Phillip Sanger is using a Fulbright Scholarship to study intercultural and gender influences at play in team dynamics by teaching at Kazan National Research Technological University (KNRTU) in Russia. He is also creating a four-year spine of courses that will help KNRTU students learn to manage real-world projects in challenging multicultural teams and help professors there incorporate project-based learning throughout their curricula.

Nicoletta Adamo and Bedrich Benes are researching the ways in which emotional computer-animated instructors affect student learning. Their research also aims to guide the design of affective (that is, emotion-generating) on-screen agents that work well for different types of learners.

Jason Ostanek, assistant professor of engineering technology and director of Purdue’s Applied Thermofluids Laboratory, and graduate students Luis Maldonado and Jhon Quiñones are working with Citizens Energy Group to study air flow in the DigIndy Tunnel System, a 28-mile network of 18-foot diameter sewage storage tunnels being built 250 feet below Indianapolis.

Gozdem Kilaz, assistant professor of engineering technology and director of Purdue’s Fuel Laboratory of Renewable Energy (FLORE), will serve as principal investigator for “Higher Energy-Content Jet Blending Components Derived from Ethanol,” a research project funded by a $1.7 million Department of Energy grant.

Ida Ngambeki, assistant professor of computer and information technology, is researching techniques to incorporate secure programming into computer programming curricula without adding to the course load.

Lisa Bosman wants use real-time and historical weather data to enable utility companies and solar energy system owners to predict when and where to expect sunshine and the resulting increase in solar energy generation.

Daniel Leon-Salas, associate professor in Purdue Polytechnic’s School of Engineering Technology, led a research team that has patented a way to transmit power and information between IoT devices using only light.

Yingjie “Victor” Chen, associate professor of computer graphics technology, along with professors in the College of Science and the College of Education, received a grant from the National Institutes of Health for research improving training and potential interest in the scientific field of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM).

Alka Harriger, professor of computer and information technology, and Brad Harriger, professor of mechanical engineering technology, partnered with other faculty in the creation of professional development programs in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) for middle school teachers and new research into the development of computational thinking among middle school students across three learning contexts.

Petr Vozka, a graduate student in the School of Engineering Technology, hopes to make the certification process for alternative fuels easier by constructing bridges between fuel chemistry and performance.