Today’s top 5 from Purdue University

You will want to read these good stories that you may have missed. 

The AP Newsroom (for AP members) and Purdue News YouTube channel (for all reporters) provide comments from Purdue experts on timely topics.

Purdue Center for Regional Development leads effort for Indiana’s Digital Equity Plan

The Purdue Center for Regional Development, in partnership with the Indiana Broadband Office, the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, and Purdue Extension, has developed a draft of the state’s first-ever Digital Equity Plan. The plan will serve as a road map to help Indiana overcome the digital divide, assisting Indiana residents, communities and businesses that are unable to participate in the digital economy due to various barriers, including poor or no broadband connection, having no digital devices, and the need to learn digital skills.

Media contact: Wes Mills, wemills@purdue.edu

ReElement Technologies uses Purdue tech in rare earth elements production critical to semiconductor manufacturing, other new-age technologies

Many essential electronics need rare earth metals to perform. The rapidly growing demand for these critical products has led to an increased need for domestic production of rare earth elements (REEs). Purdue University is meeting this need by using its patented rare earth technology in a partnership with Indiana-based ReElement Technologies in an effort to narrow the gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world in this critical industry.

Media contact: Derek Schultz, dcschultz@purdue.edu

AP Video – National and global debt crisis

David Malpass, former president of the World Bank and the Distinguished Fellow of International Finance at the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business at Purdue University, talks about the national debt and global debt crisis. The World Bank 2024 GDP forecast predicts only 2.4% growth this year. Malpass says that is not enough to support developing countries. Additionally, developing nations are in constant competition with more advanced economies, making it difficult for them to grow.

Media contact: Derek Schultz, dcschultz@purdue.edu 

Uniform Sierra Aerospace launches its Panther outdoor tactical UAS

Uniform Sierra Aerospace, a company that builds small, unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, has launched its Panther drone for the marketplace. The company was founded by Purdue University alumni Duncan Mulgrew, Jeremy Frederick and Trevor Redpath. Mulgrew, the company’s CEO, said passage of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024 means federal grant money can no longer be used to purchase Chinese-built drone equipment. He said agencies need entirely U.S.-built options that perform well under the suboptimal outdoor conditions in which they often fly. 

Media contact: Steve Martin, sgmartin@prf.org

AI learns to simulate how trees grow and shape in response to their environments

A research team from Purdue University’s Department of Computer Science and Institute for Digital Forestry, with collaborator Sören Pirk at Kiel University in Germany, has discovered that artificial intelligence can simulate tree growth and shape. The DNA molecule encodes both tree shape and environmental response in one tiny, subcellular package. In work inspired by DNA, Bedrich Benes, professor of computer science, and his associates developed novel AI models that compress the information required for encoding tree form into a megabyte-sized neural model.

Media contact: Maureen Manier, mmanier@purdue.edu 

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, with 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap, including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes, at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.