The Beckman Institute
Encyclopedia
The Beckman Institute is an interdisciplinary-research institute named after scientist and philanthropist Arnold O. Beckman (1900-2004). It is famous for imaging and other research. At 313000 square feet (29,078.7 m²), it is among the largest interdisciplinary research facilities.

It is affiliated with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

.

History

The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology was conceived in 1983 as part of a plan to develop multidisciplinary research between Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

 and the Life Sciences
Life sciences
The life sciences comprise the fields of science that involve the scientific study of living organisms, like plants, animals, and human beings. While biology remains the centerpiece of the life sciences, technological advances in molecular biology and biotechnology have led to a burgeoning of...

. The primary facility for the Beckman Institute was conceived of in 1984 by grace of a gift of $40 million (87 million 2011 dollars) from Dr. Arnold O. Beckman, and completed in 1989. Today the Beckman Institute is made up of 600 researchers from over 40 different University departments and is home to 13 research groups.

Research

The Beckman Institute focuses on research in four main themes, Biological Intelligence, Human-Computer Intelligent Interaction, Integrative Imaging, and Molecular & Electronic Nanostructures.

The Biological Intelligence research theme ( BioIntel) primarily works in the fields of Neuroscience
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...

, Neurotechnology
Neurotechnology
Neurotechnology is any technology that has a fundamental influence on how people understand the brain and various aspects of consciousness, thought, and higher order activities in the brain...

, and Cognitive Science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...

. Combining researches from the Life Sciences
Life sciences
The life sciences comprise the fields of science that involve the scientific study of living organisms, like plants, animals, and human beings. While biology remains the centerpiece of the life sciences, technological advances in molecular biology and biotechnology have led to a burgeoning of...

, Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...

 (especially Signal Processing
Signal processing
Signal processing is an area of systems engineering, electrical engineering and applied mathematics that deals with operations on or analysis of signals, in either discrete or continuous time...

), and other related field the BioIntel group focuses on research which leads to a better understanding of brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...

 functions, speech recognition, vision, and other sensory information. Work from BioIntel has led to numerous advances not only in the understanding of brain, but also in the development of algorithms for processing computer vision
Computer vision
Computer vision is a field that includes methods for acquiring, processing, analysing, and understanding images and, in general, high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical or symbolic information, e.g., in the forms of decisions...

 and other sensor information, along with the development of many sensory devices used in modern robotics
Robotics
Robotics is the branch of technology that deals with the design, construction, operation, structural disposition, manufacture and application of robots...

.

The Human-Computer Intelligent Interaction (HCII) research theme seeks to enhance human-machine interface design through the optimization of state-of-the-art technology development and engineering of multimodal interface design concepts. HCII also seeks to explicate the mechanisms of human perception, cognition, and action that are relevant
Relevant
Relevant may refer to:* Relevant operator, a concept in physics, see renormalization group* Relevant, Ain, a commune of the Ain département in France* Relevant Magazine, an American religious publication...

 to industrial, military, and consumer products. Projects in HCII involve the close collaboration of computer scientists, electrical engineers, neuroscientists, linguists and others in pursuit of knowledge relevant to the design of interfaces for human-computer systems.

The Integrative Imaging (IntIm) research theme is dedicated to bringing together ideas, modalities, and people in imaging to foster the interdisciplinary discovery of fundamental principles in imaging science, new enabling technologies for the next generation of imaging instruments, and novel techniques for basic and translational research.

The Molecular & Electronic Nanostructures (M&ENS) research theme researches technology based on and used in the steady of molecular and electronic nanostructures. The M&ENS groups have pioneered research in tunneling electron microscopy, force microscopy and near-field scanning optical microscopy. Research is also currently on-going in the fields of self assembly and nanostructures with computational applications.

Beckman Open House

The Beckman Open House is a biennial event that is held in conjunction with UIUC Engineering Open House. The Beckman Open House features displays by scientists, engineers, and other researchers working there.
The 2011 Open House was held on March 11-12, 2011.
The 2009 Open House was held on March 13-14, 2009.
The 2007 Open House was held on March 9-10, 2007.
The next Open House will be held in 2013.

On alternate years, the Illinois Simulator Laboratory holds its Open House, which includes an FAA-certified flight simulator, CAVEs, a full-scale driving simulator, and similar attractions.

See also

  • Beckman Coulter
    Beckman Coulter
    Beckman Coulter Inc., is a company that makes biomedical laboratory instruments. Founded by Caltech professor Arnold O. Beckman in 1935 as National Technical Laboratories to commercialize a pH meter that he had invented, the company eventually grew to employ over 10,000 people, with $2.4 billion in...

  • Beckman Research Institute
    Beckman Research Institute
    The Beckman Research Institute is a research facility located at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, CA, United States. It is dedicated to studying normal and abnormal biological processes which may be related to cancer. The institute was dedicated in 1952, and endowed by the...

     of City of Hope
    City of Hope National Medical Center
    City of Hope National Medical Center, is a private, not-for-profit clinical research center, hospital and graduate medical school located in Duarte, California, United States...

  • National Center for Supercomputing Applications
    National Center for Supercomputing Applications
    The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is an American state-federal partnership to develop and deploy national-scale cyberinfrastructure that advances science and engineering. NCSA operates as a unit of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign but it provides high-performance...

  • Coordinated Science Laboratory

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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