The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, also known as U of I, University of Illinois, UIUC (deprecated), or simply Illinois, is a public research-intensive university in the U.S. state of Illinois. Founded in 1867 as a land-grant institution in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana, it is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system and a founding member of the Big Ten Conference.