An IE professor received the Purdue College of Engineering’s 2018 Faculty Award of Excellence for Engagement and Service.
Barrett S. Caldwell, professor of industrial engineering, and six other recipients were honored at the annual Awards of Excellence for engineering faculty at the Faculty Recognition Banquet on April 6, 2018. Caldwell received the Engagement and Service Award for fostering partnerships and creating service opportunities.
"This is the first College level faculty award of this type," explained Caldwell. "I'd previously won Faculty Seeds of Success (research) awards, and the Purdue Faculty Scholar award, but to win this award for Engagement and Service is very special to me."
Steve Duket, managing director of Purdue Industrial Engineering, nominated Caldwell "for his widespread efforts to promote interest in space, through the Indiana Space Grant Consortium, as well as STEM education at the K-12, university and more broadly, a societal level."
"Dr Caldwell is also very active in our Capstone Project activities where our students work with local industries," explained Duket. "In his involvement he's really broadened the application of these tools and techniques from our traditional areas of manufacturing into areas like healthcare, service industries and small local businesses."
As Director and Principal Investigator of the NASA-funded
Indiana Space Grant Consortium (INSGC) since 2001, Caldwell impacts hundreds of university students and thousands of K-12 students and parents across Indiana. He introduced merit-based statewide competitions for scholarships, fellowships and program awards, and led the first strategic plan for the consortium. INSGC has experienced unprecedented growth, with more than 25 university, outreach, museum, and company affiliates statewide, impacting hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers. He assists and supports student organizations from university to national levels, bringing STEM education to all ages. His influence is felt in programs including Purdue Fall Space Day, STEM for 3rd through 8th grade students; Purdue FIRST Robotics Programs for middle school students; and in EPICS projects, such as creating the VOSS Project, a prominent solar system landmark on campus.
Caldwell also recently served a one-year assignment as a
2016-2017 Jefferson Science Fellow/Foreign Affairs Officer with the U.S. Department of State, using industrial engineering expertise to aid diplomatic cooperation between the United States and Japan on a wide variety of health, science, and technology issues. He continues to support engagement around the environment, science, technology and health, including artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. A dedicated coordinator and mentor for Industrial Engineering’s Senior Design program, Caldwell and his students identify challenging IE projects for industrial, healthcare and government entities, and work with these clients to find and implement cost-saving and efficient solutions to their real-world issues.
Caldwell's Group Performance Environments Research (
GROUPER) Laboratory has as its mission to be a premier research group in the areas of analysis, design and improvement of how humans work with, and share knowledge through, information and communication technology systems on Earth and in space.
