Sheldon Howard Jacobson

Welcome to the Bed Time Research Institute

What is the Bed Time Research Institute (BTRI)?

The Bed Time Research Institute (or BTRI) is part of the Simulation and Optimization Laboratory in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The BTRI conducts STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) research applied to problems that impact society, inform policy, and/or are of broad societal interest.

The BTRI is structured as a STEM learning laboratory, allowing both graduate and undergraduate students to work together on such problems, resulting in research papers, conference presentations, and websites launched that have Broader Impacts on society.

How did the Bed Time Research Institute get its name?

The graduate students working within the BTRI are conducting their dissertation research on fundamental problems. The BTRI problems are of societal and/or popular interest. As such, this research is conducted often before they turn in for the day (and hence, the name). In some case, this research grows into mainline research activities, which become part of students’ dissertations and theses.

The undergraduate students working within the BTRI are actively using the knowledge and skills that they learn in the classroom and applying it to problems of societal and/or popular interest. They typical have a graduate student mentor, who guides them in a variety of STEM-focuses activities including data analysis, computational experimentation, and website design.

BTRI Research Projects

Aviation Security Systems Design & Optimization (1996-Present)

Obesity, Transportation, and Fuel Consumption (2005-Present)

Election Analytics (2004-Present)

Bracketodds (2008-Present)

Political Redistricting (2008-Present)

Mass Killing Trends (2015-Present)

Ebola Screening at Airports (2014-2016)

Laws that Ban Cell Phone Use While Driving (2009-2012)

For more information, contact:

Sheldon H. Jacobson, Ph.D.

Founder Professor