The iSchool offers a number of events related to career and professional development, technology and information talks, research seminars, field trips, alumni panels, socials, and more. We also promote relevant opportunities on and around campus.
*iSchool Events
iSchool Event Calendar
Upcoming and previous events offered by the iSchool for all audiences. Visit Calendar
Current Undergraduate Opportunities
We email BS/IS interested current Illinois students each week with the latest events and opportunities. Sign-up for the Listserv, or View Previous Emails for events and opportunities. We encourage students to also visit additional calendars: HandShake Events, Research Park, NCSA, Technology Entrepreneur Center (TEC)
Spring 2020 Events
*Virtual iSchool Research Showcase
April 3 | 4:30-6:30pm | School of Information Sciences
Lightning Talks 4:30-5:15 (online and room 126)
Come see the research completed by Master students in the iSchool. This event provides undergraduate students with valuable opportunity to understand more about the areas within Information Sciences and to explore possible research ideas. For more information about the event and an archive of all past presentations here: https://go.ischool.illinois.edu/Mastershowcase
NCSA Spring 2020 Hackathons
NCSA is organizing two hackathons during the Spring 2020 semester to engage students and staff in AI problem solving. There will be two-hour tutorials prior to each hackathon to train entrants on the HAL compute clusters that will be used for running hackathon code. The hackathons will be full-day events, the hackathon projects and signup details will be provided later. Read More
Campus Career Fairs:
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Fall 2020
*iSchool Career Fair - Save the Date!
October 7, 2020. Students and alumni are invited to meet iSchool employers and professional organizations. Details and registration will be available on Handshake late summer 2020.
2:00-4:00pm Non-Profits
2:00-5:00pm Corporate
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Previous Events
Spring 2020
Siebel Center for Design: Summer Internship Information Session
January 23 | 4:00pm | Rm 223, Gregory Hall
Siebel Center for Design is offering a session about its summer 2020 internship program on Thursday, Jan. 23 at 4 PM. Undergraduate & graduate students can come learn more about these unique opportunities, which include working with current SCD project teams, attending workshops on personal and professional development, helping open the new Siebel Center for Design building, and more! Feb. 6 at 4pm is the deadline to submit application materials. Read More
AGCO Hackathon
January 31 - February 1 | NCSA
Reserve your spot now for this two-day technology competition. Prizes include switches, Apple watches, iPads, and street cred. Read More
PwC Info Night @ Illinois
February 3 | 6:30-8:30 pm | iHotel, 1900 South First Street, Champaign
You are invited to join PwC for our PwC Info Night on Monday, February 3rd! This event will be an opportunity for you to learn about each of our lines of service, culture, and learn about the application and interview process. Dinner will be provided. We hope you can join us! Please note, this event is open to all underclassmen and juniors in a 5-year program. We will focus primarily on the recruiting process for winter & Start internships and our leadership programs (Elevate, Career Preview, and Women's Consulting Experience). Let us know you are planning to attend! RSVP here
2020 Building Entrepreneurial Leaders (BEL) Webinar 1 of 2 Hosted by Bain & Company
February 4 | 8:00pm EST - 9:00pm EST | Virtual Event
Bain & Company is pleased to announce the launch of the twelfth annual Building Entrepreneurial Leaders (BEL) Program. The BEL Program is a highly selective program focused on giving top students of Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx and American Indian descent the opportunity to strengthen their business and leadership skill set while gaining exposure to one of the world's top tier strategy consulting firms. While BEL is for rising juniors only (summer between sophomore & junior year), we encourage both freshman & sophomore students to attend if interested in learning more about the BEL program. Each webinar will cover the same material. Please register for the date/time that works best for you on the Bain website. The webinar link will be given to registered participants only.
View on Handshake
*iSchool Field Trip to Discover Registration Open until Full
Friday, February 7 | All Day (Bus leaves campus at 5:45am)
We will be holding our annual employer field trip to Chicago. This year, we’re visiting Discover Financial Services, located in the Chicago area. We’re hoping to visit a second organization in the afternoon, so we’re leaving bright and early. The bus will depart from 501 E. Daniel at 6am, for a tour of the Discover campus, panel discussion, and lunch. During the panel discussion we’ll have the chance to meet an iSchool alum working there and get insider information on what it’s like to move to a role at Discover. In the evening, we’ll head on to Harry Caray’s to meet up with LIS students, iSchool alumni, and other Chicago friends for appetizers before heading home.
Registration for the trip is $25 non-refundable and includes transportation to and from Chicago.
NCSA SPIN Summer Internship Program
Application Due: Sunday, February 9
NCSA has a history of nurturing innovative concepts, and some of the best ideas have come from highly motivated, creative undergraduate students. The SPIN internship program was launched to provide University of Illinois undergraduates with the opportunity to participate in hands-on research and contribute to interdisciplinary projects covering focus research areas in Culture and Society, Earth and Environment, Bioinformatics and Health Sciences, Material and Manufacturing, Data and Computational Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, and Digital Agriculture. Go to our website, spin.ncsa.illinois.edu, and click on the “Apply” tab.
*iSchool TechTalk Synchrony
February 12 | Time/Location TBD
More Details Coming Soon
*iSchool TechTalk: P&G TechTalk
February 19 | 12:00-1:00pm | 126 School of Information Sciences
Come join this TechTalk to learn how we apply the things you're learning in school. Our day-to-day includes all the buzzwords you hear in school - artificial intelligence, augmented reality, edge computation, machine learning, IOT sensors, video and image processing, and so much more.
Come on out if you want to learn how data can lead to billion dollar insights. Read More
*iSchool TechTalk: COUNTRY Financial
February 26 | 12:00-1:00pm | 126 School of Information Sciences
Hear from the Site Director along with interns on what we do in the lab and the cool projects we are working on, as well as what roles are available in the coming semesters. Specifically, the DigitaLab hires Software Developers, Data Scientists, and UI/UX. Additionally, there may be opportunities for project managers, business analysts, or data analysts. Hope you can make it! Read More
International Women's Day Celebration
March 9 | 300 Levis Faculty Center | 3:30-5:00pm
The Women and Gender in Global Perspectives Program and The Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities host an annual event bringing together faculty, staff, students, and community members to recognize people who have made a difference in academia. Attend Monday, March 9 from 3:30-5:00 p.m. in 300 Levis Faculty Center to listen to speakers from all across campus, including NCSA’s Ruth Sosnoff! The event is free and open to the public.
Research Park Career Fair
March 11 | 4:00-7:00pm | Research Park
Mark your calendars for the 14th annual Research Park Career Fair. Come and learn more about what these companies are doing and what internship and full-time employment opportunities are available. Read More
*
Faculty Research Lightning Talk (3/11).
March 11 | 12:00-1:00pm | Room 131
Bring your lunch and learn about faculty research! Faculty Research Lightning Talks are 10-minute talks by faculty members on their research followed by a short Q&A.
Fall 2019
*iSchool Events
*Uber Data Science TechTalk for iSchool & Stats
Thursday, Oct. 3 | 12-1:30 PM | Room 126 iSchool
During this Tech Talk, a speaker from Uber will present an interesting challenge that they had to work on and answer questions from the audience. This session is meant to give attendees an idea of the type of projects/challenges they might encounter at Uber.
Registration Required in HandShake
*Uber Data Science Resumes Workshop
Thursday, Oct. 3 | 3:00-5:00 PM | Lincoln Hall Room 1092Learn from industry experts on how to make your resume stand out among other applicants.
Read More in Handshake
*Uber Info Session - Data Science
Friday, October 4 | 12-12:45 PM | Room 126 iSchool
Uber invites students interested in careers in data science to join us for an information session. We will highlight different opportunities available at Uber, the selection process, and why a student should come work for Uber.
Register in HandShake
Data Science User Group Monthly Meetup @ Research Park
Friday, October 4 | 12:00 PM- 1:00 PM | EnterpriseWorks Atrium
A community of both students and professionals in the field of data science will come together to discuss relevant problems and solutions in their field. This group meets monthly.
Details & Registration (Required)
NCSA Hackathon I: AI Problem Solving
Saturday & Sunday, October 5-6 (Apply by Sept. 30) | All Day | NCSA
Two upcoming hackathons for student & faculty in AI problem-solving. There are four two-hour tutorials prior to each to train entrants on the HAL compute clusters that will be used for running hackathon code. Hackathons will be full-day events on NCSA-NVIDIA AI Hackathon I Oct. 5-6
(APPLY by SEPT. 30) &
Nov. 9-10 (future application). Read More & Register
Data Visualization Competition Deadline
DUE Sunday, October 6
Show off your skills in communicating information visually! All submissions must be a visual or graphic representation of data. Students can compete to win up to $400 in this contest sponsored by the University Library.
Read More & Enter
Women in Tech: Ada Lovelace Breakfast @ Research Park
Tuesday, October 8 | 8:30-10:00 AM | EnterpriseWorks Atrium
Hear from communications pro Stefanie Santos McLeese on a very important skill: the art of writing in the workplace. In a world where we communicate in hashtags, captions, and 140 characters at a time, the art and science of delivering important information is slipping to the wayside. Breakfast will be served and is free for participants of the event, but will require registration. Please register using the following link:
https://go.researchpark.illinois.edu/womenintech.
Read More & Register
*iSchool Block "I" Decorating PartyOctober 9 | Anytime between 1:00pm – 4:00pm | iSchool Room 126
Pizza & Drinks Provided!
In celebration of the
University of Illinois Homecoming, join your fellow iSchool students in helping decorate one of many 5’ X 4” wooden Block I’s in orange and blue that have been delivered to campus colleges. Join the iSchool to paint a square/portion on the “Block I”, and have some pizza! Come by (stay as long or as little as you would like) and decorate the Block I!
*iSchool TechTalk: Building Information Modeling (BIM) & Its Potential For Disruption
October 10 | 12-2:00 PM | Room 126 iSchool
Participants in the building process are constantly challenged to deliver successful projects despite tight budgets, limited manpower, accelerated schedules, and limited or conflicting information. The significant disciplines such as architectural, structural and MEP designs should be well coordinated, as two things can’t take place at the same place and time. BIM additionally is able to aid in collision detection, identifying the exact location of discrepancies.
Read More & Register in HandShake
Cloud Computing Platform User Group @ Research Park
October 10 | 12-1:00 PM | EnterpriseWorks Artium
This user group welcomes professionals and students in Champaign-Urbana and the surrounding region with an interest in cloud computing platforms including Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Google Cloud Platform, Alibaba Cloud.
Read More & Register
Digital Forensics User Group @ Research Park
October 11 | 12-1:00 PM | EnterpriseWorks Room 130
East Central Illinois has quietly become a focal point for the art, science and occasional black magic of digital forensics - the analysis of digital data for investigative purposes. Between law enforcement, private investigators, and University faculty, staff and students, there is now a diverse group of people with skills and experience in the field. This user group is an opportunity to get to know each other better, to learn about new technologies, and (to the extent allowed!) share what we've learned. Lunch will be provided.
Read More &
Register
*iSchool Salary Negotiation Brown Bag with Research Park Employers
October 17 | 12:00 PM | iSchool Room 126
Bring your lunch and join Research Park representative Jennifer Kim as she moderates this panel discussion with Research Park Site directors on how best to negotiate salary offers.
Champaign Blockchain Meetup @ Research Park
October 18 | 12-1:00 PM | EnterpriseWorks Room 130
This is a group for everyone interested in Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS and other new blockchain platforms, smart contracts and digital cryptocurrencies. We will meet once a month and will have an educational component as well as a discussion component at our meetups. Lunch will be provided.
Read More & Register
NCSA Students Pushing Innovation (SPIN) Open House
October 23 | 3:00-5:00 PM | NCSA Atrium
NCSA’s Students Pushing Innovation (SPIN) internship program will host the SPIN Open House to advertise the Summer 2020 internship projects. Students will have an opportunity to meet with our SPIN mentors, who are NCSA researchers and faculty affiliates, and learn more about the projects.
Read About SPIN
Catalyze: A Professional Networking EventOctober 23 | 5:30-7:00 PM | EnterpriseWorks Atrium
Want to learn more about tech companies in Champaign-Urbana and/or build your network and grow your career? There are opportunities to work in tech right here in CU, come meet employers from Research Park companies ranging from startups to Fortune-500 industry leaders. This is not a career fair but rather an employer showcase, some are even hiring! Bring your resume and come ready to network!
Read More
*iSchool TechTalk: AGCO
Thursday, October 24 | 12-2:00 PM | Room 126 iSchool
AGCO is a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of agricultural equipment. Learn about upcoming opportunities in data analytics at the Research Park and our upcoming Hackathon, coming this January. Register
AnsibleCU @ Research Park
October 25 | 12-1:00 PM | EnterpriseWorks Room 220
Leverage Ansible, Terraform, and other Infrastructure as Code tools to increase efficiency and reduce time spent on routine server configuration. Let's get together and learn how to leverage Ansible to increase efficiency and reduce time spent on routine server configuration.
Read More & Register
*iSchool Research Showcase
October 30 | 12-4:30 PM | Illini Union Ballrooms A & B
Our annual Research Showcase shares human-centered, interdisciplinary research that connects people with technology to achieve their goals. It focuses on socially relevant topics through the keynote speech and a series of short presentations and posters.
Come by for one or more of the sessions! Showcase Website
Cozad Info Session (with Women in Engineering)
October 30 | 3-4:00 PM | Coordinated Science Lab
Have a startup idea? Take the Cozad New Venture Challenge to accelerate your idea with funding, mentoring, and more. Attend this info session to learn about Cozad and hear from other women who have participated in the program.
Read More &
Register
NCSA Hackathon II: AI Problem Solving
November 9-10 (Apply prior) | All Day | NCSA
Two upcoming hackathons for student & faculty in AI problem-solving. There are four two-hour tutorials prior to each to train entrants on the HAL compute clusters that will be used for running hackathon code. Hackathons will be full-day events
(future application required about 1-2 weeks prior to event). Read More & Register
Data Science User Group Monthly Meetup @ Research Park
November 1 | 12:00 PM- 1:00 PM | EnterpriseWorks Atrium
A community of both students and professionals in the field of data science will come together to discuss relevant problems and solutions in their field. This group meets monthly.
Details & Registration (Required)
Digital Forensics User Group @ Research Park
November 8 | 12-1:00 PM | EnterpriseWorks Room 130
East Central Illinois has quietly become a focal point for the art, science and occasional black magic of digital forensics - the analysis of digital data for investigative purposes. Between law enforcement, private investigators, and University faculty, staff and students, there is now a diverse group of people with skills and experience in the field. This user group is an opportunity to get to know each other better, to learn about new technologies, and (to the extent allowed!) share what we've learned. Lunch will be provided.
Read More &
Register
Big Data Summit @ Research Park
November 12 | Events at Various Times | I-Hotel & Conference Center
Join us for the University of Illinois Research Park's seventh annual Big Data Summit. This interactive conference offers participants the opportunity to learn and share knowledge about key aspects of big data and its business applications through dynamic panels, inspiring keynote presentations, and networking opportunities.
This event is FREE, thanks to our sponsors! Register
Big Data Career Networking Event @ Research Park
November 12 | Events at Various Times | I-Hotel & Conference Center
Are you interested in the field of Big Data and Data Analytics? Curious which companies may have cool opportunities for you in this field? Join us for our Career Networking event to connect with companies hiring for talent in this area. Snacks and beverages will be provided.
Read More
*iSchool Networking & Career Fair
November 14 | 2:30-5:30 PM
Holiday Inn at 101 Trade Centre Drive, Champaign
Students and alumni are invited to meet iSchool employers and professional organizations.