The Grainger Institute for Engineering, launched with a $25 million commitment from the Grainger Foundation of Lake Forest, Illinois, is fostering new discoveries and building the university’s global reputation as a leader in driving advances that help solve critical technological challenges. This transdisciplinary research institute is driving advances that can enhance the success of U.S. industries and boost economic growth in the nation.
25 New Professorships
The Grainger Foundation’s commitment is enabling us to attract top engineering faculty to define new research directions. With a transdisciplinary approach to addressing society’s challenges, these faculty are positioned to collaborate successfully across and beyond the university in both research and education.
Focus on New Faculty: Check out those who’ve been tasked with this challenge.
Faculty Scholar Awards and Fellowships
The institute has established flexible funding to support promising early-career researchers whose novel ideas are at the heart of major breakthroughs. Faculty scholar awards fund assistant professors, while fellowships fund postdoctoral researchers.
Sangkee Min aims to transcend design constraints in manufacturing with support of Faculty Scholar Award.
Po-Ling Loh teases meaningful conclusions out of highly complex data.
Andrea Hicks investigates environmental impacts of novel technologies.
Younghyun Kim aims to make our interconnected world a safer place.
Research in the Institute
The Grainger Institute for Engineering is intentionally agile. As a result, we have the infrastructure to respond to both current research needs and directions—and the flexibility to rapidly adapt as future research challenges unfold.
Currently, researchers in the Institute are focusing on advanced manufacturing, materials discovery, biomanufacturing, smart and connected healthcare, energy and sustainability, and computational science—areas that build on existing strengths within the College of Engineering and at UW-Madison. Each of these benefits from close interaction with the others. Together, they provide opportunities to accelerate the time frame in which a research breakthrough is implemented in a product or application, and to engage in this process in a sustainable, environmentally friendly manner.
Read more about the research done by Energy and Sustainability Thrust Leader, Todd Allen.
Research Support
The unique, nimble structure of the institute allows the college to focus on emerging areas and will serve as the engine that drives future engineering research innovation at UW-Madison.
To nurture research ideas that show promise as large-scale, extramurally funded activities, the institute provides a variety of support, including seed grants, roadmapping workshops, and a seminar series.
Seed grants support efforts to launch new research directions and make them competitive for sustained external funding, while the roadmapping program focuses on gathering key teams of faculty, researchers and industrial partners to develop and secure large-scale centers of excellence. Our seminar series serves as a venue for early-career faculty members to share research ideas, foster interdisciplinary collaborations, and spur new research teams to win funding large-scale research proposals.
Read about some of the amazing support the institute has received.
Creating World-Class Facilities
Proximity is important to the success of transdisciplinary partnerships, not only among researchers at UW-Madison, but as we work with myriad businesses, industries and government entities to demonstrate new technologies that enhance their competitiveness.
Funding through the Grainger Institute for Engineering is creating office space for our thrust leaders, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students, as well as world-class laboratories and a showcase laboratory that will house next-generation technologies and enable our corporate partners to discover ways to integrate fundamental research and implement advanced concepts into their products and processes.
Latest News
Andrea Hicks investigates environmental impacts of novel technologies
July 18, 2017
Younghyun Kim aims to make our interconnected world a safer place
June 19, 2017
New academic-industry effort at UW-Madison aims to improve healthcare through engineering
May 15, 2017
Murphy to lead Grainger Institute for Engineering’s biomanufacturing thrust
May 2, 2017
Carayon to lead Grainger Institute for Engineering’s smart and connected healthcare thrust
May 1, 2017
Focus on new faculty: Jiamian Hu, using computer models to improve materials for many applications
February 23, 2017
Allen to lead Grainger Institute for Engineering energy thrust
January 11, 2017
UW-Madison engineers part of $140 million ‘Manufacturing USA’ clean-energy initiative
January 6, 2017
Focus on new faculty: Po-Ling Loh, applying abstract math to real-world situations
December 1, 2016
Focus on new faculty: Shiva Rudraraju, studying mechanics and morphology evolution in materials
November 22, 2016