University of Illinois Opens New Research Center

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has partnered with the Dow Chemical Company to open a new research facility this spring. The Dow Innovation Center, which will be located in Research Park, will focus on developing data management solutions to improve research and development at Dow.

"We are pushing the edges of science and technology to explore new ideas in critical areas such as water, energy, coatings and agriculture," said Chancellor Phyllis Wise, in a prepared statement. "The new center will draw upon the strengths in High Performance Computing (HPC), Informatics, and Computer Science at the University of Illinois to enhance technology and research within Dow."

Dow has also teamed up with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), which will provide direction and equipment to support research efforts in the areas of high-performance modeling and simulation.

Another purpose of the research facility is to give students real-world research experience, according to Lawrence Schook, vice president of research at the university. Sixteen students, in computer science and related fields, will work with researchers at the Innovation Center.

The University of Illinois serves more than 70,000 students at its three campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield. Research Park opened in 2001 and is now home to more than 90 companies, including ADM, Abbott Laboratories, Caterpillar, Deere & Company, Littelfuse, Neustar, Pearson, Riverbed, Sony, State Farm, and Yahoo.

About the Author

Kanoe Namahoe is online editor for 1105 Media's Education Group. She can be reached at [email protected].

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