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'i-emerging' event to showcase new technologies seeking investors
Heidi Rockwood,
Office of the Vice President for Economic Development and Corporate
Relations
(217) 265-5440
10/22/01
Editor’s note: A limited number of parking spaces
will be available for members of the news media who attend the event.
Please call the News Bureau at (217) 333-1085 to request a parking space.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — A computer that can recognize
users’ faces, and even their moods. A method of delivering vaccine
by a single pill that would eliminate the need for booster shots. An
electronic "nose" that could be used by physicians to monitor
dialysis patients and diagnose disease and by USDA inspectors to ensure
fish is fresh.
These are just some of the emerging technologies that will be on display
during the "i emerging" event Thursday (Oct. 25) at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The event, to be held from 12:15 to 5:30 p.m. in the Beckman Institute
for Advanced Science and Technology, 405 N. Mathews Ave., Urbana, is
for investors and will showcase some of the most promising technologies
and young technology companies on the campus. Those attending "i
emerging" will be able to visit eight laboratories and hear business-plan
presentations involving cutting-edge technologies.
In the laboratory of engineering professor Wen-mei Hwu, for example,
guests will be able to see his work on new ways to provide better high-speed
wireless Internet access. With the products being developed by Hwu,
a hotel could offers its guests wireless interface cards that would
allow people to connect to the Internet with their laptop computers.
In engineering professor Joseph Lyding’s lab, the work is focused
on creating molecular electronics and merging them with silicon technology.
Eventually, Lyding’s research team hopes to be able to build molecular
circuits a fraction of the size of today’s computer chips, with
even greater processing power.
Students doing research with Gary Eden, a professor of computer and
electrical engineering, formed a company called Caviton to explore the
many applications for micro-gas discharges.
The tiny burst of light created when a charge encounters a tiny pocket
of molecular gas could be used as a light source for small medical probes.
The reactions also could be used to monitor factory emissions and develop
high-resolution video displays.
Work in the laboratory of Matthew Wheeler, a professor of animal science,
focuses on microfluidic devices for assisted reproduction. Wheeler's
automated process eliminates the many opportunities for human error
in in vitro fertilization, dramatically increasing the success rate.
In agriculture, the technique would allow livestock producers to create
thousands of embryos in the time it now takes to create a few dozen.
The event is sponsored by the university Office of the Vice President
for Economic Development and Corporate Relations, and the Office of
the Vice Chancellor for Research on the Urbana campus in conjunction
with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, the
Illinois Coalition, the Illinois Technology Enterprise Corp., and techCommUnity.
