Coordinated Science Laboratory
The Coordinated Science Laboratory (CSL) is a major scientific research laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. With deep roots in information technology, CSL has invented and deployed many landmark innovations, such as the electric vacuum gyroscope, the first computer-assisted instructional program and the plasma TV. Today, research thrusts include computer vision, economics and energy systems, information trust, neuroengineering, parallel computing, robotics and more. History. Established in 1951 as a classified defense laboratory, the Coordinated Science Laboratory (or CSL) was originally designed to be a center for research in remote sensing and space sciences, signal , image and speech processing and thin film electronics. Faculty and funding. Research at CSL is conducted by more than 100 faculty members spanning 11 departments in the University. The lab also employs more than 500 graduate and undergraduate students. CSL is funded by many federal, state and private programs. It receives the majority of its operating and research budget from DARPA, the National Science Foundation, NASA, and from private corporations. Corporate funders have included AT&T, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Sun Microsystems.