MechSE Research Centers
Our science-based approach brings MechSE researchers into increasingly close contact with researchers in other departments, universities, and research institutions. Our faculty are major participants in activities at the department, college, and university level via research centers. Click on a center below to learn more.
Research Centers
Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Center (ACRC)
Executive Director: Craig Bradshaw
Director: Nenad Miljkovic
Founded in 1988, this longest-running center in MechSE, along with 30 sponsoring companies, is developing a new generation of energy-efficient and reliable equipment for using environmentally safe refrigerants. ACRC carries on the department’s historic leadership in air conditioning and refrigeration.
Center for Autonomous Vehicles in Air Transportation Engineering (AVIATE)
Director: Naira Hovakimyan
A multi-disciplinary consortium of researchers, scientists, and engineers from a variety of universities and industry groups working to develop a Robust and Resilient Autonomy framework with principled and verifiable architectures to deal with uncertainties and off-nominal situations to enable safe and efficient Advanced Air Mobility.
Center for Autonomy
Director: Geir Dullerud
Artificial intelligence and autonomous technologies are revolutionizing industries like agriculture, transportation, national defense, healthcare, and manufacturing—but transitioning to these systems will require fundamentally new research developments. The Center for Autonomy pursues research projects that support autonomous systems safely and reliably.
Center for Networked Intelligent Components and Environments (C-NICE)
Director: Placid Ferreira
This $100M partnership between Grainger Engineering and Foxconn Interconnect Technology serves as a global hub for the intelligent technologies driving the manufacturing plants, medical environments, autonomous vehicles, and smart homes of the future. Projects include those at the heart of Internet of Things-enabled systems and environments.
Center for Hypersonics and Entry Systems Studies (CHESS)
Center leadership: Kelly Stephani, Tonghun Lee
CHESS is a multidisciplinary team of researchers in The Grainger College of Engineering, with headquarters in the Department of Aerospace Engineering. CHESS draws from expertise in state-of-the-art experimental facilities and high-performance computing to support fundamental advances in hypersonics and entry system technologies. Through this research enterprise, CHESS is dedicated to enabling new advances in hypersonics and creating a pipeline of young talent through excellence in research, education, and mentorship.
Center for UAS Propulsion (CUP)
Academic Lead at Illinois and Center Host: Tonghun Lee
CUP is an Army Led DoD Research Center and part of ARL-Central dedicated to research and development of next-generation UAV propulsion systems. Collaboration between the DoD, partner universities, and industry is promoted within CUP to develop core technologies for advanced multi-fuel capable hybrid propulsion systems, auxiliary systems, and control architecture.
Fracture Control Program (FCP)
Director: Huseyin Sehitoglu
The Fracture Control Program (FCP) has had a rich history at Illinois since its inception in 1971. By focusing on the needs and strategic interests of its sponsoring companies, the FCP aims to foster substantial progress and technology transfer in the area of durability modeling and materials databases.
International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I2CNER)
Founding Director: Petros Sofronis
Establishing international academic collaborations between Illinois and Kyushu University in Japan, I2CNER contributes significantly to the advancement toward a carbon-neutral energy society. Its research focuses on the production, storage, and utilization of hydrogen as a fuel, and the exploration of CO2 capture and storage or the conversion of CO2 to a useful product.
NSF Illinois Materials Research Science and Engineering Center
(I-MRSEC)
Director: Harley Johnson
IRG2 Project Leader: Arend van der Zande
Part of the larger NSF-funded center, the research team for “Active interfaces between highly deformable nanomaterials,” aims to bridge hard-material electronic design with the adaptability of nature to engineer new electronic devices that can change shape without losing functionality, like truly wearable electronics, implantable biosensors, and medical diagnostic technologies.
Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park
Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park
Director: Harley Johnson
This quantum focused research and development campus in Chicago is managed by a University of Illinois-led organization on behalf of the State of Illinois and Governor J.B. Pritzker. Launched in 2024, this massive transformational project was seeded by $500 million in state funding, plus significant additional federal and industry support.
NSF Data and Informatics Graduate Intern-Traineeship: Materials at the Atomic Scale (DIGI-MAT)
Founding Director: Harley Johnson
Current Director: Dallas Trinkle (MatSE)
With a $3M NSF training grant and with engagement from six engineering departments, Illinois graduate students now have the infrastructure available to pursue interdisciplinary training and obtain career-aligned skills through a PhD-level certificate program combining materials and data science.
Center for Power Optimization of Electro-Thermal Systems (POETS)
Director: Kiruba Haran (ECE)
POETS addresses the thermal and electrical challenges surrounding electrified vehicle mobility as a single system. Their work is enabling the manufacture of lighter, more compact, and more efficient systems for electric vehicles, airplanes, construction equipment, and other applications of electrified mobility.