(Purdue News Service 03/09/2017) – Following oral presentations
on Feb. 23, a panel of judges and Discovery Park administration
have reviewed the proposals and determined the winners of the
Big Idea Challenge, a program that will provide resources to
interdisciplinary teams of Purdue faculty and students pursuing
bold proposals that address global challenges.
The winning proposals and principal investigators of the Big
Idea Challenge competition that will receive funding are:
-
Affordable Net Zero Housing and Transportation Solutions — Leigh
Raymond (Liberal Arts). -
Revolutionizing Control of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases —
Catherine Hill (Agriculture). -
Harnessing Technology and Info Fusion to Enable Resilient and
Sustainable Food-Water Balance — Dave
Ebert, CERIAS Faculty & Professor of Electrical and
Computer Engineering. -
Photonics Science and Technologies for Security, Energy and
Healthcare Apps — Yong Chen (Science). -
Realizing Next-Generation Smart Manufacturing — Nate Hartman
(Polytechnic). -
Towards Cyber-Physical Vetting of Critical Infrastructures —
Dongyan
Xu, CERIAS Interim Director & Professor of Computer
Science. -
Managing the Global Commons: Sustainable Ag and Use of World’s
Land and Water Resources — Tom Hertel (Agriculture).
Discovery Park received 46 proposals from more than 230
participants at Purdue, representing 10 colleges and 45
departments. All of the proposals received were endorsed by one,
and in some cases more than one, of Discovery Park’s centers and
institutes. The vast majority of proposals were cross-cutting in
nature and aligned thematically across five major areas of
research: global sustainability, global health, data science,
nanotechnology and defense.
On March 21, Discovery Park will host a launch party honoring
the winning teams from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Birck Nanotechnology
Center atrium. All faculty, staff and students are invited to
attend.
Discovery Park also plans to work with the teams that did not
obtain funding to help them find other funding avenues to achieve
their goals.
Writer: Amy Schlueter, 765-496-7823, aschlue@purdue.edu
Source: Cliff Wojtalewicz, 765-496-3961, cliffw@purdue.edu