Complete the Illinois Leads strategic planning survey by Friday, March 27, to share your insights on the future of our university. The survey takes less than 10 minutes, and anyone who completes the survey may enter their name in a drawing for Illinois-branded merchandise. Additionally, campus units are also encouraged to host their own brainstorming sessions using the Illinois Leads facilitation guide, which provides step-by-step instructions and discussion topics to help capture feedback.

Technology Services will transition the Technology Services Help Desk to be called the IT Service Desk this spring. The change is expected to take place in April and will coincide with the reopening of the remodeled service desk location in the Digital Computer Laboratory. While the name will change, services will remain the same. Additional information about the transition will be shared in the coming weeks.

The Provost's Initiative on Teaching Advancement grants enable recipients to design, implement and assess instructional innovation that has a high probability of enhancing education at Illinois. Successful applicants will receive $10,000 in financial assistance for their proposed activities. Application deadline is at 11:59 p.m. Monday, April 6.

The Counseling Center is accepting nominees for the 2026 Robert P. Larsen Human Development Award. Given annually, the award recognizes those who are making a difference on campus by promoting student development and mental well-being. All students and staff who are not affiliated with the Counseling Center are eligible, and winners receive a small honorarium and plaque. The deadline to submit nominations is April 8. To nominate someone, please use the form linked in the title.

McKinley Health Center has launched its DIY STI Screening Program for students to test for chlamydia and gonorrhea. No appointment needed and no contact with staff. It's easy and confidential. Results will be provided in their secure MyMcKinley Portal.

Gies College of Business is offering U. of I. seniors with a 3.0+ GPA a $10,000 scholarship when they apply by March 31 to select graduate programs (MSA, MSBA, MSF, MSM, MSTM) through our Fast-Track application — with no application fee, no GMAT/GRE, fewer application essays and no letters of recommendation required. Only valid for summer or fall 2026 applications. This will be announced to seniors on Tuesday, March 24. Share with a senior who should take advantage of this opportunity!

Join us for the final session of the "Through the Faculty Ranks" series on Discourse: Leadership in a Digital Age: Virtual Engagement and Inclusive Communication. This interactive session will provide practical tools for fostering connection, clarity and inclusive dialogue in hybrid and virtual environments. Learn strategies to navigate challenging conversations, sustain engagement across digital platforms and apply key insights to your teaching and leadership. Register here by April 3.

Ted's Cafe at the Beckman Institute is now serving slices of pizza daily between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. One slice is $2.99; two slices are $5. Check the online menu to see each day's toppings. The cafe is located on the first floor of the Beckman Institute.

Promote the TalkCampus Buddy Program to your students! TalkCampus Buddy is a volunteer program that trains students to provide peer support on the TalkCampus platform. It gives students a meaningful opportunity to support other students while developing key skills in empathy, communication and mental well-being awareness. Buddies can set their own hours, boost their resumes with real-world experience and certification and, most importantly, make a difference in others' lives. Deadline for the first Illinois cohort is April 1.

Join our upcoming GenAI Dialogues session: The Faculty and Staff Side of Artificial Intelligence, a panel discussion exploring how educators and university professionals are navigating, integrating and responding to artificial intelligence in their teaching, work and decision-making. Join us for an engaging conversation that highlights real experiences, emerging practices and open questions about what AI means for faculty, staff and the future of higher education.

Did you know that there are multiple methodologies to create literature reviews, with different aims, goals, protocols and outcomes? Attend this workshop to learn about the range of evidence synthesis (literature review) methodologies, from a traditional narrative review to rigorous reviews, such as systematic reviews and umbrella reviews. We will discuss 12 types of reviews, identify the similarities and differences between them and provide insight into how to select the review type that is best suited for your project.

Keeping meals both affordable and enjoyable can be tricky, but we don’t need to take on these responsibilities alone! This workshop is designed to cover the basics of how to incorporate artificial intelligence into food budgeting practices, including meal planning, grocery lists and more. It covers several tools designed specifically for the purpose of food budgeting and meal planning as well as discussing how to design clear, specific prompts for general AI chatbots like ChatGPT to assist with these tasks.

Learn how to find resources and navigate STEM databases using search strategies, like Boolean Operators.

Please join us for the University Archives' monthly Women in Science Lecture Series from noon to 1 p.m. March 23, from Archana Verma, Ph.D. candidate in chemical engineering, who will discuss her research on the development of a Monte Carlo model for doping in organic semiconductors and reflect on her leadership in the Graduate Society of Women Engineers. This is a hybrid event and will take place in the University Archives, Main Library Room 146, or you can register for the Zoom link.

This talk will introduce the basics of DNA sequencing and explain how computer algorithms help scientists assemble these pieces. We will also discuss how DNA sequence information is used to study important questions in biology and medicine, such as how people are related to one another, how genes can influence observable traits and what microbes live inside our bodies.

Magdalena Novoa (Urban and Regional Planning, U. of I.) will give a talk, "Making Space for Many Worlds: Pluriversal Planning, Arts-Based Methods and Historic Preservation in Chile." This presentation connects to the exhibition Memorias de la Mujer Lotina: Arpilleras, Women and Coal in Chile, opening Feb. 26 at the Krannert Art Museum, and the artists’ residency (March 30 through April 5), co-organized with the Climate Jobs Institute.

Join us for an Imposter Monster Workshop, where we’ll explore a new, practical way to understand and work with imposter feelings (instead of letting them run the show). This session will offer tools, reflection and conversation in a supportive space with other students who may feel the same way. The first 25 students to register will receive a free copy of the book "My Monster Mungo." If imposter feelings have ever held you back, or you’re just curious to learn more, we’d love to see you there. To RSVP, click here!

Join Mark Hansen of the University of California, Berkeley as he presents via Zoom at the spring 2026 Kent Seminar Series from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, March 26. Presentations this semester focus on topics related to innovation trends in aviation. Hansen's lecture will explore new evidence regarding Irregular operations, flight delays and passenger delays. Food and soft drinks will be provided beginning at 1:30 p.m. in the Illinois Center for Transportation Classroom.

We are honored to welcome Yolanda Williams-Goliday, director of the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center, to Gies Business for a hybrid session on fostering a more inclusive environment for students, faculty and staff who are members of the LGBTQ+ community. This event will provide insights on how we can collectively support and advocate for our LGBTQ+ colleagues and students. This event will take place from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, March 24, in the Deloitte Auditorium. This event is open to all university students, faculty and staff. Please register to attend and receive the Zoom link.

The IMMERSE Symposium — combining immersive technologies, applications and human experience — is a unique meeting of leaders from academia and industry to foster collaborations and build community for research, education and infrastructure to enable the era of immersive computing (including AR, VR, MR). The program features exciting plenary keynotes and panels followed by breakouts and interactive posters and demos session. Register by April 10. If you work in this area, submit a poster/demo by April 5.

Jake Jaeger of C-U Comedy is bringing the laughs to Friday Funnies! The night kicks off with student improv group Odd Request, followed by Jake, winner of this year’s Midwest Comedy Competition at the Jukebox Comedy Club in Peoria. Closing out the show is Leslie Mitchell, a former “Funniest Person in Iowa” champion who has performed at more than a dozen comedy festivals nationwide and headlines clubs across the Midwest. Don’t miss this hilarious lineup! All Courtyard Café events are free and open to the public.

Coffee Across Cultures Hour is a monthly gathering that brings people together over coffee, tea and pastries to explore global traditions and the diverse ways communities connect through shared rituals. Humor is universal, yet what makes us laugh can be surprisingly different across cultures. This session takes a lighthearted look at jokes, comedic styles, playful expressions and humorous misunderstandings. Come prepared to share a story or simply enjoy hearing how humor connects (and sometimes confuses) us. Free and open to all.

Registration is now open for the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology’s 2026 Undergraduate Research Showcase. The showcase will be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. April 29, in IGB conference room 612. Poster session will begin at 3 p.m., and data blitz talks will begin at 4 p.m. All are welcome to attend. Registration is not required but is encouraged.

This is a session in which podcasters learn tips and tricks for more advanced audio editing, including incorporating sounds effects, adding music and more.

This talk was originally scheduled for March 24 but had to be rescheduled due to a conflict. If you already registered, please re-register. This Tech Talk involves the Versa 630 CT instrument performing in the Microscopy Suite. Beckman Microscopy Suite Tech Talks presents: Investigation of inorganic crystal growth using Diffraction Contrast Tomography (Lab-DCT) with Eslam Elbakry. Please join us at noon Tuesday, March 31, in the 2nd floor tower room at Beckman. Lunch will be provided to those who register for in-person attendance by noon March 27.

NCSA is hosting a Machine Learning and Big Data workshop presented by the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. This workshop will focus on big data analytics and machine learning with Spark and deep learning using Tensorflow. This is an in-person event, and there will not be a virtual option for this event.

What happens when students lead the conversation about Generative Artificial Intelligence? In this dynamic livestreaming conversation, students from the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center will share unfiltered perspectives on how tools like ChatGPT, CoPilot and other AI platforms are shaping their academic experiences, creativity, career preparation and sense of integrity. Through candid dialogue, live audience interaction and reflective storytelling, student panelists will discuss the benefits, tensions and future possibilities of Generative AI in higher education.

Please join the Health Technology Education Program and Manuel Hernandez for a talk on challenges and opportunities in translating advances in health technologies in health care settings. This lecture will provide examples of recent work and progress examining the use of wearable technology and machine learning and artificial intelligence to the monitoring of age-related changes and symptoms associated with neurological conditions, such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.

NCSA and the Department of Climate, Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences will host Paul Markowski, a distinguished professor of Meteorology and head of Penn State's Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 24. Markowski will present “A New Pathway for Tornadogenesis Exposed by Numerical Simulations of Supercell Storms in Turbulent Environments” as part of the NCSA Colloquium Series.

The Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies is hosting U. of I. faculty with a connection to or interest in Japan. We will have coffee, tea and treats to get to know other faculty and CEAPS. Please RSVP here.

Systematic reviews are a form of structured research that requires a comprehensive collection, appraisal and summary of all research on a topic. Systematic reviews are high-impact publications that carry weight to inform evidence-based decision making. After attending this workshop, you will be able to describe: 1.) The definition, history and value of systematic reviews; 2.) An overview of the steps and processes of conducting a systematic review; and 3.) Some systematic review quality indicators.

From Rumors to Influence, Participatory Propaganda to Policy: Social and digital media are reshaping how information and politics circulate worldwide. From conspiracy theories to viral falsehoods, the “attention dynamics” of online platforms amplify rumors and enable efforts to influence public opinion. University of Washington professor Kate Starbird will explore how online communities create and spread misinformation and disinformation, especially during moments of uncertainty.

Join the Cancer Center at Illinois at 4 p.m. April 23, at the Beckman Institute Auditorium for a screening of "Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp and the Biotech Revolution." The film traces the groundbreaking contributions of Illinois alumnus and Nobel Laureate Phillip Sharp to the biotechnology revolution. Phil and Ann Sharp will attend, with a Q&A and reception to follow. Register here.

With increasing threats to our academic freedom, faculty members and the Campus Faculty Association are organizing an event to discuss and learn how to respond to and defend against doxxing and ongoing threats to our teaching, research and service. Hear from faculty members across campus who have been doxxed and the invaluable lessons they learned. Learn from the ACLU about the steps we can take as faculty to defend ourselves against increasing challenges to academic freedom.

Join us for "Spiral Time and Backwater Poetics," featuring Werner Baer Postdoctoral Fellow Pâmilla Vilas Boas Costa Ribeiro. This session explores how ancestral knowledge and performance inform environmental sustainability along Brazil’s São Francisco River. This interdisciplinary research offers vital perspectives for the engineering community on global ecological challenges.

NCSA, in collaboration with the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center, invites you to the next Quantum User Group Bring Your Own Lunch and Learn on Thursday, March 26. For additional details, please refer to the calendar page.

Treaties for Treatment: How Urban American Indians Navigate the Federal Health Care Promise. Research regarding Urban Indian (American Indians living in cities or major metropolitan areas) health care access and experiences remains largely unexplored. This project takes and examines health care experiences such as accessing care (IHS and non-IHS care alike) to experiences with delivery of care itself in a sample with 38 Urban Indians. Presenter: Kiana Wilkins (Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs), Ph.D

The Innovation Law and Technology Program is pleased to host professor David Stein (Vanderbilt Law). Professor Stein studies the interplay between legal institutions and technical infrastructures. His work uses moments of transformative innovation — such as the mass adoption of smart phones, the Internet or generative artificial intelligence — as natural experiments that provide insight into the relationship between institutions and infrastructures. Free and open to the public, with lunch provided to attendees (while supplies last).

From its invention in the Bronze Age, glass was conceived as “molten stone” and continuously used to emulate gems, gold and rare marbles. Drawing on archaeological finds, representations in art works, and written sources, Anastassios Antonaras (Museum of Byzantine Culture, Thessaloniki) places Byzantine glass in context to a wider Mediterranean tradition where it emerges as a powerful medium of splendor, authority and sacred presence. This talk is free and open to all audiences, and refreshments will be served.

Direct from Rome, The Three Italian Tenors — Gianni Leccese, Ugo Tarquini and Alessandro Fantoni — bring their program “Italia Musica Amore" to the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. They will be accompanied by pianist Fabrizio Mocata. From "O Sole Mio" to "Nessun Dorma," join us for an evening of dramatic arias, timeless melodies and exquisite love songs. 🎤 | 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 26 | Krannert Center for the Performing Arts - Foellinger Great Hall

Please join us for the seventh annual symposium in Holocaust, Genocide, Memory Studies. The past annual symposia were wonderful, and we hope that this conference will continue to showcase diverse and brilliant work within memory studies (broadly conceived) of graduate students. The keynote will be at 11 a.m. by Solomon Brager, author of "Heavyweight."

Do you weave, crochet, knit, felt or embroider? Krannert Art Museum invites you to Knit and Sit! Bring your project and join us for a weaver’s circle in the "Art Since 1948" exhibition at the museum. All ages and experience levels are welcome! First-time knitter? A limited amount of yarn and needles will be available — and anyone wanting to learn can receive a simple knitting lesson. Everyone will get a chance to explore the art on view. Free and open to everyone!  *Parking nearby is free on weekends*

Spring brings a burst of energy, marking a season of growth, renewal and activity. As winter fades, people across cultures notice the first flowers emerging, adding vibrant color after months of dormancy. Because of this, flowers have long been powerful symbols of spring. Over time, just as flowers diversify through evolution, their cultural meanings have changed as people, plants and traditions move and interact. Join us for a relaxed craft session celebrating this creativity by making culturally iconic flowers from around the world using supplies we provide.

Join us for "Restringing Altgeld’s Mathematical Models: Touching, Tying and Understanding Mathematics." The U. of I. houses one of the world’s largest collections of historic mathematical models. Math professor Jared Bronski and Library professor and preservation expert Jennifer Hain Teper will discuss the interdisciplinary work to study, describe, conserve and interpret the Altgeld Hall models, followed by a restringing demonstration. A reception follows.

Join us to celebrate the book launch of Richard (Chip) Burkhardt's "The Leopard in the Garden: Animal and Human Lives in Paris at the First Public Zoo of the Modern Era" (UC Press, April 2026). This authoritative history of the first metropolitan zoo presents the inner workings of the menagerie at the Paris Museum of Natural History during the golden age of French zoology and how visions for the zoo collided with the interests of humans and animals alike. Nigel Rothfels (History emeritus, UW-Milwaukee) and Matthew Allender (College of VetMed at U. of I.) join the discussion following the talk.

Are you overwhelmed by organizing your sources? Zotero is a free, open-source citation manager that helps you store and organize your files and insert formatted citations into papers. You will leave this hands-on workshop with a Zotero library set up and ready to use!

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. We will also discuss some of the privacy concerns related to Google and how you can mediate them.

Qualitative data analysis software programs can be valuable tools for organizing research sources for a literature review. This workshop will demonstrate techniques for organizing and analyzing literature in the software program MAXQDA, though the strategies will be relevant to other qualitative data analysis tools like NVivo or Atlas.ti. MAXQDA is a robust software for analyzing qualitative data, including text, media and survey data. Offered twice: 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. March 23 (in-person), and 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. March 26 (online).

Join us for the Master of Public Health Info Session at 5 p.m. March 23, via Zoom! Learn how the Illinois MPH supports students across backgrounds and career stages. Explore our on-campus or online modalities, degree options (Epidemiology, Health Behavior and Promotion, Physical Activity and Health), hands-on learning, networking opportunities, career outcomes and admissions guidance — everything you need to take the next step in public health.

The iSchool's Center for Informatics Research in Science and Scholarship will host Ha Nguyen, a professor of learning sciences and psychological studies in the School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, presenting "Whose Voice is the Chatbot? Designing Artificial Intelligence for Science Learning" on Wednesday, March 25, as part of its The AI Disruption speaker series. More information is at this link.

This online workshop will give you hands-on introduction to multi-GPU distributed deep learning on NCSA Delta cluster with PyTorch Lightning.

Join three Quick Start Workshops this week (March 24 and 27) to learn how make your Microsoft Word documents, PDFs and math accessible! Join us to learn part two of PDF accessibility and also our new-this-semester session about math. Additional workshops on various topics are available throughout the semester. Sign up and expand your accessibility skills!

This Virtual Brown Bag presents the issues involved in decolonizing African collections, explores global collaborations to advance equitable knowledge ecosystems and considers models and networks of Diamond Open Access that ensure that African scholarship is produced and distributed under the principle of global equity.

Join us for a 2-hour, hands-on workshop that introduces educators to human-centered design! You’ll work through a real challenge from your teaching, explore learner perspectives and prototype a new idea alongside other educators. Leave with practical tools and one actionable shift you can bring back to your classroom.

Drawing from four years of hands-on experience, Victor Riveros (Main Library) and Michael Nelson (Gies College of Business) will cover the full lifecycle of producing an online conference using the Zoom Events platform. They will walk through every stage of the process: from event creation, to configuring roles, sessions and branding, to managing the platform (live) on conference day and archiving recordings afterward. They'll highlight key technical pitfalls to avoid and practical tips that can only come from experience.

Looking for children and teenagers (ages 5-17) who are native speakers of American English and have normal hearing. The purpose of this research is to study how and when children develop the ability to process sounds in noisy environments, such as busy classrooms and other crowded environments. Participants will listen and respond to speech samples and receive a hearing test during one or two 1- to 2-hour visits. Compensation of $15 per hour will be provided after each visit. Free on-site parking available! To learn more, fill out our screener or email: anex-lab@illinois.edu.

Study on preschool child stress response interventions! The Family Resiliency Center is looking for 3–5-year-olds and a caregiver to attend one session and complete a follow up survey. We are studying the effects of nature and mindful movement on child stress response. $50 in compensation for completing all study components.

Healthy males ages 18-25 with no hearing loss and no significant difficulty hearing in noise are invited for a study on listening in noise. There is an online survey to determine eligibility, followed by lab visits for those who qualify. Lab visits include hearing screening, listening to sounds and measuring ear and brain activity. There is a maximum of three lab visits, each lasting 2-3 hours. Compensation for lab visits is paid in cash ($15 per hour). Parking is covered, and mileage is reimbursed ($0.655 per mile, up to a maximum of 37.5 miles per visit). To participate, complete our survey.

The Nutrition and Exercise Performance Research Group is recruiting recreationally active adults (19–40 years old) to participate in a 2-day study examining how food combinations affect muscle protein synthesis and whole-body protein utilization. Participation includes four free meals, resistance exercise, muscle biopsies and blood, breath and urine sampling across two lab visits. Participants who complete the study will receive $300 and information on body composition and caloric needs. Interested individuals may contact Calvin at (cw148@illinois.edu) to learn more and see if you qualify!

The Nutrition and Exercise Performance Research Group is looking for participants to partake in a 2-day study to establish the utility of the indicator amino acid oxidation method in adults. Participation in this study involves 2-day habituation lead in with all meals provided, muscle biopsies and blood, breath and urine sampling during two all-day trials. Upon completion, you will receive $150 and information about your body composition and caloric needs. Contact Gena (NEPRESEARCH@illinois.edu) for more information! Male participants are strongly encouraged!