Committee and Assessment

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Steering Committee

Dr. Arvind Raman is the Robert V. Adams Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. His research focuses on exploiting nonlinear dynamics for innovations in diverse interdisciplinary areas. He is the co-founder of the Shah Family Global Innovation Lab that supports technology development and translation for sustainable development and the PI of the $70M USAID funded LASER PULSE center that catalyzes a global network of universities, government agencies, organizations, and the private sector for practical solutions to development challenges in underdeveloped countries.

Dr. Raman secured funding from the NSF, NIH, NASA, NNSA, USAID, philanthropic donors, and several industrial sponsors. He is an ASME fellow, an ASME Gustus Larson Memorial Award recipient, and a NSF CAREER awardee. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, MS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, and a B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

He joined Purdue in 2000 and currently serves as the Executive Associate Dean of the Faculty and Staff in the College of Engineering. He also served as Associate Dean for Global Engineering Programs, leading strategic initiatives for global education, research, and engagement in Latin America, Africa, and East Asia.

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George Chiu

Assistant Dean for Global Engineering Programs and Partnerships, Professor of Mechanical Engineering

George Chiu is a Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering with courtesy appointments in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University. From September 2011 to June 2014, he served as a Program Director in the US National Science Foundation managing the Control Systems Program and the National Robotics Initiative (NRI) for the Engineering Directorate. Currently, he is the Assistant Dean for Global Engineering Programs and Partnerships for the College of Engineering.

Before joining Purdue University, George worked for HP and was part of the team that developed the HP Copyjet product line in the late 1990s. At Purdue, he teaches courses in the systems, measurements and control (SMAC) area and conduct research in mechatronics and dynamical systems and control.

In 1999, working with a team of Purdue students and a West Lafayette High School teacher, George founded the Purdue FIRST Programs, which is a student organization that supports and mentors local and Indiana K-12 students through the FIRST Robotics activities. To facilitate and sustain PFP’s community service, he offered a hands-on experiential style course for PFP college mentors to develop their mentoring, project and event management, and leadership skills.

George served on the Executive Committee of the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division and was the Chair of the division from June 2013 to June 2014. He also served as the Editor for the Journal of Imaging Science and Technology from 2012 to June 2014. Currently, he is the Editor-in-Chief for the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. He is a Fellow of ASME and a Fellow of the Society for Imaging Science and Technology.

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Gerald Shively

Associate Dean and Director of International Programs in Agriculture

Jerry is Associate Dean and Director of International Programs in Agriculture at Purdue University. He is also Professor of Agricultural Economics and Faculty Fellow for Global Affairs in Purdue’s Office of the Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships. He has served on the Purdue faculty since 1996 and has more than 20 years of research experience working in the areas of agricultural development, food security and natural resource management worldwide. He has published more than 200 scholarly works and has received numerous teaching and research awards. He is a Fellow of both the International Association of Agricultural Economists and the African Association of Agricultural Economists. He received his PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1996.

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Pallavi Gupta

Program Director, LASER PULSE

Pallavi has significant experience working with tech and non-tech innovations resolving critical challenges in the developing world. Pallavi received the M.A. in International Development from the Heller School of Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University and the M.S. in Management Information Systems from the London School of Economics, UK. She has over ten years of experience working across engineering, management consulting and international development. Between 2005 and 2013, she worked as a software engineer with IBM Software Labs India, Autodesk Singapore and as a management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) London. In 2013, she founded a non-profit, FifthEstate, in Uttar Pradesh, India. The organization partners with state governments in India to create collaborations between innovative social models, government departments, civil society groups and corporations. Her work was acknowledged by the Chief Minister of India’s largest state and was invited to join the State Innovation Council of Uttar Pradesh. As a council member, she advised on the formation of policies on social innovation and encouraging corporate participation in social development. Pallavi is an Ashoka Fellow and has published in development and public policy as well as holds a patent in rational database technology.

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Diana Harbison

Director of Strategy and Operations - PARI

As Assistant Director for International Development, Diana is responsible for expanding the role that the College of Engineering can play in identifying innovative technological solutions to solve emerging market challenges. She has significant experience developing projects in collaboration with multi-lateral development banks, U.S. and foreign public and private industry stakeholders, as well as identifying and organizing policy-projects associated with the Indo-Pacific Strategy, Power Africa, APEC, ASEAN, WTO and Free Trade Agreements among others. Prior to joining Purdue, Diana held a variety of positions over the course of 15 years at the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), an independent federal Agency tasked with supporting U.S. jobs through U.S. exports for infrastructure projects in emerging markets. She most recently served as Director of the Monitoring and Evaluation Office providing advice on all aspects of the Agency's program, including identifying where programming was most effective. Mrs. Harbison previously served on programmatic teams managing multi-million-dollar portfolios supporting infrastructure project development in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Pakistan. Mrs. Harbison earned a Master's Degree in Global Finance, Trade, and Economic Integration from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, and a Bachelor's degree from Roanoke College, Salem, Virginia.

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Additional Committee Members

Heidi Arola, Director of Global Partnerships, Purdue-India Partnership Director

Paul Asunda, Associate Professor, Engineering/Technology Education

Elizabeth Barajas, Director of Globalization, Office of Globalization, Purdue Polytechnic Institute

Li Yuan Bermel, Managing Director, Women's Global Health Institute

Gary Burniske, Assistant Director for Program Development, International Programs in Agriculture (IPIA)

Natasha Duncan, Associate Dean for International Education and Affairs

Abhijit Karve, Director of Business Development, Office of Technology Commercialization

Sonak Pastakia, Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Pharmacist, Indiana University Kenya Partnership

Administrative and Media Team

Rhonda Haan, Senior Administrative Assistant, GEPP

Tami Sells, Lead Administrative Assistant, GEPP

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Assessment Parameters

For Selecting Problem Statement

1. Importance and clarity of the challenge

• Is the problem clearly articulating the bottleneck issue? Does it impact large population in the developing world and/or similar demographics in US?
• Does it help advance one/multiple SDG goals?

2. Advancing Purdue collaboration, R&D and Knowledge for social impact

• Does it fit the R&D expertise of Purdue?
• Does it provide an opportunity of translating Purdue’s R&D for impact?

3. Organization’s strength

• Can the organization provide complementary support, knowledge and expertise in translating R&D for impact?
• Does the organization have relevant experience and organizational capability for piloting and scale?

For Selecting Finalist proposals

1. Context and collaborative approach

• Does the proposal highlight socio-cultural and geographical context?
• Does it consider target population’s behavior?

2. Relevance and impact potential

• Does the proposal clearly articulate solution and its relevance to the problem?
• Does it displayed understanding of existing approaches/tech, Competitive advantage of innovation, impact on potential beneficiary

3. Feasibility / Scalability

• Is the articulated solution pilot feasible with current funding amount, does the scaling potential make sense?

4. Strength & value of partnership

• Does the proposal show collaborative effort, potential for mutual capacity building?

5. Intellectual merit

• Are the objective, deliverables clearly articulated, scope for publishing/new technology / IP