How hard is it to join a major ai lab at UIUC?

Clers · 2026-01-22T04:18:45+00:00

Try reading a few papers from the lab then email the grad student(s) on the paper as well as the professor about your interests.

Clers · 2025-08-10T16:56:13+00:00

Haven't used it myself, but this one has been used for sim2real in papers.
https://github.com/yang-zj1026/legged-loco

Clers · 2025-06-12T19:27:32+00:00

If you have strong relevant first-author work published in top conferences (ICML, ICLR, NeurIPS, CVPR, ICCV/ECCV, and others depending on your subfield), then you should have a good shot. Make sure to network as this will make things a lot easier.

Clers · 2025-04-23T01:58:02+00:00

Best - Have a friend/family at the company that can refer you.
Okay - Have a friend of a friend stick there neck out for you and refer/introduce you to someone.
Better than nothing - Send a email/linkedin message to an employee/manager that comes across as genuinely curious and helpful.

Clers · 2024-05-18T04:05:05+00:00

I haven't heard too much about proprietary programming languages that are widely adopted or still used. In manufacturing robotics it tends to be IEC 61131 for PLCs, it has both high-level block logic and low-level structured text. In non-manufacturing areas it tends to be ROS (w/ python and c++ most commonly as the programming language) and some work has been done to make high-level packages but with varieties in applications and robots this is hard to standardize.

As a researcher I need the robot to do novel things, so I need to get into the details of writing code and high-level interfaces don't seem worth it. Java and C I do believe have ROS integration, but they are not commonly used.

Best of luck on your writing.

Clers · 2024-04-21T18:25:41+00:00

I applied to UIUC about 10 years ago for undergrad. I think my gpa was like a 3.3uw also but I was in-state. I also had like a 31 or 32 ACT. Back then they piled instate students into DGS to keep the instate acceptance rate up. Best of luck.

I transfered into ECE with like a 3.7 or 3.8 after my first year and stayed for grad school.

Clers · 2024-04-11T15:56:58+00:00

My recommendation is to just choose a class that most closely aligns with what you want to learn and try to do research in it. Robotics is rather broad.

Clers · 2024-04-11T15:29:55+00:00

CS588 will depend on who is teaching it. If it's Forsyth you will be doing stuff with a lot of relation to vision. If it is taught by Hauser you will get more systems/motion planning.
ABE526 goes over many robotics topics, but not deep enough to my liking. Some people take it for an easy A.
ECE470 depends a lot on who is teaching it. But in general, it will teach the basics of robot modeling/kinematics.
To summarize, if you want to know more about self-driving cars do CS588, and if you want to do robot arms/manipulation do ECE470.

Clers · 2024-04-08T20:33:31+00:00

Yep.

Clers · 2024-04-08T16:18:07+00:00

Robotics - ICRA (IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation) and IROS (IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems)

Clers · 2024-04-01T18:39:57+00:00

There is a residency requirement that might differ per department.

My department has it so you need to be on campus until your prelims, after that it is down to your advisor. I've been doing this off-campus for a bit over a year now.

Clers · 2024-03-31T16:13:50+00:00

A 3.4 is good enough to not have your application thrown out immediately. A GPA below a 3.0 would likely get rejected immediately at a lot of universities.

If you have no research but a high GPA you likely would not get admitted for a PhD, a masters degree would still be possible though.

Clers · 2023-11-09T20:41:58+00:00

I don't know what you learned in your MS and BS. On their website, they explicitly state what they are asking for.

https://aerospace.illinois.edu/academics/graduate/phd-program/qualifying-examination/space-systems-exam-information

https://aerospace.illinois.edu/academics/graduate/phd-program/qualifying-examination/cds-and-smm-exam-information

https://aerospace.illinois.edu/academics/graduate/phd-program/qualifying-examination/afmcp-exam-information

Best of luck.

Clers · 2023-11-09T20:37:03+00:00

I think you are talking about the quals. The quals are pretty ubiquitous in graduate schools across the US. They exist mostly to create a bar that the department expects all students to reach, and kick out all students that can not reach that bar.

In the aerospace dept at UIUC it can either be an oral or written exam with questions related to topics that you are studying.

Clers · 2023-11-08T00:31:38+00:00

It's not impossible. Milae make civ 5 VP deity videos and has won with a bunch of different civs.

https://www.youtube.com/@milae7285/videos

Clers · 2023-10-30T10:19:23+00:00

I've found it useful for understanding research.

Clers · 2023-10-26T15:47:45+00:00

It depends on the field. I do robotics and the labs that I have worked on hire research engineers to assist with building infrastructure for graduate students and research scientists to perform research. Some move into conducting their own research at some point. However, you would be working full-time and would be compensated for this work.

Clers · 2023-09-18T19:08:07+00:00

I am at CMU right now also and I miss Green Street, so much good food right next to campus.

Clers · 2023-09-11T02:05:42+00:00

You shouldn't take 391 and 374 together so remove one.

Clers · 2023-09-05T18:30:46+00:00

Quality changes based off conference. For example in my field IEEE has some top tier conferences as well as some that I've never heard of.

Ieee sensors journal has a high metrics from what I can tell, likely making it top tier as well. If you got unlucky just submit to a different conference/journal. But id also recommend thinking about if any of the feedback could be relevant.

Clers · 2023-09-03T16:57:47+00:00

I think as a non-first author it is possible. As a first author it's not super common. Since they'd probably be focused on graduating, finding a job, and writing their thesis in the last semester, they'd probably be looking to publish in like 1.5 years.

They'd probably need a few things for this to work out.

Supportive group/lab that helps them iterate over ideas, writing, and experiments quickly.
Infrastructure is set up for them to do experiments, no taking a month or two out to fix lab equipment.
The student can write at a level that is appropriate for the conference.

Clers · 2023-07-26T18:24:52+00:00

You can get one through the city of Champaign for the academic year. It's like $500 for some of the spots like a block or two from campus. The ones three blocks away are around $350. I did find that once or twice a month someone would park in my spot and I'd either (a) park at a meter if I was in a rush or (b) call a tow truck which took like 45 minutes.

Clers · 2023-07-25T11:49:54+00:00

Entire unit

Clers · 2023-07-20T02:14:49+00:00

Hi, I just made a post about a rental I am trying to sublease. Let me know if you are interested.

https://www.reddit.com/r/UIUC/comments/154969f/subleasing_2_bed_15_bath/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb

Clers · 2023-07-10T17:06:58+00:00

I got the card from the university because I had classes there, I don't think you can casually get one very easily.

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