Huang named as Purdue I&E Fellow
Purdue University’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Fellows program recently named a new cohort, including the College of Education’s Wanju Huang.
Huang is a clinical associate professor of learning design and technology in the College’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She was chosen, in part, because of her innovative work in the areas of semiconductor workforce development and artificial intelligence.
Purdue’s Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship created the I&E Fellows program to provide advocacy and mentorship for innovation, entrepreneurship, and research commercialization at Purdue. Other Fellows come from the Colleges of Engineering, Health and Human Sciences, Science, Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy, Agriculture, the Daniels School of Business, and the Purdue Polytechnic Institute.
Led by Christian Butzke, Senior University Fellow for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Office of Research, the Fellows’ mission aligns with President Mung Chiang’s vision: “Through a systematic collegiate I&E Fellow and departmental I&E Ambassador structure, and serving under the Executive Vice President for Research, we want to foster an academic culture of innovation and entrepreneurship that elevates the societal impact of Purdue’s use-inspired research.”
The interdisciplinary I&E network enables Fellows to serve as liaisons between Purdue Innovates and their colleges’ faculty and staff. In line with Purdue’s land grant mission, Purdue Innovates was established in early 2023 to support the translation and commercialization of student and faculty ideas and inventions to products, services and organizations that benefit society.
The Fellows are also tasked with spreading the word about Purdue’s Certification in Entrepreneurship and Innovation – available to both undergraduates & graduate students.
“Professor Huang’s work has much potential for growth in academic, government, and business sectors,” said Janet Alsup, head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. “Her appointment as an I&E Fellow will provide her with opportunities to enhance her research in these areas and showcase how education scholarship is essential to 21st century technologies.”
The I&E Fellows are in the process of establishing overarching goals for the fellowship program. These will include:
- facilitating communication between Purdue Innovates and Purdue’s research enterprise;
- advocating for I&E incentives for faculty, postdocs, research scientists, and graduate researchers;
- developing external networks to provide ready access for researchers to people and resources outside the university;
- building internal networks to increase collaboration between researchers across disciplines; and
- adopting institutional I&E metrics to reflect research innovation and societal impact at an individual, academic unit, and institutional level.
“I am excited about the opportunity to work alongside great colleagues across Purdue and ensure that the College of Education plays an important role in continuing to build Purdue’s reputation as one of the world’s most innovative organizations.” says Huang.
Source: Wanju Huang, huan1040@purdue.edu