By Brendan Vaughan:
Mung Chiang has been president of Purdue University for nearly a year now. During that time, the electrical engineer and former dean of Purdue’s College of Engineering has built on the work of his predecessor, former Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, to make Purdue one of the most tech-focused schools in America. With a main campus in West Lafayette, Indiana, and a handful more across the state, Purdue has more STEM students than any other large university (while also, by the way, having the number-one basketball team in the nation at the time of this writing).
At Fast Company, we have covered Purdue’s growing influence in the tech world for years and have honored it for innovation on multiple occasions. Last year, we ranked the school number 16 on our list of the 50 Most Innovative Companies, primarily for its program to train semiconductor engineers, which our burgeoning domestic industry sorely needs to keep up with soaring demand and ferocious global competition. Purdue has also been a Fast Company Brands That Matter honoree for three years running.
We’ve just launched a new recognition program, Ignition Schools, to honor colleges and universities for their work in fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic development. The program is a partnership with our sister publication, Inc., and the deadline to apply is this Friday, December 22.
All of which is to say: It seemed like a good moment to check in with Chiang on Purdue’s trailblazing work in the “hard tech corridor,” a 65-mile stretch of the so-called Silicon Heartland that runs between West Lafayette and Indianapolis, where the school will launch a new campus this summer. Fittingly, Chiang was on the way to Indianapolis during our 20-minute conversation, which ranged from how academia can best work with business to how the recognition Purdue has received from Fast Company has helped it fulfill its mission.
Read the rest of the article in Fast Company.