Karen Plaut - January Dimensions of Discovery Introduction

January 31, 2024

Dear Colleagues,

Earlier this month, Lilly Endowment Inc. announced that it was committing $100 million to Purdue, the largest gift in the university’s history. This generous grant will have enormous impact in advancing two major Purdue initiatives: the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business to construct of a state-of-the-art educational building, and Purdue Computes to enable the next generation of Boilermaker research breakthroughs.

With Purdue Computes, we are building on Purdue’s legacy of leadership in computing and microelectronics to trailblaze technologies that will shape the future. This gift will greatly enable our efforts by allowing for investments in key three key areas:

• Renovations at the Birck Nanotechnology Center to develop and manufacture the computer chips of tomorrow
• Recruiting a founding director for the new Institute for Physical Artificial Intelligence and funding interdisciplinary fellows to develop innovations that use foundational AI to impact physical AI
• Development of a skilled workforce around semiconductors and physical AI

In short, this will help us capitalize on the power of business and technology to transform the future of research and education for the benefit of students, our state and our nation.

Thanks,

Karen Plaut
Executive Vice President for Research