News Room

Cybersecurity became part of the national election conversation in 2016, as Russia targeted government networks with cyberattacks and an influence campaign that sought to spread disinformation and sow discord in the democratic process. Four years later, the specter of this threat appeared again in the 2020 race, as officials said on Oct. 22 that Russian attackers broke into government systems.

Not even a year after SARS-CoV-2 was first identified, several coronavirus vaccines are now in the final stages of testing. Some people worry we’re moving too fast; others argue that “Operation Warp Speed” is not moving nearly fast enough. There’s a lot at stake — from public health, to trust in science, to the economy — and failure is not an option.

Election Day 2020 feels a lot like it did in 2016 -- early results are still showing it could be a toss-up between current US President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, however, Trump is shown to be behind. There was a similar situation in 2016, but when Donald Trump was declared the winner of the Presidential elections that year, nearly everyone was shocked, except perhaps, Allan Lichtman, a historian who has taught at American University in Washington, DC since 1973. Lichtman correctly predicted that Trump would be the 45th President and went on to state that Trump would also be impeached.

Mini 2 teaching began last week. I teach two MBA courses, each with two sections: (Core) Operations Management (OM, 45-760) and (Elective) Service Management (SM, 45-965). The OM course is entirely on Zoom, while the SM course, until Thanksgiving, has one in-person on-campus section (and then on Zoom), and the other is entirely on Zoom. Both of my courses as quite mathematical, with OM focused on manufacturing and SM covering startups in addition to traditional service operations (call centers, hospitals). 

The current trajectory indicates that Illinois will cross 10,000 COVID-19 deaths before Thanksgiving and 500,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases before New Year’s Day. These milestones will be reported on every news program across the state. COVID-19 has impacted every person in Illinois, either with loved ones being lost, the loss of employment, a shift to working from home or how we conduct our daily affairs. No one has been immune from its ubiquitous presence.