Collaboration among Purdue University, Purdue Polytechnic Institute and Purdue University Global is leading the way to a unique partnership with the University of Puerto Rico.
A Purdue delegation of administrators, faculty and students visited Puerto Rico in March to meet with representatives and students from four University of Puerto Rico (UPR) campuses -- Bayamón, Humacao, Mayaguez and Rio Piedras -- as well as the Center for Marine Science at UPR-Mayaguez and the University of Puerto Rico Hospital.
"The entire Purdue system is pleased to partner with the University of Puerto Rico to explore the creation and offering of new academic opportunities in an innovative fashion that serves both current and future workforce development needs," said Melissa Burdi, Purdue University Global vice president and dean of the School of Nursing, who was part of the delegation. "UPR is a highly valued partner, and we look forward to a dynamic and meaningful collaboration."
In a joint statement, Miguel Velez-Rubio, chancellor for UPR-Bayamón, and Jorge F. Rovira-Alvarez, dean of academic affairs, said: "The University of Puerto Rico at Bayamón is pursuing a strong collaboration partnership with Purdue University and its affiliates. We are confident that establishing agreements on diverse academic fields and services will allow both institutions to grow, and we foresee ample benefits for current students and future recruitment. It most definitively expands our academic offering and provides students with additional opportunities to develop both in professional areas and personal interests."
During the weeklong stay, Purdue students gave presentations on sustainability and climate change, biomedical innovation, emerging COVID technologies, mass migration at the U.S.-Mexico border and precision medicine and exchanged ideas with UPR students. They visited the Engine-4 coworking space, an incubator and the marine science laboratory in Mayaguez.
The focus was to forge relationships that will benefit students and professors in disciplines such as precision medicine and health care, sustainability and climate change, and engineering. Specifically, the Purdue team initially identified three key areas to serve as a springboard for the partnership. They are:
Nursing: The Purdue University Global School of Nursing will collaborate with UPR to develop innovative education offerings and will invite nursing faculty from UPR to the Purdue West Lafayette campus for a Summer Institute to explore immersive learning virtual reality options for nursing faculty and students in Puerto Rico. "Building this unique partnership affords the Purdue system and UPR the ability to co-create learning opportunities aimed at solving current and future workforce challenges within the entire health care ecosystem, where education and hands-on preparation are key, including the use of precision medicine," Burdi said.
With precision medicine, the goal is to utilize robots to disinfect critical areas in Puerto Rico hospitals while also detecting different contaminants in the hospitals' air. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Purdue students worked with Luciano Castillo, the Kenninger Professor of Renewable Energy and Power Systems in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue, and Richard Voyles, head of the Collaborative Robotics Lab at Purdue and director of the Robotics Accelerator, to design, build and deploy two autonomous cleaning robots to disinfect spaces.
Engineering: Purdue West Lafayette will develop a transfer program for UPR students to complete their degree in biomedical engineering and aerospace engineering. UPR-Bayamón is limited in the number of students accepted by UPR-Mayaguez into their existing programs. Additionally, this program will allow Purdue to grow its pool of diverse students in areas not offered at UPR-Bayamón, such as aerospace engineering, nuclear engineering, materials engineering and biomedical engineering. In collaboration with UPR faculty, Purdue faculty will develop a template for introductory courses. "For Purdue to partner with the University of Puerto Rico to help them grow engineering programs, such as aerospace engineering and biomedical engineering, is a unique way to help grow the local workforce while increasing diversity here and promoting unique research partnerships such as Coastal Resiliency," said Mung Chiang, the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering and Purdue's vice president for strategic initiatives.
Professional development for police: UPR-Bayamón is the primary institution designated by the government to offer training opportunities for police. Purdue has identified a unique opportunity to leverage existing funding to develop and offer high-quality professional development.
To jumpstart the partnership, UPR stakeholders have been invited to participate in the Summer Institute for Sustainability & Climate Change at Purdue West Lafayette from June 20 to Aug. 1.
Castillo is working with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) on a consortium for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-serving institutions to conduct this initiative with the goal of building and mentoring a diverse workforce that will solve future challenges pertaining to sustainability climate change, security and precision medicine. The target audience is K-12 students and faculty and college undergraduate and graduate students, and participants will receive a certificate of completion after taking part in the monthlong institute.
"Addressing social inequality and engaging the untapped talent in our communities while solving climate change, health challenges, and security are major goals of our consortium," Castillo said. "By increasing a diverse STEM workforce, we will accelerate new innovations, which will propel a strong economy in Puerto Rico, specifically in disadvantaged communities. For us to partner with the University of Puerto Rico to address problems related to coastal resiliency, renewable energy and train a strong STEM workforce will help us build a vibrant future for the island and in the mainland."
Categories: Indiana, Education, Energy