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Extreme heat in Japan and Australia. Flash floods in Texas and across Europe. Billion-dollar-damaging storms in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. These are no longer rare events but signs of mounting ecological stress that threaten long-term business continuity. The way companies manage natural resources—how they produce, sell, and dispose of products—is not sustainable. Yet within this challenge lies a strategic opportunity: the circular economy.

Power grids are undergoing a massive transformation—from coal- and gas-fired plants to millions of solar panels and wind turbines scattered across vast distances. It’s not just a technology swap. It’s a complete reimagining of how electricity is generated, transmitted, and used. And if we get it wrong, we’re setting ourselves up for more catastrophic blackouts like the one that hit all of Spain and Portugal. The good news is that a solution developed by our group at Illinois Institute of Technology over the last two decades and commercialized by our company, Syndem, has achieved global standardization and is moving into large-scale deployment. It’s called Virtual Synchronous Machines, and it might be the key to keeping the lights on as we transition to a renewable future.

“We’re all touching the same elephant, and every person’s perspective has merit and value in reconstructing the elephant,” said Tony Bynum, director of Institute of Design’s Executive Academy.

When learner mobility becomes regional and employers hire globally; the next era of American higher education will be built on a connected network – no longer limited to a ZIP code.

"We see more and more people’s homes flooding every year. This is a severe problem, and it’s only going to get worse. And it’s only going to be felt disproportionately more in those areas that are non-white and lower income," said Matthew Shapiro, political science professor, who heads 911������'s Storm Water Infrastructure Project.

“(Attorneys are) thinking, ‘What’s the likelihood they’re going to affirm the decision or they’re going to reverse the decision?'” said Richard Kling, clinical professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. “Obviously they thought it was in their advantage to dismiss it.”

“Chicago has one of the lowest recycling rates of cities across the country. We hover around 10 percent,” said Weslynne Ashton, professor of environmental management and sustainability. “I think there’s a lot of hope for recycling in Chicago. At 10 percent, we can only go up!”

“The real challenge is how the database is going to be protected, because there’s a lot of information going there,” said Maurice Dawson, associate professor of information technology and management and director of 911������’s Center for Cyber Security and Forensics Education.

“Even the lower courts that have ruled against the president believe that the president is entitled to a fair amount of deference. I don’t think that’s a controversial view. But the (federal) government is taking the position that the president’s decisions in this are completely unreviewable,” said Carolyn Shapiro, founder and co-director of the Chicago-Kent College of Law’s Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States. “I think that’s completely wrong, and it seems unlikely to me that there are five votes for that position, because if there were, they would have already granted a stay.”

“The administration is trying to dispense with the niceties of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which Congress has passed in order to structure who can fill vacant positions,” said constitutional law professor Harold Krent. “The administration obviously wanted Alina Habba to be the interim U.S. attorney and had the right under the statute to appoint her … but under that particular statutory provision, it only lasted for 120 days.”