John W. Sutherland: EEE making connections

An important aspect of life is making connections with others. As children, we bond with our parents and siblings. As high school students, we build relationships with friends. As professionals, we often strive to grow our business network and these days this is often enabled by such platforms as LinkedIn. Purdue Environmental and Ecological Engineering (EEE) is no different.

 

 

The EEE students, staff, and faculty are always hard at work cultivating and growing professional connections.

For example, Ms. Margaret Whelton, the EEE industrial liaison works tirelessly to build bridges to companies. By making these connections, she assists EEE undergraduates and graduate students in securing internship and co-op positions. Recently, EEE students were prominent at IR (Industry Roundtable), where students had an opportunity to interact with company representatives and explore employment opportunities. In conjunction with IR, EEE hosted its inaugural “EEE Company Night.” The event was a resounding success with 10 companies and 105 EEE students (undergraduate and graduate) participating. We look forward to having EEE Company Night in future years with even greater participation.

EEE also utilizes company connections for its year-long senior design experience. Companies suggest technical challenges, and small teams of EEE seniors work to develop solutions. Each team works on a different project with the company sponsor serving as the client. For the 2024-2025 academic year seniors are working on 15 unique projects. Recent projects have addressed such topics as an environmental comparison of hydrogen and electric train engines, creating a maintenance program for Indiana’s Central Canal, and waste diversion for a cold storage supply chain.

One group of students that are especially involved in making connections are the EEE ambassadors.  They meet with first year students, families of future Purdue engineers visiting campus, and many other individuals and groups at events such as Purdue's Homecoming and Family Weekend. This year, EEE has an amazing 26 ambassadors.

Faculty and graduate students in EEE engage with a variety of corporate, agency, and university partners on research and education projects. For example, EEE is collaborating with North Carolina A&T on a NSF doctoral training project focused on integrating environmental sustainability technologies and principles in industry. Professor Inez Hua is leading a small team of faculty on a project to help educate engineers at Plexus on design and manufacturing for sustainability. As part of his response to environmental problems created by natural and man-made disasters, Professor Andrew Whelton often works closely with recovering communities. As part of his research with the Critical Materials Innovation (CMI) Hub, Prof. Fu Zhao frequently collaborates with companies engaged in developing processes and products to support clean energy technologies. Professor Lindsey Payne works with many communities to develop plans in support of the environment. This includes serving on the leadership team that developed the Greater Lafayette Climate Action and installing rain garden and native plantings with non-profit partners to mitigate stormwater runoff on their sites.

The above are just a small sample of the examples of connections, collaborations, and partnerships of EEE. This large number of people connections is expected, as having such connections is integral to almost everything that EEE does. After all, we are a human-centered service organization.

As a final note, many from EEE have had the great fortune to connect with alumni and friends. Through these relationships, we have often identified new business prospects, personal growth opportunities, and mechanisms for assisting students and faculty. Inside this newsletter we talk about many of these connections.

Hail Purdue!

 

John W. Sutherland

Professor and Fehsenfeld Family Head of Environmental and Ecological Engineering