Beckman Institute Open House

Attention and Perception Lab

Our lab, led by Diane Beck, a professor of psychology, studies the visual brain. We ask questions like: How does our experience change what we perceive, and what happens when we focus our attention? Visit our virtual lab to watch a video and participate in some sample experiments! You can test your visual speed and your ability to maintain focus.

Participate in a virtual experiment

Take a closer look with Bugscope

Bugscope has been allowing elementary, middle school, and high-school students to see their insect specimens through the Beckman Institute's environmental scanning electron microscope for more than 20 years.

We offered two Zoom sessions during our 2021 virtual open house. You can watch them below.

Cognition and Brain Lab

The Cognition and Brain Lab studies how the brain converts sentences into the rich ideas we experience when we listen or read, and how those processes might change from young to older adulthood. We do this by measuring brain electrical activity while people comprehend.

Watch our video below to learn more about your electric brain and try examples of our online experiments. To learn more or participate in research in our lab, email us. Kara D. Federmeier, a professor of psychology, leads the lab.

Try an online experiment

Illinois Kids Development Study

Learn more about Illinois Kids Development Study, known as IKIDS! Below you will find two videos describing a little bit about our study. Next, we invite you to try out an online tool we're developing that will tell each study participant about the levels of chemicals we measured in their bodies.

Use code 'report' to see our online tool

Thank you for taking time to learn about IKIDS! Please contact us with any questions or for more information about the study. Susan L. Schantz, a professor emerita of comparative biosciences, leads IKIDS.

MRI guessing game

This little quiz features actual MRI scans of 30 different fruits and vegetables. See these interesting scans, keep track of your score, and share your thoughts with us on social media using #bioh21.

Tissue Biomechanics Laboratory

The Tissue Biomechanics Lab, led by Mariana Kersh, a professor of mechanical science and engineering, is an innovative solid mechanics lab. Its members are working to relate the structural and mechanical properties of musculoskeletal tissue to their function, with the hope of improving the treatment of bone and joint diseases.

Learn more about motion capture with the guessing game below. And, the lab's videos help explain the variety of methods members use.

Adaptive Cognition and Interaction Design Lab

The Adaptive Cognition and Interaction Design (Action) Lab is led by Jessie Chin, an assistant professor in the School of Information Sciences. We are an interdisciplinary team, and are interested in translating theories in cognitive psychology, human-computer interaction and informatics to develop sociotechnical solutions for supporting our daily activities, especially for promoting health communication and behavior.

Learn about our team

Chemical Imaging and Structures Laboratory

Welcome to the Chemical Imaging and Structures Laboratory! Bioengineering Professor Rohit Bhargava leads our lab. It features interdisciplinary research, which can be divided into three major themes, including imaging theory and instrumentation, biological and micro-fabrication, and translational applications. The video below gives a glimpse of our research activities.

Learn more about our research

Educational Psychology Psycholinguistics Lab

The EdPsych Psycholinguistics Lab is directed by Kiel Christianson, professor of educational psychology. Research conducted in the lab covers most aspects of language use, including reading, comprehension, bilingualism, syntactic parsing, accent bias, and second language acquisition.

Learning and Language Lab

The Learning and Language Lab studies language learning and language use using a variety of methods and approaches. They include lab-based behavioral experiments with children and adults, collection and analysis of naturalistic datasets, and computational modeling. Lab members believe this approach allows them to understand the language input upon which language learning operates, and the learning and cognitive processes that operate in our brains when we use language. Jessica L. Montag and Jon A. Willits, both faculty members in psychology, lead the lab. 

Miniature Brain Machinery Program

The next frontier for studying brain development and function lies in rationally deciphering, harnessing, and engineering the living 3D brain. The Miniature Brain Machinery Program is a National Science Foundation-funded research traineeship that combines cognitive and behavior studies with brain cell and tissue biology studies. Its goal: To train the next generation of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workforce in advancing discovery. Twelve faculty members are involved in this program.

Mobility and Fall Prevention Research Lab

The Mobility and Fall Prevention Research Lab focuses on the study of the control of movement by using tools from neuroscience and biomechanics. In the video below, you can see efforts at developing an immersive virtual reality paddleboarding game that motivates those going through physical rehabilitation by testing their balance in a fun way.

Manuel Hernandez, an assistant professor of kinesiology and community health, leads the lab.

Socio-Technical Risk Analysis Laboratory

The Socio-Technical Risk Analysis Research Laboratory, led by Zahra Mohaghegh, an associate professor of nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering, is a multidisciplinary research laboratory with a proven track record of developing scientific and innovative approaches  for risk assessment, risk management, and risk-informed decision-making and regulation.

Learn more about our lab

Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group

The Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group is a leading method and software developer in computational biophysics and molecular simulation. The group’s software, used by hundreds of thousands of researchers around the world, has enabled some of the largest simulations ever in biological systems, including recent simulations of viruses (such as SARS-CoV2) and cellular organelles.