Jacqueline Linnes, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Purdue University specializing in rapid diagnostic tools for infectious diseases, and her team built a handheld device made out of paper that is designed to detect HIV nucleic acids within 90 minutes, after only two weeks of an infection.

Purdue’s Shah Family Global Innovation Lab will be a place of learning, exploration and problem solving with international impact. Formerly the Global Engineering’s Innovation for International Development (I2D) Lab, the new program is launched by a $2.5M gift from Manahar (Manu) Shah, who received a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue in 1968. Shah and his family’s impactful commitment was announced on Nov. 2 at the signing ceremony.

The Purdue GEARE program is the most comprehensive global engineering training program in the U.S. Through GEARE, Purdue Engineering students enhance their ability in a foreign language, study abroad, complete global design team projects, improve their intercultural competency through focused seminar courses, and gain work experience through domestic and global work experiences.

This past summer, 21 rising Purdue freshman spent two weeks in China under the Short Term Engineering Program Abroad (STEP-Abroad), a collaboration this year between the school of Engineering Education and the office of Global Engineering Programs and Partnerships (GEP2).

Thanks to two related I2D Lab projects, former street youths in rural Kenya are preparing for professional careers and area communities are gaining economic boosts. Teams lead by Jennifer DeBoer, PhD, assistant professor of engineering education and (by courtesy) mechanical engineering, and John Lumkes, PhD, professor of agricultural and biological engineering, are collaborating to bring engineering principles, techniques and tools to the Tumaini Innovation Center in the Kenyan city of Eldoret. The surrounding region also is benefiting, and expansion plans are underway.

Mechanical Engineering senior Reshma Sudhesh participated on GEP2’s first cohort of Summer Undergraduate Research in Global in Engineering (SURGE)-Uniandes, a brand new summer research program with one of our key university partners in Colombia, Universidad de los Andes. Read what she shared with us about her experience below.

GEPP Ambassador and AAE student Sam Albert has been selected for the inaugural class of the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program, a new summer internship and executive mentorship program inspiring the next generation of commercial spaceflight leaders.

Purdue University’s Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment, and Research (CILMAR) recognized GEP2 for its efforts in developing on and off-campus Global Competence Initiatives.

Hello! My name is Marcela Cruz Haces and my husband, Enrique Aldana, and I, are both Ph.D. students at Purdue University.