April 17, 2009

Second College of Engineering radio program focuses on sustainability

"Sustainability" is available on the Internet at https://www.engineeringimpact.org and will be broadcast nationally on public radio stations after its 7 p.m. Wednesday (April 22) premiere on WFYI.

The program, narrated by Barbara Bogaev, former host and editor of "Weekend America," examines a handful of developments that may benefit from the Obama administration's push for renewable energies and clean technologies.

Purdue professors Fu Zhao, mechanical engineering, and Suresh Rao, environmental engineering, who are working on transforming municipal solid waste into ethanol, are among those featured. Larry Nies of civil engineering, also is interviewed.

"Sustainability" looks at the Subaru of Indiana Automotive plant in Lafayette, which sends zero waste to landfills. Listeners also will be introduced to an MIT professor who has invented a solar cell that not only works at night, but in the rain; a group of New York City sanitation engineers who have cleaned up the dead zones in the East River using a process they invented that could revive oceans and rivers all over the world; a California company that captures CO2 as it's being emitted from power plants and seals it away; and a team of experts that has developed special sidewalks that will suck CO2 out of the air.

"This series of radio programs is designed to spotlight engineering's role in solving pressing global challenges," said Rwitti Roy, former director of marketing and communications for the College of Engineering and now Purdue's senior director of brand and advertising. "Certainly, finding ways to ensure the sustainability of our planet is one of those challenges."

Richard Miles, WFYI vice president of audio services and television programming, said: "The Global Challenges series reflects WFYI Public Radio's commitment to produce high-caliber programs that impact the lives of our listeners. We're delighted to be collaborating with Purdue's College of Engineering on this radio series."

The first program in the series, "After Oil," also is available online at https://www.engineeringimpact.org   

Writer: Judith Barra Austin, 765-494-2432, jbaustin@purdue.edu

Sources: Rwitti Roy, 765-496-9799, rroy@purdue.edu  

Lori Plummer, 317-614-0462, lplummer@wfyi.org

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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