Long-time VIP mentor acknowledged for cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research.

Students across Purdue's College of Engineering, including the VIP Solar Sail team, are contributing to the largest solar sail project ever to be deployed. Solar sails have the potential to provide a new type of propulsion, one that uses no fuel, for many types of space missions.

Almost 500 research talks and posters sessions were delivered at the 2022 Spring Undergraduate Research Conference. The eHealth team in Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) received 1st place in Academic Unit Awards - Posters for the In-Person College of Engineering category, and SWARMS received 3rd place in Interdisciplinary Awards for Research Talks.

Robert Sego has been awarded the Department of Defense (DOD) Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship. Sego is a member of the Imaging Processing and Analysis team, and he credits the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program for helping him grow professionally and technically. Professors Ed Delp and Carla Zoltowski have been his VIP mentors for six semesters.

Isaiah Baptiste and Morgan Fuller took the national stage to tour their startups during Opportunity Hub's HBCU@SXSW pitch competition on March 11 at Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas. The mechanical engineering students have also been involved in the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program at Purdue University. Baptiste worked on an autonomous COVID-19 disinfecting robot, and Fuller has been an undergraduate teaching assistant for the MEP GoKart team.

As part of the System on Chip Extension Technologies (SoCET) VIP team, a student design was accepted for fabrication via Google sponsored fabrication of open-source IC designs.

We are pleased to announce the recipients of the Spring 2021 Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program Awards in recognition of outstanding participants through individual and team awards. Student and team categories include Leadership, Outstanding First Year/Sophomore, Innovation in Design, and Share with the World. Additionally, graduate students and faculty are recognized for the efforts in mentoring successful teams. Nominations were sought from students, faculty, and staff. The following individuals and teams are recognized for their contributions for Spring 2021.

It’s one thing to learn concepts and principles through lectures and book reading. That academic foundation is essential, and it’s typically the mainstay of undergraduate education.