Purdue News Roundup
Purdue News Roundup
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: Conference participants will be at Purdue on Monday, July 21, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Activities will include a visit to the Purdue Agronomy Research Center and panel discussions on food production, research in agriculture and alternative food sources. The evening activity will be a hog roast and square dance. All other seminars will be in Indianapolis.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Purdue University will co-sponsor the Hugh O'Brian Youth Foundation (HOBY) World Leadership Conference July 18-26 in Indianapolis and West Lafayette.
The 250 conference participants are high school sophomores selected from the 14,000 students who attended HOBY leadership development seminars in each of the 50 states and 35 countries around the world. The seminars allow students to meet with state and national leaders to discuss democratic and economic systems, education, entrepreneurship, media and communications, and a variety of other issues affecting the future.
Topics for the eight-day World Leadership Conference include volunteerism; feeding the world; technology, engineering and science; arts and culture; health and wellness; and democracy and free enterprise.
In addition to professors from Purdue, the seminars will be led by executives from major corporations such as Eli Lilly and Co., DowElanco, Allison Transmission, Star Bank and the Indiana Sports Corp. Other seminar participants include Indiana Pacer Heywoode Workman; Indy car driver Lynne St. James; psychologist, writer and comedian Dr. Will Miller; and Indiana Supreme Court justice Brent Dickson.
The Hugh O'Brian Youth Foundation, founded 39 years ago by the veteran actor and star of the television series "Wyatt Earp," is a nonprofit organization that depends on its board of governors and trustees, 5,000 volunteers and private and corporate sponsors to implement its programs. There are 200,000 HOBY alumni.
-- The Joint Highway Research Project, based at Purdue University, has a new name -- the Joint Transportation Research Program. The new name reflects a change in the scope of the program, which is a 60-year-old research effort of the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) and Purdue's School of Civil Engineering. Kumares Sinha, professor of transportation engineering and director of the program, said the mission of INDOT has changed significantly over the years from a highway agency to a transportation agency, and the scope of its research needs has changed as well. "Our research will no doubt remain primarily highway in nature," he said, "but the scope change will enable us to do research involving other modes of transportation." The program's research projects include intelligent transportation systems, recycling of waste materials for highway construction, and the development of safety and congestion management systems for Indiana highways.
Compiled by J. Michael Willis, (765) 494-0371; e-mail, mike_willis@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu
