Sustainability Research Across Multiple Disciplines on Display

Our West Lafayette campus may seem a bit quiet during July, but the the Summer 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium, held on Wednesday, July 30th in the Purdue Memorial Union, was abuzz with the energy of hundreds of undergraduate researchers talking about their summer research with anyone who slowed down in front of their posters.

We all know Purdue supports research, lots of research, but, the number of students who get involved in research experiences becomes real, and even more impressive, when you take a few moments to chat with them as they fill the ballroom. Among the hundreds of students, dozens of the projects demonstrated student interest in a wide range of sustainability challenges and underlined how many faculty from various colleges support, many of them affiliates of Purdue’s Institute for a Sustainable Future, work to integrate undergraduates into their labs. 
Every semester, and each summer, ISF teams up with the Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship program, and Purdue faculty, to support projects related to global sustainability. Several students presented their work at the fair this summer, which included work on varied topics including: developing wildlife corridors for Indiana mammals such as bobcats (Scott Burke, working with  Kristen Bellisario, HONORS), examining food waste on campus (Katharine Chiparus, working with  Abby Engelberth, ABE and Valentina Negri, ISF), and developing research methodologies for environmental toxicology (Amber Hitchins, working with Ty Hoskins and Marisol Sepulveda, FNR). Many projects have additional team members not presenting, but those in the room brought all their team’s energy to their presentations. Additional ISF-DUIRI projects included use of acoustic indices for identifying bobcats (Faith McPhee, working with Kristen Bellisario, HONORS), using modeling analysis to improve yields of winter wheat (Aditya Prabhu, working with Pratishtha Poudel, AGRY, and James Krogmeier, ECE), and developing novel photocatalytic membranes (Lily Farmer, working with David Warsinger, ME).  

Beyond these ISF-DUIRI projects, sustainability was a topic supported by summer programs including the College of Engineering’s SURF program, that supported a project on post-fire environmental guidance (Kaitlyn Wayne, working with Andrew Whelton, SEE) as well as a project on identifying buried lead pipes (Kaden Bowers and Michael Lau, working with Aaron Specht, HSCI). Degree programs and institutes such as the Institute for Digital Forestry also supported sustainability projects.  One such project was on analyzing biofilm growth with the help of magnetic beads (Mallory Luse working with Roli Wilhelm , AGRY and Caitlin Proctor, ABE/SEE). Some projects, such as one on the use of the Bokashi plant to increase disease resistance, even involved international students (Maria Fernanda Moreno de la Espriella, working with Lori Hoagland, HLA). Other projects, such as one on the use of Life Cycle Assessment to recover critical minerals (Lilyana Gundayao working with Inez Hua, CCE/SEE), and another on mosquitoes finding frogs through sound (Nina Hall working with Ximena Bernal, BIO), were supported by the National Science Foundation.

Overall, the event highlighted the breadth of sustainability research happening at Purdue, and how excited and motivated students were to talk about their projects. Some additional benefits of the experience included exposing students to new fields of research outside of their degree area, and in some cases, the introduction of students from other universities to the research excellence of Purdue. The Purdue community will have a chance to learn more about these projects, and many others, at ISF’s sustainability-focused Fall Research Expo, occurring October 15th, also in the south ballroom.

For more information about undergraduate research opportunities at Purdue, visit the Office of Undergraduate Research.