The Information Theory Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has recognized electrical engineering professor Sergio Verdu with its most prestigious honor, the 2007 Claude E. Shannon Award, for his consistent and profound contributions to the field of information theory.

In June, Verdu delivered the Shannon Lecture at the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory in Nice, France.

Verdu, who also is affiliated with the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics, explores the fundamental limits of data transmission and compression systems in his research. He joined the University faculty in 1984 after receiving his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

More : princeton.edu

A Illinois Math and Science Academy graduate has given a $100,000 gift to the IMSA Fund for Advancement of Education.

The gift will support the Stephanie Pace Marshall Endowment to Ignite Innovation.

Mike McCool, a 1991 IMSA graduate, said giving to the endowment was an easy decision because it had it all.

More : kcchronicle.com

Selected to receive a four-year undergraduate scholarship of $4,000 was Tiffany Gordon, a graduating senior from Salem Community High School. This year alone, the Illinois AMVETS Scholarship Program has awarded more than $113,000 in scholarships to graduating high school students.

Gordon will be entering the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign this fall to pursue a bachelor’s degree.

The AMVETS Department of Illinois has been an organization of Veterans serving Veterans since 1945. Illinois AMVETS has been at the forefront of community and Veterans’ service for the State of Illinois. Their goal is to improve the lives of the nation’s Veterans and the communities they live in

Source : salem-tc.com

An interest in the Arabic language has landed a Normal Community High School student a trip to Morocco to study the language and culture.

Balloons from Nick Mangialardis high school graduation party still floated prominently this week as he packed for a trip sponsored by Legacy International and the U.S. State Department.

He leaves today (Friday), landing first in Washington, D.C., for orientation and then taking several other flights before eventually landing in Casablanca with 15 other students for the six-week Arabic Language Institute program.

More : pantagraph.com

MATTOON — A report on grades for Lake Land College graduates shows they are outpacing many students enrolled in state universities who started there as freshmen.

During Monday’s Lake Land Board of Trustees meeting Vice President for Academic Services Scott Lensik offered the comparison of grade point averages of Lake Land transfers in eight state universities — Eastern Illinois, Illinois State, Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois at Carbondale and Edwardsville, University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign, Springfield and Western Illinois.

Lake Land transfers numbering 1,579 earned GPAs of 3.04 compared to GPAs of 2.84 for four-year or native students at five universities: Eastern, Northern, Western, Southern Illinois at Carbondale and the U of I in Springfield, based on academic information from the past two fall semesters. The information was provided by the universities, Lensik said, and information on total numbers of native students included in the report were not available for some universities.

Merle Giles has been appointed as the new director of NCSAs Private Sector Program, which puts the centers expert staff and technological innovations to work on the real-world challenges faced by business and industry.

Merle Giles brings more than 30 years of business experience to NCSA, said center director Thom Dunning. He will raise our already successful partnership program to a new level.

Giles previously led the Executive MBA program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As the programs director, he led teams of executives on consulting projects for major international companies, including Coca-Cola, Caterpillar, John Deere, EuroDisney, Volkswagen, and Xerox. Giles earlier served as president and chief executive officer of Sheridan Bank of Peoria (later First of America Bank-Peoria) and as chief financial officer of Star Transport, Inc. He also operated a real estate and business brokerage business.

More : hpcwire.com

he American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) announces the following awards to be presented at the 37th AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference and Exhibit, 25th AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference, 38th AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Conference in conjunction with the 16th International Conference on MHD Energy Conversion, 18th AIAA Computational Fluid Dynamics Conference, and 39th AIAA Thermophysics Conference, June 25-28, 2007, at the Hyatt Regency Miami in Miami, Florida.

Dr. Michael Bragg, Associate Dean for Research and Administrative Affairs and Professor of Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Urbana, Illinois, will receive the AIAA 2007 Aerodynamics Award. The award is presented for meritorious achievement in the field of applied aerodynamics, recognizing notable contributions in the development, application, and evaluation of aerodynamic concepts and methods. Dr. Bragg is being recognized for pioneering research on the aerodynamic effects of ice accretion on aircraft and the aerodynamic phenomena responsible.

Dr. Ronald Adrian, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, will receive the AIAA 2007 Fluid Dynamics Award. The award is presented for meritorious achievement in the field of applied aerodynamics, recognizing notable contributions in the development, application, and evaluation of aerodynamic concepts and methods. Dr. Adrian is being recognized for landmark contributions in the development of laser Doppler velocimetry, particle image velocimetry and stochastic estimation techniques, and for sustained leadership in fluid dynamics.

More : spaceref.com

led team of neuroscientists has determined the 98 percent of brain activity considered background noise is, in fact, important.

Indiana University Associate Professor Olaf Sporns and doctoral student Christopher Honey note brains are always active, even when people are at rest. In the resting state, waves of neural activity ripple through the brain, creating fluctuating and ever-changing patterns. Sporns and Honey say such offer insights into what the brain does while idle.

Some people see the brain in terms of inputs and outputs, like a computer. If you provide an input, youll get a particular output, said Honey. We take a different view. We believe that even in the absence of an external stimulus, there are very important processes going on in the brain which affect the stimulus-responses that the brain will produce. We believe that ongoing spontaneous activity should be studied in itself.

More : sciencedaily.com

CHAMPAIGN - Karen Ann Nelson graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on May 13 with a bachelor of science degree in agribusiness, farm and financial management in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.

She was an active member of ACES Global Ambassadors where she held the offices of secretary, ACES Council Representative, and President. She also was a member of the Morrow Chapter of the Alpha Zeta Agricultural Honor Society. Nelson is an ACES James Scholar and the recipient of the ACES Global Ambassadors Outstanding Senior Leadership award. She was the House Honey of Nabor House Fraternity her senior year.

Nelson studied abroad in Costa Rica, China, Belgium and the Netherlands.

More : register-mail.com

Researchers at the University of Illinois have constructed the first global family tree of metabolic protein architecture. Their approach offers a new window on the evolutionary history of metabolism.

The study appears this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Their work relies on established techniques of phylogenetic analysis developed in the past decade to plot the evolution of genes and organisms but which have never before been used to work out the evolutionary history of protein architecture across biological networks.

More : rxpgnews.com