Through a generous gift from Kiewit, a construction and engineering company, the Purdue College of Engineering and the Purdue Polytechnic Institute will offer the Kiewit Scholars Program at Purdue. Eligible Polytechnic students are rising sophomores, juniors and seniors that demonstrate academic merit, leadership and civic engagement while pursuing degrees in Construction Management Technology, Design and Construction Integration, Electrical Engineering Technology, or Mechanical Engineering Technology.

Sunghwan Lee, assistant professor of engineering technology, Michael Clevenger, engineering technology graduate student, Hyeonghun Kim, postdoctoral research assistant, and colleagues at the Korea Research Institute of Standard and Science identified a better way to directly fabricate sensors onto ready-made wearable items, such as clothing, gloves, or even disposable masks that can successfully extract bioinformation in real time, with remarkable precision. The research represents an advancement in the development of versatile healthcare devices printed directly onto ready-made clothing that can be worn comfortably by the patient, which ultimately will make these devices more effective.

A delegation from the Universidad Nacional de San Agustín (UNSA) in Arequipa, Peru, visited Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus in October to prepare for the third phase of a major multidisciplinary research partnership. Purdue Polytechnic’s Daniel Leon-Salas, who served as one of the delegation’s hosts, is developing a low-cost, portable sensor to measure photosynthetically active solar radiation to help farmers and plant growers to assess the solar resources available to them.

A STEM enrichment program offered through a partnership between Purdue Polytechnic Anderson and the Sistas of Royalty, a mentoring program, is building interest in attending college amongst sixth grade girls in the Anderson area.

Soft actuators, components in mechanical devices that enable movement, are inspired by biological systems but can’t yet replicate the complexity of the human body. Purdue Polytechnic’s David Gonzalez Rodriguez is researching the creation of 3D-printed flexible structures that can function as soft actuators and sensors.

Purdue Polytechnic’s Robert Nawrocki and his research colleagues are designing a soft, flexible electrode that can be comfortably placed on the skin, enabling a treatment called deep nerve stimulation. The new technology could potentially provide relief for medical disorders including migraine, rheumatoid arthritis and many gastrointestinal illnesses without the side effects of traditional pharmaceutical treatments.

Purdue Polytechnic’s Robert Nawrocki received the 2021 Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), an executive branch agency within the Department of Defense.

Purdue Polytechnic graduates Ivan Ball and Scott Massey received the Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation to advance their GroPod in-home greenhouse technology.

A utility company turned to Purdue Polytechnic’s Jason Ostanek and Luis Maldonado to deal with the potential of foul-smelling air near ground-level ventilation shafts for the DigIndy Tunnel System, a 28-mile network of huge sewage storage tunnels 250 feet below Indianapolis.

Purdue Polytechnic’s Kokomo location now resides inside the newly renovated Inventrek Technology Park, which features expansive lab space for mechanical engineering technology and electrical engineering technology coursework and numerous other learning spaces. Students take advantage of seven times more workspace than was available at Purdue Polytechnic Kokomo’s previous location.