Purdue and Colombia build on engagement activities

The next phase of Purdue’s strategic partnership with Colombia will expand private-sector, bilateral engagement to build on previous successes

Purdue Provost Jay Akridge and Suresh Garimella, executive vice president for research and partnerships, have established a faculty steering committee to guide the next phase of the University's strategic partnership initiatives with the nation of Colombia. 

The committee, charged with facilitating a focus on outcomes and impact via the rechristened Colombia-Purdue Partnership (CPP), is composed of professors Indrajeet Chaubey, agricultural and biological engineering, earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences and international programs in agriculture; Robert F. Cox, construction management; Dan Hirleman, mechanical engineering and Office of Corporate and Global Partnerships; and Arvind Raman, mechanical engineering. The committee members have been key players in helping faculty and students engage in Colombia and developing larger-scale opportunities with multiple stakeholders.

Purdue has been involved in education, research and outreach in Colombia for many years, most recently through the Colombia-Purdue Initiative (CPI), incubated in the College of Engineering as part of its strategic planning effort of 2010. The new Colombia Purdue Partnership will focus on select university-level signature projects as overarching organizing themes that will include research, teaching and engagement.

Another key priority will be to engage more formally and intensively with Colombian private-sector and government leadership in order to strengthen the partnership. Entomology professor Jeff Stuart, who is the previous director of CPI, and agricultural economics professor Ken Foster, a newly appointed President’s Fellow, have been tapped to advance research and engagement activities with partners in Colombia.

There has been a substantial increase in bilateral student mobility, to the point where Colombia is Purdue’s No. 1 source in Latin America for graduate students and total students. In the last eight years, 146 Colombian undergraduate students have done summer research at Purdue, and 20 have subsequently joined as graduate students. Further, Colciencias -- Colombia’s equivalent of the U.S. National Science Foundation -- has given Purdue special status as a preferred destination for Colombian graduate students they support via fellowships. Finally, the number of Purdue students studying abroad each year in Colombia has tripled to nearly 500 since 2010.

A number of significant research, development and capacity-building projects have launched with funding from USAID (Farmer-to-Farmer and Cacao for Peace), the Colombian Ministry of Planning (Orinoquia Region Master Plan), and Medellin’s Higher Education Commission (University Innovation Ecosystems). In addition, Purdue is on two of the four winning teams in the Colombia Cientifica program to build world-class universities. Purdue also is facilitating the Aviation and Aerospace Network of Excellence, chartered with three leading universities, Avianca, the Colombian Air Force and Colciencias (NSF Colombia). Purdue also collaborated with Universidad EAFIT in launching Apolo to provide sorely needed computational power for 69 researchers in Colombia.

However, there is much more impact to be made. To aid these efforts, the Office of Corporate and Global Partnerships has two experienced staff who can help faculty quickly identify potential project sponsors and partners in Colombia. They are Liliana Gomez Diaz, director of the Colombia Engagement Office (lgomezdi@purdue.edu) in Bogota, Colombia, and Juan Diego Velasquez, managing director, (jvelasqu@purdue.edu), located at Purdue.