SCALE leaders announced more than $100 million in total funding from the Department of War, making the only U.S. defense microelectronics public-private-academic workforce development consortium Purdue’s largest-ever federally funded research effort.
Several initiatives across campus highlight Purdue’s expanding array of research into drones and aerial autonomy. Purdue was a lead partner in the state of Indiana’s successful bid to become one of the Federal Aviation Administration’s newest unmanned aircraft systems test sites in January.
Approaching its 10th year, Purdue’s Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts program has become a national model for weaving liberal arts into STEM, health, agriculture and business fields. Building on this success, Purdue will launch new 2026 initiatives that strengthen civic learning, research and engagement, enriching students’ critical and ethical capacities alongside their technical expertise.
Zubin Jacob, the Elmore Professor in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been named a 2026 Guggenheim fellow, a program that champions the talents of the exceptional scholars and artists whose passions often have broad and immediate social impact. Jacob’s research seeks to dissolve the perceived limits of resolution in microscopy, thermal vision and space telescopy.
Before Megan Casey was studying post-wildfire flooding, she was a teenager at camp, learning how ecosystems work and imagining how they could be protected. She’s one of the many Boilermakers who inspired our recent video about how students dream bigger at Purdue. Learn more about her story, from majoring in agricultural engineering to studying wildfires in the West.
