U. of Illinois Dedicates New Engineering Building

The University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign campus has opened a new $95 million Electrical and Computer Engineering Building.  

Gov. Pat Quinn and university President Robert Easter were both at the new building Friday to dedicate it.  

The 235,000 square-foot building almost doubles the space available to the university's Electrical and Computer Engineering Program.  

It includes a nanofrabrication laboratory and will have solar arrays installed on both of its roofs this fall.  

The cost of the project was split between Quinn's Illinois Jobs Now! capital construction program and donations to the university.

According to the News-Gazette, colleagues Friday also honored a retired U of I professor they say deserved to win a Nobel Prize for inventing the first light-emitting diode, or LED.
 
Nick Holonyak Jr. invented the tiny red light that made fiber-optics networks, DVDs and other technologies possible. On Tuesday the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Japanese scientists who invented the blue LED.

Holonyak and many colleagues questioned the award. They say the blue LED wouldn't have been possible without the work the 85-year-old Holynak and others did.
 
Dean Andreas Cangellaris says the decision is baffling. He says: "We can't figure it out. The world can't figure it out.''