THURSDAY April 13, 2017
THE DAILY ILLINI
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The independent student newspaper at the University of Illinois since 1871
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Campus offices get new home
Vol. 146 Issue 55
LONGFORM
BY JESSICA BERBEY ASSISTANT DAYTIME EDITOR
The Women’s Resource Center and the LAS Global Studies office are moving to a different building after the spring semester. Both offi ces are currently located at 703 S. Wright St. but will relocate to 616 E. Green St. Timothy Wedig, interim director of LAS Global Studies, said the lease for the side of the building which is home to LAS Global Studies and the Women’s Resource Center will be up in May. “I don’t see any major impacts,” he said. “We are moving across the street. It’s certainly a little farther from campus. I’m not sure it’s any more difficult to fi nd.” Wedig said that with all of the construction and remodeling happening on campus, there is a necessity for the University to utilize rented space. “This has been a long process,” he said. “In terms of other units, we’re moving (to Green Street) because we needed a space with one shared location. The other options would have involved splitting (Global Studies offices) up and that was not acceptable for obvious reasons.” Wedig said despite the move not being drastic, he had preferred if the move would have been to an on-campus location, as the LAS Global Studies academic unit has about 250 undergraduates majoring in the program and 30 students minoring. “As construction ends, there will be new opportunities, so we’re looking at this as temporary,” he said. “(It’s) not ideal, but at least we are all together in one location and that’s certainly a good thing.” Unlike Wedig, Patricia Morey, program director for Women’s Resource Center, said that she thinks the move will have impacts on their programs. “We’ve been in this building for seven years,” Morey said. “Because we are moving across the street to the middle of the block on Green, the building has no parking, which will likely affect our ability to reach students who don’t live on campus.”
BRIAN BAUER THE DAILY ILLINI
Yao Li, student robotics research assistant, operates the brain-computer interface robot with his mind. Li works with Professor Thenkurussi Kesavadas to explore evolving human-robot work relationships.
A robotic mind reader STAFF WRITER
In the future, your co-worker might be a robot. But in this future, you wouldn’t have to tell your robot co-worker what to do. Instead, the robot would read your thoughts and know what you want. It seems like a scene out of a sci-fi fi lm — a robot that can read your mind and perform the task you’re thinking about, all without you having to utter a command. But this is what University industrial engineering Professor Thenkurussi Kesavadas has accomplished through his
BY LEON LI
SEE WRC | 4A
With a steady decrease in residence hall retention rates, University Housing is employing new strategies to show its value and encourage residents to stay for another year. One such program is the hall council incentive which challenged residence halls to compete for the highest percentage of returning contracts signed in the month of February. Allen Hall won with a 4.39 percent increase in returning contracts. Shelden Hall in Lincoln Avenue Residence Hall came in second, and Daniels Hall came in third. “I was pretty set on living here again,” said Bridget Ketter, freshman in LAS and Allen Hall resident. “It has a smaller feel, so even though it’s a big campus, I can recognize a lot of people here (in Allen Hall).” Lauren Jakobsson, sophomore in LAS, said the closeness of the community in Allen Hall also made an impression on her. “It’s always very lively in the hallways, especially with the programs they hold here,” Jakobsson said. “It brings a lot of residents together, and it’s very convenient
INSIDE
The Editorial Board wonders if robotic technology is going too far. PAGE 5A
The sports staff reveals the best game of the 2010s. PAGE 2B
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reading brain signals from a human. In a way, the robot is reading your mind. No one has ever studied braincomputer interfaces in this way, according to Kesavadas. “The principle behind it is really breakthrough. Without specifi cally training a robot, the robot can come and help you. It can cooperate with you by knowing your thought process,” Kesavadas said. “We’re looking at the next generation of robots which is run from your thoughts.” This intersection of braincomputer interfaces and robotics
values both the capability of robots and human knowledge that robots can’t obtain. Kesavadas hopes this research could apply to the manufacturing industry, but it has several other potential applications, such as performing surgery or helping those who are handicapped perform everyday tasks. But for the most part, his research is an important fi rst step in proving this can be done. It opens up an endless stream of questions about how robots could help humans in the future.
SEE ROBOTICS | 3A
University Housing uses incentive programs to retain residents STAFF WRITER
INSIDE
research which uses a braincomputer interface to control a robot. Brain-computer interfaces provide for direct communication between the brain and an external device. It’s an area of research that has been studied for decades, an area that entrepreneur Elon Musk stresses as an important tool to further develop artificial intelligence. In this case, the interface is being used to communicate with a robot. Kesavadas’ experiment has shown there is a way to use this interface to get a robot to perform an action based on
BY EMILY SCOTT
for them to actually go to these clubs because it’s in their own home.” Jakobsson said that although she enjoyed her time in Allen Hall the past two years, she feels that it’s time to “fly the coop.” Like many University students, Jakobsson is opting to live in a private apartment for her junior year to have a different experience. Private housing developments in the area are the main cause for low retention rates for University Housing, said Mari Anne Brocker Curry, associate director of housing information for University Housing. Although the opening of Wassaja Hall in 2016 has improved retention rates in the last year, Brocker Curry said that University Housing normally experiences an average retention decrease of 1 percent each year. “Students often feel like they are getting more by leaving,” Brocker Curry said. “But they don’t realize the value that University Housing has that those private places don’t.” University Housing is making an effort to communicate to students and parents the value of living in residence halls, such as 24-hour
SEE DORM | 4A
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HANNAH AUTEN THE DAILY ILLINI
Kevin Erickson, architecture professor at the University, uses the robotic arm. The arm, purchased in 2015, helps students improve their design skills.
Robotic arm advances students’ knowledge BY KEVIN DELGADO STAFF WRITER
The College of Architecture is training students to use a new fabrication tool that will help bring their designs to life. The college purchased the robotic arm in 2015 through funding from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and the College of Fine and Applied Arts, but students have only recently begun the fabrication tool training. The robotic arm was produced by FANUC America, a company that specializes in robotic manufacturing, and customized espe-
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cially for the University by RobotWorx, a company focused on robotic technology. The arm is located in the Fabrication Lab, which is in the Architecture Annex Building. The arm is composed of six axes and rotates 360 degrees, allowing students to cut certain angles and shapes that cannot be cut with other fabrication tools. The machine also is capable of shaping foam and 3-D printing. A previous lack of funding and staff meant students could
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