The lecture series was announced at the first meeting of an executive advisory committee steering the joint exploration between Purdue and Duke Energy into the feasibility of using advanced nuclear energy to meet the long-term energy needs of the West Lafayette campus.

Chad Jafvert, Lyles Family Professor of Civil Engineering and Professor of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, has been elected as a Fellow of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP).

Mark Lundstrom, the Don and Carol Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, will begin the appointment July 1. He also served as interim during 2020 while Mung Chiang was on leave.

Guillermo Paniagua, professor of mechanical engineering, and Ivan Christov, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, have been named U.S. Fulbright Scholars.

Saurabh Bagchi, professor of electrical and computer engineering and professor of computer science by courtesy, was selected as a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology in May.

The new online master's is an interdisciplinary degree focused on all aspects of microelectronics and semiconductors, with Purdue's top-ranked Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, its mechanical, materials, industrial and chemical engineering schools, and its environmental and ecological engineering division all deeply involved.

Hard tech -- technology that touches the hard stuff -- is gaining ground as technological advances are rewriting the economic equations, Mung Chiang, Purdue executive vice president for strategic initiatives and the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering, writes in a recent Forbes article.

Hyowon "Hugh" Lee, associate professor from the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, created the magnetically controlled microdevice that removes blood accumulating in the brain during a stroke.

"This project took a kernel of data from another planet, and established that it is possible to turn these Martian perchlorates into solid propellants, which no one has ever done," said an ME student who worked on the project.

The college-wide institute positions Purdue as a national leader in artificial intelligence at the interface of the virtual and physical worlds.