Illinois Chat, an official artificial intelligence (AI) software tool of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has launched for the Fall 2025 semester and is available for anyone on campus. In partnership with the Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Illinois Computes, NCSA developed Illinois Chat to offer large language model (LLM) abilities to the entire campus community. Read more here!

October 17 is the last day to drop a full semester course online via Self-Service; and the last day to submit a Late Registration Change request via the Graduate College Student Portal to add or drop a Part of Term A course with approval (a "W" is recorded). Have questions about registration deadlines or submitting a Late Registration Change? Click here for an advising appointment!

Run for Resilience is a welcoming run club for anyone interested in learning more about running while connecting with a supportive community. This collaboration between McKinley’s Stress Management Peers & Exercise is Medicine is for students and faculty to use movement and community to boost mental health. Each weekly one-hour session begins with a mini-lesson covering topics such as nutrition, hydration, injury prevention, and apparel. We will follow a beginner-friendly 8-week program that starts with walking and gradually builds up to a steady 30-minute run—perfect preparation for a 5K!

In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Counseling Center is hosting a workshop on healthy vs. unhealthy relationships while learning the importance of self-care within these relationships on Wednesday, Oct. 15 from 6-7pm at the Women's Resources Center. The Counseling Center is also tabling on October 15 at Anniversary Plaza from Noon-1:30pm and on October 29 at Illinois Street Residence Halls (ISR) from 4:30-6pm to create awareness and promote this year's theme of "With Survivors, Always," guiding survivors toward safety, support, and solidarity.

It's Exercise is Medicine Month! Join Health and Kinesiology faculty member, Alana Harris, for an introductory mat based pilates class. Bring your own mat and join us on the front lawn of Freer. Get active with your fellow Illini. This class is subject to appropriate weather.

It's Exercise is Medicine Month! Join faculty members and health and kinesiology students to have your resting heart rate and resting blood pressure measured. Students will provide education on the physical activity and exercise guidelines. Drop in and check it out!

This workshop will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 22, led by Dana Johnson, PhD, Director of External Fellowships at the Graduate College. Lunch provided at 12pm, workshop 12:30-2:30, followed by a graduate student-led panel on "Tips for applying for grants and fellowships" 2:30-3pm.  Registration appreciated.

A Scoping Review is a type of evidence synthesis that represents an exploration of research literature to understand the depth & breadth of research related to a specific question or topic. A scoping review maps concepts from the literature to reveal trends, themes, & gaps in the research area to inform, & provide context for further exploration or examination. This workshop covers the what-why-& how of scoping reviews & key differences between scoping reviews and systematic reviews will be described.  Offered twice: 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 14 (in-person) and 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Oct. 17 (online).

Web of Science is a large multidisciplinary platform of abstract databases for articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. This session provides insight and strategies for getting the most use out of the platform. We will highlight how to search for literature and authors, as well as where to find citation and grant information.

New to the university? Need a refresher on using the library? This hands-on workshop will introduce you to library resources and services. After this workshop, you’ll be able to navigate the library website with confidence to access print and electronic materials. Come with questions if you have them!

Google Scholar is an incredibly popular and useful tool for research with several features that scholars may not be familiar with. This workshop will elaborate on the difference between searching in Google Scholar and academic databases, demonstrate how to use Google Scholar’s Advanced Search, explain how to get to connect your library access to Google Scholar, and cover some of the other more sophisticated features Google Scholar offers to support your research.

This workshop will cover techniques for organizing & analyzing literature in the software program MAXQDA, & the strategies will be relevant to other qualitative data analysis tools like NVivo or Atlas.ti. After this workshop, we hope you'll be able to: 1) Export citation data from Zotero and import into MAXQDA 2) Use MAXQDA organizational features to categorize research sources 3) Use coding tools label relevant parts of research literature 4) Analyze coded data to develop your literature review. Offered twice: 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 16 (in-person) and 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Oct. 17 (online).

Graduate students interested in community-engaged research are invited to join a lunch and panel discussion on Oct. 21, 12 - 1:30 p.m. at the Levis Faculty Center. The panel of experts will share insights, best practices, and answer questions you might have about delving into community-engaged research. This is an opportunity not only to learn from campus experts about community-engaged research, but also to connect with like-minded peers who are passionate about building community partnerships and exploring how community voices can be integrated into your work. Please register by Oct. 14.

The IHSI Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design (BERD) team invites grad students and postdocs to join a celebration and showcase of health sciences research powered by robust research design and rigorous statistical methods. The half-day conference will kick off with a keynote from Prof. Douglas Simpson, followed by two distinct panels. An afternoon deep-dive workshop on quantitative research design will be especially beneficial to early-career researchers and those wanting to strengthen and perfect their research design. Please register by Oct. 22.

What are the five most common formatting errors we see in theses? What are release options? How do I deposit my thesis? We've answered these questions and more in our Thesis Format and Deposit webinar. Watch the video and download the slides in our Box folder. Still have questions? Reach out to us at thesis@illinois.edu.

If you are planning to deposit your thesis this semester, here are a few tips to get a head start! 1) Review our Deposit Checklist, which outlines the steps you need to take in order to deposit. 2) Doctoral students: complete your required surveys! 3) Make sure to add your name to the degree list through Self-Service (the deadline to do this is November 2!).

Writers Workshop will review expectations for personal statements and share strategies and examples to help you draft and tailor your own. Register by 10/14 to receive the Zoom invitation on 10/15. Review several personal statement resources on our website, as well!

The University of Illinois is one of the most globally diverse campuses in the country. This session offers practical guidance and foundational knowledge for campus professionals who work with international students. Topics will include common challenges international students face as well as the campus and community resources available to support them. This training is open to advisors, faculty, staff, instructors (including graduate teaching assistants), and others in student-facing roles who want to better understand and support international students. Registration is required. 

All careers involve some level of uncertainty, but 2025 has drastically increased that uncertainty for many of us. This interactive, in-person session will address ways of dealing with uncertainty in your career. This conversation will be useful if you are dealing with a dramatic change in the career landscape in your field, an altered faculty job market, changes in what locations you are able to live in, or many other issues. This workshop will take place in person at the Graduate College (507 E. Green St., Champaign).

This workshop will give you hands-on experience using TorchGeo for geospatial deep learning. TorchGeo is a PyTorch domain library, similar to torchvision, providing datasets, samplers, transforms, and pre-trained models specific to geospatial data.

This workshop will give you hands-on experience accelerating Python codes with NVIDIA GPUs. We will utilize code samples in two main categories to introduce you to Python GPU-accelerated computing. First, we will explore drop-in replacements for SciPy and NumPy codes through the CuPy library. Then we will cover NVIDIA RAPIDS, which provides GPU acceleration for end-to-end data science workloads. Finally, we will cover Warp for differentiable simulation codes. By the end of the workshop, you will have the skills to start accelerating your Python codes with NVIDIA GPUs! 

You’re invited to a coffee chat on Tue., Oct. 14, at 10 am with Maria Trzupek, Chief People Officer (and proud alum) at Morningstar, Inc. Hear how she built a purposeful career leading global people strategy at a top investment firm. Gain insights on leadership, authenticity, and growth. Space is limited. Registration on Handshake is strongly encouraged. 

In this informal discussion, the father-and-son team of media scholars John D. Peters (Yale) and Benjamin Peters (UTulsa) will reflect on the transnational histories, pluralist philosophies, and speculative futures of the digital media sometimes called artificial intelligence. They will share insights from ongoing research projects, including Ben’s current book project on the Soviet prehistory of AI. Among his working points: AI today is Soviet and ChatGPT hallucinates because of Stalin’s homophobic purges. Lunch will be provided, but seats are limited. RSVP at https://bit.ly/rsvp-peters.

Curious how human-centered thinking can transform your research or teaching? Join Dr. Brock Craft from the University of Washington for a conversation on reimagining engineering practice around care, ethics, and collaboration. 

Nadine Naber (Gender and Women’s Studies, Global Asian Studies, University of Illinois Chicago) will present the lecture “Radical Mothering as Prison Abolition Pedagogy in Chicago” as part of the Story & Place event series. With Brooke White (Art and Design) responding. 

Adults should aim for ≥150 minutes/week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (PA) to reduce cardiometabolic risks, but only 25% of Americans meet this guideline. This session will cover the extensive benefits of adhering to PA recommendations and share new research findings on the optimal PA dose for adults across age groups to prevent cardiometabolic conditions effectively.  Presenter: Jingxin Yao 

Join us for a lecture in the Illinois Forum on Human Flourishing in a Digital Age Speaker Series with John Durham Peters, the María Rosa Menocal Professor of English and Professor of Film and Media Studies at Yale University. Peters will consider what the new mode of incessant documentation of raw behavior means for the possibility of both forgiveness and the collective learning process essential to public deliberation. 

The Center for Writing Studies will be hosting Dr. Toby Beauchamp for a Brownbag talk! Dr. Beauchamp will be giving a lecture titled "Embracing Trans Regret under Authoritarianism." Please join us this coming week on Thursday, October 16th! 

This symposium will explore artistic production, practices, and the agency of printed media before 1750 as they intersect with themes of sexuality and gender. Keynote speaker will be Dr. Nicole Cook, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Presented in conjunction with Imagination, Faith, and Desire: Art and Agency in European Prints, 1475–1800, curated by Maureen Warren, and on view at Krannert Art Museum from Sep 25, 2025–Feb 28, 2026. Hybrid event including presentations and an exhibition walk-through. Sign up to get the Zoom link: kam.illinois.edu/events.

Dr. Steven Hyman, Director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, will give the 2025 Kellner Lecture on "The hard road from genetics to mechanisms to therapeutics for psychiatric disorders: The challenge of research designs in the absence of biological ground truth." This lecture is sponsored by the Kellner Center for Neurogenomics, Behavior, & Society in connection with the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, the Center for Social & Behavioral Science, and the School of Social Work.

Japan House's annual Fall Open House resumes on Saturday, October 18 featuring Seiran Chiba, Masaji Hashimoto, Shinya Terasawa, and Hirohisa Saito to present on Fukushima traditional arts and crafts. Traditional Japanese tea ceremonies will be offered at 11am, 12pm, 1pm, and 2pm. At 3pm, the artists will be giving a free presentation about their work. Throughout the day, they will have an art show with pieces available to purchase showcasing calligraphy, washi paper, indigo dyeing, and paper mache. Registration required for tea ceremonies featuring various Fukushima traditional sweets!

An award-winning film, SHTTL (Ukraine, 2022), portrays the lives of people in a small Ukrainian Jewish town (shtetl) at the Polish border, 24 hours before the Nazi invasion. It is a touching story of a filmmaker who returns from Kyiv to his native shtetl to marry the love of his life and disrupts the balance of the entire town. With introductory remarks by Stefan Djordjevic, History Department. Snacks will be provided.

Join us for a free screening of the film "Black Box Diaries" followed by an in person Q&A with the filmmaker Shiori Itô. This is first AsiaLENS film of the school year hosted by CEAPS and we hope to see you there on Oct 20, 2025 (4:00-6:30 pm).

Krannert Uncorked is back with The Emily Kuhn Quintet! Herbie Hancock brings his 2025 North American Fall Tour to Krannert Center. Instructors Laura Chiaramonte (Dance at Illinois) and Kate Insolia run a free workshop called Dance for People with Parkinson's. See Angie Pittman: Black Life Chord Changes, prior to Leslie Cuyjet: For All Your Life, exploring Black embodiment through multimedia. The season of Sinfonia Da Camera: Love Triangle premieres at Krannert Center! UI Chamber Singers performs their first concert of the year. VISIT KRANNERTCENTER.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION!

Come experience immersive sound as you view artworks at Krannert Art Museum! Members of Improvisers Exchange Ensemble will create soundscapes within the museum through site-specific solo performance and collective improvisation in reflection and response to artwork on display. Museum visitors are invited to experience viewing the art in these sonic locations.

Find us at the International Education table for educational activities and henna, enjoy the traditional Indian snacks and win your Diwali meal ticket at ISR. 

Discover the rich traditions and vibrant culture of India at this month’s Intercultural Spotlight! Learn from students and scholars as they share personal stories, demonstrate aspects of daily life, and showcase colorful art forms. Try your hand at traditional rangoli designs, experience a taste of Indian dance and music, and enjoy sampling authentic snacks and chai. This interactive program invites you to engage, ask questions, and broaden your understanding of one of the world’s most diverse countries. Free and open to everyone—come connect, learn, and celebrate together!

Please join us for Supporting Students (and Ourselves) with Imposter Syndrome, Wed., Oct. 22, 1-3 p.m., Graduate College, Room 202. Led by AJ Lauer, leadership coach and author of Imposter Monster, this session explores research, impacts on student success, practical strategies for teaching/mentoring, and tips for managing your own imposter feelings. Space is limited—RSVP to secure your spot! For more information or questions, please contact Dr. Arianna Agramonte Holterman at agramont@illinois.edu

Graduate students interested in community-engaged research are invited to join a lunch and panel discussion with like-minded peers on Oct. 21, noon-1:30pm. The panel of experts from Illinois and a local community organization will discuss their experience conducting community-engaged research projects. Please register by Oct. 14

You're invited to the Graduate and Professional School Fair on Oct. 15, 2025, 12-3:30 p.m. at the Illini Union. Explore the possibilities of pursuing a Master's, Ph.D., or a professional degree. All majors and class-levels welcomed! Connect with admission reps from 130+ schools to learn about advanced degree in health, business, engineering, agriculture, communications, education, STEM and more. Registration is encouraged but not required. To learn more and to register, visit Handshake.

Orchard Downs residents and other university community members with children are welcome! Come see Miss Olivia as she shares fun children's literature activities through music & movement and crafts. 

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.