Luciano Castillo is leading an effort to build and commercialize a robot that autonomously disinfects indoor spaces. Thanks to support from Intel, the project brings together students from 6 universities, and even high school students.

The whitest paint in the world is now even whiter. Xiulin Ruan has developed a paint that rejects 98.1% of solar radiation. Coating buildings with this paint may one day cool them enough to reduce the need for air conditioning.

Jill Hruby (BSME '81) has been nominated by President Biden for Under Secretary for Nuclear Security, and Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Previously she served at Sandia National Laboratories for 34 years, the first woman to lead a national security lab.

Standard refrigerators use vapor compression to cool down your food. But in space, there is no gravity to keep vapors and liquids secure. Purdue researchers have worked with NASA, Air Squared, and Whirlpool to create a prototype fridge that works upside-down, meaning it can potentially function in zero gravity.

Check out this feature about Purdue athletes joining forces to increase the presence of adaptive sports on campus. The team includes Purdue ME senior Ryan Lawrence.

Congratulations are in order for many of our ME faculty members! Purdue's Board of Trustees has just approved a slate of faculty promotions, and here are the ones in our ME family.

A surge of migrants. An unstable power grid. A changing climate. Even the hostile takeover of a dam. The US-Mexico border is currently facing a number of daunting challenges. But according to research just published by Purdue University engineers, there is one thing that could solve all these problems: water.

Gas turbine engines often are considered the "heart" of airplanes and ships. Now, a Purdue team including Prof. Nicole Key, looking for new solutions to reduce emissions and enhance operations of these engines, have come up with technology similar to tests used on human hearts.

Congratulations to Francesco Fuentes, Glynn Gallaway, Ryan Regan, and Maureen Winter, who received Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation, and will pursue their research at Purdue. The prestigious five-year fellowship includes an annual stipend of $34,000.

After rotator cuff injuries, many patients actually retear the tendon after surgery. Purdue researchers Eric Nauman and Darryl Dickerson began working on the problem in 2004, and developed a small strip with both hard and soft tissue layers, which attaches with standard laparoscopic surgical techniques. Bones and tendons connect more naturally, leading to a more durable and longer-lasting repair, and quicker recovery time for patients.