MSLIS student Rasheed Adigun has been awarded the 2026 Helen Knoll Jira Scholarship from the Health Science Librarians of Illinois (HSLI). The award supports individuals pursuing education in library or information science in Illinois, especially those focusing on health science librarianship.

Dong Wang, professor and associate dean for research, has received a grant supporting his work in the areas of social sensing and intelligence and human-centered AI. 

Teaching Assistant Professor Nitin Verma is among the 20 faculty from the University of Illinois System who were selected for the 2026–2027 cohort of the Public Voices Fellowship. The program is part of a national initiative led by The OpEd Project to help experts from underrepresented groups to be positioned as public thought leaders in their fields and contribute to the national dialogue around important issues.

A research team including professors Jingrui He of the School of Information Sciences and Hanghang Tong of the Siebel School of Computing and Data Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has received a Phase II award through the US Department of Energy's Genesis Mission to develop a model for electric grid expansion.

Six master's students have been named 2026 Spectrum Scholars by the American Library Association (ALA) Office for Diversity, Literacy, and Outreach Services. The Spectrum Scholarships were established in 1997, and this year, the program received four times as many applications as there were available scholarships.

Associate Professor Rachel Adler and Teaching Assistant Professor Yildiz Esener serve as key research personnel on a project to develop better digital tools for older cancer survivors who are also facing physical, mental, and visual impairments.

As online platforms and other tech interfaces grow increasingly necessary for education, employment, and healthcare, digital accessibility has become an important computing competency.

Professor Jingrui He is one of five professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to be recognized as a 2026 University Scholar. The program honors faculty excellence and provides $15,000 to each scholar for three years to enhance their academic careers. 

Assistant Professor Jiaqi Ma has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award to develop new tools to understand how individual components of training data affect the behavior of large artificial intelligence systems. 

As artificial intelligence becomes central to scientific discovery, researchers face a growing but often overlooked risk: the AI models, datasets, and automated systems they depend on can be compromised in ways that conventional cybersecurity tools are not designed to detect.