May 28, 2019

Discovery Park announces Big Idea Challenge 2.0 winners

Following oral presentations on May 7, a panel of judges and Discovery Park administration have reviewed the proposals and determined the winners of the Big Idea Challenge 2.0, a program that will provide resources to interdisciplinary teams of Purdue faculty and students pursuing bold proposals that address global challenges.

“A variety of excellent proposals were submitted,” says Sasha Boltasseva, inaugural Discovery Park fellow. “Each P.I. presented a thoughtful, comprehensive plan that addressed a pressing global issue that falls within a key focus area. Each proposal had merit and it was a very difficult task to select the winners.”

The winning proposals and principal investigators of the Big Idea Challenge 2.0 competition that will receive funding are:

* "From Cell Cultures to Community Cultures: Bringing Precision Health to Autism," Bridgette Tonnsen, College of Health and Human Sciences.

* "Revolutionizing the Development and Manufacturing of Next-Generation Biologics," Rainer Fischer, College of Science.

* "Solving Problems Previously Reserved to Quantum Computing with Purdue’s P-Bits and How These Future Computational Capabilities Will Impact Security, Politics and the Society as a Whole," Joerg Appenzeller, College of Engineering.

During the two-month submission window, Discovery Park received 41 proposal submissions from 280 participants at Purdue, representing 11 colleges and 57 departments. Eighteen Discovery Park centers or institutes provided endorsements for the projects and an additional 69 endorsements came from other academic units, as well as government and industry partners. Proposals were cross-cutting in nature and aligned thematically across four major areas of research: global sustainability, global health, global security and defense innovation, and digital/quantum/nano.

Discovery Park plans to host a launch party honoring the winning teams at the beginning of the fall semester. All faculty, staff and students will be invited to attend.

Writer: Elizabeth Harwood, 765-494-7324, eharwood@purdue.edu 
Source: Cliff Wojtalewicz, 765-496-3961, cliffw@purdue.edu


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