Yu: Founder Professor in Engineering

Professorship: Founder Professor in Engineering

In 2013 the University of Illinois announced the establishment of the Grainger Engineering Breakthroughs Initiative, a $100 million investment in the future of Engineering at Illinois. Supported by a pledge from The Grainger Foundation, this initiative will have far-reaching impact in several ECE research areas and the educational mission of the department. In particular, the initiative will focus on supporting research in the areas of big data and bioengineering.

The initiative will provide source funds to endow 35 professorships and chairs. Twenty-six of these will focus specifically on the areas of big data and bioengineering, and many will go toward recruiting senior faculty to Illinois in these research areas.

Faculty: Cunjiang Yu

Cunjiang Yu is a Founder Professor of Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is tenured with the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Bioengineering. He is also affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, the Materials Research Laboratory and the Nick Holonyak Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory. His research focuses on creating and understanding soft and bio electronics to solve the grand challenges in or related to healthcare, medicine and robotics. The research is carried out through combined efforts in manufacturing technologies, materials engineering, mechanical design and electronics and sensors development.

He received his M.S. in electrical engineering from Southeast University, Nanjing (2007) and Ph.D in mechanical engineering from Arizona State University, Tempe (2010).