The Coordinated Science Laboratory (CSL) is a major scientific research laboratory at the
University of Illinois 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.
History
Established in 1951 as a classified defense laboratory, the Coordinated Science Laboratory (or CSL) was originally designed to be a center for research i
remote sensing and space sciencessignal, image and speech processingan
thin film electronics
Faculty and funding
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 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 from private corporations. Corporate funders have included
AT&T,
Cisco,
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
,
Intel,
Lucent
Lucent Technologies, Inc. was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications equipment company headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was established on September 30, 1996, through the dives ...
,
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...
,
NVIDIA
Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...
, and
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, ...
.
Major centers and institutes within CSL
Advanced Digital Sciences CenterCenter for Exascale Simulation of Plasma-Coupled CombustionCompGenHealth Care Engineering Systems CenterInformation Trust InstituteNational Center for Professional and Research EthicsParallel Computing InstituteSystems on Nanoscale Information fabriCs (SONIC)
Notable research contributions
* Electric
vacuum
A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective ''vacuus'' for "vacant" or " void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often di ...
gyroscope (the central component of inertial navigation systems, primarily used by
submarines)
* Portable
radar
Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...
systems
*
PLATO
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institutio ...
(the first computer-based education system)
* Flat panel
plasma displays
A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display that uses small cells containing plasma: ionized gas that responds to electric fields. Plasma televisions were the first large (over 32 inches diagonal) flat panel displays to be releas ...
*
Deuterium
Deuterium (or hydrogen-2, symbol or deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two Stable isotope ratio, stable isotopes of hydrogen (the other being Hydrogen atom, protium, or hydrogen-1). The atomic nucleus, nucleus of a deuterium ato ...
Method for processing
microchips
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny M ...
(extends the life of microchips by 10 to 50 times normal length)
*
Quantum wire
laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The firs ...
s
*
Quantum dot
Quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductor particles a few nanometres in size, having optical and electronic properties that differ from those of larger particles as a result of quantum mechanics. They are a central topic in nanotechnology. When the q ...
s
See also
*
Universal Parallel Computing Research Center-Illinois
*
UIUC College of Engineering
The Grainger College of Engineering is the engineering college of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was established in 1868 and is considered one of the original units of the school.
Every engineering program in the college is ...
*
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology is a unit of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign dedicated to interdisciplinary research. A gift from scientist, businessman, and philanthropist Arnold O. Beckman (1900–2004) an ...
*
Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology
The Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) is ainterdisciplinaryfacility for genomics research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Institute was built in 2006 to centralize biotechnology research at the University ...
*
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) is a state-federal partnership to develop and deploy national-scale computer infrastructure that advances research, science and engineering based in the United States. NCSA operates as a ...
External links
Coordinated Science LaboratoryHistory of the Decision and Control Laboratory a research group within CSL
{{Authority control
University and college laboratories in the United States
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign centers and institutes