Purdue Polytechnic’s Rustin Webster has received three awards for excellence in the classroom, including national recognition from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and two Purdue awards.

Jose Garcia Bravo and Brittany Newell, assistant professors of engineering technology, along with Jose Chamorro, Santiago Guevara, Jose Solorio, Laura Vallejo and other colleagues, collaborated to design a system that predicts the health of conveyance systems in industry. Improving the reliability of conveyor belts has the potential to improve efficiencies and reduce costs in a variety of industries.

STEM Guitar, a project led in part by Purdue Polytechnic’s Mark French, was honored with the Gerhard Salinger award by the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association.

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.

Purdue Polytechnic students Zackary Roth, Brock Langley and Jack Williams have received grant funding from an organization that supports student inventors to help market the Seal Spoon, a spoon with a closable cover designed to help people with Parkinson’s disease.

Racecar driver Cory Clay, a mechanical engineering technology student at the Columbus, Indiana, location of Purdue University’s Polytechnic Institute, got a chance to compete against legendary NASCAR driver Tony Stewart in a midget car race — and Clay took the checkered flag!

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.

Wayne Ripberger (BS mechanical engineering technology ’73) had an exemplary career in the manufacturing industry. Ripberger’s Purdue degree sparked a 50-year career as a manufacturing engineer, working around the world for companies including Cummins, Toyota and John Deere.

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.

Purdue Polytechnic’s Design and Innovation Challenge, a showcase for students to incorporate human-centered design during the creation of working prototypes of new products, went virtual in 2020.