I graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology. IIT, with UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago) had a lot of community outreach programs to get students to

I graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology. IIT, with UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago) had a lot of community outreach programs to get students to commit to community service. It sometimes worked, sometimes didn't. One of the programs I helped out in was to repaint the public spaces of the public housing near campus and do some basic repairs. Alot of it, at the time, amounted to painting over graffiti in the common spaces, fixing hinges on gates, etc. As far as industry outreach, I felt IIT did a pretty good job. I can't speak to UIC or UI. I worked on research projects as an undergrad sponsored by industry interests. If we needed a dev kit or some low dollar product from a local industry manufacturer (such as Motorola), there wasn't usually an issue getting it gratis.