There were more than 1,000 crashes involving vehicles equipped with automated driving systems or Level 2 advanced driver assistance systems in the first half of 2025, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Whether on highways or farms, automated systems must remain safe despite sensor failures, GPS disruptions, network dropouts or even cyber-attacks.

That’s why Purdue University is leading CHORUS, a multi-institution research center funded by a $7 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, to build resilience into cyber-physical systems (CPS). The name is inspired by the Egyptian god Horus, who symbolizes protection from disasters, with the “C” added to emphasize the center’s cyber focus.

A research team at Purdue University’s colleges of Agriculture and Engineering aims to ensure the security of the nation’s corn crops by using artificial intelligence as an early warning system.

The team is using cutting-edge technological advances and research infrastructure to pursue the project with a nine-month, $450,000 contract from the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

The number of explosions is slightly below the 10-year national average of 8.5 and down from the nine that occurred in 2024. Even though there were fewer explosions, the number of injuries and fatalities increased compared to two injuries and no fatalities in 2024.

When Jason Thiagarajan was weighing his college options, he wasn’t sure how he would pay for school, or which university would best prepare him for life and career. That uncertainty disappeared the day he opened his acceptance letter to Purdue University.

Inside was an invitation to join the inaugural cohort of the Lilly Scholars at Purdue (LSAP), a program that covered his full tuition and created a direct talent pipeline to one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. For Thiagarajan, a junior in agricultural and biological engineering from Bloomington, Indiana, it was the clarity he had been seeking.

Somali Chaterji leads a team that has developed AGILE3D, a cutting-edge 3D object detection system. She is an associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering in Purdue’s College of Agriculture and College of Engineering and holds a courtesy appointment in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

When Lana Malek left Hoe, Slovenia, for West Lafayette, Indiana, she wasn’t just choosing a university — she was stepping into an entirely new world. As the first person in her family to pursue higher education outside of Slovenia, the decision to study in the United States came with excitement, uncertainty and ambition in equal measure.

Karthik Sankaranarayanan trained in two quite different scientific subfields as a graduate student and as a postdoctoral researcher. Now at Purdue University, he aims to combine those fields in a project that will use artificial intelligence to plan the synthesis of complex new pharmaceutical agents.

“Nature uses enzymes to effortlessly produce her complex small molecules. The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly interested in using enzymes to synthesize molecules that may be challenging to produce using traditional organic chemistry,” said Sankaranarayanan, an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering. With that in mind, he will design an AI algorithm to sift through the diverse set of enzymatic reaction chemistries that nature uses to produce molecules.

For Andrew Monnin, a student from Cicero, Indiana, Purdue Agriculture felt like the right fit from the start. Planning to graduate in December 2026, he is majoring in agricultural systems management (ASM) with a concentration in agrosecurity.

“I chose Purdue Agriculture because of its internationally recognized status and the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest experts in the world,” he said. “When I discovered the agrosecurity concentration, I knew ASM was the major for me. It combines my fascination with complex agricultural systems and my interest in safety and security, all while providing the hands-on learning experiences I love.”

He describes the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE) as a place where faculty are approachable and invested in their students.

Amanda Wolf spent an entire semester cold-calling faculty members across Purdue, pitching what must have sounded like an absurd idea: Could a team of undergraduate peer learners work in a biological lab together, receiving regular genetic engineering mentorship despite having no formal training?

The conversational dead-ends piled up. Faculty after faculty said no. But Wolf had a strategy. She turned every rejection into opportunity by asking for referrals. "I asked all around Purdue, using the research connections of my peers and friends," she recalls. "While naturally there were a lot of no's, I was able to turn every no into more possible connections just by asking for referrals."

Growing up in Indiana, Emma Kessinger was no stranger to the rigor and prestige that come with a Purdue University degree. When she decided to pursue engineering, Purdue quickly stood out as the clear choice, offering both frozen in-state tuition and one of the nation’s top engineering programs. Just as important to Emma, though, was the culture.