Purdue Polytechnic Columbus

06/01/2026

Real problems. Real partners. Real impact. 🚀
Purdue Polytechnic learners developed:
✅ An offline, searchable safety data system accessible even during power or network outages ⚠️📱
✅ An interactive, map-based visualization tool to help a city communicate road closures and public permits 🗺️🏙️
All within a 16-week, real-world consulting experience.
This is applied learning at its best. 👏✨
🔗

Students at Purdue Polytechnic locations in Columbus, Kokomo and Anderson recently operated as a simulated technology consulting firm for their 16-week course projects in computer and information technology.

05/28/2026

Honored and humbled to share that Purdue Polytechnic Institute Columbus’ capstone project, Engineering Belonging: Becoming a Community Partner Through Curriculum, Commitment, and Reciprocity, was selected as the recipient of the 2026 Dr. George Giacumakis Innovation Award presented by the National Association of Branch Campus Administrators.

Dr. Nancy L. Lollar is incredibly honored to present this work at the NABCA Annual Conference and share how branch campuses can intentionally design belonging, partnership, and workforce development through curriculum-embedded community engagement.

This work centered around a powerful realization:

“A campus can exist within a community for years and still never truly belong to it.”

Through our GoBabyGo initiative and first-year engineering experiences, we challenged ourselves to move beyond episodic outreach and instead build a sustainable model where curriculum, community partnership, workforce development, and student identity development are intentionally connected.

This recognition means so much because this work could never have been accomplished alone. It was built through the dedication, collaboration, and shared vision of an incredible group of people who believed in creating meaningful impact together.

Deeply grateful to the amazing key players who helped make this possible:
• Dr. Ruiji Sun
• Dr. Poonam Jayal
• Melissa Allen Ressino
• Our students
• Families and clinicians- Rebecca Rebber Scholl and Denisa Nelson
• Industry partners including Cummins Inc. , Qualtronics, KPIT, Toyota Material Handling, Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, LLC
• Community partners including The Arc of Bartholomew County and Assisted Independence, LLC,
• The Purdue Polytechnic Institute Columbus team and broader Purdue community
• National Association of Branch Campus Administrators including my mentor Dr. J. Gary Adcox, and BCLI Directors Cyndee M. and Walter P. Collins, III

Most importantly, thank you to the children and families who trusted us to be part of their journey. You reminded all of us that engineering is not just about designing systems — it is about designing opportunities, dignity, independence, and human connection.

This award represents more than a project. It represents what is possible when institutions intentionally build structures rooted in reciprocity, accountability, and belonging.

I am truly grateful for the opportunity to represent Purdue Polytechnic Institute Columbus and share this work on a national stage.

05/28/2026

At Purdue Polytechnic Columbus, many of our students are working professionals, parents, veterans, and first-generation college students. Making the Dean’s List in the midst of all of that is no small feat.

To our Dean’s List honorees:
Your dedication, grit, and determination inspire us. We are proud of you—and honored to be part of your journey.

Congratulations on this well-earned milestone! 👏



See all the honorees: https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/office-dean/deans-list

05/28/2026

🎉 Celebrating Student Innovation & Achievement at Purdue! 🎉
Professor Missy Casner is incredibly proud to share the collaborative work of her Spring 2026 CNIT 38501 students, who implemented an innovative software solution designed to replace traditional Safety Data Sheet books. in the Metrology Labs for Lab Manager, Matt Ferrell.

This application has so many applications, as it provides access to digital documents, video, audio, images, and more—all accessible across a wide range of stationary, mobile, and handheld devices. Even more impressive, it functions without power or network connectivity, making critical information available anytime, anywhere.

Built using HTML, JSON, CSS, Python, and JavaScript, the system runs on a local HTTP server. They demonstrated it in class using a Termux server—showcasing both technical depth and practical innovation.

👏 And now for the exciting milestone for the students and Professor Casner:
The Casner Research Group and Students in Computer and Information Technology at Purdue Polytechnic Institute Columbus and Purdue Polytechnic Institute Anderson developed software has officially received a ‘Purdue Open Source License!’

This achievement is a testament to hard work, creativity, and commitment to solving real-world problems. For many of these students, this recognition is the perfect finishing touch "the icing on the cake" as they complete (or prepare to complete) their degrees. Please join us in celebrating this first time accomplishment for the students and Professor Casner.

The students’ dedication, collaboration, and persistence have truly paid off. Professor Casner and all of us here at Purdue Polytechnic Columbus couldn’t be prouder of what they have accomplished and the impact the students are already making in the field.

Holden Tovey (Spring 2026 Graduate)
Damaurion Menifee
Hayden Wehmiller
Sebastian Acosta

🚀 The future is bright—and you’re building it. 💛🖤 Boiler Up! 🚂

05/04/2026

🎉🏆 Professor Missy Casner was honored to receive the 2025–26 Outstanding Faculty in Engagement Award for the Computer & Information Technology Program within Purdue Polytechnic’s School of Applied and Creative Computing on Thursday, April 30, 2026, in West Lafayette.

This recognition celebrates a strong commitment to engagement through 📚 coursework and student activities, 🤝 engagement initiatives, 🎤 scholarly presentations, 🏭 industry collaborations, and 🌱 outreach efforts📰.

Most of all, this award is a reminder that impactful work happens because of incredible students, supportive colleagues, and dedicated industry partners. Congrats, Professor Casner! 👏 💛🖤 Boiler up!👏

04/26/2026

🎓 There’s Still Time to Apply for Fall 2026!

If you’ve been thinking about your next step, now is the time to act. Applications are still open for Fall 2026 at Purdue Polytechnic Institute Columbus—but the deadline is quickly approaching.

📅 Application Deadline: August 1, 2026

💡 Whether you’re interested in:

* Mechanical Engineering Technology
* Electrical Engineering Technology
* Computer Information Technology
* Engineering Technology (Mechatronics, Robotics, Technology Integration)

You’ll gain hands-on experience, build industry connections, and develop real-world skills—right here in Columbus.

🚀 Why Purdue Polytechnic Columbus?
✔ Small campus feel with big university resources
✔ Strong industry partnerships
✔ Hands-on, career-focused learning
✔ A supportive, student-centered community

⏳ Don’t wait—August 1 will be here before you know it.
Secure your spot and take the first step toward your future.

👉 Apply now to Purdue Polytechnic Columbus

https://polytechnic.purdue.edu/locations/admissions

Earning your Purdue degree or certificate from the Polytechnic tells employers you have the technical abilities and leadership skills that make you the right candidate for their job.

04/24/2026

🏆🎉 And the Winners Are… BTC 2026 Champions! 🎉🏆

After an incredible day of innovation, teamwork, and Fallout-inspired engineering, we are excited to announce the winners of the 14th Annual Boiler Tech Challenge at Purdue Polytechnic Institute Columbus!

🥇 1st Place: Columbus North High School
🥈 2nd Place: CSA New Tech High School
🥉 3rd Place: Columbus East High School

From designing and building their vaults to tackling real-world challenges, these students demonstrated outstanding creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration. We are so proud of ALL the teams who participated — the level of talent and innovation was truly impressive!

👏 A huge thank you to our students, educators, industry partners, and volunteers who made this event possible. You are helping shape the future of STEM!

Stay tuned for more highlights from BTC 2026!

-MaC -MaCmicrogrant

04/24/2026

💧🛠️ Vault 131: Designing Solutions for Survival

In Vault 131, it’s all about innovation, creativity, and real-world engineering design. Students are taking on the Design It Challenge, where their mission is clear:
👉 Create a filtered water tank system capable of sustaining life in the wasteland.

Working in CAD platforms like Fusion 360 and SOLIDWORKS, teams are:

* Designing tanks that can hold 1,000+ cubic feet of water
* Engineering filtration systems to remove harmful particulates
* Building structures strong enough to withstand extreme conditions like acid rain, earthquakes, and high winds

What makes this challenge stand out?
💡 Students aren’t just designing—they’re thinking like engineers:

* Brainstorming and sketching multiple concepts
* Selecting materials and justifying their choices
* Considering maintenance, usability, and long-term sustainability
* Collaborating to turn ideas into fully realized 3D models

From first sketch to final model, Vault 131 is where creativity meets precision and where students learn that good design can mean the difference between survival and failure.

Impressive work happening here—these students are building more than models… they’re building solutions. 🔥

04/24/2026

⚡💧 Vault 131: Powering Decisions in the Wasteland 💻🧠

Inside Vault 131, students are stepping into the role of systems engineers—designing an intelligent water system dashboard that determines the health of a critical purification system.

Using logic gates (AND / OR / NOT) and Simulink modeling, teams are building decision systems that answer one key question:
👉 Is the system safe… or in danger?

Based on inputs like:
🔌 Power availability
💧 Water supply
🧪 Contamination levels
⚠️ System failures

Their dashboards must correctly trigger:
🟢 Green – All systems go
🟡 Yellow – Warning
🔴 Red – Critical danger

But here’s the challenge—only one status can be active at a time, and priority matters. Students must think critically, design efficiently, and minimize the number of logic gates while maintaining accuracy.

What we’re seeing in Vault 131:

* Deep problem-solving and systems thinking
* Real-time testing and debugging
* Strong collaboration and communication
* Application of engineering concepts to real-world scenarios

This is where theory meets application—and where students learn that every decision in a system has consequences. 🔥

04/24/2026

💧🚨 Vault 135: Mission—Restore Water, Restore Life 🤖⚙️

Inside Vault 135, students are taking on one of the most critical challenges of the day—designing and programming a robotic system to retrieve and restore clean water in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Armed with VEX robotics kits, these teams are:
🔧 Building custom robots from the ground up
🧠 Programming both autonomous and remote-controlled functions
🗺️ Strategizing how to navigate obstacles and complete the mission efficiently
🤝 Collaborating under pressure to test, fail, adjust, and try again

Their objective?
➡️ Open the vault
➡️ Retrieve the water chip and fusion core
➡️ Install them to restore the system
➡️ Close the vault before time runs out

Every second counts—and every decision matters. This challenge pushes students to think like engineers, act like problem-solvers, and work like a team in a high-stakes environment.

This is hands-on learning at its best—where robotics, coding, and real-world application come together to solve meaningful problems. 🔥

-MaC, , -MaCmicrogrant