way to engage the audience. A gory Christmas display by McClane is left, as a dead Santa hat-wearing terrorist slumps against a wall with the words, “Now I have a machine gun HO-HO-HO” painted on his shirt.

However, if the references and nods to Christmas are so apparent, why is this debate still so prevalent?

The most recent movie in the Christmas-action genre is 2022’s “Violent Night,” a movie about Santa Claus saving a family from a group of mercenaries.

In an interview with Metacritic, “Violent Night” screenwriter Josh Miller credits “Die Hard” for inspiring the film.

Aside from “Die Hard” and “Violent Night,” notable action movies taking place during Christmas time are “Die Hard 2” and “Lethal Weapon.” By extension, you could also include several horror movies such as “Krampus” and “Black Christmas.”

When comparing the amount of Christmas action movies to the amount of average feel-good Christmas movies, actionoriented movies often get overlooked or forgotten due to the large amount of the latter.

“Die Hard” is often disputed on whether it’s a Christmas movie because the sequels — except for “Die Hard 2” — drift away from the Christmas theme.

Everyone’s opinion is going to depend on their own experience with the film, but I believe “Die Hard” is as much of a Christmas movie as other classics associated with the holiday.

BUZZ

I decided to watch 3 Hallmark holiday movies

STAFF WRITER

A. OISHII BASU aobasu2@dailyillini.com

H

allmark movies are dependably and remarkably god-awful despite having decent production values. For funsies, I decided to watch three of them.

First up is “Eight Gifts of Hanukkah,” one of the only Jewish Hallmark movies to date, in which an optometrist named Sara is sent eight gifts for each night of the Jewish holiday from a secret admirer.

This movie exceeded any human tolerance for cheesiness with the acting and dialogue. As each line was delivered, I found myself becoming lactose intolerant.

The movie —chock-full of awkward fade-to-blacks and unremarkable jokes— was also full of uninspired characters. Sara’s only defining trait is really, really liking Hanukkah.

Her love interest, Daniel, is one of the least likable characters, playing the nice guy trope by refusing to express his feelings clearly with words. In true nice guy fashion, he becomes frighteningly angry with her when she doesn’t realize his true feelings.

The next film is “Angel Falls Christmas.”

The movie centers on a similar formula of a small-town workaholic doctor named Ally who has lost her Christmas spirit.

She begins to resolve her Scroogelike tendencies with the help of Gabe, played by Chad Michael Murray, a

guy she has just met who really loves Christmas, and the other strange characters in her town.

Notably, the first shot of the movie is bizarre. Maureen, the mystical mentor of all things Christmas spirit, stares down the barrel of the camera lens while saying misplaced fable-esque morals to nearby characters.

All of the members of the town basically force-feed Ally holiday cheer with eerily cultish smiles. Gabe may be the weirdest of them all, delivering every line with the intonation of a soft-spoken carnie.

Honestly, “Angel Falls Christmas” has the ingredients to make a decent horror film if edited correctly.

Last is the 2016 masterpiece “A Wish for Christ-

mas” starring Lacey Chabert, known best from her role as Gretchen Wieners in “Mean Girls.”

This time, a different Sara, who works in marketing and is a complete pushover, makes a wish to Santa to finally stand up for herself after her idea is stolen at work.

She’s quickly overcome by courage and tells off her boss, Dirk, in front of the CEO —who is also her love interest —Peter. After speaking out in a corporate setting, she somehow still has a job and is unrealistically recruited to go on a work trip with Peter, who has a curmudgeonly attitude about Christmas.

With stiff dialogue and even stiffer acting, this movie is the film equivalent of a week-old gingerbread house.

As we welcome the holiday season, we remember that among the classics, like “Home Alone” and “Polar Express,” there is also a delightful, more maddening alternative: Hallmark movies.

MERYL RESURRECCION THE DAILY ILLINI

The DI || November 2023

3

Keeping up with the Illini this winter break Here’s when your favorite Illinois teams will be competing STAFF WRITER

LAURA MENDES laurafm2@dailyillini.com

A

s Illinois students are gearing up for the end of the semester, Illini athletes are not. Here’s a complete guide on how to keep up with all of Illinois’ athletic events over this upcoming winter break:

Men’s basketball The Illini men’s basketball team will play a total of seven games over break. The first will be on Dec. 17 against Colgate at home. Illinois will then travel to play the Missouri Tigers on Dec. 22, followed by a

trip back to the State Farm Center on Dec. 29 to play the FDU Knights.

Illinois will kick off 2024 with a game at home against Northwestern on Jan. 2, Purdue on Jan. 5 and Michigan State at home Jan. 11. The Illini will end their winter break at home to play Maryland on Jan. 14.

Women’s basketball Up next on the courts is women’s basketball, who play a total of eight games over break. The Illini will start at home on Dec. 17 against the Tigers before participating in the West Palm Beach Classic, where Illinois will face Arkansas on Dec. 20 and UTEP on Dec. 21. The squad will end 2023 playing on Dec. 31 at Indiana. Illinois will

then face Wisconsin on Jan. 7 at home before traveling to Nebraska on Jan. 11 and Northwestern on Jan. 14.

Swim and dive Illinois swim and dive will compete at the Auburn Diving Invite from Dec. 17-20 in Auburn, Alabama. The team will then start their 2024 in Champaign on Jan. 12 to compete against Iowa before traveling to West Lafayette, Indiana the next day to compete against Purdue and Missouri on Jan. 13.

Wrestling Wrestling will also have a busy break, starting with an away meet against Mis-

souri on Dec. 21. The team will then compete in the Midlands Championship in Hoffman Estates, Illinois from Dec. 29-30.

Illinois wrestling is then set to compete in Columbus, Ohio on Jan. 12 against Ohio State.

Gymnastics The women’s gymnastics team will be competing in Las Vegas, Nevada on Jan. 5 against the Super 16. Illinois will then compete at home against West Virginia, Western Michigan and UW Oshkosh on Jan. 13.

Men’s gymnastics will compete in the Windy City Invitational in Chicago on Jan. 13.

Track and field Finally, it’s time to get off the mats and onto the track. Illinois track and field will be competing at home on Jan. 6 for the Illini Open. The Illini will then travel to Nashville, Tennessee for the Commodore Challenge taking place on Jan. 12-13.

Illini fans don’t take breaks, so make sure to keep up with Illinois athletics this winter break.

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The DI || Volume 153 Issue 5 || November 2023

SPORTS

Christkindlmarket brings German culture to Illinois FEATURES EDITOR

LILLIE SALAS lmsalas2@dailyillini.com

E

very year, winter enjoyers from all over Illinois bundle up in jackets, gather their friends or family and travel snowy roads to visit the Christkindlmarket.

String lights hang above rows of decorative booths with snow-covered roofs, the scent of traditional German food lingers in the cold Windy City air and festive music is heard around the block.

The Christkindlmarket is a holiday staple based in various locations around the world, notably in Chicago and Aurora, Illinois.

This authentic German-style market consists of a variety of vendors, performances and interactive activities for all ages, according to organizers.

“People just love that they get to come experience (the market), stroll around and kind of escape into a little magical holiday village,” said Leila Schmidt, senior manager for marketing and intercultural communications at German American Events.

Nov. 17 marks the opening day of this year’s markets at all locations. The market is open seven days a week until Dec. 24 in Chicago and Aurora and Dec. 31, the final closing day in Wrigleyville.

With free admission to the market, three locations are available this year.

Daley Plaza in Chicago is the oldest location, Wrigleyville hosts a market and the recently opened Aurora location is offering special programming this year.

The market is based on the 16th-century Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg, Germany and was conceptualized in 1995 as a way to unite Germany and the United States in transatlantic trade.

The first market was held in 1996 with only 13 vendors in Pioneer Court, Chicago. Since then, the market has grown tremendously in popularity, according

FEATURES

to Schmidt.

Organizers of the market said they prioritize getting high-quality vendors and authentic German aspects to the

People just love that they get to come experience (the market), stroll around and kind of escape into a little magical holiday village.

Leila Schmidt, senior manager for marketing and intercultural communications at German American Events

market while also creating space for other international vendors — much like a typical Christkindlesmarkt would do.

“When you go to the Christmas markets in Germany, it’s the same thing there,” Schmidt said. “You have local vendors, but you also have a variety from different cultures, different backgrounds. That’s what makes it so authentic and so unique. You really get to find high-quality products from around the world.”

For organizers of the market, it is a full-year job. Within the off-season, new merchandise is being designed, feedback from visitors is being received and vendors are being accepted.

With comments and suggestions from last year’s markets, Schmidt said they have created more events available

to visitors at an additional cost.

One of the most popular events is the annual ‘Twas the Night Before Christkindlmarket Preview Party, which occurs in downtown Chicago and is an exclusive early experience.

The Lantern Parade, Twinkly Thursday at RiverEdge Park and a German wine-tasting event are among the various events hosted for attendees at specific locations.

Schmidt said the market’s ambiance and energy provide visitors with a place to go to separate themselves from the realities of everyday life.

“It’s something that you can take your loved ones to or just stroll around by yourself,” Schmidt said. “It’s just so magical. So, it’s a little escape from your everyday life.”

JAMES HOECK THE DAILY ILLINI

A variety of cookies lay next to a hot caramel cappuccino on the morning of Nov. 5.

Online Exclusive A comprehensive guide to combating stress this holiday season

Scan the QR code to read the story. Or, check out our website at dailyillini.com for more content.

The DI || November 2023

5

It’s perfectly fine to start celebrating the holidays on Nov. 1 COLUMNIST

GEORGE ALEXANDRAKIS gca3@dailyillini.com

‘T

is the season to be jolly! Or at least that’s how the saying goes.

As the calendar flips to Nov. 1, some people might raise an eyebrow at the sight of Christmas lights being put up and holiday music wafting through hallways.

Some may cry, “It’s too early!” Others may insist, “Let Thanksgiving have its time.”

The holidays are a source of happiness and many people’s favorite time of the year. The Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, based on interviews with about 7,000 Americans from 2008 to 2012, revealed that the period from late November to late December consistently saw the highest

levels of happiness, proving that the holiday season is a favorite and joyful time for many people regardless of their specific holiday traditions.

It’s a common misconception that the holiday season begins earlier and earlier every year. Despite it feeling like retailers take advantage of the season with festive displays as early as possible, Google Trends data consistently shows that people’s interest in searching for “Christmas” remains unchanged during the first week of November each year, indicating a consistent start to the holiday season in people’s minds.

I have no hate for Thanksgiving at all, which can be a great time to get together with family, but there’s a reason there are no songs or movies attributed to Thanksgiving. It’s a dinner, maybe a party for the

family on a single day, but outside of that?

On the other hand, we have a slew of activities associated with holidays like Hanukkah and Christmas — like ice skating, gift-giving and caroling, to name a few — while still retaining the familial aspect.

This is a cultural phenomenon that spans weeks, not only a single day.

Among these activities, holiday movies and music highlight the season. Large contributors to the joy of the season, familiar movies like “Home Alone” and songs like “All I Want For Christmas Is You” easily invoke cozy and festive nostalgia.

With no major celebration that ushers in its own distinct media culture between Nov. 1 and the holidays, like the spooky movies that accompany Halloween, it shouldn’t feel like a guilty pleasure to begin indulging in Christmas’ expansive me-

NAVYA RAO THE DAILY ILLINI

dia culture once spooky season is over.

So why not begin celebrating right after Halloween? It seems like a logical choice to start celebrating early, especially considering the stress relief it can bring.

Get those colorful lights up and defrost Mariah Carey, the holidays are coming!

George is a junior in LAS.

ILLINI Visit Allerton Park’s 1-mile illuminated light walk.

O P E N F R O M 5 -9 P M O N D E C E M B E R 1 -2 3 + 2 6 - 3 0 A N D J A N U ARY 5 - 6 + 1 2 - 1 3

6

The DI || Volume 153 Issue 5 || November 2023

OPINIONS

RELEASE DATE—Sunday, November 26, 2023

Los Angeles Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle

Sudoku By The Mepham Group

Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis

“LEND ME YOUR EARS!” BY RICKY SIROIS

59 Player who 88 Southeast Asian 91 Shoe 122 Pixar clownfish 15 Two-time Best Director Oscar pouts after a rout language reinforcement 123 NBA legend winner Alejandro 61 __ new 89 Peru native 93 Parsonage Bryant González __ 63 “As if!”

92 Troubled greatly 94 Jibes 124 Home of the ACROSS 16 Liberia’s capital 64 Place for 95 Get away from it 96 French northeast route 1 Kid around 17 Triage ctrs. matches all masculine to Everest 5 Agcys.

20 Protagonist 65 “I speak for the 99 Nevada’s pronoun 125 Dutch cheese 9 “The Goonies” 23 Furniture wood trees” Seuss second-most 97 Winter Games 126 Tiny particle role for Ke Huy 24 Sleep cycle character populous gp.

127 Wet septet Quan letters 68 Practical county 98 Quaint 13 Wind 29 Allowed to graze 69 Zoo doc 100 Pond protozoan contraction DOWN instrument?

32 Funeral rite pile 70 Cologne’s river 101 Has a feeling 102 School friends in 1 Fforde who 18 Chapati flour 34 __ bar 71 Heads and tails 103 “Big Little Lies” Troy, New York? writes the 19 Former Ford div. 107 Angular abode 74 La Brea novelist Moriarty “Thursday Next” 35 Euro pop?

20 Discover, as a 36 Land abundance 104 More than 109 __ World mystery novels solution 37 Austin __: 78 Mustang’s simmer Service: 2 Hydrocarbon 21 Organ __ Tennessee prints?

105 Asparagus-like international gas 22 Promo for a university 80 “Completely,” vegetable in news org. based 3 Position production at the 40 Singer DiFranco casually some miso soup in London 4 Gamble (on) Globe Theatre? 110 Oil field 44 Berlin Olympics 81 Committee recipes 5 Sounds of 25 Cygnets’ star Jesse leader 106 Disco legend apparatus meditation parents 82 Like some Summer 111 “Bridesmaids” 6 Bank’s takeback 45 Part of an 26 Comics unit emergency chocolate 108 Govt. mortgage actor Chris 7 Lost intimacy, 27 Proprietor warning system 84 Jack of early insurer 113 Wears say 28 Image file type 114 Expansive 46 Frilly underskirt talk TV 112 Many a helpful 8 Negligible 30 Bobby honored 116 Soreness after a 47 Martin Van __ 85 Ninth grade video, for short 9 Quick swim at Boston’s TD 49 Narnia lion math course, 114 Letters on a long day working 10 The Hawks, on Garden 50 Female kin often lunch menu at Sotheby’s? scoreboards 31 Pitch tents 51 Male mallard 86 Crafty street art 115 “Spring forward” 120 Room 11 Head-scratcher 33 Sign of 52 Flag bearers 87 “Professor Plum, letters brighteners 12 Harmon of impending bad 121 Home of the 54 Cable TV’s Nat in the library, with 117 Bk. reviewer?

“Rizzoli & Isles” weather? __ Wild the candlestick” 118 Flat cap southeast route 13 LP successors © 2023 The Mepham Group. Distributed by the Tribune All3-by-3 rights res 38 Scuba spot board game 119 __-com to Everest 14 [Scratches head] 57 Agnus __ Complete grid soContent each row,Agency. column and box 39 Pup’s bark (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9. For strate1 2 3 4 41 Canadian prov. gies on how to solve Sudoku, visit sudoku.org/uk 42 Escarole kin 43 Doone of fiction Complete the grid so each row, column 45 Crash site? and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains 48 Madre’s sister every digit from 1 to 9. For strategies 49 Essay by the author of “The on solving Sudoku, visit sudoku.org.uk.

Martian”?

53 Country with the southernmost capital city in the Americas 55 “Yes __, Bob!” 56 Rich dessert 57 Fall loosely 58 Memorizes 60 Tennis do-over 61 “We’ve all __ VISIT there” 62 Milky birthstone 66 “Crikey!”

67 Jewelry TO LEARN MORE displayed next to keychains and fridge magnets?

72 “No seats” sign 73 Bygone depilatory brand 75 GPS lines 76 Chinese tea 77 “Whichever” 79 Bit the dust 81 Invents, as a 11/29/23 word © 2023 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. All rights reserved.

83 Taurasi who was the first WNBA player to score more than 9,000 points 84 Regular expense for an employer 87 Polish for posh light fixtures?

90 Taking after

Sudoku By The Mepham Group

Level

BECOMING A

Solution to Tuesday’s puzzle DOCTOR?

RIMSAP CAN HELP RIMSAP.COM

PUZZLES

©2023 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

ANSWER TO TODAY’S PUZZLE

11/26/23

11/26/23

Answers to this month’s puzzles

The DI || November 2023

7

8

The DI || Volume 153 Issue 5 || November 2023

Technograph || November 2023

17

Bogdanov

Professor Simeon 18

Technograph || November 2023

discusses future of microscopy research at UI CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ASHWIN PADMANABHAN ap66@dailyillini.com

S

imeon Bogdanov, assistant professor in Engineering, has made advancements in his research with quantum super-resolution microscopy using the assistance of machine learning techniques.

In a sit-down interview, Bogdanov explained his research on quantum superresolution microscopy and discussed some of his findings and future steps made possible due to this research.

Microscopy is a form of technology that lets individuals look at tiny objects.

The limit of how well you can look at these small things is called the diffraction limit.

The idea of super-resolution is the ability to go past the diffraction limit to view particles.

The quantum part of the research comes from what is being analyzed through microscopy. Photons, the particles of light being analyzed, usually come in bunches, but for Bogdanov’s research, “there are some properties of emitters that make them emit single photons which is called antibunching light.”

Bogdanov shared what he hopes to accomplish in terms of his broader research.

“What we hope to accomplish with one of our projects in quantum nanophotonics is to build a source of single photons that is integrated on a chip and gives out photons that are suitable for quantum information purposes at very high rates,” Bogdanov said.

Bogdanov explained how this type of research can be difficult because photons can be difficult to work with.

Bogdanov said normally “this is like looking for a needle in a haystack,” but the implementation of machine learning allows researchers to test if particles of light that contain more than one photon are suitable for use.

This can be applied to projects like biological mapping.

With this clarification, Bogdanov described how this generalized understanding impacts his work on quantum superresolution microscopy.

“This same machine learning can be applied for super-resolution microscopy where we can actually measure the single photons of light as a function of where we are on a sample … and build maps of single photons,” Bogdanov said.

Despite this progress and these advances in the field, Bogdanov has faced a variety of challenges that hindered these findings.

“One of the obstacles we faced was to choose the neural network to accelerate our measurements … For this, you need to employ some kind of data processing technique and machine learning offers a lot of such techniques where you can use data optimally even though it is noisy,” Bogdanov said.

Machine learning has various networks that apply to studies, but once you decide on the specific network there is an extensive verification process to judge the suitability of the network, he said.

Bogdanov explained how it is a “very timeconsum-

ing endeavor to train the network optimally so it is suited for this particular task.” According to Bogdanov, the particular neural network is important because it is how artificial intelligence can make intelligent decisions as compared to human assistance.

With the results and progress from this study, Bogdanov said he hoped to take the research even further with the aid of machine learning techniques.

According to Bogdanov, in biology, quantum super-resolution can be used in the assessment of light which produces fluorescent markers.

“Where we hope to apply it next is to be able to make out a fluorescent marker from a background that is the same color,” Bogdanov said.

Being able to identify these fluorescent markers from other parts of the background allows the user to find specific photons necessary for a variety of applications, Bogdanov explained.

The viewable photons through this process are vast, and some contribute to plain background noise, Bogdanov said.

Before, the fluorescent biomarkers were used to quantify photons, and now, Bogdanov said they can “design a smart filter which is not based on color but based on the quanta of light.”

MATT STEPP THE DAILY ILLINI

Professor S i m e o n Bogdanov discusses the research in his paper on quantum super-resolution microscopy.

National Institute of Health awards $1.7 million grant to bioengineering research team STAFF WRITER

REYANNA PAUL paul34@dailyillini.com

A

$1.7 million grant from the National Institute of Health was awarded to a research team at the University for further development of new computational tools.

Grant recipients include Mark Anastasio, head of the Department of Bioengineering, and Frank Brooks, Hua Li and David Forsyth, professors in Engineering. Mohammad Eghtedari, a professor at the University of California San Diego, is also on the team.

For the last five years, the team has

utilized deep learning methods to extract information from images. Namely, their work analyzes the quality and usefulness of images for different purposes.

For an image to be useful in gathering information about a patient, it has to be visually clear. Bioimaging technologies, such as ultrasounds, CT scans and X-rays, are used by technicians with a purpose in mind, typically to search for something.

However, images must be assessed before they are used in a diagnosis to make sure they provide information that is visually clear and relevant to the specific task.

The NIH grant provided the team with funding for the research lab so they could advance their research.

With this funding, Anastasio will be able to hire doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers for the project.

Once the new tools are developed, they will be made open source, Anastasio said. This means other researchers will be able to download the developed algorithms and computational tools for use in other applications.

“I expect our work will have a big impact on the field of imaging science because people now will have a new capacity for assessing image quality in a way that’s important and mean-

ingful for medical imaging,” Anastasio noted.

Anastasio explained the tools they are developing for assessing imaging quality could attract interest from the Food and Drug Administration.

According to FDA regulation, all commercial medical imaging technologies must be approved before it is purchased and used in a hospital. The researchers’ algorithm has the potential to make the FDA’s regulatory process much more efficient.

“We’ve really gotten a lot of traction on it and I think we’ve emerged as one of the leading groups in the world in this area,” Anastasio said.

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College of Engineering, Morgan State awarded for intercollegiate partnership STAFF WRITER

STAFF WRITER

MEGHNA SARKAR ERIN MORRISON meghna4@dailyillini.com

erinjm2@dailyillini.com

O

n Oct. 26, the University announced that the National Science Foundation awarded the Institute for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access at the Grainger College of Engineering a grant that will last for two years and can be renewed for another three years.

With the grant, the Developing EquityMinded Engineering Practitioners center will be created in partnership with Morgan State University, a historically Black college in Baltimore, Maryland.

The partnership with Morgan State University began in the summer of 2023 with the Jumpstart DEEP Research Engagement initiative with the Clarence M. Mitchell, Jr. School of Engineering at Morgan State University.

DEEP’s goal is to train faculty on diversity, equity and inclusion principles and how to include them in their classrooms or labs. To help facilitate this, they plan to host workshops and provide examples of relevant lessons, according to the College of Engineering.

The proposal for DEEP was submitted in November of 2022 by the staff members at IDEA. IDEA was founded by Lynford Goddard, professor in Engineering and associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion at the college.

Associate Directors Ellen Wang Althaus and Ashleigh Wright were also heavily involved in brainstorming and writing the proposal, and the project received funding from the Office of the ADR’s Strategic Research Initiative Program.

“One of the priorities of Grainger is to not only diversify our faculty and staff populations, but to really build collaborations with our other engineering colleagues,” Wright said. “I think the college has done a really good job in investing in those initiatives primarily through the IDEA institute. The reason we’ve chosen Morgan State is because we have alumni

JACK LARSON THE DAILY ILLINI

An aerial view of the University of Illinois’ renowned engineering campus in Urbana, Illinois on the afternoon of Sept. 7. The Bardeen Quadrangle lies in the foreground as the North Quad is in the background with the Beckman Institute at the end of the quad.

from Illinois that are currently faculty there, so we decided that we wanted to really deepen our partnership.”

This involved doing a faculty exchange, where three members from each campus visited the other for a week to meet with the rest of the faculty, have conversations about the research they were doing and discuss potential collaborations.

“We believe that to have strong, deep partnerships, particularly from institutions that have different cultural experiences, it’s really an experience, what each faculty goes through on their own campus,” Wright continued. “And so we wanted to have an opportunity where faculty could really visit the campus, be in the environment, see the spaces and talk to each other. And so that was the premise of the Jumpstart.”

When asked about the main differences between historically white institutions like the University of Illinois and HBCUs like Morgan State, Goddard explained that it involves the difference in scale of operation, as well as cultural context.

“Most HBCUs are relatively small compared to UIUC,” Goddard said. “We have huge classes. The HBCUs tend to have

smaller class sizes, the faculty hold a lot of office hours, and there’s a lot of one-on-one interactions between the faculty and the students because they’re not research-intensive. They’re moving towards researchintensive, which means that they’re going to expect their faculty to teach fewer courses and do more research.”

According to Goddard, while most professors at the University of Illinois teach two courses a year, or even just one if they are more focused on research, faculty at HBCUs tend to teach four courses per semester.

In order to become more researchintensive, as potentially the first HBCU to move from R2 to R1 status, Morgan State needs to build research infrastructure and change the way they teach, for which the University of Illinois can provide a model.

On the flip side, Morgan State can provide important insights for the College of Engineering’s efforts to incorporate more diversity, equity and inclusion topics into their curriculum, which is a priority for the engineering accreditation board, Goddard said.

“In bringing history and cultural context and the things that affect communi-

ties of color, the HBCUs are a lot stronger because they already do this,” Goddard said.

“At Illinois, we don’t have that sort of cultural context to draw, so it’s harder to weave in concepts that are related to the community into engineering courses,” Goddard added.

According to both Goddard and Wright, there are plans to discuss further collaborations with Morgan State in the spring, such as an exchange of graduate students between the two universities next summer.

They also hope to have deeper engagement with other minority-serving institutions in Illinois with the goal of expanding the existing framework of inter-institutional partnerships, as well as continuing to increase diversity, equity and inclusion at the College of Engineering.

“We are honored to partner with Morgan State University to co-create a joint center to bring about positive change,” said Dean of Engineering Rashid Bashir on IDEA’s website. “We are committed to building a more inclusive college at Illinois, as well as a more diverse academic culture more broadly.”

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Rokwire: MANAGING EDITOR FOR ONLINE

ROHIT CHATTERJEE rohitc3@dailyillini.com

S

tarted in 2018 by the University of Illinois’ Smart, Healthy Communities Initiative, Rokwire is the open-source platform that powers both the Illinois app and the now-retired Safer Illinois app.

“Open-source” means all code is publicly available for people to copy and reuse as they see fit. Rokwire has 28 public code repositories on GitHub, which include the Illinois app and server-side systems for authenticating users, sending out notifications, conducting research and fetching data from University servers.

Principles in action

One of the main design principles of the Rokwire platform is adaptability. This means components should be designed so they can be used in multiple environments with minimal code changes.

This goal was put to the test during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Rokwire developers were tasked with building an app for both contact tracing and enforcing the University’s COVID-19 testing requirement. They quickly developed the Safer Illinois app, reusing code they had written for the Illinois app.

Developers also went further, creating versions of the app for six other universities, including the University of Nebraska, Vanderbilt University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The effort was led by ROKMETRO, a privately owned company that specializes in adapting the Rokwire platform for other universities. The code’s permissive Apache License allows external parties such as ROKMETRO to reuse it for both commercial and noncommercial purposes.

“Those clones of Safer Illinois were developed within six to eight weeks’ time,” said Joe Grohens, communications director of the SHCI. “I don’t think that any of those other universities could

have done it on their own.”

To Grohens, it was proof that the Rokwire platform was a good foundation for efficient development of apps.

Contributing to Rokwire Students are able to contribute to Rokwire.

The first step is to create a new issue on one of R o k w i r e ’s repositories through GitHub and then waiting for a maintainer to approve it. If the issue is a bug, a Rokwire developer will fix it.

If the issue describes a new feature, the author can either request a developer to implement it or volunteer to implement it themselves.

If they choose the latter, they would make changes to the code in a separate branch and then create a pull request, which must be approved by a maintainer.

So far, most contributions have come from either University staff, ROKMETRO or Inabyte Inc. — a software development services company the University hired to work on Rokwire.

The open-source platform behind the Illinois app and more Grohens explained independent contributions have been limited due to various factors.

“We haven’t really had a lot of documentation ready for open-source contributors … they get stuck,” Grohens said.

Without meticulous documentation, contributors must often figure out how a codebase works and how to test it through trial and error, but creating it takes valuable time away from other efforts.

H owe ve r, Rokwire developers are working to change these issues.

Last year, they created a community wiki to provide guidance to new contributors on how to get started.

“I think we’re at the beginning of being able to support (independent contributors),” Grohens said.

Coming soon to the Illinois app William Sullivan, director of the SHCI, shared the following new capabilities slated to be added to the Illinois app in the coming months.

Illini ID unlock

Students will soon be able to unlock doors at residence halls and other campus buildings using their phone instead of an iCard. The feature, which utilizes special readers that receive signals from nearby phones that have the Illinois app, is currently in pilot testing. Facilities & Services will be installing readers on campus buildings and expects to implement 2,000 by the end of January 2024.

Data collection for research The Rokwire platform already has a privacy-preserving framework for recruiting participants for research studies.

Illinois app users interested in participating in research must explicitly opt in and fill out a survey asking basic demographic questions. Researchers can submit demographic requirements for participant groups in a study, and invitations are sent to users who match the requirements.

Sullivan emphasized researchers cannot see which users receive invitations, so no user data is sent to a researcher until the user agrees to participate in a specific study.

Currently, developers are extending the framework to allow researchers to collect data from sensors on participants’ devices. Sullivan explained sensors on smartphones are useful for tracking activities, such as sleep. Sensor data will only be collected from users actively participating in studies that enable it.

Illinois assistant A team led by Sanjay Patel, professor in Engineering, has trained an artificial intelligence language model to retrieve answers from Illinois websites for questions, such as, “When will I be eligible for study abroad?”

The end goal is to deploy the model as a search feature accessible to all students through the Illinois app. Sullivan said the feature is undergoing testing, and more details are to come.

Technograph || November 2023

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ALYSSA SHIH THE DAILY ILLINI

Lab coats hang in Everitt Laboratory, the home building of the Department of Bioengineering, on Nov. 1.

Computing a brain:

Mind in Vitro STAFF WRITER

ABRAHÁM CHÁVEZ ac108@dailyillini.com

T

he National Science Foundation partnered with the University of Illinois and other institutions last April for an ongoing expedition that pushes the power of computers by computing with living neurons.

The project aims to develop a computing system centered around in vitro living neurons, meaning the neurons used are created in a lab. The idea is to use these cellular substrates as the processing core of a computer system.

“To build the computing system, there are several layers that need to be accounted for,” said Mattia Gazzola, emergence lead and co-director of the project. “There’s a need to figure out what kind of computing models, what mathematics you need.”

Gazzola described neural substrates as having the ability to generate dynamics that can continue to evolve, potentially creating a way to reproduce the abilities of creativity, learning and adaptivity in a computer system.

Taher Saif, biofabrication lead and codirector of the project, described the process of testing what minimum cognitive abilities can be read from living neurons.

According to Saif, cognitive awareness can be studied and applied by sending some type of stimulation to the living neurons and seeing if the computational system can remember the response and even reproduce it.

“Then comes the question of would they be able to make decisions,” Saif said.

“Can they put together two types of signals to make sense out of it?”

According to Saif, by accessing the power of neurons in computation, these new

computers will be able to do things that the most powerful computers today are unable to do. The neurons will be able to make connections faster, better and with less energy than any computational system existing today.

“People that today build algorithms … are not worried about what materials the computer is made of, how this is fabricated,” Gazzola said.

This technology is, in the words of Gazzola, “nonexistent.” Everything is being built from scratch. The computational system will be better than a traditional system, bringing new abilities and huge potential to the world of computing.

The Mind in Vitro expedition allows undergraduate students to collaborate with graduate students and primary investigators to further the research and computing being done. Students from biological, physical science and computational fields

can apply to and work on the project, providing an opportunity for students to see different scientific fields in action.

“One of the coolest things that I saw is that professors from different departments, grads from different departments are all coming together and doing their part to make this thing work,” said Shalini Yagnik, senior in Engineering. Yagnik has been doing research for the Mind in Vitro expedition since the beginning of last semester.

The research that students are doing offers an opportunity to learn things from their field of study outside of what is taught in class, as well as learning things from other disciplines they might not have had the opportunity to learn.

“I learned a lot,” Yagnik said. “I didn’t really have that much information on reservoir computing at all and I knew about recurring neural networks, but I didn’t really have a strong definition of what it is and what they do.”

A big part of the Mind in Vitro research experience is collaboration. Undergraduate students are paired to work under a graduate student and collaborate on their findings and work. The diverse environment provides students with room for growth, learning and teamwork, Yagnik explained.

“Working alongside my graduate student, it just made everything really fun and I was able to learn a lot,” Yagnik added.

According to Nancy Amato, outreach and education lead and co-director of the project, the Mind in Vitro expedition not only aims to provide education and opportunities to students of different disciplines, but to the public as well. Outreach programs for K-12 schools will be offered in addition to open symposiums, seminars and museum installations.

“We are already seeing a lot of interest among the participants,” Saif said. “We might have maybe 78 seminars so far, and thousands or so attended them.”

The beginning stages of the Mind in Vitro expedition are rapidly advancing with the multidisciplinary collaboration that the project brings. According to Gazzola, students and researchers alike are excited to work on the project.

“I think there’s a really kind of special energy around this project,” Gazzola said.

“This excitement is a very powerful asset to have.”

Technograph || November 2023

25

UI faculty develop adaptive building materials STAFF WRITER

PIOTR FEDCZUK fedczuk2@dailyillini.com

A

team of faculty engineers from the University are working on research that seeks to prepare buildings to better withstand climate change.

The research project, titled Robotic Materials for Future Infrastructure, aims to make building materials that would react to climate change by adapting their shape and structure to environmental shifts.

Ahmed Elbanna, associate professor in Engineering, compared the longterm vision for the project to the microbots from the movie “Big Hero 6.”

Elbanna’s research focus is on structur-

al engineering and energy, water and environment sustainability.

According to his lab’s website, their research work is for the development of micromechanical models for more effective infrastructure.

“This is how we are thinking about this problem,” Elbanna said. “Having building blocks that could interact together, and, as a result of this interaction, can start evolving and forming bigger structures.”

Elbanna envisioned people using robotic materials to build in dangerous conditions, such as under the sea or in outer space, he said.

However, he said the current priority for the material is helping buildings withstand climate change.

In the past, high winds and heavy

snowfall have caused buildings and roofs to collapse, Elbanna said. However, in the future, robotic materials could sense those conditions, change the building’s shape and avoid damage.

“So you get something like a shapeshifting exterior for your building that’s actually not pre-programmed, not preset, but is adaptively responding to this kind of external loading,” Elbanna said.

This could allow buildings to control how the wind moves throughout a city, Elbanna said. However, the project needs to progress before that can happen.

Elbanna explained the first step towards achieving this goal is making a working prototype that shows the proof of concept.

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“But then on the longer run, the sky is the limit, right?” Elbanna said. “So we want to go beyond ‘Big Hero 6.’”

This project does not have only one level of success, said Ann Sychterz, assistant professor in Engineering.

What Sychterz sees as potential difficulties are funding, public policy and power consumption, she said.

Time presents another challenge, she said, as the team has to show results within a certain timeframe.

“Our modeling techniques are assuming lots of perfect conditions, and to model it accurately also takes a lot of computational power and time,” Sychterz said. “So there is a gap between our models and the existing world, especially when we get to a larger scale.”

NeuroTech aims to further cognition, semantics at UI STAFF WRITER

SIMRAH QASIM sfqasim2@dailyillini.com

N

euroTech, a registered student organization at the University, aims to expose students of different majors and concentrations to neuroscience through events and projects and harbor a community of likeminded individuals who share a passion for the field.

The field of neurotechnology is particular in its objectives. Neurotechnology research has the goal of developing a better understanding of the brain, visualizing its processes and improving its function.

Due to the multitude of students from various disciplines who are a part of the club, the RSO is divided into a project-based structure, said Palak Purwar, president of NeuroTech.

The first of five projects is named Research and Apply, which aims to analyze and locate the N400. An event-related potential, or ERP, shows changes in ongoing brain activity through an EEG, a test measuring brain activity using electrodes connected to the scalp that showcases a certain negativity point through the data. “(The) signal can relate to semantic processing and how we predict words,” said Anagha Dangi, project manager of Research and Apply. “We’re looking at deficits in the signal in specific neurological disorders.”

The Research and Apply project centered on the neurological disorder schizophrenia last year and will continue the same research this year as well.

It will specifically look at how the N400 signal changes depending on if the patient suffers from chronic schizophrenia and how the signal can be used to determine how severe the disorder is.

Another project, BrainWaves, focuses on making content in the form of short videos. These videos are targeted

towards younger audiences and are sent to local schools with the hope of promoting the field of neurotechnology in an easy-to-understand way.

NeuroTech also focuses on outreach through its NeuroTech Magazine. The Magazine team provides an extensive look into research in the field, giving space for professors to let students view how research is taking place. The team provides neuroscience-based infographics and articles.

“Some of the articles we’re going to be looking at this semester are epilepsy imaging, neural modeling for diseases and looking at noninvasive techniques for Parkinson’s disease,” Dangi said.

The RSO also has a team called Uni-

versum that focuses on advancements in neurorehabilitation, robotics and sports science. The team’s objective in Universum is to train a neural network to evaluate the positioning of the body using EEG data with the ultimate goal of estimating the tilt of a person’s torso.

Universum is currently in the BioInformed AI Research Competition at the Beckman Institute, in which the team has two months to work with faculty sponsors and submit a final report.

The competition is among any willing University undergraduate and graduate students and has the objective of creating a project or answering a research question. The final report consists of a summary of the team’s work followed

by a presentation.

The project is heavily immersed in pushing the boundaries of modeling proprioception and “cognitionling,” or, in other words, agility, balance and coordination.

The final focus of the organization is VR Neuro Feedback, the newest addition to the RSO. It focuses on creating virtual reality situations that are responsive to different EEG signals. The purpose of this is to personalize therapeutic experiences for patients, especially athletes. “(VR Neuro Feedback) therapy enhances cognitive functions and addresses neurological conditions,” Purwar explained.

ANJALI WADHWA THE DAILY ILLINI

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UI researchers purify contaminated water with solar energy STAFF WRITER

STEPHANIE ORELLANA so22@dailyillini.com

T

he World Health Organization estimated 140 million people in at least 70 countries have been drinking water contaminated with arsenic at dangerous levels, causing long-term health consequences.

Contaminated water has been successfully purified in the past through redoxmediated electrosorption, which is a method that removes contaminants from water using electricity.

Ki-Hyun Cho, research scientist in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, explained challenges associated with the electrosorption method.

“The problem is that it still needs electrical energy,” Cho said. “And this electri-

cal energy is mainly generated by the combustion of fossil fuels.”

In 2022, the Energy Information Administration reported around 60% of fossil fuels were used to generate electrical energy, which contributed to climate change and other environmental consequences.

As a result, Xiao Su, assistant professor in LAS, developed a team of researchers called the Su Research Group at the University.

The Su team proposed an alternative method to electrosorption known as photoelectric chemical separation.

The PEC method uses a semiconductor that harnesses solar energy to separate pollutants from wastewater. This solar energy separation system would be demonstrated for the very first time by the Su team.

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At first, the Su team would only shine artificial sunlight on the semiconductor, allowing it to capture heavy metal ions in water. These ions included molybdenum, arsenic and chromium, which are common major waste components in steel, mining and chemical industries.

Johannes Elbert, research scientist in the Su group, explained that although they were able to capture contaminants with solar energy, solar power wasn’t as efficient on its own and it needed electrical assistance.

“It’s just sort of not strong enough to give the electrons enough of a push,” Elbert said. “So we have to sort of help it with a little bit of electrical bias.”

The research team would then combine solar and electrical energy to increase the capture of heavy metal ions.

Su explained while the purpose of this

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project was to use solar energy to purify water, there is still an increased efficiency in the separation process by adding electrical energy.

“If you just use solar, you can still carry out the process, just not as good,” Su said.

“And so when you use solar plus electrical, you’re using less electrical energy.”

According to their research, not only were they able to capture more ions with the combination of electrical and solar energy, but they were also able to reduce electrical usage by 51.4% compared to the electrosorption method.

The Su team plans to continue their research until they can purify water only using solar energy.

“We’re actually trying to design systems that are more efficient for full capture of solar,” Su said. “We don’t want to use electrical in the future.”

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OPINION

Past innovations could save the games industry from its ‘Doom’ COLUMNIST

PRARTHIK SATHYANARAYANAN pks9@dailyillini.com

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he year was 1992, and the world had just experienced its first taste of 3D computer graphics with “Wolfenstein 3D.” Computer systems of this era were limited in resources and quite primitive. An Intel i9 from a few years ago boasts 3,750 times more cache memory — a quick-access memory internal to the processor — than the top-of-the-line Intel Pentium processor available for desktops at that time.

This resource constraint rendered 3D graphics almost impractical until two developers came along and released Wolfenstein, which consumed less memory than a standard iPhone photo.

“Doom,” published in 1993, was a first-person shooter video game with a protagonist who goes around killing demons. It was the inaugural game to harness genuine 3D graphics, utilizing groundbreaking optimization strategies.

A smaller footprint meant a more uniform and enjoyable experience for more players regardless of their hardware limitations. This was achieved through the pioneering of new algorithms that have since become foundational in computer graphics programming.

Earlier games used clever mathematics to hide the fact that the player was actually playing a 2D game dressed up and manipulated to look 3D. “Wolfenstein” is a 2D maze game akin to “Pac-Man” but uses mathematics to determine the distance of the player. The engine splits the screen into columns and then draws each column to reflect the distance thereby creating a pseudo-3D environment.

This way, there isn’t really a third dimension in the world and all walls and entities are of the same height where the concept of height falls apart.

The “Doom” engine, on the other hand,

created a world with three perpendicular coordinate axes and then used Euler transformations to bring them into the perspective of the player. The world in itself is 3D and allows for different heights, shapes and slants. This process of creating three dimensions introduced a new ideology that quickly swallowed the development process of “Doom,” namely occlusion.

The prominent solution at the time was to implement the painter’s algorithm, which is wildly inefficient. “Doom” does not do this. It instead delegates this issue of slowness to the loading stage of the game, which takes longer than games that use the painter’s algorithm but uses a much more elegant solution that is lightning-fast during playtime.

Every time a map is loaded in “Doom,” the engine creates a tree structure of all the possible occlusions using a version of the map drawn in vector space. Once it creates such a tree, the game essentially knows all possible drawing patterns depending upon the player’s location and does not have to sort or calculate distances between the player and the world. In this way, the game utilizes binary space partitioning, which was an algorithm heavily researched by the U.S. Air Force.

Binary space partitioning allowed for another optimization opportunity that Carmack identified and pioneered: hidden surface removal. This is a complicated strategy where the tree generated by the engine and the player’s current position is used to instantly recognize what faces of objects are completely occluded by others.

This information is used to entirely ignore rendering those faces to the screen.

Through these and other strategies, the developers crafted a game with resource requirements smaller than most of today’s web pages. To put it in perspective, the game’s data could fit 134 times on a standard vinyl record, and it’s even been run on a pregnancy test.

PRARTHIK SATHYANARAYANAN THE DAILY ILLINI

The “Doom” engine made breakthroughs with the use of occlusion to produce a 3D effect.

Reflecting on the development of “Doom,” the creators described it as a “year of madness” due to the amount of new things they had to discover and implement to achieve their goal of creating a game that anyone, anywhere, could play.

That same goal fostered a culture of hacking and playing with electronics to get them to run “Doom” — a testament to the foresight and care of innovation put into its design.

In the present age, it seems like the industry has forgotten its roots in making games with good code and design, and has just resorted to throwing tons of compute resources at a problem until it goes away.

Players who can’t afford the steep resource requirements are punished with bad playtime experience.

This issue also further contributes to

the problem of resource scalping, where people buy up hundreds of graphics cards and CPUs to sell at a higher price. This, and practices like forced obsolescence, created by electronics manufacturers, directly contribute to appalling human rights abuses in countries where the raw material for these resources are produced.

It also heavily contributes to the mounting electronic waste problem, as users have no choice but to keep up with this resource requirement since it has become an outright necessity for a lot of software that is being written now.

Maybe it’s time for us to start moving forward by looking back into the past and taking pages out of the play written by the geniuses of that era.

Prarthik is a junior in Engineering.

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OPINION

Data is the future of UI journalism SENIOR COLUMNIST

TALIA DUFFY taliagd2@dailyillini.com

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very other conversation about journalism seems to be about it dying — but it’s not dead yet. The emerging field of data journalism has enormous potential, not as a replacement for traditional journalism.

The University of Illinois is the perfect institution to take the lead on an undergraduate data journalism program. Data journalism hasn’t yet reached its full potential. It’s still relatively rare, as it requires a specific skill set that combines traditional journalism with data analysis and visualization. These skills aren’t taught

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in-depth at most journalism schools and many journalists feel like they’re inaccessible.

Last academic year, the University launched its first interdisciplinary data science degrees. More X + DS combinations are in consideration, and journalism should be on that list.

Under this plan, students interested in data journalism can, with a single degree, learn reporting, writing, editing and multimedia production from journalism classes and Python, linear algebra, statistical modeling and algorithms from data science classes.

To drive home the “interdisciplinary” part, the major should require a few classes that combine both fields.

Data Visualization for Journalists — covering the basics of Matplotlib, to interactive design in Javascript D3, to making it pretty in Adobe Illustrator — and Journalistic Data Practices — records requests, data cleaning, data verification and the ethics of data communication — are two classes that could be created for the curriculum.

There are already a few data-related classes in the journalism department.

The seeds are there, ready to be watered and developed into their own entity. I’m in Data Storytelling for Journalists this semester, and it’s excellent. It’s also the first time the class has run under its own name in almost a decade. And there are only three people in the class, including me.

But this doesn’t mean there’s no interest in data journalism. It means it isn’t promoted enough to journalism students.

Without communication from the department about how data skills can elevate a career in journalism, students won’t know about the powerful world of data that awaits them.

Even the nation’s top J-schools haven’t committed serious time and resources to

undergraduate data journalism education.

The University, a top STEM school, must apply STEM concepts to the media field.

In addition to benefiting current students, this major could bring in new students to the College of Media. Journalism is currently a very small major at the University — as of Fall 2023, there are only 163 full-time undergraduates in the program.

A new Journalism + Data Science major might give those worried students a reason to reignite their passion for journalism and take it to new levels. Students who are geared toward data science but interested in implementing their skills in a creative and meaningful way might find their niche in Journalism + DS as well.

It’s a win-win-win: Students get to learn cutting-edge skills with an innovative degree, the College of Media can assert itself as a top journalism school and the field of data journalism will gain new advocates every year.

Data journalism will change the world.

And the University can’t miss this opportunity to be part of the movement.

Talia is a junior in Media.

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It takes an expert in medical laboratory science to deliver patient results

Rush University’s College of Health Sciences prepares graduates to meet and exceed the increasing demand in growing allied health fields.

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