bioengineering at UIUC

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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<p>Department</a> of Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign</p>

<p>"The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $25 million to establish the Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS) Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the Georgia Institute of Technology. The center’s objectives are to dramatically advance research in complex biological systems, create new educational programs based on this research, and demonstrate leadership in its involvement of groups traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering. This effort was lead by Professors Jimmy Hsia, Taher Saif, Martha Gillette, and Rashid Bashir. College of Engineering Dean, Ilesanmi Adesida, remarked, “Our efforts in this area largely grew out of the Center for Cellular Mechanics (CCM) that we seeded about four years ago.” He added, “The students and researchers who participate in these programs will shape the future of biological science and engineering on a global scale.”</p>

<p>There has been talk on other areas of this board about the relatively low ranking of bioengineering at uiuc compared to other engineering disciplines. It has been mentioned that bioE is a new department at uiuc and it takes some time for rankings, which are primarily based on research, to build up. If you look at the link provided above, and read about the new initiative, I think it won't be long before the ranking of BioE catches up with the rest of the engineering school. Also, the small class size makes it really easy for undergraduates to get involved in research from the get go.</p>

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<p>Georgia Tech is Top 10 in the USNEWS and with this funding will be much much better, and will be still beating UIUC on bioenginering and enginering in general. Read the complete news at </p>

<p>[Probing</a> Cell Clusters: Georgia Tech is a Partner in New $25M NSF Center that will Investigate the Creation of Biological Machines | Georgia Tech Research News](<a href=“http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/biological-machines/]Probing”>http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/biological-machines/)</p>

<p>Probing Cell Clusters: Georgia Tech is a Partner in New $25M NSF Center that will Investigate the Creation of Biological Machines</p>

<p>While the behaviors of individual cells and the functions and properties of tissues and organs have been extensively studied, the complex interactions of cell clusters have not been examined in great detail.</p>

<p>Robert Nerem, the Parker H. Petit Distinguished Chair for Engineering in Medicine at Georgia Tech, will serve as an associate director of the new EBICS Center and will oversee the Center’s diversity objectives.</p>

<p>The new $25-million Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS) Center to be operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Georgia Institute of Technology intends to change that.</p>

<p>The EBICS Center — established by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of its Science and Technology Centers Integrative Partnerships program — aims to advance research in complex biological systems, create new educational programs based on this research, and demonstrate leadership in its involvement of groups traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering.</p>

<p>“Ultimately, we envision being able to create biological modules — sensors, processors, actuators — that can be combined in various ways to produce different capabilities,” said Roger Kamm, Germeshausen Professor of Mechanical and Biological Engineering at MIT, and the Center’s founding director. “If we are successful, this will open up an entirely new field of research with wide-ranging implications, from regenerative medicine to developmental biology.”</p>

<p>Georgia Tech will receive more than $1.6 million per year to support the research and educational efforts in the EBICS Center. Georgia Tech’s participation in the Center will be administered through the Georgia Tech/Emory Center (GTEC) for Regenerative Medicine. Robert Nerem, who is an associate director of EBICS and the director of GTEC, will work closely with Kamm and the other associate directors to achieve the Center’s educational and research goals, and oversee its diversity objectives.</p>

<p>Georgia Tech faculty will contribute to the development of the knowledge, tools and technologies necessary to create these highly sophisticated biological machines.</p>

<p>“Critical to the successful design of engineered cellular systems is a fundamental understanding of interactions between cells and their environment, their control by biochemical and mechanical cues, and the coordinated behavior of functional biological machines,” said Gang Bao, the Robert A. Milton Chair in Biomedical Engineering in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.</p>

<p>Gang Bao, the Robert A. Milton Chair in Biomedical Engineering in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University, will coordinate the EBICS Center’s four research areas. (Click image for high-resolution version. Credit: Gary Meek)</p>

<p>Bao will coordinate the Center’s four research areas, which include:</p>

<pre><code>* Investigating how individual cells integrate the various biological, biochemical and physical cues from their environments to determine their ultimate states and biological behaviors.

  • Determining the emergent behaviors and interactions of cell clusters, including the transition from single cell to multi-cell behavior, the nature of communication between cells, and how this leads to functional coordination among neighboring cells and cell populations.
  • Creating and characterizing simple cellular machines that perform increasingly complex tasks, such as sensing, information processing, protein expression and transport.
  • Developing enabling technologies to ensure the goals of the other three areas can be met.
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<p>You, sir/madame, do not know what you are talking about. The two schools are essentially equivalent as far as engineering departments go (USNWR actually has UIUC ranked ahead of GT, not that it matters that much).</p>

<p>Regardless, the fact that both schools are involved in this grant implies that the two will both benefit roughly equally from it and it won’t actually make their standing with relation to each other change. If anything, it will help the UIUC bioengineering department catch up since it brings them into a close working relationship with schools that already have well known and established departments.</p>

<p>Also, your post really has nothing to do with the point of the original post. The point of the original post was essentially celebrating the fact that UIUC got this grant along with MIT and GT which will help its bioengineering department catch up with the rest of its own engineering school in the rankings.</p>

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<p>Actually Gtech is top 4 and UIUC is top 5 overall in enginering.</p>

<p>Yeah I agree that both schools are basically the same in terms of engineering power.</p>

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<p>GT is 4 and UIUC is 5 in Graduate School, both are 5 for Undergraduate Education.</p>

<p>Now if you want to argue that USNWR has a system of rankings so accurate that this automatically means that one is better than the other, be my guest, because I can no longer take you seriously if you do. The fact is, the two flip back and forth along with CalTech for that number 4 spot in most years with the others either being tied or in 5th and/or 6th. That is hardly conclusive, and that is assuming that you take the US News rankings to be the absolute indicator of program strength.</p>

<p>I went to UIUC and I nearly went to GT for grad school (chose another offer due to a better funding package) and I can tell you first hand that the professors at GT and UIUC do not regard one as being superior to the other. In fact, the two schools often use each other as a benchmark since their engineering programs are so unbelievably close in quality.</p>

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<p>"Also, your post really has nothing to do with the point of the original post. The point of the original post was essentially celebrating the fact that UIUC got this grant along with MIT and GT which will help its bioengineering department catch up with the rest of its own engineering school in the rankings. "</p>

<pre><code> EXACTLY!! UIUC is not accredited and has low ranking in bioengineering; everyone knows that because it such a new program. The point is that in circles that MATTER, UIUC bioengineering is considered on the forefront along with other exceptional programs. The ranking will surely rise, and that people should not to take the relatively low undergrad ranking as a deterrent to enter the program.
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