Coordinated Sciences Laboratory
Encyclopedia
The Coordinated Science Laboratory is a major scientific research laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
. With deep roots in information technology, CSL has invented and deployed many landmark innovations, such as the electric vacuum gyroscope, the first computer-assisted instructional program and the plasma TV. Today, research thrusts include computer vision, economics and energy systems, information trust, neuroengineering, parallel computing, robotics and more.
. Later, as private sources of support as well as state-appropriated funding replaced much of the military funding, the lab came to focus on circuits, communications, computational and physical electronics, decision and control, reliable and high performance computing, remote sensing and space sciences, signal, image and speech processing and thin film electronics.
Research at CSL is conducted by more than 100 faculty members spanning 11 departments in the University. The lab also employs more than 500 graduate and undergraduate students.
CSL is currently funded by many federal, state and private programs. It receives the majority of its operating and research budget from DARPA, the National Science Foundation
, NASA
, and private corporations, including AT&T
, Cisco
, Hewlett-Packard
, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft
, NVIDIA
and Sun Microsystems
.
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...
. With deep roots in information technology, CSL has invented and deployed many landmark innovations, such as the electric vacuum gyroscope, the first computer-assisted instructional program and the plasma TV. Today, research thrusts include computer vision, economics and energy systems, information trust, neuroengineering, parallel computing, robotics and more.
History
Established in 1951 as a classified defense laboratory, the Coordinated Science Laboratory (or CSL) was originally designed to be a center for research in control systems. Since then, CSL has evolved to cover a much broader base of research goals. During the 70's and 80's, additional support for the laboratory was provided by the military, which sought to establish an electronics facility at CSL to aid with the Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. Later, as private sources of support as well as state-appropriated funding replaced much of the military funding, the lab came to focus on circuits, communications, computational and physical electronics, decision and control, reliable and high performance computing, remote sensing and space sciences, signal, image and speech processing and thin film electronics.
Faculty and funding
CSL is currently funded by many federal, state and private programs. It receives the majority of its operating and research budget from DARPA, the National Science Foundation
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
, NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
, and private corporations, including AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, Cisco
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
, Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, NVIDIA
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
and Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
.
Major centers and institutes within CSL
- Advanced Digital Sciences Center
- Illinois Center for Wireless Systems
- Information Trust Institute
- National Center for Professional and Research Ethics
- Parallel Computing Institute
- "Science of Information" Science & Technology Center
Notable research contributions
- Electric vacuumVacuumIn everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...
gyroscopeGyroscopeA gyroscope is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum. In essence, a mechanical gyroscope is a spinning wheel or disk whose axle is free to take any orientation...
(the central component of inertial navigation systems, primarily used by submarineSubmarineA submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
s) - Portable radarRadarRadar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
systems - PLATO (the first computer-assisted instructional program)
- Flat panel plasma displays
- DeuteriumDeuteriumDeuterium, also called heavy hydrogen, is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen. It has a natural abundance in Earth's oceans of about one atom in of hydrogen . Deuterium accounts for approximately 0.0156% of all naturally occurring hydrogen in Earth's oceans, while the most common isotope ...
Method for processing microchipIntegrated circuitAn integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
s (extends the life of microchips by 10 to 50 times normal length) - QuantumQuantumIn physics, a quantum is the minimum amount of any physical entity involved in an interaction. Behind this, one finds the fundamental notion that a physical property may be "quantized," referred to as "the hypothesis of quantization". This means that the magnitude can take on only certain discrete...
wire laserLaserA laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
s - Quantum dotQuantum dotA quantum dot is a portion of matter whose excitons are confined in all three spatial dimensions. Consequently, such materials have electronic properties intermediate between those of bulk semiconductors and those of discrete molecules. They were discovered at the beginning of the 1980s by Alexei...
s - The first transistorTransistorA transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current...
See also
- Universal Parallel Computing Research Center-IllinoisUPCRC IllinoisUPCRC Illinois is one of two Universal Parallel Computing Research Centers launched in 2008 by Microsoft Corporation and Intel Corporation to accelerate the development of mainstream parallel computing for consumer and business applications such as desktop and mobile computing...
- College of EngineeringUIUC College of EngineeringThe College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign was first established in 1868, and is considered one of the original units of the school. The presence of a steam engine on the University's seal is a good clue as to the importance of the engineering program to the...
- The Beckman InstituteThe Beckman InstituteThe Beckman Institute is an interdisciplinary-research institute named after scientist and philanthropist Arnold O. Beckman . It is famous for imaging and other research...
- National Center for Supercomputing ApplicationsNational Center for Supercomputing ApplicationsThe 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...
External links
- Coordinated Science Laboratory
- History of the Decision and Control Laboratory, a research group within CSL