For the third consecutive year, an NIU student in physics has landed a prestigious graduate student research award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. The DOE announced earlier this month that NIU’s 25-year-old Tyler Burch, a Ph.D. degree candidate, is one of 60 students from across the nation to receive the...

Officials with Crane Composites, the world’s leading provider of reinforced composite materials for the building and transportation markets, visited NIU on Thursday, April 5, to meet some of the students who have benefited from Crane scholarships. Crane Composites has offered 60 scholarships to students since 2010 in the College of Business and the College of...

The NIU Robotics team is flying high after securing its first-ever first-place finish at the Midwestern Robotics Design Competition (MRDC), beating out such competitors as the University of Illinois and Northwestern. “I am incredibly proud of NIU Robotics and the hard work that went into this success,” NIU College of Engineering and Engineering Technology Dean...

Illinois’ most creative young problem-solvers will arrive at NIU in 120 teams from throughout the state for the Illinois Destination Imagination Affiliate Tournament on Saturday, March 24. This statewide competition allows the top elementary, junior high and high school aged teams from each region to compete in a variety of creative hands-on challenges related to...

Cliff Mirman, chair of the Department of Technology in the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, died Tuesday, Jan. 16, after suffering a heart attack. He was 55. Mirman was a graduate of the University of Rochester (B.S. ’83) and the University of Illinois at Chicago (M.S. ’87, Ph.D. ’90). He worked briefly at Motorola...

The Engineering Building was a hive of activity and innovation on the Friday before finals, as graduating seniors presented their capstone Senior Design projects. Thirty-seven student groups presented their designs to improve everything from factory workflow to a morning cup of coffee, and nearly two dozen faculty, industry and alumni judges rated the presentations in...

The College of Engineering and Engineering Technology was well represented at an event recognizing graduating university honors students, as 10 of the 34 students recognized are graduating this month with engineering degrees. The University Honors Program offers students of high academic promise and achievement the opportunity to chart their path, recognizing them with three levels...

NIU alumnus Justin Whiting is helping to shape the future of additive manufacturing, working for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop and evaluate measurement science in this new and booming field. In August, Whiting presented at a national conference for modeling powder dynamics in metal additive manufacturing. “Powders can be very...

Just days after receiving its charter and Student Association approval, the NIU chapter of the Pi Tau Sigma honor society for mechanical engineers was already hosting its first event. The Beta Lambda chapter presented a career talk by a UTC Aerospace engineer on Wednesday, Nov. 8. The chapter made its first industrial site visit the...

NIU sophomore Chad Wilson isn’t waiting until he graduates to take on the business world. Wilson and his business partner, Jordan Horwitz, are developing an electric cruiser motorcycle prototype they hope will eventually become a product on the market.   “This is the ultimate way to be a part of a tech startup,” Wilson said....

Researchers at NIU are investigating ways to boost the power of compact electron accelerators, with potential applications for homeland security and pollution cleanup. In a new research project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, faculty in the departments of physics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and under the Northern Illinois Center for Accelerator and Detector...

Two NIU technology professors are creating a realistic online lab to equip undergraduates with the skills to develop renewable energy systems and to interest high school students in renewable energy. Associate professor Liping Guo and Professor Andrew Otieno of the Department of Technology were awarded a grant in June by the National Science Foundation to...