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The building was made possible by a $40 million gift--at the time, the largest ever presented to a public university--from UIUC alumnus Arnold O. Beckman, founder of Beckman Instruments, Inc., and his wife, Mabel M. Beckman. This gift was supplemented by $10 million from the state of Illinois, which also provided the ongoing operating support for the facility. The research programs in the building are supported mainly by external funding from the federal government and from corporations and foundations.
The research conducted within the Beckman Institute is organized along two parallel lines examining living and nonliving systems of increasing complexity. One focus incorporates research in the areas of biology, behavior, and cognition. The other concentrates on the physical sciences, computation, and engineering. Research performed at the Beckman Institute focuses on three broadly defined main research themes: biological intelligence, human-computer interaction, and molecular and electronic nanostructures. The general goal of the biological intelligence research is to develop understanding of intelligent systems by studying the diverse ways in which neurally based systems become capable of intelligent behavior. Within this research theme, programs extend from biochemical-, molecular-, and cellular-level studies of how neurons work, through integrative and computational neuroscience, to cognitive science, which seeks to understand how humans process sensory information and represent knowledge. The human-com puter interaction research focuses on improving the ways a human operator interacts with a computer by studying not only the input-output techniques, but also the human factors. Within this research theme, programs range from artificial intelligence, robotics, computer vision, cognitive science, human perception and performance, to virtual reality environment experiments carried out in collaboration with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. The general goal of the molecular and electronic nanostructures research is to develop new approaches to electronic devices. Research programs range from computational electronics, scanning tunnel microscopy including lithography and fabrication of semiconductor nanostructures, and photonics, to efforts to synthesize and characterize new materials including self-organized syntheses of inorganic, organic, and biochemical systems.
Twenty Beckman Institute research groups, composed of researchers from nearly two dozen UIUC departments as far-ranging as psychology, computer science, and biochemistry are investigating these and other areas. The building, with its more than 200 offices, specialized state-of-the-art laboratories and other facilities, and meeting areas for conferences, workshops, and casual interaction, provides an ideal environment for fostering collaborative research.
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