The Graduate College is now accepting applications for the Career Exploration Fellowship, which connects doctoral students with campus units for meaningful, mentored work experience. In Spring 2025, each Career Exploration Fellow will receive a paid hourly position at a host unit and a $5,000 Career Exploration Fellowship. This program aims to enable doctoral students to gain experience and build skills that align with a wide range of career aspirations. Applications are due October 15. Learn more at https://grad.illinois.edu/career-exploration-fellowship.

Here’s how to use and refer to the university name. The first reference to the campus should be University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Additional acceptable names include Illinois, U. of I. or the Urbana campus. UIUC is not recommended to use as a name, reference or abbreviation. Fun fact: As a singular proper noun ending in “s,” only an apostrophe is needed at the end of Illinois to indicate possession. Example: Illinois’ athletic teams.

The draft Summer 2024 list is now available at go.illinois.edu/lotrae.  If your course is missing, check your instructor report against the criteria in the draft list.  At least five students must have completed the relevant item(s) and you must have released your sections for inclusion on the list.  For questions or corrections, email ices@illinois.edu or call 217-244-3846.

F&S, the Division of Public Safety, and the Champaign Fire Department will conduct a spill containment exercise on Wednesday, Sept. 18, between 8 and 10 a.m. Dye will be placed in storm drains near the National Petascale Computing Facility on S. Oak Street to simulate an oil spill that flows to the Embarras River during this year's mock scenario. The exercise is required annually by the U.S. EPA. Thanks for your help in sharing this information with others who may be located nearby during this period.

September 20 is the last day to drop a Part of Term A course via Self-Service. Have questions about registration deadlines or submitting a form? Click here for an advising appointment!

Ride your bike to campus on Wednesday, Sept. 18, and stop by one of eight U. of I. welcome stations (map) for snacks, refreshments, and a free T-shirt! Stations at Alma Mater Plaza, CRCE, Orchard Downs, the College of Veterinary Medicine, and other Champaign-Urbana locations will be set up between 7 and 10 a.m. You must bring your bicycle and preregister at https://go.fs.illinois.edu/BiketoWorkDay to get the shirt (while supplies last)! The event will move to Friday, Sept. 20, should inclement weather arise. 

RECHARGE is IE's newest program, offering students a chance to rest and connect during the busy week. We have hot tea, international snacks, and a place to charge your devices. Bring a friend or meet someone new! We look forward to seeing you! 

The Basic Needs office is hosting a workshop on SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), covering eligibility criteria and budgeting strategies for SNAP benefits.

When you're writing your thesis, you probably have tons of files to keep track of. As a graduate student, Emily (who now oversees the Thesis Office) learned the hard way how important having a data management plan is. Learn from her mistakes in our blog "How to Keep Track of Your Stuff, or Four Horror Stories in Two Parts" (Part I and Part II).

Just a friendly reminder to back up your thesis files, including drafts, data, spreadsheets, pictures, and notes. You might consider signing up for Data Nudge through Research Data Service, which will send you monthly email reminders and tips for managing your research. Check out the Research Data Service website for more tips and to schedule a one-on-one appointment to speak with a data management expert. While backing up files might seem like a tedious task, make sure to do so regularly so you don’t lose all of your hard work!

This presentation will provide tips for writing concise and professional cover letters. You’ll review common structure, audience expectations, and strategies for using the cover letter to complement the resume. Bring a current job ad and questions about your current cover-letters-in-progress! Register with your Illinois email by 9/16, and we'll send the Zoom meeting on the morning of the event.

Are you preparing to go on the academic job market? The Writers Workshop will review genre expectations for statements of teaching philosophy and provide examples from a range of disciplines. We will share strategies for brainstorming and drafting your own statement. This event is open to current University of Illinois affiliates (students, faculty, and staff). Please register with your University of Illinois email account by 11:59pm CT on 9/18, and we will send a reminder email with the Zoom meeting invitation on the morning of the event.

Congratulations on your acceptance to graduate school! You’ve earned your place here, and we’re excited for the journey ahead. Graduate school can sometimes feel overwhelming, with so many opportunities available—attending classes, conducting research, teaching and mentoring undergraduates, presenting at conferences, and taking internships. But how do we manage it all?
GradSWE, in collaboration with the Graduate College, invites you to our first lunch seminar: "Crafting Your Journey Through Grad School and Beyond." Reserve your spot and mark your calendar! Lunch is provided

What is a faculty interview actually like? What sorts of questions will I be asked? How should I talk about my research and teaching? What do I do if there are technical problems? Get answers to these questions and more as you learn the basics of the first-round faculty interviews. You can join in person (Graduate College, 507 E. Green St., Champaign) or on Zoom (https://go.grad.illinois.edu/eventspace).

Start the semester the "write" way! Our hybrid writing group provides grad students with dedicated time to make progress on any writing project in a supportive atmosphere. Each meeting consists of a short goal-setting conversation, quiet writing time, and a concluding reflection and wrap-up. You only need to register once with your U of I email to receive weekly email reminders all semester! 

Do you need help with data, troubleshooting code, statistical analyses, or survey research? Consulting & training workshops are open to campus on the following: Stata, SAS, SPSS, R, Python, Qualtrics, and Alchemer. For open consulting hours visit (http://go.illinois.edu/dropin) and workshop registration visit (http://go.illinois.edu/statsworkshops). All services are free through a partnership with CITL, the Library Scholarly Commons, and Tech Services. Note: Please use Firefox for links. 

Throughout your life you will, almost certainly, give presentations. We have all sat through presentations that were boring, confusing, and drab. How do you communicate your message most succinctly? What visuals will captivate and inform your audience the best? Is it only about your slide design or are there other techniques that leave a lasting impression? In this session we distill the magic that just might take your next presentation from bland to grand. 

You’ve got your qualitative data, now what? How do you turn that wealth of data into an answer to your research questions? In this hands-on workshop, we’ll discuss strategies you may use to analyze your data and explore the tools you can use to put your analysis plan into action. Strategies discussed include: coding and viewing coded data, quantifying qualitative data, comparing data across categories, and using writing and mapping to develop your interpretation. 

Infographics can be an effective way to convey small bits of information very quickly, while drawing viewers in due to their visual appeal. In this workshop students will learn about best practices for creating infographics and be introduced to several free online tools that allow users to create their own infographics, including Infogram and Visme. The session will end with a practice activity where participants are encouraged to use the webtool of their choice.

Are you struggling to keep track of all your sources? Looking for an easier way to cite as you write? Mendeley is a free citation manager that helps you organize your citations, store and annotate your files, and insert formatted citations into papers. You will leave this hands-on workshop with the ability to set up and use your very own Mendeley library!

JSTOR is a digital library with access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines (primarily focused on humanities and social sciences). Recently, JSTOR merged with Artstor, a digital image database. This workshop will focus on how to search text, images, and primary resources in JSTOR, and how to organize your research using the workspace feature.

Looking for a new way to conduct your research? Tired of getting zero results in your database searches? This workshop will break down how to identify resources, and search for articles, books, and other scholarly works. We’ll cover chasing citations, creating optimal keyword searches, using built-in database functions to improve your searches, and other strategies to make you a more efficient researcher.

In this session, the Doctoral Research Support Program partners with the Writers Workshop to cover the writing process of a literature review. This session is open to all doctoral students and is held over Zoom. A link will be sent to registrants in advance of the event.

Unlock the power of studying text on a large scale through this beginner-friendly introduction to text mining. In this workshop, we’ll provide an overview of analytical techniques, identify datasets that you can use for your research, and play with easy-to-use tools for understanding linguistic patterns in text. No prior experience needed!

In this workshop, you will learn the basics of Illinois REDCap and how it can be used for the collection of research data, including how to create projects, instruments, and surveys and how to start collecting research data. It is recommended (but not required) that you have a REDCap account prior to attending the workshop. Information about accessing Illinois REDCap is available here: https://healthinstitute.illinois.edu/redcap. No prior REDCap experience is necessary.

NCSA invites you to a virtual workshop Sept. 26 on CUDA-Q, NVIDIA’s platform for high-performance hybrid quantum-classical computing, featuring speakers and tutorials from NVIDIA, qBraid and Infleqtion. CUDA-Q enables flexible and performant development of these workloads today, spanning CPUs, GPUs and QPUs, enabling quantum researchers, developers and domain scientists to accelerate their quantum research at scale. This is a hands-on workshop using NVIDIA GPUs. However, if you have your own resources or just want to listen in, you are also welcome. Registration deadline is Sept. 22.

The HRI Organize & Analyze: Social Movements Reading Group will discuss readings, films, short stories, plays, and poems on global working class social movements to inform our intellectual development, political education, and praxis. The first meeting will be Mon. Sept. 23, 12-1:30 PM at 809 S. 5th St (GEO Office in McKinley Foundation), continued weekly. Open to all & free lunch! Sponsored by HRI, Sociology & GEO. RSVP at bit.ly/READMOVEMENTS. 

The annual SACNAS National Diversity in STEM (NDiSTEM) Conference is just around the corner. This year, it will be taking place in Phoenix, Arizona from October 31st-November 2nd. As part of our commitment to supporting the participation of SACNAS Chapter students at Illinois, we have established a protocol for receiving SACNAS SCS funding to attend the conference. This protocol ensures fairness and consistency in determining the recipients of the funding. We encourage all undergraduate and graduate students to apply for a SACNAS travel scholarship, postdocs are not eligible.

Are you interested in serving on the McKinley Student Advisory Board? Learn more about the role at the McKinley webpage and indicate your interest by completing this form.

Are you passionate about user experience design? Curious about how UX shapes the future of innovative products at a global company? Join us for an exclusive recruiting session with Dr. Eui Yang, UX Lead at John Deere, and discover the exciting opportunities available in the world of UX.

The EU Center invites high school students from the state of Illinois to take part in a translation competition featuring German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Swedish, and Ukrainian. Students will translate a contemporary passage from one of the seven languages into English. Heritage speakers are welcome to participate. If you know any high school students from Illinois who may be interested, please direct them to http://go.illinois.edu/TranslationCompetition.

This workshop is an interdisciplinary collaboration designed to build the capacity of social work and legal professionals and students to serve the immigrant community in Illinois. Through building the capacity of professionals, we aim to expand access to justice and healing for the ever-growing immigrant community. Free and open to the public, with meals provided. Learn more and register.

This unique group of award-winning, nationally, and internationally acclaimed solo dance artists, all women aged 50 and above, defy our expectations of aging and push the proverbial glass ceiling with their indomitable voices. Performers include Charlotte Adams, Analia Weber, Beth Corning, Simone Ferro, Heidi Latsky, Li Chiao-Ping, Debra Loewen, Sara Hook, Endalyn Taylor, Jennifer Monson and Roxane D’ Orléans Juste.

Join us to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival! Learn about the tradition, participate in interactive activities and make your own snow-skin mooncakes! 

Join Sinfonia da Camera for the season opener Fri, Sep 20 7:30pm celebrating the centennial anniversary of George Gershwin’s beloved Rhapsody in Blue! Featuring Ian Hobson as soloist and conductor, pianistic virtuosity takes center stage in this bluesy and brazen work for solo piano and orchestra. Program also includes masterworks by Smetana, Martinů, and Dvořák. Tickets at KCPA webpage.  

Do you like bats? Do you like Batman? Do you like vampires, myths, and mayhem? If you and your friends have any random nerd knowledge rattling around your noodles on these topics, come out and join us September 19th from 7-9pm for a night of bat-themed trivia at 25 O'Clock Brewery. Teams of up to 6, free to play, prizes for the winners. Oh, and there is delicious cold beer on tap available to purchase while you enjoy the festivities. See you there!

Learn how to use parallel and distributed computing in MATLAB with a focus on speeding up application codes and offloading computers. By working through common scenarios and workflows using hands-on demos, you will gain a detailed understanding of the parallel constructs in MATLAB, their capabilities, and some of the common hurdles you'll encounter when using them. Register here.

Europe was the principal battleground in the Cold War conflict that pitted nuclear superpowers against one another. In this book talk, Susan Colbourn (Duke University) will tell the story of the height of nuclear crisis and the remarkable waning of the fear that gripped the globe.

Come and visit the new space for the Center for Children's Books in the School of Information Sciences and hear about all we have to offer campus. Free galleys, donuts, and cider available until supplies last.

A panel discussion feat. local practitioners from government, nonprofit orgs, and volunteer groups sharing the latest advancements, best practices, and future plans for the Champaign County Welcoming Plan. Launched in 2021 and currently in its second phase, the plan focuses on 5 key strategic initiatives to build a community of belonging: Economic Integration & Employment; Education & Language; Citizenship & Civic Engagement; Health & Well-Being. Our work has recently been nationally recognized with the City of Champaign receiving the prestigious Welcoming Certification from Welcoming America.

Each year at Japan House, we offer the opportunity for guests to view a tea ceremony and to celebrate the full moon together in the beauty of the gardens. Professor Kimiko Gunji will perform a special tea ceremony in the Japan House Gardens to honor the Harvest Moon for all to watch. The tea ceremony will be followed by an ikebana arrangement demonstration and shakuhachi performance near the ponds by Omar Francis. Note: Japan House will NOT be open to the public during Tsukimi and there are no public restrooms in the Arboretum. All activities will take place outside so please plan accordingly.

The Imaging Technology Group and the IGB Core will be co-hosting a half-day X-ray CT workshop. Talks covering theory, the instrumentation available on campus, and current research projects will be presented along with tours of both the ITG and IGB facilities. Check out the workshop agenda at the link above. 

All doctoral students are invited to join the Doctoral Research Support Program (DRSP) team for a potluck on September 26. This is an informal opportunity to meet fellow doctoral students and bring your research needs to librarians who are dedicated to supporting your doctoral journey. We encourage all to bring something to share, but most importantly, bring yourself! Click here to register.

V L Snoeyink Distinguished Lecture: L. Ruby Leung, Battelle Fellow, Pacific Northwest National Lab.  Some of the most consequential outcomes of global warming for societies and ecosystems are changes in extreme events. Leung discusses some recent advances in modeling extreme events and their future changes. She will provide examples of projections of future changes in flood-producing winter storms and their characteristics, mesoscale convective systems that produce wind damages and floods, the risk of landfalling hurricanes, and changes in heatwaves and wildfires. 

Join Erik Scott for a discussion of his book Defectors: How the Illicit Flight of Soviet Citizens Built the Borders of the Cold War World. This groundbreaking book, recently published by Oxford University Press, explores how defectors, pursued by their home states and coveted by the U.S. and allies, influenced global borders and intelligence rivalries. 

Building upon their recent article, “What Is Information History?,” Bonnie Mak and Allen Renear (Information Sciences) introduce ways in which the humanities can engage in the critical examination of AI. By situating AI as a site of humanistic inquiry, this seminar series highlights the unique contributions of the humanities to the study of AI and the human condition. Zoom registration 

Join us as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark ruling that invalidated racial segregation in public schools. Brett Gadsden, one of the nation's leading scholars on Brown and its aftermath, will discuss the case and what we can learn from the decision seventy years later. Free and open to the public.

McKinley Health Center serves on-campus students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

The University of Illinois Counseling Center provides mental health counseling and well-being education for students. 

If you or a student you know may need support with their basic needs or financial stressors, please reach out.