Artificial Intelligence

Recent AI breakthroughs such as LLMs, diffusion models, deep neural networks, and others, rely on theory to understand model training and inference, algorithms that translate the theory to software, and novel computer architectures to design energy-efficient and high-performance computing platforms to execute the software. ECE’s unique systems-oriented viewpoint of AI, comprising theory, architecture, algorithms, and software, allows its faculty and students to engineer scalable AI systems by optimizing the trade-offs between accuracy, robustness, energy consumption, and security, that exist across the compute stack from systems to semiconductor devices, and in the process, dramatically transform fields such as audio/video processing, decision making in robotics and control, neuroscience, and bioinformatics. Our ECE curriculum trains the next generation of engineers to apply foundational principles across theory, algorithms, and systems, regardless of the current and future evolution of AI.

Topics

  • AI Theory, Algorithms, Systems, Applications
  • Computer Vision and Audio
  • Robotics and Control
  • Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLM)
  • Security, Trust, Verification
  • Neuroscience, Biology

Daniel Alabi: Privacy, Computation and Beating the Drum for Mentorship

Simons Society of Fellows

From differential privacy research to launching NaijaCoder for Nigerian teens, Dr. Daniel Alabi champions privacy and mentorship at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Micro-NeurIPS at Illinois

Highlighting the breadth of Illinois AI research, Micro-NeurIPS at Illinois will be held in ECEB on November 20 and 21, 2025 with special presentations from noon to 2pm each day. Posters will be on display for viewing both days as well. 

Neural Information Processing Systems

17 papers from ECE will be presented at NeurIPS 2025, of which 2 are spotlight papers. 

Matthew Chang

Matthew Chang awarded the CSL PhD Thesis Award for his thesis titled “Robot Learning from Videos”. Matthew is joining Meta AI Research.

Courses Taught

Faculty in AI

Assistant Professor
he/him/his
Areas:
  • AI Theory
  • Security, Trust, Verification
Topics:
  • Privacy, Security, Learning Theory, Information Theory
Professor
Areas:
  • Robotics, Control
  • AI Applications
Topics:
  • Parallel and distributed computing, Motion planning
Professor, Computer Science
Areas:
  • AI Theory
  • AI Applications
Topics:
  • Artificial Intelligence Data and Information Systems
Associate Professor
Areas:
  • AI Theory
Topics:
  • Operator models for dynamical systems, Nonstationary RL, Adaptive Control, Learning in games.
Assistant Professor
he/him/his
Areas:
  • Security, Trust, Verification
  • AI Applications
Topics:
  • Trustworthy AI
Professor, Computer Science
Areas:
  • NLP, LLM
  • AI Algorithms
Topics:
  • Natural language processing, data mining, data management
Professor
Areas:
  • AI Systems
  • AI Applications
Topics:
  • AI/HW co-search, co-design, and co-generation; LLM-Aided Design; AI accelerators and applications.
Professor
Areas:
  • Vision, Audio
  • AI Algorithms
Topics:
  • Signal Processing, Data Science; Computational Imaging
Professor, Computer Science
Areas:
  • Vision, Audio
  • AI Applications
Topics:
  • Artificial Intelligence Interactive Computing
Associate Professor
Areas:
  • Robotics, Control
  • Vision, Audio
Topics:
  • Robot Learning, Whole-body control, Mobile Manipulation, Generalization in Robotics, Imitation Learning, Video understanding, 4D understanding, Generative Models, AI for Science
Professor
he/him/his
Areas:
  • Vision, Audio
  • NLP, LLM
Topics:
  • Audio, Speech, and Language Processing
Associate Professor, Computer Science
Areas:
  • Robotics, Control
  • AI Applications
Topics:
  • Robot motion planning and control, semiautonomous robots
Associate Professor, Computer Science
Areas:
  • Vision, Audio
  • AI Applications
Topics:
  • Computer Vision, Object Recognition
Assistant Professor
Areas:
  • NLP, LLM
  • AI Applications
Topics:
  • Engineering AGI, LLM agents for engineering design
Associate Professor
Areas:
  • AI Systems
  • AI Applications
Topics:
  • AI Infrastructure, AI for Systems and Systems for AI, AI Hardware/Software Co-Design
Associate Professor, Computer Science
Areas:
  • AI Algorithms
  • AI Theory
Topics:
  • Reinforcement Learning
Professor
Areas:
  • AI Systems
  • AI Applications
Topics:
  • Systems, Hardware/Software Co-design, Domain-specific Accelerator and Chip Design
Professor, Computer Science
Areas:
  • Vision, Audio
  • AI Algorithms
Topics:
  • Computer Vision
Associate Professor, Siebel School of Computing and Data Science
Areas:
  • Security, Trust, Verification
  • AI Algorithms
Topics:
  • trustworthy machine learning
Professor
Areas:
  • AI Applications
  • Neuroscience, Biology
Topics:
  • AI-powered imaging; foundation model for brain imaging; digital twins, undercertainty characterization
Professor
Areas:
  • AI Algorithms
  • AI Applications
Topics:
  • Graph and hypergraph learning, AI unlearning, LLMs, applications of AI in computational biology
Professor
Areas:
  • Robotics, Control
  • Security, Trust, Verification
Topics:
  • Autonomy, Visual control, Reinforcement Learning
Professor
Areas:
  • AI Theory
  • Robotics, Control
Topics:
  • Dynamical systems; Deterministic and Stochastic Control; Diffusions in Optimization, Control, and Learning; Interaction between control, programming languages, and LLMs
Research Professor
Areas:
  • AI Applications
  • Vision, Audio
Topics:
  • agricultural and biological systems
Professor
Areas:
  • AI Algorithms
  • Vision, Audio
Topics:
  • Inverse problems, NeRFs, Diffusion, Flows, Blackbox optimization
Associate Professor
Areas:
  • Vision, Audio
  • AI Algorithms
Topics:
  • Diffusion, Flows, LLM, 3D Understanding, Video Understanding
Professor
Areas:
  • AI Systems
  • AI Algorithms
Topics:
  • Efficient and Robust AI Models, AI Accelerator, VLSI Architectures, Integrated Circuit Design
Assistant Professor
he/him/his
Areas:
  • AI Theory
  • AI Algorithms
Topics:
  • High-dimensional statistics, Information Theory, Computational Biology
Teaching Assistant Professor
he/him/his
Areas:
  • Vision, Audio
  • AI Algorithms
Topics:
  • Computer Vision, Signal Processing, Data Science
Professor
Areas:
  • AI Theory
  • AI Algorithms
Topics:
  • Probability, Control Theory and Information Theory applied to RL, Diffusion models, LLMs and Networks
Teaching Assistant Professor
he/him/his
Areas:
  • AI Algorithms
  • AI Systems
Topics:
  • Trustworthy AI, Causal Inference, Optimization, Social Networks, Recommender Systems, Management Science
Professor
Areas:
  • AI Algorithms
  • AI Theory
Topics:
  • Statistical Inference, Robust Learning, Hallucination Detection, Reinforcement Learning in Nonstationary Environments
Professor
Areas:
  • AI Applications
  • Neuroscience, Biology
Topics:
  • Natural intelligence, brain neural dynamics, dynamic pose sequencing
Assistant Professor, Computer Science, starting Fall 2023
Areas:
  • Robotics, Control
  • AI Algorithms
Topics:
  • 3D computer vision and robotics
Teaching Assistant Professor
he/him/his
Areas:
  • AI Algorithms
  • Vision, Audio
Topics:
  • Signal processing, audio denoising, Blackbox optimization
Assistant Professor, Computer Science starting Aug 2023
Areas:
  • Robotics, Control
  • AI Applications
Topics:
  • Tactile sensing
Assistant Professor
he/him/his
Areas:
  • Security, Trust, Verification
  • NLP, LLM
Topics:
  • AI safety, Formal methods for AI, Algorithms for frontier AI models (LLMs, VLMs, etc), Agentic AI
Assistant Professor (CS)
he/him/his
Areas:
  • AI Applications
  • AI Systems
Topics:
  • Large-scale DL/AI applications
Assistant Professor
Areas:
  • AI Theory
  • AI Algorithms
Topics:
  • Optimization theory, learning theory, large-scale algorithms, energy applications
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Areas:
  • AI Theory
  • AI Algorithms
Topics:
  • AI for Science: cosmology and geospatial science
Associate Professor
Areas:
  • AI Algorithms
  • AI Applications
Topics:
  • Signal processing, data science, computational imaging