Media Gallery

The Agriculture Technology Innovation Summit 2017 on February 23, 2017, highlighted AgTech through speakers from both investors and AgTech-focused companies. The ribbon-cutting for Syngenta Digital Innovation Lab concluded the summit. Mark your calendar for this year’s AgTech Summit to stay up-to-date on developments occurring within the Research Park and general developments in AgTech. View clips of the speakers here.

The professional workshops held in 2017 were: EIR Workshop with Edwin Moore: A Career of Lessons Learned – Developing Products in a Regulated Industry IoT 2.0  Meetup Best Practices Workshop for recruiting and hiring students View the video here.

The fourth annual Big Data Summit brings together thought leaders from the UIRP, industry, and academia for a highly interactive event to address big questions surrounding big data. Just as new information technologies and the Internet itself fundamentally transformed business and industrial competitiveness over the past 25 years, big data is posed to bring the next wave of innovation, productivity, and growth. The coupling of big data and advanced analytics has the potential to raise efficiency and create value in almost all business sectors. Taking advantage of big data and advanced analytics enables companies to create new products and services, enhance existing ones, and invent entirely new business, models. We have more than 60 companies participating and 400 registered participants. View keynote presentations and panel discussions here.

The AARP Tech Nest opened at the University of Illinois Research Park on October 13, 2016. The Tech Nest focuses on developing prototypes in the fields of artificial intelligence, mobile apps, information security, biometrics, and software engineering in partnership with the top students from the university. This company location hopes to leverage the University of Illinois academic research and its adjacent startup community. View the AARP Grand Opening video.

CME Group Innovation Center opened at the University of Illinois Research Park on September 9, 2016. The company leverages their Champaign location, employing University of Illinois engineering and computer science students to work on hands-on projects related to financial technology and mathematical innovation, such as blockchain, distributed ledger technologies, and machine learning. CME Group is where the world comes to manage risk. View the grand opening video.

On July 27, 2016 Research Park held a social event for students from companies within the community to come together and compete in table tennis in the new EnterpriseWorks building. Yahoo took the gold medal home, but the tie was close. Families, co-workers, and friends also came to observe and cheer for their teams. View the recap video here.

The Career Fair is a great way for students who are specifically interested in working in the Research Park to meet with employers, both startups and corporate operations.  Students are able to gain experience in professional networking as well as land internships for the summer or school year. View the Career Fair video here.

Granular, an agriculture and software analytics company, opened its doors at the University of Illinois Research Park in 2015. Their mission is to manage large farms and use data for critical business decisions. As one of the most innovative Agtech startups, they were featured in Forbes and continues to expand to prosper growth within the Research Park community.

The 2016 Agriculture Technology Innovation Summit was held on February 18, 2016. This was the first-ever AgTech summit held by the University of Illinois Research Park. “The goal of this event is to shine a light on this [agricultural movement] within the University and throughout the greater region, as well as to encourage and support fledgling entrepreneurs in the AgTech sector,” Research Park Director Laura Frerichs said. Mark your calendar for this year’s AgTech Summit to stay up-to-date on agricultural innovation in the Research Park community and beyond. View clips of the speakers here.

The third annual Big Data Summit brings together thought leaders from the UIRP, industry, and academia for a highly interactive event to address big questions surrounding big data. Just as new information technologies and the Internet itself fundamentally transformed business and industrial competitiveness over the past 25 years, big data is posed to bring the next wave of innovation, productivity, and growth. The coupling of big data and advanced analytics has the potential to raise efficiency and create value in almost all business sectors. Taking advantage of big data and advanced analytics enables companies to create new products and services, enhance existing ones, and invent entirely new business, models. We have more than 60 companies participating and 400 registered participants.