Ukari Figgs is a legend at Purdue University, as the MVP of the 1999 National Champion Women's Basketball team. But she's just as proud of her work as a Mechanical Engineer, which she showcases every day at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Georgetown, Kentucky.

Spiridon (Dan) Suciu (BSME '44, MSME '49, Ph.D. '51) grew up in Flint, Michigan during the Depression. He decided to enroll in Purdue while serving in the Navy during WWII. After continuing with his Master's and Doctorate, he began work for GE, where he served in their Gas Turbine Division, Energy Technology, and Neutron Devices. He retired in 1987, after seeing 5 children through Purdue -- all of them engineers. His son Jim also followed his father's footsteps at GE, and is now President of Global Sales and Marketing for GE Power. Jim won Purdue's Outstanding Mechanical Engineer Award in 2013, and his father was given the same honor in 2016, allowing the whole Suciu family to gather for a celebration of Dan's accomplishments at GE and Purdue.

In his 17-year career as an astronaut, Jerry Ross holds the unique distinctions of making seven trips into space, and conducting nine spacewalks. He is also a Mechanical Engineer, getting his bachelors and masters at Purdue. Even as a child in Crown Point, Indiana, he knew that he was going to attend Purdue, become an engineer, and work for the space program.

Kelly Featherstone combined her ME coursework with a certificate in entrepreneurship. Now, she'll be using both as a project manager at 3M.

Tahira Reid and Amy Marconnet collaborated on a project studying the heat properties of curly hair. Now that project has been featured in the July 2016 issue of National Geographic magazine.

Forensic investigators will soon be able to use real-time 3D imaging to capture footprints and tire tracks, thanks to the efforts of Song Zhang (associate professor of mechanical engineering) and his team at Purdue. They have developed a compact device that anyone can use, delivering accurate high-resolution 3D images that can help investigators identify the smallest features of a shoe print in soil or snow.

Patricia Davies received the 2016 Per Bruel Gold Medal for Noise Control and Acoustics from ASME, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Today, Tony Harris (BSME '75) is a successful entrepreneur in California. But in 1971, he was a kid from the south side of Chicago who wanted to be an engineer, but had never taken a calculus class. His experiences at Purdue led him and 5 other Boilermakers ("The Chicago Six") to form the National Society of Black Engineers, which now has more than 30,000 members in 350 chapters around the world.

When buildings are damaged, engineers take a lot of photos to document it -- but then must pore over those images by hand. A new system developed by Shirley Dyke and her team utilizes "deep learning" algorithms that allow computers to dramatically speed up the process.

A native of Bangalore, India, Chaitanya Bhat came to Purdue University as a graduate student in mechanical engineering, researching the acoustic properties of diesel engines at Herrick Labs. At the same time, he has always had a love for North Indian (Hindustani) classical music. Now he can pursue his two favorite kinds of sound: as an acoustical engineer for Honeywell in Bangalore, and as a performing musician in concerts and recordings. In his own words, here is Chaitanya's story...