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It's being touted as the 'Bell Labs' of the Midwest, with hopes of one day employing hundreds of world-class researchers tackling the world's biggest problems, including energy, advanced-computing, manufacturing, transportation, health and more.

UI Labs, the multimillion-dollar research institute, hopes to bridge academia with the business sector to boost economic development throughout the entire Midwest.

The project is backed by many, including Governor Quinn, and just recently moved one step closer to reality by filing for incorporation with the State of Illinois. The first three board of directors members were named in the filing: they are Larry Schook, Vice President for Research of the University of Illinois, Henry Bienen, former president of Northwestern University and Warren Holtsberg, vice chairman of IllinoisVentures.

Although it's named UI Labs, the institute will not be funded directly by the University of Illinois. The board members are looking to raise funds from outside, private partners.

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I personally think it's super exciting to see the U of I's powerhouse research capacity being put to use for practical, possibly groundbreaking results right here in the City of Chicago... (after all, radio astronomy, the transistor, the laser, the charge-coupled device (CCD), information theory, the UNIX operating system, the C programming language and the C++ programming language were all created at Bell Labs. Seven Nobel Prizes have also been awarded for work completed there.)

This research institute, in addition to so many other (already-existing) amazing places in Chicago promoting startups and innovation, will without a doubt cement the City of Chicago as one of the global leaders of research and technology. What a time to be a part of this tech community!

There's no timeline set in stone, but the next step is for the UI Labs board of directors to choose a director for the institute. Once that happens expect a Chicago location to be chosen, the ground to be broken, and innovation to start flowin'!

Sources:

Chicago-based UI Labs gaining backing via News-Gazette

UI Labs files for incorporation via News-Gazette

UI Labs project taking shape via Crain's Chicago Business

Bell Labs via Wikipedia ;)