Discovery Park’s Big Idea Challenge 2.0 finalists to present their proposals today

Discovery Park’s Big Idea Challenge 2.0 finalists will present their proposals today (May 7) to a panel of judges that will determine the winning teams. The presentations are scheduled to take place beginning at 1 p.m. in the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship, Room 121. Individual team presentation times can be found on the Big Idea Challenge 2.0 webpage. Presentations are open to the public.

The eight proposals selected for presentation are:

* Addressing the Biodiversity Crisis: A Four-Platform Boilermaker Solution. Bryan Pijanowski, College of Agriculture.

* Conversion of Plastic Waste into Pristine Polymers, Naphtha, Fuels, and Other Products for Sustainability. Nien-Hwa Linda Wang, College of Engineering.

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

* Quantum Informatics for Businesses and Economies. Karthik Kannan, Krannert School of Management.

* 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.

* The Energy Corridor Along the US/Mexico Border: Changing the Conversation. Luciano Castillo, College of Engineering.

* The Materials Genome Initiative Approach to Wearable Bioelectronics and Global Health. Bryan Boudouris, College of Science.

The Big Idea Challenge 2.0 will award funding to a select few interdisciplinary teams of Purdue faculty and students pursuing bold proposals that address global challenges. Proposals are cross-cutting in nature and aligned thematically across five major areas of research: global sustainability, global health, global security and defense innovation, and digital/quantum/nano. 

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