The Linear and Nonlinear Dynamics and Vibrations Laboratory at the University of Illinois was formed as the result of a merger, in 1998, of Dr. Vakakis's and Dr. Bergman's own labs. With the addition of Dr. McFarland to the group, and with the assistance of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department and the Aerospace Engineering Department, the Associate Dean of Engineering for Administrative Affairs, and numerous students, the lab has evolved to its present state.

The lab is located at the north end of the basement in room B420 of the newly refurbished Mechanical Engineering Laboratory, located on Mathews Avenue in Urbana, directly across from the Transportation Building and on the beautiful banks of Boneyard Creek. Approximately 1500 square feet of high quality space is currently occupied by the lab.

Equipment currently owned by the laboratory and employed in current research includes:

Scanning laser vibrometer with dedicated computer control and data acquisition systems (Polytec PSV-300-U).
Four channel spectrum analyzers with 20 kHz bandwidth (Tektronix 2630) (3).
A large variety of standard and miniature piezoelectric accelerometers, both uniaxial and triaxial (PCB).
Piezoelectric force transducers (load cells) with a range of capacities up to 500 lbf (PCB).
Multi-channel ICP power supplies and amplifiers for use with the piezoelectric transducers (PCB) (4).
Several electrodynamic vibration exciters (shakers) with capacities from 5 lbf to 100 lbf and strokes up to 2 in. peak-to-peak (Electro-Seis, LDS, MB Dynamics, VTS).
Power amplifiers matched to the shakers (Hafler, MB Dynamics, Tecron).
Instrumented hammers for exciting structures with transient loads (PCB).
Bench-top analog computers for simulation and signal processing (3).
Two one-dimensional air track with a working length of 6 ft.
Several networked computers on which data can be reduced using programs such as Matlab and Mathematica.
Electronic test equipment including a four-channel digital oscilloscope (Tektronix TDS410A, HP 54601A).

Several photos of the lab can be seen below.