The postseason looms for Purdue baseball, but the microcosm of the Boilermakers’ remarkable 2026 season was in a sweep of Indiana over Mother’s Day weekend. In a campaign plagued with too many injuries, Purdue persevered with a capital P — or maybe it should be a Motion P — to multiple improbable come-from-behind victories.

The Boilermakers battled back from deficits in all three games against their intrastate rival to solidify their position for the Big Ten Tournament and put themselves in a great place for earning just the fourth NCAA Tournament appearance in school history.

The examples of heroic effort in the face of difficulty are many. But here is a prime example: senior outfielder Brandon Rogers’ performance against the Hoosiers. The Chicago native had not played since early April after suffering a hand injury crashing into the outfield wall at Alexander Field while making a run-saving catch. But against IU on May 9, he came through with a walk-off, two-out, three-RBI double to complete a miraculous five-run ninth-inning surge and give Purdue a 5-4 win. The night before, he hit a game-tying, two-run single to help rally the Boilermakers from an 8-0 deficit to an 11-9 win.

“We had something like five guys who have been in starting roles for most of the year go down,” says senior Aaron Manias, who has battled a bad back for much of the season. “We have found a lot of different ways to get the job done.”

Not to correct Manias, but the number on the injured list is closer to eight. But at this point in this season full of resilience, who is counting? The only tally that matters is victories, and that number is shockingly high (35-18 overall, 18-12 Big Ten) for a team picked preseason to finish 15th or 16th in the 17-team conference race.

“It just shows the depth we have,” Manias says. “Our bench players aren’t really bench players. Our guys are there for when guys go down, and they’ve been ready. They have kept great attitudes, and when their number has been called, they have come up big.”

The next-man-up mentality has paid dividends, producing a team full of believers, willing to do whatever it takes to win, from whatever source it comes.

Fellow senior Avery Moore came up big in the Indiana series as well, enjoying a 4-for-4 game with a pair of home runs. He is one of five Boilermakers who have hit five or more homers to date, as hitting for power is a key component of Purdue’s offense. The Omaha, Nebraska, native is in his second year at Purdue and is viewed, along with Manias (a fellow second-year vet), as a team leader — a role he relishes.

“Coach (Greg) Goff has said all year that we’re going to be the toughest team in the country,” says Moore, who leads the team with a .369 batting average. “We’ve got to put it all on the line to win, no matter what it takes, whether it’s running into walls like we’ve seen (Rogers) do or be willing to get hit by pitches. It takes everything from everybody to get the most out of the team and get those wins that we need.”

Specifically, Moore credits the pitchers for being difference-makers.

“The pitching has been outstanding; our starters, our bullpen,” Moore says. “(Closer) Jake Kramer has been really big for us with being able to put him in late-game scenarios, no matter what it is — bases loaded, whatever; he can come in and shut the door. It has been an everyday aspect of our team, and as long as they hold the opponent to under five runs, we feel like we have a chance to win any ballgame.”

For Goff, who is wrapping up his seventh season at Purdue and 21st as a collegiate head coach, it has all been satisfying. And it shows. How many third-base coaches, where Goff resides when the Boilermakers are at bat, seemingly hug just about every player who stops at the base 90 feet away from home plate?

“These guys have let me coach them; they take our approach well,” says Goff, who speaks like a coach who has never enjoyed a season more. “It’s been a great group of guys. Now, they get on each other. They hold each other accountable, and the good thing for our coaching staff is that it is 100% player-led.

“The thing I respect about our team is that they have been willing to play when they weren’t 100% physically. After Aaron tweaked his back in the series at Northwestern, he pleaded for us to use him in any way possible. In today’s world, a lot of guys will tap out. Their agents will say, ‘Hey, don’t push yourself, you need to think about your future.’ Our guys have done everything medically possible to get on the field, and that earns my complete respect.”

Purdue has grit and determination and is clearly in it to win it — often in dramatic fashion. Four walk-off victories, including Rogers’ aforementioned exploits, have helped the season border on the surreal.

But it is the disciplined, do-the-little-things-right approach that has made the Boilermakers’ world of possibilities burgeon.

Fun with a disciplined approach is the mantra from Goff and his staff. It’s a brain trust that does not cut corners. Batters sprint through first base, even if they have just hit a routine pop-up that is sure to result in an out. Outfielders catch the baseball the old-fashioned way, with their gloves above their shoulders.

“An opposing coach paid our program a compliment in a text message he sent me,” Goff says. “He said, ‘You guys just play baseball at a high level. You don’t walk people, you don’t make errors, you run the bases, you play the short game, you have some guys that hit home runs. It’s just hard to defend you guys.’”

Through it all, Goff has faced some challenging moments. The players have taken pride in their compliance and cohesion, but there have been missteps. That’s bound to happen when dealing with three dozen young players, including several newcomers, on the roster.

“We had a pitcher in our weekend starting rotation that showed up late for our team breakfast,” Goff says. “We could have easily let it go, but he knew that if you miss breakfast, you miss a start. The players know if we, as coaches, don’t live up to what we have said, it all doesn’t work.

“Sure, it is hard in today’s world to stick to our rules, especially when social media is involved. But it was the right decision, and the end result was our players grew even more respectful of what we are doing.”

Goff has had frequent discussions with men’s basketball coach Matt Painter, who loves understanding and evaluating baseball just about as much as he does his day job.

“Matt is great, and he texts me every time we win, which I appreciate,” Goff says. “He’s so invested in what we’re doing, and I have run some thoughts by him because he has such a great feel for it. I remember when trying to decide who to start in the first game of our series at USC, he had thoughts that helped me make the decision. I really appreciate our friendship.”

In the big picture, Goff knows this is a unique coaching journey in 2026. In today’s college sports environment, there will be challenges, especially for sports like baseball. The “new rules” that allow schools to put all players on scholarship have allowed Goff to grow his scholarship pool to nearly 18, up from 11.7. Yet he knows that his program will have to compete with schools in the Southeast that have more revenue-sharing and NIL resources.

“I appreciate the commitment of our athletic administration to us, in this environment,” Goff says. “There’s nothing easy out there when it comes to finances these days.”

Purdue’s “secret sauce” is a key selling point shared by Goff and Painter.

“Purdue is a great school, and we tell parents and kids they are here to get an education first,” Goff says with steely conviction. “With the parents and their son, I lay it out there as honestly as I can. If you don’t go to class, I am going to reduce your scholarship. Now, nobody’s perfect. Yeah, we’re going to love you as somebody in our program. But we also owe it to our guys to be honest with them, and sometimes we lose some guys in the process. But I would rather lose a guy than have them here and it be a problem.”

The good thing for Goff and his staff is that the only current “problem” is winning enough games in the Big Ten Tournament to warrant an NCAA Tournament bid. And the way the 2026 season has transpired, it is hard to bet against this band of banged-up Boilermakers, whose baseball résumé can be summed up with three Rs: resilient, runs and respect.

Written by Alan Karpick, publisher of GoldandBlack.com since 1996.

See how these Boilermakers made their rooms their home at Purdue

Your residence hall room is more than just somewhere to sleep. It’s the place on campus that you call home — and your room should reflect what makes you feel comfortable.  

University Residences provides many of the basics for your room, such as a bed, dresser and desk. These serve as your starting point. The rest is up to you! Your favorite colors. Your interests. Your space. Below, you’ll find tips on how to bring your room to life with themes, lighting and personal touches that fit your style.  

Ava Alter and Alysse Martin combined their love of the West and the ocean to create the theme for their room in Shreve Hall. Framed pictures, a neon light, and turquoise and pink decor bring their coastal cowgirl look to life.

“The theme is coastal cowgirl!” Ava says. “My roommate and I both grew up in rural Indiana and love the western look. We also wanted to give the room a girlie pop of pink and loved the combination of blues and pinks in the coastal cowgirl theme. Our nickname for the room is the Barbie Dream House!”

For Molly Love and Abby Jones, lighting sets the mood. These two roommates wanted warm lighting in their room in Earhart Hall, so they relied on string lights and lamps to create an atmosphere where they can relax. Music decor adds to the ambience.  

With a few personal touches, you can create your desired atmosphere. Lighting, colors, photos and decor can all be used to create the mood you want — whether that’s cozy, energizing, calming or fun.  

“We decided upon a cozy atmosphere,” Molly says. “We decided that we wanted to incorporate plants, ambient lighting and spacious rugs to portray a home away from home. We also made one rule: Don’t turn on the big light!”

Having an open space to relax at the end of the day was important to Kylie Iloski and Vanessa Vega, which is why they collaborated to ensure that everything has a place. With thoughtful storage, these roommates in Shreve ensured they have everything they need without too much clutter.  

“Our theme is cozy and modern with a touch of pink and gold,” Kylie says. “We wanted the room to feel bright, welcoming and put together, while still showing our own styles. The matching details tie it all in, and the neon and name sign make it fun and personal.” 

By planning ahead, you can fill your room with personality while leaving space to unwind at the end of a long day.

These Boilermakers became close friends after they were assigned as roommates

Tori Jones, Deirdre Hostettler and Madeleine Yee had never met prior to being assigned as roommates as first-year students. The three women became close friends despite differing personalities and majors. 

FaceTime sessions prior to move-in day helped the trio get to know each other, and late-night conversations, pranks and embracing each other’s interests solidified a friendship built on mutual support and humor.

Q+A

Before coming to Purdue, what aspects of having a roommate made you nervous?

My biggest concern was clashing personalities. Sometimes, if people are too different, things get messy. I think because we were all new, we were very open to learning about and growing with each other in a way that didn’t have big clashes with our personalities.
– Tori Jones 
Electrical engineering 
Washington, D.C.

Q+A

Once you moved in, how did you start getting to know each other?

We each had different passions, and we were able to translate those passions into different activities that we could do around campus. I really enjoy going to the gym, so it was nice to show my roommates around and explore this new area while doing things together.
– Deirdre Hostettler 
Pharmaceutical sciences 
Indianapolis

Q+A

When did it click that you were going to be good friends?

We took the time to get to know each other and have those late-night conversations, get to see each person for who they are and share their experiences. When one of us gets a win, it’s all of us. If one of us is not feeling great or is sad, we all pitch in and help. 
– Madeleine Yee 
Aeronautical and astronautical engineering 
Los Angeles

Sharon Miller designs experiences to help students gain real-world skills

For Sharon Miller, being an educator isn’t just about passing on technical knowledge — it’s about giving students the tools to recognize their strengths and gain confidence in settings that help turn theory into practice.  

“I love helping students understand their superpowers,” says Miller, associate professor of engineering practice in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering (BME) and assistant vice provost in Indianapolis. “I think each student has a super strength — and sometimes they don’t know what it is. I get to discover what that is in my conversations and work with students. Figuring out what aspects of themselves they can lean on makes them better people.”  

Miller applies her research in engineering education to design experiences that help Boilermakers practice what they learn in teams and real-world settings. Whether she’s planning courses, attending faculty meetings or connecting with local healthcare industry partners, Miller focuses on creating environments where students can succeed in the classroom and beyond. These experiences include immersion in hospitals and local clinics, job shadowing, internships and senior capstone projects.

“We especially see gains in performance when students have to do something over and over,” Miller says. “We design those experiences so they don’t feel rote, and they instead feel confidence-building.”

With hospitals and clinics just steps away from campus, Purdue students in Indianapolis have access to the kind of real-world learning opportunities that are hard to replicate in the classroom. Miller has used this proximity to build connections with clinicians who serve as partners for immersive experiences and help BME students practice what they’re learning while getting an inside look at the healthcare industry. For many students, it’s their first look at how engineering can impact patient care every day.

In support of this mission, Miller led the creation of the INdiana Summer Clinical Residency in Innovation for Biomedical Engineers, also known as (IN)SCRIBE. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, this paid, six-week experience places BME students in clinical settings for immersion and team-based design work totaling approximately 30 hours per week during the summer. Participants complete an innovation camp and clinical rotations, then design solutions based on what they observe.  

“There’s a level of ownership, investment and innovation that these students build over the summer,” Miller says. “We have examples of them taking what they’ve learned into their capstone projects.” 

Capstone projects in Indianapolis are unique in that they take place over two semesters, giving students more opportunities to fully develop their designs while building relationships and gaining valuable feedback from medical professionals. For example, one student group is currently working on a training tool that can be used to simulate emergency surgeries designed to relieve eye trauma caused by blunt force. 

“When the eye starts to swell, there is a need to relieve pressure built up on the optical never — else, the patient may go blind in that eye,” Miller explains. “Someone in the emergency department has to be trained to snip a tendon. Our students are working on a tool that can replicate that procedure, and during capstone, they can meet the people who are going to use it and get feedback in real time. They were able to go in and get the input of 25 surgical residents.” 

The strong connections built with the local medical community extend to the camaraderie Miller fosters within the BME program. Beyond the immersive experiences are smaller moments — an extra email or message to make sure every student is informed of an upcoming opportunity, encouragement for undergraduates to support their TA at a presentation, an introduction to an alum or even a discussion about the best place to get a pizza.

“We’re here to help students explore data and help them build the confidence and technical depth that get them the job or interview,” Miller says. “But we’re also here to introduce students to new people. It’s more than faculty and staff — it’s a whole ecosystem they get to be part of.”  

Miller can feel the closeness of the program when she walks around campus.  

“When I’m in Indianapolis, I literally can’t walk from building to building without running into someone I know,” Miller says. “The size of our program in a big city really makes it feel like we can provide everyone with the ability to be part of it and have access to our partners, industry and the city.” 

For Miller, these everyday connections are a reminder of how far BME students can go — and how personally she takes their success.  

“The most energizing part is seeing students walk across the graduation stage,” Miller says. “When that happens, it means all of Purdue’s systems have worked in a way that allows those students to have success. No matter what their journey in BME has looked like, I know every single name. The end of every semester brings many smiles when I get to see everyone who has made it.”

I love helping students understand their superpowers. I think each student has a super strength — and sometimes they don’t know what it is. I get to discover what that is in my conversations and work with students. Figuring out what aspects of themselves they can lean on makes them better people.

Sharon Miller
Associate professor of engineering practice in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and assistant vice provost in Indianapolis 

How Purdue alumnus Mike Moran’s love for coins grew into scholarship, public service and opportunities for Boilermakers.

When Mike Moran talks about coins, he is talking about much more. 

For him, a conversation about coins is about power, policy, art, economics and ambition. A silver dollar is never just a silver dollar and dimes aren’t just change. Whether newly struck by the U.S. Mint or passed from hand to hand, each piece carries evidence of the country that produced it. In Moran’s hands, coins become a way to read American history. 

That makes him a fitting Purdue voice for America’s 250th anniversary. Moran, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Purdue, has built a career by seeing what small details can reveal about large systems. At Purdue, he says, he learned to solve problems. That skill stayed with him through business, writing, public service and a legislative achievement that brought two classic American coins back into production. 

A problem solver on a large scale 

When a young Moran transferred to Purdue in January 1967, he worked toward his civil engineering degree within what today is the Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering, and then moved into what Purdue then called industrial administration — a master’s program in business that predated the MBA and gave him the business grounding he wanted.

The combination suited him. Engineering taught structure; business taught judgment. And his extracurricular involvement at Theta Chi Fraternity taught him that he could lead. Later, as an officer in what was then Ashland Coal Inc., Moran helped guide more than $2 billion in mergers and acquisitions. He says the work let him build something. By the time he left the company, the operation he helped grow was producing one of every 10 tons of steam coal mined in the United States. 

For his second act, he invested in a wholesale building-products supplier in western Colorado, growing it into a chain and steering it through the brutal housing downturn of 2008-09. 

The same discipline shows up in his research of coins. Moran is an award-winning author, lecturer and researcher whose latest book, “When Coins Were King: The Coins, Power Struggles, and Personalities That Defined a Nation,” treats coinage as financial history in miniature.

It comes disguised as a coin book, but it is a full financial history of the United States from the Civil War brought to life through coins.

Mike Moran

Purdue alumnus and author of “When Coins Were King: The Coins, Power Struggles, and Personalities That Defined a Nation”

Inspiring and advocating on a big stage 

Moran’s influence extends beyond business and bookshelves. 

As a member of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC), a federal advisory committee that collaborates with the U.S. Mint, he advises on designs for U.S. coins and medals.  

In preparation for the nation’s 250th birthday, he got a special assignment.  

“I was in a working group within the mint that was pulled from the CCAC membership. We started meeting in late 2022,” he says.  
 
There was no single coin minted to represent the nation’s 250th birthday. To carry out the provisions of the law authorizing special coinage for the 250th, the working group took a lead role in developing themes that would embody 250 years of American ideals.

That work required knowing what a coin can hold — visually, legally and historically. 

Moran’s most consequential contribution, though, may be the 1921 Silver Dollar Coin Anniversary Act. Moran helped push the legislation that authorized the U.S. Mint to issue new Morgan and Peace silver dollars, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the end of one classic silver dollar and the beginning of another. 

It took two years. There was House and Senate maneuvering, crowded congressional offices, pandemic delays, and timing so tight that Moran feared the bill might die at the end of the session. Instead, it became law Jan. 5, 2021. 

“For me, it was a major accomplishment,” Moran says. “It took all my business and leadership skills to get it done.” 

A wider world for students 

Moran’s giving to Purdue follows the same logic that runs through his life: Understand the system and learn how the world works. He now helps others see more broadly. 

He has generously funded a study-abroad scholarship for engineering students through Purdue’s GEARE program because his own business experience taught him that the American way of doing business is not the only way. International partners from Germany and Spain showed him how differently decisions could be made across cultures.

His GEARE scholarship is meant to get students “across the pond” so they can study in Europe, encounter other cultures and understand how other people live, think and work. 

The best returns 

For all Moran has built, written and influenced, Purdue remains personal. He credits his Purdue years with shaping the foundation of his life — including the relationship with his wife, Dee Dee, whom he married the summer after they reconnected during his time as a student.  

That devotion is still visible. At the time of this writing, in the summer of 2026, Moran was rearranging his days around her recovery from shoulder replacement surgery: the schedule of a busy man organized around care. 

That care extends to students he may never meet. He provides them with a scholarship gift that is more than financial; it extends his conviction that a wider world rewards those who study carefully, think clearly and keep showing up until the work is done. 

Coins may be the artifacts that first taught Moran to read history in miniature. But his Purdue legacy is minted in something more lasting than metal — in the students whose lives are changed by the opportunities he and his wife have made possible.

Ava Flynn pursues innovation in honor of her mother, her own cancer journey and the legacy of Tyler Trent

For Ava Flynn, medicine was never just a career path — it was personal. 

The Purdue biomedical engineering student grew up watching cancer reshape her family’s life.  

“My mom’s whole story is what initially drew me to healthcare,” Flynn says. 

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Flynn moved to the Caribbean with her family and had a picturesque childhood until her mother was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer. 

Her family relocated from the Caribbean to the United States in search of treatment, bouncing between New York, Connecticut, Maryland and Miami while her mother underwent surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation and experimental treatments. Flynn was 12 years old when her mother died in 2015. 

Years later, Flynn faced her own cancer diagnosis. 

During high school, after months of worsening symptoms and multiple misdiagnoses, she learned she had Stage 4 Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Chemotherapy followed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, isolating her from friends, school and much of everyday life.

Still, she refused to let her cancer diagnosis define her future. 

“I don’t care what’s happening around me,” Flynn says. “I’m going to get through whatever I want to get through.” 

That determination — and her commitment to using hardship to help others — earned Flynn the 2025 Tyler Trent Courage and Resilience Award, which recognizes Purdue students who embody the perseverance and selflessness exemplified by late Purdue student and cancer activist Tyler Trent. 

Persistence is the refusal to succumb to adversity. Instead of letting life hold you back, you’re using it to fuel what you can do for the world around you.

Ava Flynn

Biomedical engineering student

Finding a new direction

Before her diagnosis, Flynn planned to pursue medicine through a traditional premed track. But after years spent in hospitals as both a daughter and patient, she found herself searching for a new way to channel her passion for science and healthcare. 

She started learning more about biomedical engineering, a field that combined her interests in math, science and medicine. When it came time to choose a college, the choice was clear.  

“As an engineering student, of course, where are we going to go?” Flynn says. “We’re going to go to Purdue.” 

At Purdue, Flynn found both academic rigor and opportunity. She was especially drawn to the university’s Global Engineering Alliance for Research and Education program, which allowed her to pursue another lifelong passion: international travel. 

Last spring, Flynn studied abroad in Spain, living with students from around the world while navigating an entirely new culture independently. 

“There is nothing you can compare study abroad to,” Flynn says. “It’s the best choice you can make as an undergraduate. It’s the fastest way to learn who you are.”

Building a future through empathy

Flynn is pursuing Purdue’s 4+1 biomedical engineering program as an Engineering Honors Program student, along with minors in French and global engineering studies.

She hopes to attend medical school after graduation while continuing to explore how engineering and medicine intersect. She remains interested in oncology and has also discovered interests in areas such as electrophysiology and medical device innovation. 

During her senior capstone project, Flynn worked alongside physicians to design and prototype a medical device using Purdue’s biomedical engineering labs. 

“It was a lot of fun,” she says. “Getting hands-on experience has been important to me.” 

Last summer, Flynn lived in France while conducting research on heart regeneration. She’ll return to France this summer for work through a Purdue research collaboration.  

Beyond academics, Flynn remains committed to supporting others affected by cancer. This summer, she will serve as a counselor at Camp Kesem, a camp for children impacted by a parent’s cancer diagnosis — an experience that holds special meaning as a former camper herself. 

Carrying Tyler Trent’s legacy forward

Flynn first discovered the Tyler Trent Award while searching for scholarships. The more she learned about Trent, the more connected she felt. 

“I felt like I was reading a little bit of my own story,” Flynn says. 

Receiving the award, she says, felt deeply validating — not only because of academic achievement but also because of the personal implications.

“This award recognizes something different,” Flynn says. “It’s about strength of character.” 

For Flynn, persistence means refusing to allow adversity to determine the course of her life.  

“Persistence is the refusal to succumb to adversity,” she says. “Instead of letting life hold you back, you’re using it to fuel what you can do for the world around you.” 

It’s a mindset she believes Tyler Trent embodied. And it’s one she hopes to carry forward through medicine, research and service to others. 

On a flight into space, Purdue researchers will test forces that could determine how we find our way, build and survive in space

A drop of liquid released in space doesn’t fall. It hovers, clings and stretches into shapes that defy earthbound expectations. And for engineers, that drop resists prediction.  

In 2027, Purdue researchers will follow that bead of liquid aboard a Virgin Galactic spacecraft and into microgravity, chasing answers that could determine how spacecraft navigate, how manufacturing for the supply chain can be accomplished in space, and how humans can survive and function there.  

The Purdue 1 mission is a first: a university-led, research-focused suborbital flight with an all-Boilermaker crew. In a few minutes of weightlessness, experiments that span quantum physics, manufacturing and fluid dynamics will test whether the systems that humanity will need in space can be made efficient, reliable and operationally resilient.  

The research is critical if space is to one day become a place where humans live and work. All of the systems we take for granted on Earth have to work in an environment where gravity, the consistent assumption behind nearly all existing engineering, no longer dominates.  

Navigation without GPS: Wayfinding in deep space  

On Earth, navigation is invisible. Satellites beam signals, and a blue dot appears on our phones or vehicle screens to reassure us that the technology knows where we are and how to get where we’re going.   
   
In deep space, that system collapses.  

“When you go to Mars, you won’t have a GPS signal,” says Shengwang Du, the Scifres Family Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a professor of physics and astronomy. “You have to rely on new technology.”  

That technology — quantum positioning, navigation and timing, or Q-PNT — is at the center of one of Purdue 1’s experiments.   

Du is working to reveal how laser-cooled atoms behave in microgravity along with colleagues Alexandra Boltasseva, the Ron and Dotty Garvin Tonjes Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Vladimir Shalaev, the Bob and Anne Burnett Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Joseph Lukens, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, in collaboration with the company Infleqtion.  

When intensely cold, atoms can become remarkably precise. That’s the idea behind the researchers’ experiment to understand how atoms behave when gravity nearly disappears.  

Using laser light, the team will cool atoms to microkelvin temperatures — just a millionth of a degree above absolute zero (minus 459.67 degrees F). That’s colder than deep space. At these temperature extremes, atoms barely move. And when motion nearly stops, precision takes over.  

“Even a tiny error makes a huge difference,” Du says.  

On Earth, atoms jitter and drift, like a metronome knocked slightly offbeat. But at near absolute zero, their motion becomes steady and predictable.  

That rhythm becomes a kind of internal clock. By measuring its consistency with extreme accuracy, researchers can track motion and position from within the system itself, without satellites.  

That precision could be the future of navigation everywhere.   

Today’s global positioning systems are vulnerable in ways that quantum technology would not be. Satellites are susceptible to outages, interference and attack. Q-PNT points to a different future for both outer space and Earth: navigation that doesn’t depend on satellites. In the long term on Earth, that could mean more reliable timing and positioning for cars, airplanes, ships, financial systems and power grids.   

Quantum systems that can operate without GPS would be more resilient and harder to disrupt and hack. Spacecraft traveling to the moon, Mars or beyond could navigate independently, without relying on signals from Earth.  

Still, navigation is only one of many challenges. To live and work in space, humans will need an entire infrastructure, from guidance systems to orbital manufacturing, capable of producing semiconductors and metals in orbit.

Manufacturing off Earth: Building what you need, when and where you need it 

If navigation answers where you are and where you’re headed, manufacturing answers what you can do once you get there. 

Ajay Malshe and his team’s experiment addresses a constraint as old as spaceflight itself: that every component, every replacement part, every system must be carried into space from Earth. That model isn’t sustainable on a large scale as we move away from individual space missions to operating in space.  

“We are in what you would call Space 2.0,” says Malshe, the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and co-pioneer of the concept “factories in space,” alongside his son, Harsha Malshe, co-founder and chief technology officer of Arkwright Space. “If human habitation, human presence, human operation is going to go to space, the electronics, the semiconductors, chips, quantum and the digits all have to go to space.” 

Malshe’s PRISM team — Purdue Research in Space Manufacturing — has designed its Purdue 1 experiment as a compact, autonomous micro-lab for understanding the science and engineering intrinsic to the in-space manufacturing of electronics and semiconductors. Inside it, researchers will test whether the earliest building blocks of manufacturing can happen in orbit under conditions that are fundamentally different from those on Earth.

The work builds on years of research from Purdue’s Center for In-Space Manufacturing, where engineers, students and industry partners rethink how production happens without gravity. 

Instead of relying on large, energy-intensive systems like furnaces, the experiment uses a far more targeted approach. A diode laser module — drawing less than 50 watts of power — delivers controlled, localized energy to ultrathin layers of silicon and metal.  

The goal is to gently reshape their internal atomic structure and study performance without the standard constraints of bulky scale or the energy demands of traditional manufacturing. 

Beginning with the liquid phase, the experiment also will observe how materials change phases in microgravity and how digital tools can guide manufacturing processes with minimal human intervention. Together, these elements point toward a system that can operate at the point of need with increasing autonomy — a necessity when distance and delay make real-time control from Earth impractical. 

At its core, the work asks a  simple question: Can critical components be made, repaired and adapted when they’re needed and at the rate they’re needed? 

In space, that capability defines resilience. It determines whether a mission can continue when something breaks, whether systems can evolve in place and whether infrastructure can scale beyond one-off missions into sustained operations. 

When liquids refuse to behave: The hidden problem of spaceflight  

On Earth, liquids are obedient. They settle at the bottom of a container. They pour. They drain. In space, they do none of those things.  

“On Earth, liquids just go downhill,” says Steven Collicott, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, who will go up in the Purdue 1 spacecraft to conduct his fluid-dynamic experiment. “That’s all due to gravity. Without gravity, other things draw where the liquid wants to go.”    

Those other things include surface tension and capillary forces, which dominate in microgravity. They determine where fuel collects in a tank, whether water reaches a plant’s roots and whether life-support systems function as intended.  

Every spacecraft depends on liquids for fuel, drinking water for astronauts, coolants for electronics and fluids for medical systems.   

And yet, as Collicott notes, engineers have designed those systems on Earth, guided by intuition that does not apply in space.    

Purdue 1 carries two experiments designed to close that gap.

Controlling liquids when gravity no longer does  

Collicott’s experiment focuses on a deceptively simple question: How do liquids spread across surfaces in microgravity?  

On Earth, gravity dominates fluid behavior. In space, liquids cling, wick and move in ways that are difficult to predict and even harder to model.    

Collicott’s test uses adjustable plates to observe how liquids advance along surfaces under different conditions. The goal is to build models that can predict space-based fluid behavior reliably.  

The lack of those models has had tangible negative consequences. Spacecraft must carry extra fuel, add redundancies and accept inefficiencies. Collicott’s work will pave the way toward spacecraft and space systems that are lighter, cheaper and more precise.   

“If you don’t have a good knowledge of how to handle and separate liquids and gases,” Collicott says, “you’re just wasting precious fuel.”    

In extreme cases, misunderstanding fluid behavior can lead to failure: overheating tanks, losing propulsion or compromising life-support systems.  

The experiment will collect rare, sustained, high-quality data in true microgravity, gathered not by automated systems, but by a researcher adapting in real time.  

That human presence matters. “You put the brain power up there,” Collicott says, adding that the power to adjust conditions maximizes what can be learned.  

When motion complicates everything  

Collicott’s work will study liquids at rest. Abigail Mizzi’s will examine them put in motion.  

Mizzi, a graduate student in aeronautics and astronautics, will join Collicott aboard the Purdue 1 spacecraft. She is leading teams of undergraduate researchers in preparing the experiment designed to learn about rotational slosh — how liquids that are set into motion behave without gravity to slow them down or stabilize them.

On Earth, a shaken cup of coffee quickly settles. In space, it does not. “How long does it take for it to stop moving?” Mizzi asks. “There’s no gravity to make it stop.”    

That question carries enormous implications because moving fluids can shift a spacecraft’s center of mass, affect stability and navigation, and complicate fuel delivery.  

Mizzi’s team is building an experiment that will induce motion by rotating and disturbing liquid systems, then measure how they behave.  

The goal is to develop and improve models used to simulate spacecraft systems. Current simulations contain uncertainty, forcing engineers to compensate with extra fuel, weight and cost.  

“We can’t fly humans to space based on assumptions,” Mizzi says. “We need data.”    

That data will inform propellant systems, life-support systems in spacesuits and water delivery for plants.   

Even something as simple as watering crops in space depends on knowing where the liquid is and whether it can be moved where it’s needed.

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A team effort from the ground up  

The rotational slosh experiment is also a study in how space research is built — not by individual researchers, but by teams learning in real time. Mizzi’s team is filled with Purdue undergraduates who are getting real-world research experience they will likely never forget.  

Owen Fix, who received his bachelor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics in May, is among them. He describes the project as the kind of engineering he used to envision but rarely encountered in the classroom.  

“It’s kind of what I always imagined engineering would be like,” he says, referring to his experience with Purdue’s signature hands-on, iterative learning tied to real-world outcomes.    

His role among several undergraduate researchers on Mizzi’s team is focused on motors and control electronics. It has involved trial, error and the occasional failure in the form of burned components, unexpected results and lessons learned.  

Failures in this process are not flaws; they are inherent to learning. And for Fix, they can also be exciting.   

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in it,” he says. “But that’s kind of part of the fun of doing something that actually matters.”    

For Mizzi, leading the project means managing not just technical challenges, but people. She trains students every semester as seniors graduate and new students join her team. Documenting the work done and progress made while maintaining continuity in a changing team is an ongoing challenge.  

Mizzi takes it all in stride. She understands that space research is not an individual pursuit. “It takes so many people to collaborate and work together to make something massive happen,” she says.

Minutes that matter  

The Purdue 1 mission will provide only minutes of microgravity — minutes that will be choreographed down to the second. Each of the research projects, whether automated or human-run, must activate, capture data and, if needed, receive real-time adjustments.   

Preparation includes simulation, rehearsal and even centrifuge training to replicate the forces of launch. Researchers must be ready to act immediately, without hesitation.  

“Plan, prepare, practice,” Collicott says. Because in space, there are no second takes.  

Moments for momentum  

Each of the Purdue 1 experiments addresses a different piece of a much larger puzzle.

A fifth experiment to be overseen by Beth Moses, astronaut and associate professor of engineering practice, will test wearable technology. 

Individually, they are incremental. Together, they point toward a future where space systems are not just functional, but reliable enough to support sustained human presence.

Opening space to more than astronauts  

The Purdue 1 mission is also part of a broader shift that extends beyond technology.  

Malshe calls it the “democratization of space,” a move from a domain once limited to a few astronauts to one that includes universities, industry and government. He says that this is as it should be. “As a land-grant university, we engage our citizens.”  

Partnerships with NASA, the U.S. Space Force, Northrop Grumman and companies like Infleqtion help move ideas from lab to orbit.  

Shalaev sees that collaboration as essential: “The fact that we’re doing this with industry is very important,” he says, “because it could speed up this new technology. This will help to bring the work we do closer to real technological application in the field of quantum.”

We are in what you would call Space 2.0. If human habitation, human presence, human operation is going to go to space, the electronics, the semiconductor, the quantum all have to go to space.

Ajay Malshe

The R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Boltasseva points out that what follows is competition, momentum and progress. “I think there will be a race to get things into space and test them, and that is great because competition drives technology and fundamental discoveries forward,” she says.  

She also sees something less tangible but in her view just as important: a chance to spark curiosity.  

“I think we are in an important stage right now because quantum for many people is still something mysterious,” she says. “Educating people about quantum technologies at large and their emerging future impact on many aspects of life, technology and science is very important.”  

Purdue’s next chapter in space  

Purdue’s legacy of astronauts, missions and milestones in space is well known.  

Purdue 1 represents a different kind of first — ownership. Purdue is designing and operating its own research in human spaceflight.  

In many ways, it represents a return to the university’s land-grant roots of applied research, real-world problem-solving and practical outcomes. Only now, the field extends beyond Earth.  

When the spacecraft arcs above the planet in 2027, the experiments will last just minutes. But the questions they ask and the answers they yield will endure. Before humans can live in space, they must first understand it. And to gain that understanding, even a drop of liquid matters.

When Samuel Vessat arrived in the United States chasing a basketball dream, he never imagined he might one day represent France in track and field. 

Yet, that possibility now feels increasingly real.

The Purdue standout has emerged as one of the nation’s top 400-meter runners despite having less than three years of serious track experience. His journey — from a basketball-obsessed childhood in France to NCAA All-America honors and Olympic aspirations — reads more like fiction than reality.

“It’s really been a Cinderella story,” says Marquita Mines, who helped mold Vessat as the former track coach at Edward Waters University, a Division II school in Jacksonville, Fla. 

That Cinderella story took another remarkable turn in June, when Vessat finished fourth in the 400-meter dash at the NCAA championships while also being part of a Purdue 4×400-meter relay squad that finished fourth. 

Basketball was always the plan 

Vessat grew up in Saint-Denis, France, a bustling suburb just north of Paris near the Stade de France, home of the French national soccer team. While soccer dominates much of the country, it never captured his attention.

“My dad was a basketball player, so I grew up in a basketball family,” Vessat says. “It was basketball, basketball, basketball.”

His father played professionally in Spain after developing through France’s basketball system. Naturally, Vessat followed the same path. 

He admired competitors more than superstars. Dennis Rodman, Isiah Thomas and former Michigan standout Tariq Abdul-Wahad (ne Olivier Saint-Jean) were among his favorite athletes. He modeled his game after defensive-minded guards such as Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley. 

“He was like an old soul,” says Ron Stewart, a family friend who helped mentor Vessat. “He was incredibly mature, professional and focused. That’s really the best way to describe him. He always seemed to know what he wanted. He was meticulous, serious and intentional about everything he did. That’s just who he is.”

But basketball wasn’t the only thing shaping his future.

Unlike the American collegiate system, the French system often forces athletes to choose between elite sports and academics. Vessat wanted both. 

“Basketball was part of it, but academics were a major reason,” he says. “In France, it’s difficult to balance high-level sports and college studies.” 

That desire eventually brought him across the Atlantic.

Knocking on doors 

Determination was about all Vessat had when he arrived in Atlanta. After attending a basketball camp in Georgia years earlier, he maintained contacts in the area and decided to pursue opportunities in America. The process was anything but smooth. 

He visited campuses, including Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Kennesaw State, hoping for workouts and tryouts. 

“I flew over and started knocking on doors,” he says. 

What he didn’t realize was that NCAA rules prohibit the kind of tryouts he envisioned. 

Eventually, a prep school gave him a chance. He spent six months bouncing between two schools while navigating visa limitations and searching for an opportunity. 

That opportunity arrived at Edward Waters, where he accepted a basketball scholarship. 

Track remained as little more than conditioning practice. At least initially.

The accidental track star 

Like many basketball players, Vessat ran to stay in shape. 

Back home in France, he occasionally trained alongside national-team athletes and friends who competed in track and field. When basketball season ended at Edward Waters, he approached the track coaches about joining workouts. 

Coach Mines gladly welcomed him. At the time, Vessat described himself as an 800- and 1,500-meter runner. The coaches quickly disagreed. 

“We watched him and quickly realized he wasn’t an 800-meter runner,” Mines says. “We decided to try him in the 400 and the 200.” 

Then came a revealing moment. Before his first race, Vessat admitted he didn’t know how to set starting blocks. 

“I had to show him how to set his blocks before the race,” Mines says. 

Minutes later, the novice sprinter ran a 49-second 400. 

“We looked at each other and thought, ‘This kid is going places,'” Mines recalls. 

Every race brought improvement. The raw talent was undeniable. 

“We knew he had 46- or even 45-second potential,” Mines says. 

A difficult choice 

Despite his rapid rise, basketball remained his first love. For a time, Vessat believed he could continue pursuing both sports. Eventually, reality forced a decision. 

“It was very difficult,” he says. “I always thought I could do both sports throughout college.” 

Then circumstances changed. Several coaches and staff members left Edward Waters. At the same time, Vessat wanted to test himself against better competition. 

The transfer portal beckoned. 

Why Purdue? 

Purdue track and field coaches saw the potential immediately. 

The Boilermakers’ staff wasn’t simply recruiting a promising sprinter. They were recruiting an elite athlete with uncommon upside. When Vessat visited West Lafayette, the culture sold him. 

“What stood out was how connected everyone was,” he says. “The culture felt like a family.”

Says Purdue track coach Tony Miller: “Our jumps coach, Coach (Jamaal) Barnes, had a connection with one of Sam’s coaches and reached out. Sam decided to transfer to Purdue, and it’s been a tremendous blessing for our program ever since.” 

Purdue’s reputation also resonated internationally. 

“Purdue is one of those schools you hear about internationally, along with schools like Stanford and Princeton,” Vessat says. 

He arrived in West Lafayette with plenty of potential, and he quickly lived up to all of it and more.

Built for the 400 

Purdue coaches believe Vessat possesses a rare combination of physical gifts and mental toughness. At 6-foot-4, he covers ground effortlessly. 

“His stride length is really good,” Miller says. “He keeps his hips up and wastes very little motion.” 

Yet the physical attributes only tell part of the story. His confidence stands out even more. 

“Ninety-five percent of being a great athlete is confidence,” Miller says. “Sam has that.” 

The confidence is never arrogance. Instead, it fuels relentless preparation. Coaches describe him as a meticulous worker who strings together quality workouts week after week and embraces difficult challenges. 

His character may be his greatest strength. 

“He’s the type of athlete every coach wishes they had,” Mines says.

A 4.0 student at Edward Waters, Vessat earned praise not only for his athletic development but also for his maturity, discipline and character.

The moment that defined him 

Perhaps no story captures Vessat better than the one that happened before a national championship race. 

As he prepared to compete against some of the country’s best runners, he approached Miller with a simple statement: 

“Coach, I’m making the final.” 

Miller smiled and responded that he hoped so. Then Vessat went out and did exactly what he predicted. 

“That’s who he is,” Miller says. “He genuinely believes in himself and then backs it up with action.” 

Eyes on 2028 

The next chapter could be even bigger. Purdue coaches believe Vessat possesses legitimate Olympic potential. 

“If he stays healthy and continues developing, he could be one of France’s top 400-meter athletes,” says Miller. “In two years, I believe he can become a 44-low runner.” 

Vessat isn’t shying away from those expectations.

“The 2028 Olympics are a goal,” says Vessat, who has another year of college eligibility. 

For now, however, he’s focused on daily improvement while enjoying the All-America honors he earned in 2026 and helping Purdue finish in the top 25 — one of the program’s best team performances in more than a half-century. 

Vessat’s parents help keep things in perspective. Although thrilled by his success, they continually remind him to stay grounded. 

“Their message is always the same,” Vessat says. “Stay focused and keep working.” 

It’s advice he has followed since leaving Saint-Denis years ago. 

From knocking on doors in Georgia searching for a basketball opportunity to becoming one of Purdue’s brightest track stars, Vessat’s path has never been conventional. But that’s exactly what makes it remarkable. 

The basketball player who once didn’t know how to set starting blocks is now chasing a spot on France’s Olympic team. Based on everything he has accomplished so far, few would bet against him.

Written by Tom Dienhart, who has worked with GoldandBlack.com since 2019.

As America turns 250, Purdue Agriculture marks over 150 years of responding to the needs that shape food, land and life

Before it became a leader in the agricultural sciences, Purdue University was built on the idea that knowledge should not flow in one direction.

The land-grant model was created to benefit everyday people by offering practical, research-based knowledge, especially in agriculture, science and engineering.

Research was meant to be planted in fields and put to work in communities. The priority was first to listen and then respond. From the beginning, the Purdue College of Agriculture has treated listening as the foundation for everything it does.

“Historically our efforts have been boots on the ground — eyes, ears in every community,” says Bernie Engel, the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Purdue’s College of Agriculture. “Then we do the work to deliver science-based answers for all residents in the state and beyond who can benefit.”

Historically our efforts have been boots on the ground — eyes, ears in every community. Then we do the work to deliver science-based answers for all residents in the state and beyond who can benefit.

Bernard EngeL

Glenn W. Sample Dean of Purdue’s College of Agriculture

The feedback loop

The foundation formed through listening became tangible in the early 20th century with Purdue Extension, the statewide network that placed educators in every county. The educators were intermediaries between rural communities and Purdue researchers. They brought questions and concerns to researchers who could respond to the needs expressed.

In the late 19th century, farmers needed to know which wheat varieties would survive Indiana conditions. To find out, Purdue began formal crop trials in 1880 and spent decades building comparative data. After that, farmers asked how they could be sure the seeds they bought were trustworthy, so Purdue helped establish seed certification in the early 20th century to ensure a named variety would perform as advertised.

Farmers also needed to better understand why crops failed, so Purdue researchers took soil testing into the field — literally — by train. They did on-farm demonstrations in the 1930s. Each advancement followed the same cadence: listen, test, return.

Crop farming, which historically had been based on family traditions and farmer intuition, now involved deliberate decisions based on Purdue-guided testing and evidence.

When listening grows

As the country grew and changed, so did the questions. By the mid-20th century, farmers were no longer asking only how to grow a crop, but how to grow it better and grow more of it under the pressures of diseases, insects, weeds and uncertainty. Purdue’s wheat-breeding research reshaped entire regions. At one point, hardy varieties developed through Purdue collaborations covered more than 80% of soft red winter wheat acreage in the eastern United States.

The conversation had widened from individual farms to large farming systems.

It got wider still as Purdue’s influence went global. When Gebisa Ejeta, Distinguished Research Professor and Presidential Fellow, developed drought- and Striga-resistant sorghum, he was responding to the needs of farmers thousands of miles away in Africa.

Sudan, which has faced chronic food insecurity driven by drought and economic instability, now plants an estimated 1 million acres of Ejeta’s drought-tolerant, disease-resistant sorghum hybrids. The 300% increase in yields has bolstered food security for millions.

Similar patterns of Purdue agricultural research have guided work in managing forests, protecting water systems and strengthening food supply chains, all areas where the questions are just as urgent if less visible than a failing crop.

No matter where, the constant has been listening to, and responding to, expressed need.

Hearing what can’t be seen

Purdue agriculture also has a duty to devote attention to the natural world itself, researching soil chemistry, plant biology, and the molecular language of growth and resilience. The questions here are complex, but no less essential to answer.

This vital work happens in labs where searches for answers happen on a microscopic scale, and the quests are so complex that they can take decades to answer.

In Purdue’s Department of Biochemistry, this kind of work also has been underway for generations. It doesn’t always produce immediate results or make headlines, but it underpins nearly everything that does.

“Basic research feeds into all other research and provides the foundation for it,” says Clint Chapple, Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry. “Without that fundamental understanding, you can’t begin to know what’s happening or how to improve it.” 

For more than 30 years, Chapple’s lab has focused on a single, deceptively simple question: how plants build themselves at the molecular level. The work is meticulous, iterative and often far removed from the urgency of the marketplace or the immediacy of the growing season. It is also essential.

“What my lab has done over the past 30 years is understand how a biochemical pathway works — the kind of deep problem that takes decades to figure out,” he says.

That pathway governs how plants produce compounds to protect them from ultraviolet light, strengthen their cell walls and help them survive drought and disease. It is the kind of knowledge that does not immediately translate into a new crop variety or a higher yield. Instead, it rewrites the underlying rules.

“When you can help rewrite what’s in the textbooks, you’ve done something foundational,” Chapple says. “Something that others will build on for years to come.” And they do.

Across Purdue — and far beyond it — researchers rely first on that foundational understanding to ask more applied questions: how to breed crops that require less fertilizer, how to make plants more resilient to a changing climate, how to unlock new uses for plant-based materials. Without the basic science, those questions would go nowhere.

“It is the engine that drives forward everything else,” Chapple says.

It is, in its own way, another form of listening — not to farmers in a field or communities in need, but to the quiet logic of the natural world. To molecules assembling themselves and pathways unfolding.

At Purdue, that kind of listening has long been part of the agricultural mission. While less visible, it is wholly indispensable.

You’re not going to have a healthy agricultural system if you don’t have resilient rural communities.

Nicole Widmar

Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics 

A broader definition of need

Today, the act of listening has expanded even further — beyond farms, crops and livestock, into the broader fabric of rural life. That includes how animals are raised, how food is developed and delivered, how healthcare is accessed and how ecosystems are sustained.

Nicole Widmar, head of Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Economics, describes agriculture not as an isolated sector, but as something inseparable from the communities that sustain it.

“You’re not going to have a healthy agricultural system if you don’t have resilient rural communities,” she says.

The needs that Purdue agriculture responds to now go far beyond yields and inputs to include healthcare access, broadband infrastructure, education and economic stability. Without those, agriculture can’t function — not because crops fail, but because people leave.

Listening, in this context, means understanding systems: how a hospital that closes affects a farming community, how internet access shapes a market, how policy decisions ripple through supply chains.

Given all of these interconnected and constantly moving parts, the influence of Purdue agriculture is seldom obvious.

“When people have kids in 4-H, when they’re learning about nutrition, all of these aspects come back to the college,” Widmar says. “It’s supposed to fit seamlessly into your life.”

And that works. The goal is not to be recognized but to be relevant.

Listening forward 

If Purdue’s past is defined by its ability to hear, it is keenly aware that its future depends on what it listens to and responds to next.

Data — vast, constant and increasingly precise — is now a big and growing part of the conversation. Artificial intelligence is pervasive. It is beginning to interpret patterns that humans alone can’t. Sensors monitor crop fields, forests and supply chains in real time. They also track animal health and environmental conditions, widening the scope of what can be heard and understood.

“Some of these are shorter term, and some are much longer term,” Engel says of current research efforts to design better crops or fully exploit AI. “There are things we’re doing that will be 10, 15, 20 years and beyond before they grow up and have the impacts that we might envision.”

A different kind of student 

The students entering Purdue’s College of Agriculture today reflect the growth and change around them.

Most are no longer raised on farms and have little direct experience in agriculture. Inheritance doesn’t draw them; intention does. They want to contribute to systems that matter — food, health and sustainability. They are less tied to a single academic pursuit than to their determination to get an education that will enable them to make a difference for the better.

In that sense, they are being trained not just to learn knowledge, but to recognize what knowledge is needed. To listen, think critically and respond.

The work of the next 250 years 

Anniversaries like America’s 250th invite reflection. They prompt institutions to take stock of how they’ve done.

Purdue’s College of Agriculture understands that what matters is what questions have been answered and what questions remain.

For more than a century, Purdue agriculture has operated on a simple premise: that the best solutions begin with attention — attention to farmers, attention to communities and attention to systems, visible and invisible.

At 250 years, America remains a work in progress, as does the Purdue College of Agriculture. The conversations that sustain both are progressing, too. And Purdue is still listening.

Boilermaker is now earning a doctorate in autonomy, intelligence and robotics

Prosper Kpotufe keeps going. The doctoral student is an Orr Fellow and software engineer at The MJ Companies, with experience at Johnson & Johnson, PPG, Fastenal Company, American Chemical Society and Eli Lilly and Company. He’s been a peer mentor, research assistant, teaching assistant and computer science ambassador at Purdue and a part of the Purdue Innovates Firestarter cohort. Born and raised in Indianapolis, he believes the city was the perfect place to earn his Purdue bachelor’s degree in applied computer science in Indianapolis.

Q+A

What led you to computer science? 

Growing up, I was always looking for opportunities with the most growth. Always entrepreneurial. Initially, I studied chemical engineering because its applications seemed endless. Later, as an Eli Lilly intern, I worked with two chemical engineers on a software platform that completely captured my attention. They encouraged me to follow that passion for tech, and another mentor helped me decide on computer science. Having mentors is everything.

Q+A

What excites you about your major?

Through mentors and Purdue resources in Indianapolis, I’ve discovered infinite ways to use computer science to create community. I’ve made dream connections with leaders who want to make the world a better place. We’re at a time where technology is a key that can unlock any door.

Q+A

What does persistence mean to you?

Persist because other people are depending on it. I always think about this poem called “The Bridge Builder” by Will Allen Dromgoole. Building bridges can be hard, but it’s the only way we can all succeed.

Q+A

What are you most excited for next?

I’m working on this nonprofit that’s centered on history and STEM education. It was one of the many ideas in my Notes app, and now it’s coming to life with the help of Purdue Innovates. Education is important to me — it’s never about being the smartest person in the room — it’s about learning as much as you can. Chase anything you think is interesting.

On the Purdue 1 mission, Abigail Mizzi will become the first grad student to conduct research on a commercial suborbital flight

Note: This story is part of a series that will introduce each member of the all-Boilermaker crew who will participate in Virgin Galactic’s historic Purdue 1 suborbital flight in 2027. 

Sometimes when Abigail Mizzi thinks back on the moment Steven Collicott invited her to join the Purdue 1 mission, she still can’t believe it happened. 

“He said, ‘Do you have any concerns about going to space?’ Mizzi recalls of the life-changing conversation with the Purdue professor who will serve as the mission’s lead researcher. “Any concerns about going to space? That’s not something a graduate student has ever heard. I was just in shock and also trying to hold back tears because it was so incredible.” 

But it was an honest question — and the offer was very real. 

“The selection committee found her to be our best choice for this unique opportunity,” says Collicott, now Mizzi’s graduate thesis advisor in Purdue’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AAE). 

Mizzi (BS AAE ’25) was interviewing with Collicott on the recommendation of Dan DeLaurentis, whom she assisted in his research lab before he accepted a new position as Purdue’s executive vice president for research. DeLaurentis suggested that Collicott might have a promising opportunity for her, but Mizzi never fathomed that it would be this. 

Not only did Collicott invite Mizzi to join him on the 2027 Purdue 1 mission — the first university-chartered commercial suborbital spaceflight, where all five crew members will be Boilermakers — he was also offering an opportunity the likes of which had never been extended to someone like her. 

When she initiates her human-tended experiment studying fluid dynamics during the Virgin Galactic flight, 23-year-old Mizzi will become the world’s first graduate student to conduct research on a commercial suborbital flight, as well as one of the youngest people ever to travel to space. 

“This is truly the best opportunity that I ever would have imagined because I’m getting to do engineering and science, and I’m getting to do something that’s never been done before,” Mizzi says. “Hopefully it will allow even more people like me — more students and learners — to go do research in space.” 

A secret revealed

Mizzi was not the only Boilermaker who was shocked by the news that a Purdue student could fly aboard a research mission like Purdue 1. 

By the time the all-Boilermaker spaceflight was announced on Sept. 23, 2025, a dozen undergraduate students from Collicott’s famous AAE418 (Zero-Gravity Flight Experiment) class had already been assisting graduate assistant Mizzi for a month, working to upgrade Collicott’s autonomous experiment from Virgin Galactic’s Galactic 07 mission in 2024. At the university’s launch party, the students learned about the secret that Mizzi had been unable to share with them until that moment. 

“We had no idea about Purdue 1 or Abby going to space when we joined the project, and I think that is a major key to our team’s strong connection,” says Alayna Miller, a spring 2026 graduate in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. “Everyone joined this team with true passion and interest in the experiment, not with an ulterior motive of being part of Purdue 1.” 

But their lack of clarity about the scope of the experiment did create some communication hiccups that now amuse the researchers as they look back on their first few weeks on the team. 

“It’s funny because a lot of us would say something like, ‘We should change the system to do this,’ and Abby would say, ‘I don’t know about that,’ which confused us,” says Kyra Charters, another of the team’s spring 2026 graduates. “She wanted us to add a control panel and all of these characteristics that weren’t going to be autonomous, and we were still focused on making a new autonomous version. So when we learned that Abby was going to be up there and flying with this, a lot of these times where she was pushing back on our ideas made a lot more sense.” 

Their experiment aims to collect critical data about liquid behavior in zero-gravity environments, which could have a wide-ranging impact on future long-haul space missions — from fueling rockets and spacecraft to developing life-support systems. 

“When I chose to go to Purdue for my undergrad, I couldn’t have imagined that this is something that I would be working on my senior semester,” Charters says. “There are so many incredible opportunities here at Purdue to participate in hands-on design or research, or a lot of different things where you get actual experience.” 

The student researchers were already excited about their work even before the Purdue 1 announcement, but learning about their team’s unique role in the mission shifted the group dynamic. Miller described the vibes in the first class after the announcement as “electric,” once the teammates finally understood the stakes involved. 

“It wasn’t until the Purdue 1 announcement where it finally clicked,” Miller says. “We weren’t just designing an experiment — we were designing a piece of Boilermaker history.” 

And they’ve built invaluable experience in the process, giving Mizzi an opportunity to pay it forward to a group of younger Boilermakers in the same way that so many students, professors and mentors invested in her during her time at Purdue.  

“They’re getting to CAD (computer-aided design) things. They’re getting to design our control panel. And they’re getting to have ownership and be able to say, ‘How can we make it more intuitive? What’s the best way for a human to interact with the system? How do we make this easy for a high-pressure, three-minutes-of-microgravity situation? What are the different aspects that we need to consider as designers to make a product that is easily usable by a human?’” Mizzi says. 

“That’s all engineering. I think it’s so exciting that I’m getting to support their learning and their development and they’re getting to work on a real project that’s going to do something really cool,” Mizzi adds. “I’m so glad that I get to help them learn and help them grow, and they’re helping me grow.” 

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Mutual growth and support 

In many ways, that theme of mutual growth and support has been a constant throughout Mizzi’s Purdue experience — and even before it started. 

She attended an on-campus Women in Engineering outreach session as a high schooler and became comfortable with Purdue’s campus, the types of students she’d interact with and the learning opportunities that would be available. Later as a prospective student, she recalls attending an informational session on Zoom where Angie Zhang, then the president of Purdue’s section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), was among the speakers. Years later, Mizzi remembers the thoughtful gesture that Zhang extended to the total stranger who had expressed an interest in becoming a Boilermaker. 

“She gave me her phone number and said, ‘After this event, reach out to me if you ever need something. I’m in aero, I do these research things and I’ve done these jobs.’ And everything she did just seemed cool,” Mizzi says. “I thought, ‘That sounds like what I want to do in aerospace engineering.’ It struck me as very kind and welcoming and supportive of her.” 

Mizzi soon took Zhang up on the offer, trading texts about how to best prepare for becoming a Purdue engineering student. Their exchange was so encouraging that Mizzi sought out the SWE table when she attended the university’s annual B-Involved Fair as a brand-new Purdue student exploring which student organizations she might like to join. 

After joining SWE, Mizzi engaged with older students like Zhang who took a genuine interest in her success, whether they were helping her create her first résumé, offering interview tips or helping her navigate the ups and downs of the Purdue engineering experience. 

“They really made me feel like, from Day 1, I had somebody to go to if I got an interview and didn’t know what to wear or had this event and didn’t know what to do,” she says. “There were always people who had done that. And I think that’s why SWE and the Women in Engineering program are so important. They give you a person who says, ‘Yes, I will help you. I’ve been there before, and I want to fill you up and make you feel supported and confident. You can nail this interview. You can do this.’” 

Mizzi received similar support from upperclassmen in research labs and when she joined the Purdue Space Program’s hybrid rocket team as a freshman. 

She had a limited understanding of how rockets worked when she joined the club, but she peppered team mentors with questions about how the engines functioned and what technologies are used for the challenges they faced. Over time, she expanded her knowledge base and practical skillset by working with the team each Saturday morning at Purdue’s Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories, where they tested their designs. 

“I’d never built a rocket before, but stepping onto that team was completely mind-blowing,” Mizzi says. “We got to go from assembly of our plumbing system to then hot firing the engine at the end of my freshman year. It was really cool just to be like, ‘OK, I did something small in this, and it took a lot of knowledge from the upperclassmen on the team to get us here, but I learned a lot from them.’ It was an incredible experience.” 

Mentorship didn’t come solely from Mizzi’s professors and classmates, however. It also came from Purdue alumni like Jeri Lynn Metzger (BS AAE ’05). Mizzi reached out to Metzger — a deputy program manager at Northrop Grumman who remains active in the national SWE organization — before attending the 2023 SWE conference in Los Angeles. The two connected in person at the event, and Metzger soon became another trusted source of guidance, helping Mizzi navigate SWE membership and introducing her to a high-ranking executive at Northrop Grumman prior to her summer internship at the aerospace and defense giant. 

“The connections through SWE are one of my favorite things that I continue to enjoy as an adult and as a volunteer,” Metzger says. “It helps me connect with current students, with my roommates from college and with other people that inspire me — and it was a fantastic way to meet Abby.” 

As she looks ahead to the Purdue 1 spaceflight that will help her join the university’s prestigious Cradle of Astronauts, Mizzi understands the foundational role that these many Boilermakers played. 

The way she sees it, she won’t be the only person occupying her seat on the Virgin Galactic Delta-class spacecraft when it lifts off. She’ll be bringing along all of the Boilermakers who helped her get there. 

“With every single one of these people, the analogy I like to use is that they’ve all given me a feather to put in my wings to now fly,” Mizzi says. “They truly have all supported me every single step in the highs and the lows. When I didn’t get into different opportunities that I wanted, when I got rejection emails or letters of not being accepted, they were still supporting me through all of that. I’m so grateful that I’m here.”

With every single one of these (mentors), the analogy I like to use is that they’ve all given me a feather to put in my wings to now fly.

Abigail Mizzi (BS AAE ’25)

Who during the Purdue 1 mission will become the first graduate student to conduct research on a commercial suborbital spaceflight

Paying it forward 

Mizzi’s Purdue experience has hardly been a one-way transaction where she only reaped the benefits of attending one of the world’s top aerospace engineering universities, however. She also uplifted many fellow Boilermakers along the way. 

She has worked in research labs, helping professors bring next-gen technologies to life. She has represented the AAE program, the College of Engineering and the John Martinson Honors College as a student ambassador. And as she rose through the ranks with SWE, she held multiple leadership positions before ultimately serving as section president in 2024-25. 

“It was exciting to be on the other side of things and be like, ‘Hey, I’ve been at Purdue for a few years and I learned these things from these people. How do I continue that because they’ve graduated and left Purdue? How do we continue making sure that the way they helped me continues to be passed down? And how do we continue to expand upon the community-building, the technical development and the professional development and really make sure that we’re supporting students in all the ways they need? The mission is to make better engineers and leaders, so how do we make sure that we’re doing that?’” says Mizzi, who was recognized as one of the SWE global organization’s Outstanding Collegiate Members in 2025. 

Seeing students like Mizzi display that leadership is among the primary reasons why Northrop Grumman’s Metzger — herself a SWE award winner — continues to enthusiastically support the organization years after graduating from Purdue. 

“I don’t know if it’s intrinsic, if it’s understanding the privileges that we’ve had and wanting to make sure others have them as well, but I do see it in Abby. I absolutely do,” Metzger says. “She wanted to make sure that SWE was there, that it continued to thrive, such that current classmates and future classmates had the same opportunities or more.” 

And now, as Mizzi prepares for her historic trip to space, she’s leading a group of students whose work will improve her chances of success during the Purdue 1 mission while simultaneously helping them build skills and credentials that will surely pay off in their budding aerospace careers. 

“Her ability to level with each of us on the team has made us feel comfortable sharing our thoughts and has encouraged us to try new things,” Miller says. “I feel strongly that good leaders lead people, but great leaders make leaders of their people. The strongest leaders are those who encourage independence and empower their teams to believe in their individual strengths. 

“Abby embodies this fully,” Miller says. “I believe that good things happen to good people, and Abby’s opportunity to fly aboard Purdue 1 is just one of those many blessings she is well deserving of.”

Emily Spreen helps lead lunar innovations and spacecraft landing and recovery operations at Johnson Space Center

When Boilermakers begin to dream of what’s next — for themselves, for their communities, for the world — they build a brighter tomorrow together. Read the real stories that inspired our video and find out what happens when you dream bigger at Purdue.

Emily Spreen doesn’t have one of the most interesting roles in aerospace — she has two.  

At NASA’s Johnson Space Center, she’s an engineer helping humans return to the moon. She also leads a team positioning the recovery forces that retrieve a crew and spacecraft following their return to Earth and splashdown in the ocean. 

It all started in high school, when Spreen and her father took a spur-of-the-moment trip to see the final launch of the space shuttle Discovery from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.  

“When I saw the launch, I knew I wanted to be a part of it,” she says. “I had no idea how yet, but I knew that was it.” 

Setting the bar high  

Spreen began her college career studying engineering and pursuing opportunities that brought her closer to spaceflight. Early internships at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Langley Research Center gave her hands-on experience and confirmed she was on the right path. 

She started at the University of Maryland, getting in-state tuition with the Academic Common Market program. After earning the NASA Aeronautics Scholarship, she transferred to Purdue — a place where she could fully immerse herself in space-focused research.

As soon as I got to Purdue, I felt like I found where I belonged.

Emily Spreen

BS aeronautical and astronautical engineering ’15, MS astrodynamics and space applications ’17, PhD astrodynamics and space applications ’21

“As soon as I got to Purdue, I felt like I found where I belonged,” she says. “I loved it so much that I just didn’t leave.” 

West Lafayette reminded her of the small towns she grew up around in South Carolina. She made connections easily and enjoyed the most iconic campus experiences — like completing a fountain run with one of her best friends and taking photos beside the statue of Neil Armstrong after each graduation ceremony.  

She completed her bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering in 2015, then stayed to pursue both a master’s and doctorate in astrodynamics and space applications. The field focuses on how spacecraft move. Engineers in astrodynamics can plan missions, design trajectories and determine how to safely send humans and technology through space. 

A course with Kathleen Howell, the Hsu Lo Distinguished Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, helped solidify Spreen’s direction. Spreen joined Howell’s research group, diving deeper into orbit design and mission planning, which she first experienced during her Goddard internship. The community she found at Purdue also played a defining role. Surrounded by Boilermakers who shared her ambitions, she built friendships that continue today. 

“We literally call it Purdue South here,” she says. “There are three Purdue PhDs from my research group in my office.” 

Turning research into reality 

While still in graduate school, Spreen interned at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. She later joined as a civil servant through the Pathways program, continuing her work while finishing her doctorate. 

Today, she serves as an aerospace engineer contributing to some of NASA’s most ambitious human spaceflight initiatives. Her work includes studying the Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit around the moon and developing lunar missions.  

She also leads a team supporting landing and recovery operations. After astronauts return to Earth — like when Artemis II came back from its 10-day lunar flyby mission on April 10, 2026 — their spacecraft splashes down in the ocean. Spreen’s team predicts where parachutes and hardware will land, helping position recovery crews safely. The work is fast-paced, collaborative and deeply meaningful. 

“I’m not watching all this history get made,” she says. “I’m helping to make it happen.”

Remembering her worth

Throughout her career, Spreen has learned that pursuing ambitious goals requires persistence — and self-advocacy. 

Working in aerospace means tackling long timelines and complex challenges. Speaking up, asking for opportunities and stepping into new roles helped her expand her impact. 

“You’re not going to make as much progress unless you say, ‘I want to do that. I want to be a part of this. I’m smart enough for this,’” she says. 

She can think of endless examples from her education and career. Step one to becoming a subsystem lead on the landing and recovery team? A conversation with her manager where she said she wanted to work on the U.S. Navy ship that’s used on the mission.  

“It wasn’t like someone said, ‘Emily, do you want this job?’” she says. “When you’re brave enough to speak up, you open a lot of doors for yourself, and you help move the mission forward.” 

Looking beyond Earth

Today, Spreen works at the center of missions that will define the next era of human spaceflight. Whether she’s planning lunar orbits or helping guide recovery teams, her work contributes directly to getting astronauts safely to their destination and back again. 

The same excitement she felt watching Discovery’s final launch still drives her. Only now, she’s part of the workforce making liftoff possible. 

“I love what I do,” she says. “We’re at the forefront and pushing it further than what seems possible. I’m living my dream.”

We’re at the forefront and pushing it further than what seems possible. I’m living my dream.

Emily Spreen

BS aeronautical and astronautical engineering ’15, MS astrodynamics and space applications ’17, PhD astrodynamics and space applications ’21

Brian Rexing explains how being the 2026 milk ‘rookie’ is an honor that extends beyond the track

“The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” is so much more than a spectacle — it’s a connection point with countless traditions. One of those treasured rituals is the role of the milk people. This year’s “rookie” is Brian Rexing, an Indiana dairy farmer who earned a certificate from the College of Agriculture in 1992 and currently has two Boilermaker daughters.  

Q: What was your reaction when you were chosen to be a milk person? 

A: This is an honor. It has nothing to do with me and everything to do with the industry I get to represent. Dairy farmers are optimistic and committed, and any chance to recognize that is amazing. The Indy 500 really resonates with people, and it’s humbling to have this opportunity. 

Q: What does the milk rookie do? 

A: As the rookie, I’ll present milk to the winning team owners and chief mechanic. I’m also doing interviews, meeting the governor and helping out with the ceremony in any way I can. It’s really going to be fun. Next year, I’ll be the one handing milk to the driver.  

Q: What’s something people may not know about your job? 

A: It’s rewarding in so many ways, especially being a part of the Indy 500, Dairy Farmers of America and National Milk Producers Federation. I’ve made connections across the state, throughout the country, even around the globe. Everywhere in the world, dairy farmers are facing the same struggles and wins. You gain an incredible perspective and meet great people.  

Q: What does it mean to have your daughters at Purdue? 

A: I could not be prouder of all four of my kids. Two are at Purdue — Mylie is a junior in agribusiness with a minor in psychology, and Aleah is a freshman in agriculture sales and marketing. It’s a place where dedicated people go. My sister Kelle graduated from the College of Veterinary Medicine in 1989 and lost her battle to cancer in 1997. Kelle was an amazing student. Purdue’s always had a strong presence in our lives.

Q: How does being a fourth-generation farmer influence the way you look at life? 

A: There is no challenge too big to overcome. I’m focused on making things even better for the next generation. Seeing my daughters step into the industry is really cool. I’m happy with whatever path the girls choose, but we could keep the legacy going and even have a second-generation milk presenter someday.  

Q: What are you most excited for next? 

A: With being a presenter, my family’s creating memories we’ll have for the rest of our lives. I can’t think of a more exciting thing to do. We’re producing a product that is wholesome and nutritious, and I’m proud to be a part of it — that’s what puts a spring in your step.