L to R: Pooja Chaudhary, Ambassador Eric Garcetti and Mahindra Rautela
On Wednesday, June 21, Pooja Chaudhary and Mahindra Rautela, two visiting scholars in Purdue’s Indian Overseas Visiting Doctoral Fellows program, were invited to Washington, D.C. to take part in an intimate meeting with Prime Minister Modi, First Lady Jill Biden, U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti, Minister of External Affairs Dr. S. Jaishankar, Indian Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu, CEO of Micron Technology Sanjay Mehrotra, and Director of the National Science Foundation Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan.
The fellows were among a selective group of 11 U.S. and Indian students invited to participate in a discussion on “Skilling for the Future,” which included showcasing US-India collaboration in STEM.
OVDF is a Purdue program funded by India’s Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), which aims to provide meaningful international research experiences for top PhD students enrolled in Indian institutions while fostering collaborations between research groups in order to strengthen institutional partnerships between Purdue and Indian higher education institutions. Chaudhary and Rautela are among 74 fellows, since 2020, who have spent more than a year at Purdue doing research with Purdue faculty. Chaudhary is a student from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Mohali, working with Purdue Professor Alexander Laskin in the Department of Chemistry and home advisor Baerbel Sinha on a project investigating the environmental impact of brown carbon over the Indo-Gangetic plain. Rautela, a student from Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, has been working under the guidance of Purdue Professor Shirley Dyke and Indian IISC advisor (and Purdue alumnus) Dr. S. Gopalakrishnan, exploring intelligent deep space habitats.
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L to R: Heidi Arola, Vijay Raghunathan and Mark Lundstrom
“If someone from the 1950s suddenly appeared, what would be the most difficult thing to explain to them about life today?” asked Mark Lundstrom, the Don and Carol Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, to more than 200 admitted Purdue students, parents and alumni in New Delhi and Mumbai, India, on April 5 and April 7. “That I possess a device in my pocket that is capable of accessing the entirety of information known to humankind ...” he continued, quoting author Ian Leslie.
In his keynote talk for the ninth annual India-Purdue Collaborative Lecture Series in Honor of Bharat Ratna Professor C.N.R. Rao, “A New Era of Semiconductor Electronics,” Lundstrom provided a brief history of the evolution of chip technology. Lundstrom highlighted challenges and opportunities scientists face today in advanced microelectronics manufacturing and packaging. He went on to address recent issues, including disruptions to the global supply chain, that have impeded industry and negatively impacted global consumers. Lundstrom, who is senior advisor to the president and was recently named Purdue University’s chief semiconductor officer, spoke of Purdue’s investments in semiconductor education and its commitment to leadership in semiconductor R&D and workforce development.
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L to R: Director Kamakoti and President-elect Chiang
Purdue University's incoming President and current Executive Vice President for Strategic Initiatives Mung Chiang visited India between November 3 and November 5, 2022. He was accompanied by Dimitrios Peroulis (the Michael and Katherine Birck Head and Reilly Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering), Vijay Raghunathan (Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of Semiconductor Education for Purdue), Arvind Raman (the Robert V. Adams Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Executive Associate Dean of the College of Engineering), Mohit Tawarmalani (Professor of Management and the Schleicher Chair of Management), and Alyssa Wilcox, Dr. Chiang's Chief of Staff.
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