EPIL Mission:

The mission of Expert Planning Information systems Laboratory (EPIL) is to develop IT tools and apply them in transportation planning, management, research, and teaching. EPIL supports open access to digital information on transportation, environment and land use. EPIL is located in Temple Hoyne Buell Hall at the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign. GIS work started here, with support for the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District Transportation Network Analysis.

Key Objectives:

• To provide decision-makers, planners, and the public with a more scientific basis for transportation planning, through the construction of planning frameworks and deep databases.
• To support the concept of open access to digital information on the transportation, by developing and implementing Open GIS information technologies.
• To develop public domain GIS software.

Activities include:

• development and implementation of GIS-based models;
• testing of hardware and software;
• design and networking of information systems;
• acquisition and integration of information in mapped and digital form;
• training in GIS applications.

EPIL is housed in the College of Fine and Applied Arts, which is comprised of the Departments of Urban and Regional Planning, Landscape Architecture, and Architecture. EPIL faculty investigators hold appointments in the Departments of Urban & Regional Planning and Civil Engineering. Student researchers are most commonly from Master's and Ph.D. programs from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and the Department of Geography. Professor Kim's GIS teaching lab seeks to serve the entire campus.