Category: Fast Company: Innovation

article | Research

Purdue scientist helps guide the eyes of soon-to-launch Webb Space Telescope, successor to Hubble

UPDATE: As of January 24, the JWST has reached its orbit. Now that the telescope is where it needs to be, it is beginning to turn on, test and calibrate instruments. This process will take about five months, with the first photos probably...

article | Research

Training computers to tease out the subtext behind the text

Computer scientists use machine learning to connect real-world events with text on social media and in news articles    It is hard enough for humans to interpret the deeper meaning and context of social media and news articles. Asking computers...

article | Research

FDA approves pioneering drug for ovarian cancer surgery

Purdue-developed imaging drug allowed surgeons to find additional cancer lesions Ovarian cancer patient Carol Giandonato admits to being apprehensive when her oncologist told her he wanted to make her cancer cells turn fluorescent green.  "Am I going to glow in the dark?...

video | Research

FDA Approves New Ovarian Cancer Detection Drug by Purdue Researcher

The latest cancer detection discovery by Philip Low of Purdue University could change outcomes for ovarian cancer patients forever. He developed a new drug called Cytalux that binds a fluorescent marker to cancer cells. This illuminating compound is the first...

article | Research

Researchers study the link between vitamin D and inflammation

An active metabolite of vitamin D—(not the over-the-counter version) — is involved in shutting down inflammation, which could potentially be beneficial in patients with severe COVID-19. Scientists recently gained insights into how vitamin D functions to reduce inflammation caused by...

article | Research

Expert on space junk: When spacecraft explode, answers may be in the debris left behind

Much of the space junk orbiting Earth won’t clean up itself – or tell you how it got there. Purdue University’s Carolin Frueh and her team are investigating what causes spacecraft to become space junk. Their findings are revealing ways to prevent...

article | Education

Electric vehicles could fully recharge in under 5 minutes with new charging station cable design

Purdue University engineers have invented a new, patent-pending charging station cable that would fully recharge certain electric vehicles in under five minutes – about the same amount of time it takes to fill up a gas tank. Today, chargers are...

article | Research

Spacecraft deorbiting device developed at Purdue ready for upcoming test launch

UPDATE: The unmanned rocket carrying this drag sail exploded shortly after launch on Sept. 2. A drag sail that a team at Purdue University developed to pull launch vehicles in space back to Earth is scheduled to undergo a test launch on...

article | Education

Driving Progress through a Data-Fluent Generation

Purdue University and engine manufacturing powerhouse Cummins Inc. share a lot in common.  Dan Hirleman, executive director for international advancement and professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue, puts it this way: “Purdue and Cummins have the same philosophy, I think — the...

article | Experience

Partnerships, community involvement increase wellness at Purdue Polytechnic High Schools

A group of students from Purdue Polytechnic High School (PPHS) Schweitzer Center at Englewood is tackling health and wellness issues in their community. The students worked with Purdue University professors Jasmine Gonzalvo and Sonak Pastakia and Purdue students with the College of Pharmacy’s Center for Health Equity...

podcast | Research

Podcast Ep. 35: Purdue Professor Creates Whitest Paint to Combat Global Warming

In this episode of This Is Purdue, professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, Xiulin Ruan, discusses his newest invention – ultra-white paint. In an effort to curb global warming, Xiulin and his team created the whitest white acrylic paint,...

article | Experience

Shellfish inspire chemists to develop new stronger, more sustainable glues

Humans rely on the ocean for a vast array resources: food, energy, minerals, even the less tangible ones of inspiration and recreation. But one ocean byproduct may not be obvious: glue. Shellfish have been clinging to rocks for eons longer...