NIU Today

The College of Engineering & Engineering Technology (CEET) is celebrating National Engineers Week with a variety of events for all ages. The annual College Bowl, where the best and the brightest engineering and engineering technology students test their knowledge while they compete for valuable prizes, is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 23. NIU students, faculty, staff...

NIU’s Civic Leadership Academy will host a workshop Tuesday, Nov. 30, on “Home Rule: Unlocking the Structure and Impact.” This workshop will offer participants three unique and experienced views of local government Home Rule with particular emphasis on Illinois. The provisions of Home Rule in Illinois were established in the 1970 re-write of the Illinois Constitution. Home Rule gives units...

NIU’s College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (CEET) hosted Caterpillar executives Monday, Oct. 25, for a meet-and-greet with students and faculty. The event was an opportunity to showcase the college as well as allow insight as to what CEET students are learning. In recent years, CEET students have been working with Caterpillar on research projects, student competitions...

Allan Barsema is one of 10 winners of the 2010 Purpose Prize, Civic Ventures has announced. Now in its fifth year, the six-year, $17 million program is the nation’s only large-scale investment in social entrepreneurs older than 60 who, in their encore careers, are using their experience and passion to make an extraordinary impact on society’s...

NIU’s Civic Leadership Academy will host a Nov. 4 workshop on “Strategic Planning: Yes, Now is the Time!” This workshop is a “guided tour” of the practical techniques and fundamental principles of the strategic planning process. It specifically focuses on developing skills and understanding the power of analyzing current organizational situations, laying out long- and...

Teenagers interested in video games, animation, 3D virtual worlds, and computers are invited to join the Game Development Lab at the NIU Digital Convergence Lab in Founders Memorial Library. This after-school program allows students to pursue their hobbies while exploring an exciting career option in emerging technologies.  The Game Development program includes 16 late afternoon sessions...

For the first time, NIU and 10 other universities in Illinois will be part of the national Students in Service program, which matches students with local not-for-profit groups in need of volunteers. NIU will send nine undergraduate and graduate students into the part-time volunteer workforce to do such things as work in food pantries, soup...

T-E-A-M. As the old saying goes, those four letters stand for “together everyone achieves more.” But the questions are these: How do you build a sense of team? Does teamwork come naturally? What happens to the concept of team in tough times? It’s easy to be a team when you’re “winning,” but what happens when times are tough? NIU’s...

Congressman Bill Foster will visit NIU’s DeKalb campus this morning to tout the benefits of a new broadband network to be built in northwest Illinois thanks to a $68.5 million federal grant to the university. The news conference will be streamed live here starting at 9:45 a.m. Announced in September, the grant will allow a group...

Northern Illinois University  received word today of the largest grant in university history – $68.5 million to develop a broadband network that will spread across nine counties in northwest Illinois. That amount includes $46.1 million from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, funded by money set aside last year as part of by the American Recovery...

Science students at a dozen high schools and middle schools throughout the Chicago region are in for a treat this fall. Their teachers attended the ASM Materials Camp for Teachers at NIU, and their classroom presentations will never be the same. The camp was designed to teach instructors new, innovative and inexpensive ways to conduct...

Trained by experts at NIU, community organizers from a conflict-torn region of the southern Philippines are now teaching their neighbors to look at the bigger picture, resolve differences peacefully and be more active in mainstream society. The activists participated in a three-week summer workshop led by NIU faculty who have expertise in conflict resolution and...