Caterpillar Celebrates 25 Years at Illinois

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Caterpillar leadership team.

The Caterpillar Champaign Innovation Center is the most tenured corporate partner and the first to start an internship program in the Research Park at Illinois.

Four caterpillar employees.

The CIC was dedicated in 2018, merging the data innovation lab and simulation center into one footprint. The CIC drives research and development through their innovative work in engineering, computer science, operations research, and statistics. The center also uses simulation technology to optimize designs and processes in materials, manufacturing, and structural analysis. 

The CIC collaborates with resources from engineering, computer science, operations research, and statistics to help drive innovative development through data analysis. The center utilizes simulation technology to optimize product and process designs while reducing overall development time and cost.
 

“The Champaign Innovation Center is a place where academia and industry meet, and these diverse perspectives result in the development of new and exciting technologies.” - Otto Breitschwerdt, Caterpillar Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President.

On September 3, 2024, the CIC marked a significant milestone of 25 years of innovation at Illinois. Caterpillar has provided several engagement opportunities for students to engage with them and participate in experiential learning experiences. Students work alongside full-time Caterpillar professionals to tackle the company’s core innovation challenges. The center’s innovation model has been an inspiration and blueprint for several other corporate innovation centers within Research Park. 

Caterpillar opened the simulation center on the Urbana-Champaign campus in 1999, working in conjunction with the University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications. In 2015, Caterpillar opened its first data innovation lab, located in the Research Park. Three years later, the site was rededicated and is now known as the CIC. This center successfully merged the efforts of the simulation center and the data innovation lab and has been operating ever since.  
 

“This milestone anniversary signifies the deeply intentional and impactful relationship between Caterpillar and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, truly one of our cornerstone industry partners,” - Susan Martinis, Vice Chancellor of Research and Innovation at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Wall in Grainger College of Engineering that says "Innovation".

Caterpillar Interns Are Making an Impact

The CIC is known for its robust intern program. The company has become known for its use of computer science to enhance operations, and many computer science students find appealing internship opportunities through the CIC.

Caterpillar student interns feel confident that their work is being put to good use because both Caterpillar and Research Park recognize the importance of the innovative ideas coming from the young and talented students of Illinois. The intern program allows students to participate in impactful projects while pursuing their degrees. These projects include virtual product development, digital application creation, and various optimization projects. 

“What’s crazy is that what I do as an intern plays a significant role for CAT Digital and our customer base. — I know that everything I code eventually will be utilized by Caterpillar employees, manufacturers, and customers around the world.” - Abhi Kapoor, A Data Analytics Intern at Caterpillar Innovation Center.

Campus Involvement

Caterpillar is involved with Illinois in several ways across campus. Several of our programs rely on their collaborations with Caterpillar. 

The Women in Engineering Freshman Orientation Program partners with Caterpillar in ensuring a focus on innovation, collaboration, and success, allowing women to make a difference in people’s lives through engineering. Caterpillar is a gold sponsor of the Illini Electric Motorsports, allowing them to design, build, and race electric formula cars. The Caterpillar senior technical steward for heat treatment, Mike Pershing, mentored a team of Materials Science and Engineering undergraduates in a project furthering machine learning-assisted scanning electron microscope image segmentation.  
 

“[Caterpillar’s] guidance has been really supportive,” MatSE student Atharva Atreya said. “We had weekly meetings with them throughout the semester. Just being able to work with a company and actually make a model that they’re going to use in their everyday analysis . . . it was pretty cool to be a part of that.”

The Supply Chain Management Corporate Affiliates Program is a unique platform for Caterpillar to actively engage with students and faculty of the supply chain management program and participate in its development and strategic planning. Caterpillar supports the University of Illinois Extension’s Fulton-Mason-Peoria-Tazewell Unit science, technology, engineering, and math programming to youth and teachers through donations and collaboration.