March 3, 2026
ECE Prof. Christopher Brinton named inaugural director of Purdue Engineering’s new HIVE center
The Hub for Innovation, Ventures and Entrepreneurship (HIVE) is a new center designed to expand innovation and startup activity within Purdue University’s College of Engineering.
Christopher Brinton
Christopher Brinton, Elmore Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will serve as the inaugural faculty director of the Hub for Innovation, Ventures and Entrepreneurship (HIVE), a new center designed to expand innovation and startup activity within Purdue University’s College of Engineering.
The HIVE is being established through a $10 million commitment from the AGE Fisher Family Foundation, created by longtime Purdue donors Jeff (BS electrical engineering ’80) and Edie (BS retail management ’80) Fisher.
Brinton brings firsthand entrepreneurial experience to the role. While pursuing his PhD, he co-founded the big-data startup Zoomi. In leading the HIVE, he will help build a centralized hub where engineering students can explore, launch and scale new ventures.
The HIVE will be located in the Duncan Annex of the Max W & Maileen Brown Family Hall of Electrical Engineering and will serve as the College of Engineering’s dedicated entrepreneurship center. It will connect the college with campus-wide resources, including the Mitch Daniels School of Business and the Purdue Research Foundation’s Purdue Innovates initiative.
Jeff and Edie Fisher with their family. (Photo provided)
“We are deeply grateful to the Fisher family for this transformational gift, which will empower Purdue to continue leading the way in innovation, entrepreneurship and higher education,” Purdue President Mung Chiang said.
Jeff Fisher said he and his wife are proud to give back to the university where they met and began their careers. Fisher joined NVIDIA in 1994 during the rise of Silicon Valley’s semiconductor industry and continues to serve as a senior executive. NVIDIA’s invention of the graphics processing unit helped fuel advances in gaming, parallel computing and artificial intelligence.
“Programs like the HIVE didn’t exist when we were at Purdue,” Fisher said. “I have spent most of my career working on the business side of technology, and I believe the HIVE will provide a needed resource for engineering students passionate about starting their own companies.”
The approximately 10,000-square-foot facility will include incubator space for up to 10 startup companies, hot-desking space for selected undergraduate innovators, offices for Purdue Innovates staff and dedicated areas for pitch competitions and entrepreneurship training programs. The gift also supports the hiring of a managing director.
The HIVE is scheduled to open in fall 2026.
“Our vision is for the Purdue College of Engineering to become the most consequential engineering college in the nation by 2030, and this extraordinary commitment from the Fisher family and their foundation will certainly help us in this mission,” said Arvind Raman, the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering.