Registration is open for UIC’s annual Lunch with an Industrial Engineer open house. Hosted by the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the event is set for Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Engineering Research Facility (ERF), 842 W. Taylor St., Chicago. The free event is for area high school students and their parents/guardians to learn about our department’s Industrial Engineering degree program, and the wide-range of careers open to graduates. The lunch will include an interactive information session, lab tours, and hands-on engineering challenges to learn how industrial engineers work in the real world. At the end of this exciting program, we will serve lunch and invite…

Tesla has the Model S, Nissan offers the Leaf, and Chevy makes the Bolt. Soon, UIC will have an electric car, too. A new student organization in the College of Engineering called Vehicle Electronics and System Engineering (VESE) is engineering’s newest organization offering students an opportunity to be pioneers as they start designing and building a formula one electric race car to compete in an SAE sanctioned competition next semester in Lincoln, Nebraska, in May. “The beauty of our car is that it is based on electrical systems, but there are mechanical components that have to be built like any other race car,” said Amru Qutub, a student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the president…

Sandwiching two-dimensional materials used in nanoelectronic devices between their three-dimensional silicon bases and an ultrathin layer of aluminum oxide can significantly reduce the risk of component failure due to overheating, according to a new study published in the journal of Advanced Materials led by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Engineering. Many of today’s silicon-based electronic components contain 2D materials such as graphene. Incorporating 2D materials like graphene — which is composed of a single-atom-thick layer of carbon atoms — into these components allows them to be several orders of magnitude smaller than if they were made with conventional, 3D materials. In addition, 2D materials also enable other unique functionalities. But nanoelectronic components with 2D materials…

Earning a master’s degree is not an option for everyone. To provide a choice for busy engineers who want to advance their careers, UIC is offering two new opportunities. The Master of Energy Engineering program in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at UIC has added two graduate certificates that focus on two special areas of interest within its program. Apart from its Master’s Degree, the program is offering certificates in Energy Efficient Building Design and Power Generation. The Energy Efficient Building Design certificate focuses on energy usage and efficiency technologies for commercial buildings. The courses cover heating, ventilating and air-conditioning, industrial energy management, energy markets and contracting and design of energy efficient buildings. The Power Generation certificate is…

The University of Illinois at Chicago and Spraying Systems Co. hosted researchers, industrialists, students and academics from all backgrounds for the 14th International Conference on Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems - ICLASS 2018. The conference, which is hosted in the United States once every nine years, was held from July 22 through the 26, and served as an excellent opportunity to showcase UIC to nearly 500 researchers from around the world. The event is the largest conference the Institute for Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems has hosted to date. ICLASS provides an opportunity for the international community to convene and share information, experiences and technical advances in liquid atomization and spray system optimization. “Several UIC faculty members work in areas…

For the first time, researchers have successfully printed a complete, albeit experimental, lithium-ion battery including a solid-state electrolyte. While electrodes have been produced using 3D-printing technology before, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Engineering have printed a stable, yet flexible, solid-state electrolyte using an elevated-temperature extrusion printing technique. They report their findings in the journal Advanced Materials. Lithium-ion batteries are commonly used in home and portable electronics, and in some motor vehicles. They function by the movement of lithium ions from the negative electrode through an electrolyte, which can be liquid or solid, to the positive electrode during discharge and then back during the charge phase. Mass producing these batteries is a laborious and expensive process. The electrodes and…