Purdue Polytechnic recently hosted a dedication for its new smart manufacturing labs, designed to prepare students for the factory of the future. Engineering technology faculty have already begun shaping new curricula around these state-of-the-art facilities.

An interdisciplinary team of Purdue Polytechnic researchers received National Science Foundation (NSF) funding to study how teams of humans and robots will work together at construction sites. The team hopes the NSF grant will serve as the foundation for years of collaborative research to improve the efficiency and scalability of human-robot teams in constrained and complex construction workplaces.

An interdisciplinary research team including Purdue Polytechnic’s Richard Voyles and Haoguang Yang created the Purdue Campus Patrol Robot, an autonomous robot to disinfect classrooms. The robot incorporates an entirely new air filtering system which they call the Bernoulli Air Filtration Module.

Purdue Polytechnic is participating in a unique Purdue partnership with the University of Puerto Rico to explore the creation and offering of new academic opportunities.

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.

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.