If you’ve not been up Harrison Street recently—just west of Racine—you’ll see some amazing progress on the Innovation Center building expansion. It has been years in the planning stage, followed by what seemed like an endless amount of time in the groundwork & foundation preparation phase. However, once above-ground construction started, it has been moving at an accelerated pace. You can actually get a good sense of what the building is going to feel like on the inside. The fact that the university has chosen to support innovation in such a visible way is a testament to the Innovation Center’s commitment to the hands-on, human-centered, experiential learning opportunities we create for our students, staff, faculty, and community members.

Inside the center, we have a broad range of activities taking place this fall, from an IXD class focusing on energy and water sustainability on campus to exciting new initiatives in the Sandbox Lab, including high school outreach programming (supported by the Bosch Community Fund) to teach STEAM and Challenge-Based learning programs and workshops, and events supporting the National HSI STEAM Innovation Challenge. We're also continuing to expand and develop our partnership with Caterpillar by providing significant impact within their product teams at CAT Digital. This month, we are hosting a workshop with 20 Caterpillar researchers to further integrate our work with their internal processes. In the Medical Device Labs, we're hosting an Open House event to highlight our physical and digital design development and prototyping capabilities to demonstrate how we can drive innovation for the College of Medicine. 

Don Bergh, Acting Executive Director

Photo credit: HSI Innovation Hub

The Innovation Center is proud to announce that UIC has been awarded a STEAM Impact Grant by the Global HSI Equity Innovation Hub. In partnership with California State University (CSUN) and Apple, this is the first step for UIC to become a visionary partner institution serving as an HSI Regional Hub anchor, designed to accelerate transformative programming across the national HSI ecosystem.  

UIC joins Miami Dade College, the first Regional Hub, to play a pivotal role in shaping and scaling the HSI Innovation Hub's national programming portfolio, including the National HSI STEAM Innovation Challenge using Apple technology and tools, and connecting STEAM innovation programming that aligns with and advances a national programming portfolio through the Global HSI Equity Innovation Hub and its educational and industry partners. UIC was chosen for our demonstrated ability to build STEAM workforce paths for a broad range of students and our strong capabilities around health research. 

This program will bring UIC students, faculty, colleges, and community groups together through participation in the National Challenge, while also investigating nutrition awareness among students from different cultures.  

The National Challenge ignites all UIC students to create technology-enabled solutions rooted in their culture, communities, and lived experiences. Based on the theme of “Culture is Currency,” students answer the question: “How can we transform cultural value into opportunity for ourselves and our communities?” Submissions are due January 2027, and selected winners will receive national recognition and prizes.

This year-long program is just the beginning of a long-term nationwide relationship that will elevate UIC into a renowned, innovative campus.

Join us for the National Challenge Launch event on Thursday, October 15th, from 2 to 4:30 PM at the Innovation Center to learn more.

Photo credit: Noah Wangerin

IXD students, Dr. Michael Scott (standing), and Claudio Ribeiro (seated on table) discussing conservation on campus. 

Students in the Interdisciplinary Solution Development (IXD) class are exploring how human-centered design can help UIC conserve critical campus resources.

IXD introduces cross-functional, team-based work focused on problem identification and user-centered research methods during the “fuzzy front end” of new solution development. This fall, students are applying those methods to a timely challenge: energy and water conservation on the UIC campus.

Under the guidance of Dr. Michael Scott, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, and Claudio Ribeiro, Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Design, students investigate how the campus community uses resources across classrooms, offices, residence halls, labs, and other spaces. Teams will observe behaviors, identify areas of high resource consumption, examine existing conservation efforts, and consider how real-time resource data might encourage more conscious choices.

From these insights, students will identify a focused opportunity and develop low-cost interventions designed to reduce resource use while encouraging lasting behavior change.

The project gives students a chance to practice innovation while addressing a challenge embedded directly in the UIC community. Team solutions will be shared in the December newsletter!

Health Access Lab Team Members: 1st row, L to R: Joel Noble Maliekal, MaryRose Haley (Team Lead), Shivansh Amba, Iryna Filyk, Abdias Kpatcha, and Ian Aguilar. 2nd row, L to R: Om Patel, Ansh Gureja, Kimberlee Wilkens (Associate Professor and Team Lead), Harini Solaidurairaj, Kahnishga Solaidurairaj, Lavanya Vats, Sneha Sharma, Umaimah Siddiqui, Amaani Ziauddin, Himanshu Panchal, and Jada Standors (Team Lead).

This August, the inaugural cohort of the Health Access Lab (HAL) wrapped up six months of work at the UIC Innovation Center, supported by Apple’s Community Education Initiative.

Over the course of the program, 14 students worked in three interdisciplinary teams to explore health-related challenges affecting the UIC campus community. Their projects addressed topics ranging from navigating CampusCare health insurance to helping students find and connect with peers through shared interests and campus events.

Students took ownership of their projects from start to finish, moving through research, collaboration, ideation, and prototyping to develop app concepts aimed at improving health access and experiences for their peers at UIC.

Innovation Center Project Leads Jada Standors, Kimberlee Wilkens, and MaryRose Haley guided the teams in human-centered design and solution development. HAL also benefited from support from Yesenia Estrada and Sandbox Lab, as well as engagement with the UIC Public Health Initiatives office and the UIC CHANCE program.

The program also helped students strengthen their technical skills. All participants earned Swift certification through the Sandbox Lab, building a strong foundation for future research, creativity, and applied innovation.

As we look back on HAL’s first year, we’re proud of what this inaugural cohort accomplished and grateful to everyone who helped make the program possible. We’re excited to see where these students take their skills and ideas next.

Photo credit: MaryRose Haley

CAT Lab Researchers (L-R) Anurag Karnati, Amratya Saraswat, Roman Meshkov, and Resham Patil at work in the Innovation Center.

CAT Lab researchers have worked alongside CAT Digital's UI/UX Research team, collaborating virtually for the past eight months. In just over a week, that collaboration will reach its next milestone as the two teams meet in person for the first time.  The Innovation Center will host 20 Caterpillar researchers for an immersive workshop that will focus on how quantitative analysis of digital behavior data can provide unique insights into a range of projects the UI/UX team is working on to support a better experience for the Caterpillar user.

Over the course of the day, the two teams will work to identify how data can inform UI/UX research and build a shared language along the way. The workshop will spark new project ideas, invigorate the team through rethinking shared values, and add fresh momentum to a long-standing and fruitful partnership.