Purdue University doesn’t need me to make the case for its importance to the state of Indiana and beyond. It has thousands of professors, students, research leaders, and business men and women doing that every day.

But despite at least three-plus decades of personal experience (starting with a cousin who graduated from the university and still serves on the faculty in the veterinary medicine school to more than a few athletic contests, including covering the top-ranked basketball team in 1987-88), a half-day on campus earlier this month reinforced the impact being made in West Lafayette and throughout the state.

Just a few observations:

• Discovery Park is a nice name with a clear mission. Behind the name are five leading centers, all opening between 2004 and 2009 and featuring $205 million in private donations, bringing together experts from a variety of disciplines who are working together on our future. The learning opportunities for students are nearly endless.
• Purdue Research Parks: There is the largest gathering of technology companies in the state in West Lafayette and growing enterprises in Merrillville, New Albany and Indianapolis (AmeriPlex complex near the airport).
• The Technical Assistance Program has been working with Indiana companies for 24 years. It drives immediate improvements in companies, training employees, increasing sales and retaining/creating jobs. And now it is doing so in the manufacturing, energy, health care and green sectors, among others.
• And while others might come to mind first when thinking about education, Purdue’s I-STEM Resource Network and role as one of four homes for the Woodrow Wilson Indiana Teaching Fellowship program are critical. I-STEM is a partnership that includes 19 institutions, K-12 schools, business and government with the bottom line of improving outcomes for students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics studies.

One of my absolute favorite people in 12-plus years in this position was former Purdue President Martin Jischke. He was the driving force behind most of the entities mentioned above, as well as numerous others. Today’s leaders and practitioners are carrying the ball forward.

We’ll continue to help tell the Purdue stories in the months and years ahead. It was good to be reminded about the excellent work taking place there during the recent visit.

And will the 2010-2011 basketball triplets (Hummel, Moore and Johnson) equal or exceed the exploits of Troy Lewis, Todd Mitchell and Everette Stephens from 23 years ago? We’ll have to wait and see on that one.

So, this is happening. The Consumerist reports:

One would think that in these tough economic times, placing a help-wanted ad in the paper or online would be sufficient for netting employers a pile of resumes. But the Transportation Safety Administration has decided to target a very specific demographic in the Washington, D.C., area — pizza eaters.

The ad, touting a "career where x-ray vision and federal benefits come standard," is for TSA security officers at Washington-Dulles International and Reagan National Airports and is apparently popping up on pizza boxes around our nation’s capital.

Do you think this is an effective or embarrassing method of reaching potential hires?

I’m sure some would say pizza eaters are an odd audience for the message, but hey, if you can’t handle pizza (or dairy, for that matter), what makes you think you can handle a job at the TSA?

David Forsell of Keep Indianapolis Beautiful explains his passion for his work, as well as how his organization partners with businesses around central Indiana to help keep the area clean. This includes a project that involves 8,500 Eli Lilly staffers helping to clean the Interstate. Forsell is the focus of a BizVoice story in our July/August edition.

Whether you agree or disagree with Washington’s approach to trying to rejuvenate the economy (referring to Recovery Act, stimulus and the like), one thing is clear. When the government is making money available, businesses would be foolish to at least not take a look to see if they could benefit.

The latest entry in that category comes from the Department of Energy (DOE), which last week announced $30 million in funding to help commercialize clean energy technologies. These are really first-time Phase III grants under the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. If you’ve worked with the government funds before on clean energy projects, here’s the chance to do more — up to $3 million over three years.

The deadline for submission of applications is August 4. Learn more at the DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy site. Here are the specific areas where the agency wants to invest:

Biomass Technologies

• Harvesting/Dewatering Technology for Algal Biofuels Production.

Buildings Technologies

• Transitional Technology for Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs)
• SSL Products made from Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs)
• "Core" Technology for Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) 

Fuel Cell Technologies

• Advanced Materials for Fuel Cell Technologies
• Bio-Fueled Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
   

Geothermal Technologies -  High Temperature Tools and Sensors 

• High Temperature Downhole Tools 
• High-Temperature-High-Volume Lifting  
• High Temperature Downhole MWD Tools for Directional Drilling
   

Industrial Technologies

• Sensors and Controls  
• Industrial Membrane Process Systems   
• Advanced Materials 
• Integrated Reaction-Separation using non-thermal processes
• Mitigation of Heat Losses, Fouling, and Scaling in key Manufacturing Unit Operations. 
   

Solar Technologies - Lowering the Cost of Photovoltaics through Innovative Augmentation

• Lightweight, Flexible and Low Cost Multi-junction Solar Cells
• Static Module PV Concentrators
• New Methods of Crystallizing Silicon

Vehicle Technologies

• Technologies to Address Internal Heating in DC Bus Capacitors
• Improved Magnetic Materials for Motors
• Advanced Materials for Lightweight Vehicles
   

Wind Technologies

• Advanced Wind Power Technologies and Systems  
   

Fossil Energy

• Pollution control
• Advanced power systems
• Stationary power fuel cells
• Clean fuels
• Carbon sequestration
• Recovery of oil, natural gas, and methane hydrates
• Advances in materials, sensors, monitors, controls, biotechnology, and computational processes
   

Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability

• Smart Grid Technologies and Systems
• Electric Transmission Technologies
• Superconducting Technology for Power Equipment 
• Advanced Materials for Power Electronics and Energy Storage
   

Nuclear Energy

• Advanced Instrumentation and Control, Radiation Resistant Sensors, and Wireless On-Line Monitoring Systems for Nuclear Power Plant Applications 

To remain competitive in a global economy, U.S. postsecondary institutions must graduate a higher percentage of their students. Government and organizations at the federal and state levels have invested millions of dollars in the pursuit to increase college completion and many smart people are working on the challenge, but how has that changed the way we run our colleges and universities?  
 
Ivy Tech Community College is one of several striving to accomplish that goal by minimizing the time it takes to earn a degree. Despite the controversy that has surrounded selected accelerated degree programs, some have boasted graduation rates higher than 50% — far above the national average for traditional associate degree programs. One distinguishing factor is that unlike traditional degree programs, accelerated ones are cohort-based. This means that students enter and exit as a group, and it is easier to advise and support students together. While it is true that not every student who walks through the doors of Ivy Tech has the option to participate in an accelerated program, that is a good thing. Accelerated programs do not work for every student. Even though the program currently is available to only some students at a few of the campuses, the important thing is that we should be open to new options for those students who can succeed in a different academic setting.
 
When the livelihood of our economy is resting on the hope that postsecondary institutions can try new ideas and work to increase the number of students who walk out with a diploma, it is no time for professors, administrators or policymakers to resist change simply because they fear the unknown.  Instead, we must embrace new ideas and be open to change — or else we merely accept stagnation and support the status quo. 
 
Inside Higher Ed had the details on “Picking Up the Pace” in a recent story.

Gov. Daniels announced the creation of WGU (Western Governors University) Indiana last month to increase higher ed options in the state and hopefully drive more students to completion. An Inside Higher Ed article (read it here) earlier this week featured the Indiana effort and the potential of similar arrangements in other locales.

Indiana Chamber education expert Derek Redelman commented on that story, to provide more information and to further explain the benefits for Hoosiers. Again, the full story is above for those who need the background; the majority of Derek’s post is featured below and enhances the understanding.

The formation of WGU Indiana, along with Gov. Daniels’ strong public endorsement, offers a terrific opportunity for Indiana learners - for all the reasons that the story portrays. But there are more components to this development than is even noted in the story: First, the price structure is for time rather than credit hours or semesters. $3,000 will buy the student as many courses as he/she can complete in the six-month time period. So there’s a direct incentive - and a reward - for working hard.

Second, start times are flexible - with new groups starting every month of the year. So there’s no more waiting around for a new semester to begin. Once that adult learner takes the initiative to pursue his/her options, he/she can get started almost immediately - while the motivation is still high. That should lead to fewer lost opportunities. Third, completion/advancement is based on competency demonstration and is flexible to the individual learner’s pace. So for those students who need a rerfresher rather than a semester-long course, or for those who are able/willing to work faster than the traditional college pace, there is opportunity (and incentive) to do so.

While none of this is completely new, it is unique - as best that I am aware - as the default approach for any other institution operating in Indiana.

I do hope that the approaches offered by WGU will catch hold in other Indiana institutions. Yes, there are other online learning opportunities offered by nearly all - maybe every single one - of our public institutions. But how many of those are offered with the incentives/components noted in the story? I am aware of none. As for course articulation agreements that will be helpful to students, my observations indicate that we remain far, far away from achieving the level of convenience necessary.

I recall in the 1990s sitting through three years of monthly meetings - lasting 4+ hours per meeting - as our state institutions struggled to meet a legislative mandate for just 10 entry-level, for-credit courses to be tranferrable across all public institutions. Yes, the ’90s are "ancient history" at this point. And yes, Indiana is now well beyond that initial 10-course mandate. But the process for expanding on those articulation agreements remains incredibly arduous and the results of current agreements remain confusing to students. Indeed, there are courses taught at one branch of our intitutions that do not even transfer to other branches of the same institution. As yet another development resulting from the creation of WGU Indiana, it is my understanding that every single course taught at our community college system will be transferrable to WGU - and they did that without a years-long, committee laden, course-by-course, campus-by-campus process.

I remain a biased advocate for Indiana’s entire higher education system, and I completely agree with those who suggest that there are terrific opportunities here. But even the best can get better. And the addition of WGU Indiana adds one more institution to that portfolio of great options.  

A survey from the AARP shows further evidence that what you thought you knew about social networking might be wrong. While much has been made about how pervasive middle-aged Americans are on Facebook and Twitter, it seems 50-64 year-olds are also "LOLing" and "OMGing"  with each other on the fabulous Interwebs.  Reuters Life! reports:

Social networking isn’t only for the under 40s. More than 25 percent of Americans 50 years and older stay connected using sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, according to new research.

And nearly half of older adults, aged 50 to 64, say they are savvy about the Internet.

"The latest data tells us that more and more, social networking is becoming a part of everyday life for Americans 50 plus, and boomers in particular," said Kevin Donnellan, the chief communications officer at AARP, which released the report.

The powerful lobbying group for older Americans said Facebook is by far the most popular networking site, followed by MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Nearly a quarter of older Americans are on Facebook and 73 percent said they use it to stay in touch with relatives, but not just their children and grandchildren.