Two School of Aviation and Transportation Technology grad students and their faculty advisor just won an award for a convenient, practical upgrade to the system used to move luggage around airports and runways. Read about how it works here:

Chad Laux received an international book award for "Lean Sustainability," a coauthored work of practical scholarship that seeks to bring innovative, environmentally-conscious efficiency into the world of industry.

Our senior students in aviation are generating novel methods to detect greenhouse gas levels during normal commercial flights, massively increasing the efficiency for making such measurements. Learn all about their invention in our newsroom:

Purdue Polytechnic faculty in the “Realizing the Digital Enterprise” research impact area are working to pair technological capability and social responsibility, creating successful cyber–physical experiences.

John Sheffield, professor of engineering technology, will meet Pope Francis to discuss sustainable energy and how it might positively affect climate change.

Gozdem Kilaz and Petr Vozka are working in the Fuel Laboratory of Renewable Energy (FLORE) to optimize a new chemical conversion process to transform plastic waste into useful products.

A state-of-the-art solar array used primarily for learning and research has been installed on Knoy Hall’s rooftop. The new 28-panel array replaces a 24-panel system installed 17 years ago. The new solar photovoltaic array, comprised of panels each roughly the same physical size as those previously installed, will generate nearly three times more electricity than the old array despite expanding by only four panels.

“Every semester I start by challenging the students and asking them how they want to change the world. This year we made a tiny home,” said Kirk Alter, associate professor of construction management at Purdue University.

The tiny home project will address the issue of housing for the homeless, battered women and people re-entering society from prison.

“One of the things that the students have learned,” Alter said, “is that we don’t need heroes, we need partners — partners in our communities.”

by Charles Adams III

Update for April 28, 2014