The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, often referred to as UIUC or simply Illinois, is a public research university in the U.S. state of Illinois and the flagship institution of the University of Illinois System. Founded in 1867 as a land-grant institution, its campus is located in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified as an R1 Doctoral Research University under the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which denotes the highest research activity. In fiscal year 2019, research expenditures at Illinois totaled $645 million across all campuses ($526 million on the Urbana campus), ranking it 4th among public universities in the United States and 19th worldwide.
As a result UIUC’s library system, which comprises over 20 individual libraries including two on theUrbana campus that hold over 13 million total volumes, ranks as one of the largest public university library systems in North America. The school also hosts an annual computing conference called Supercomputing frontiers and innovations (SCFI) that has been held every spring since 1986; notable past keynote speakers include Bill Gatesand Gordon Moore.