Dear Colleagues,
 
We hope you had great holidays and best wishes for the New Year.
 
We had very helpful brainstorming meetings on Dec. 16 and 17 about future centers of excellence at Purdue which can leverage strengths in multiple colleges and the Discovery Park centers. Based on the feedback from 60+ faculty and several associate deans for research, we have identified 4 main research directions and 2 focus areas (see the attached viewgraphs and the brief summary below).

To establish new centers, we need to act as a center and work over 2-3 years and target multiple medium and large funding opportunities. Keeping the momentum and persistence (e.g. 1 hour meeting every month) is key to long term success.
 
Please let us know if you would like to participate in any of the activities. Please briefly mention your research group’s unique assets/ strengths and how much you would like to be engaged (weekly, monthly, once or twice per year). Birck is only a connector and facilitator wherever we can help. In each area, the leader(s) and the working group will help to identify specific directions where Purdue could make a difference and develop small or large teams for future centers of excellence.

Please let us know if you have any other ideas or suggestions.
 
Best regards,
Zhihong and Ali
 
PS. See below the Mindjet maps that Mary Nauman has kindly prepared. The files include a brief summary of the grants and has direct links to the pdf of each call for proposal:
 
***********
Action Items, Birck Brainstorming meetings on Future Centers of Excellence
Dec. 16-17, 2020
 
ADRs will be invited to research area meetings and kept in the loop once or twice a year.
  
Research Topics
1) Biomedical/Engineering
Core Group: Rams Subramanian, Chris Rochet, Bumsoo Hun, David Cappelleri, Babak Ziaie, Lia Stanciu, Rahim Rahimi, Alex Wei, Chi-Hwan Lee, Krishna Jayant, Miko Cakmak, others?
 
Grand Challenges
 
Technology: 
  • Frontiers of biological imaging 
  • Organoids/ Lab on a chip 
  • Digital human
  • Micro soft-robotics inside the body
  • Ubiquitous low-cost IoT devices/ roll-to-roll manufacturing
  • Measurement science/ Analytical chemistry
 
2) Ag/food systems
Core Group: Tim Filley, Ajay Malshe, Rahim Rahimi, Travis Horton, David Warsinger, Carson Reeling, others?
 
Grand Challenges
 
Technology: 
  • Ubiquitous low-cost IoT devices
  • AI at the intersection of Cyber and Physical. Machine learning + physics models. ML extrapolating beyond training sets
  • Modeling (ecosystem and socio-economic impact)
 
3) Computing and communications (electronics, photonics, 3D heterogeneous integration/MEMS)
Core Group: Zhihong Chen, Joerg Appenzeller, Peide Ye, Gerhard Klimeck, Yong Chen, Peter Bermel, Sunil Bhave, 
Vlad Shalaev, Zubin Jacob, Chen-Lung Hung, 
Justin Weibel, Haiyan Wang, Xinghang Zhang, Wenzhou Wu, Shriram Ramanathan, Letian Dou, others?

This is a big group. We can divide it into electronics, photonics and 3D integration/MEMS/Packaging subgroups but there are synergies at the boundaries. 
 
Grand Challenges 

Technology: 
 
4) Manufacturing
Core Group: Miko Cakmak, Jan-Anders Mansson, Jan Allebach, Ashaf Alam, Bruno Ribeiro, Xianfan Xu, John Sutherland, Jianguo Mei, Xinghang Zhang, Ali Shakouri, others?
 
Grand Challenges
  • Distributed scalable and secure manufacturing
  • Sustainable manufacturing (minimum energy/ water use, recycling)
  • Training of future workforce

Technology: 
  • AI at the intersection of Cyber and Physical. Machine learning + physics models. ML extrapolating beyond training sets
  • AI Human/Machine interface
  • Technical cost modeling
  • 3D nano manufacturing
  • Develop a foundry for non-silicon IoT devices near Purdue (roll-to-roll manufacturing)
 
A) Local Community Engagement: Leverage WHIN project, expand beyond ag and manufacturing
Core Group: Ali Shakouri, Ted Fiock, Karthik Kannan, Ajay Malshe, Purdue-WHIN Team, others?
 
Potential research topics
  • Privacy-preserving regional AI network for scalable and secure manufacturing
  • AI for healthcare, future of insurance
  • AI for workforce training, eLearning, future of work
  • Smart roads/ infrastructure; Leverage DP District
 
B) Increase Purdue visibility + collaboration with College of Liberal Arts
Core Group: Sorin Matei, Neil Dilley, Sasha Boltasseva, others?
 
Potential collaborations
  • Collaboration with Brian Lamb School, Art & Design (e.g. storytelling  course modules, future thematic Purdue 2050 Conferences, …)
  • Develop “demonstrators" highlighting Purdue’s "first-best-only” (ideas by Sorin Matei and Dimitri Peroulis)
 
Funding: Major center proposals are great opportunities to put together interdisciplinary teams, but we need to start working 2-3 years in advance. We should be better prepared for new programs (e.g. NSF AI Institutes, Mid-Scale Instrumentation), but we should also leverage non-traditional funding sources 
  • Foundations, philanthropic
  • Industry consortia
  • Leverage contacts through Lewis-Burke, IEDC, etc.
  • Partnerships with Lilly, Elanco, Roche, Rolls-Royce, GE or other local companies
***********