Students training mobility service dogs, a collaborative effort to study deadly tornadoes, and an emerging game studies program are featured in “Unique Illinois”, a new 30-minute documentary premiering July 10th at 4:30pm CT on the Big Ten Network. Each segment features stories or experiences exclusive to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Stories in the documentary include:
Illini Service Dogs
In 2010, alumna Bridget Evans founded the first registered student organization to foster and train mobility service dogs for people with physical disabilities. The group operates entirely on donations, and dogs are placed with individuals free of charge. Students also engage with and learn about the disability community. “Training a service dog is a team sport,” Evans said. “Not only is it the student handlers dedicating so much of their time and energy, it’s everyone else on campus being exposed to what it’s like to have a service dog and gaining an appreciation for what service dogs are able to do.”
Storm Chasers
Follow a team of Atmospheric Sciences students as they travel to Montgomery, Alabama, with a line of strong storms approaching. PERiLS (Propagation, Evolution and Rotation in Linear Storms) is a two-year field campaign led by University of Illinois students and faculty with the goal of understanding and predicting tornadoes in vulnerable areas of the southeast United States. “These are tornadoes that often form at night with very little warning,” said Steve Nesbitt, Head of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. Students gain extensive field experience and work with state-of-the-art instrumentation like the Doppler on Wheels (DOW) and C-Band on Wheels (COW) in the hopes of improving warning systems to those in the path of these dangerous storms.
Game Studies
Game Studies and Design (GSD) is a minor offered at Illinois that encourages the application of games and game technologies in more broad, constructive ways. “Every type of industry has problems,” said Katryna Starks, a Game Design lecturer and researcher. “Game design is problem solving in a fun way.” In GSD 101, students from disciplines across the university – from dance to computer science - design and build a life-sized board game that would be played in the Hartley Selections Garden inside the University of Illinois Arboretum.
“Unique Illinois” was produced by Kaitlin Southworth and Adam Rahn for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing.
