NEXT CHAPTER IN INNOVATION
Purdue is gearing up to host its inaugural Entrepreneurial Alumni Reunion in November, an event designed to showcase the cutting-edge commercialization and startup creation taking place at the university and to provide a platform for collaboration that can help entrepreneurs translate ideas into impact.
“Many Boilermakers are entrepreneurs among our faculty, students, and vast networks of alumni. With this reunion event in November, we hope to strengthen the ecosystem for Boilermaker entrepreneurs by broadening our outreach and creating a network of support, both among the Boilermakers themselves and with our campus.”
Chiang, Purdue president and the Roscoe H. George Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was the John A. Edwardson Dean of Purdue’s College of Engineering from 2017 to 2022. Before he came to Purdue, Chiang was the Arthur LeGrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, where he also served as the inaugural chairman of the Princeton Entrepreneurship Council and director of the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education.
As an inventor and entrepreneur, Chiang has 25 U.S. patents, most of which have been licensed and deployed by the communications and networking industry. He cofounded three startup companies in mobile networks, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things—based on the research at Princeton Edge Lab—and cofounded a global nonprofit, the OpenFog Consortium, now part of the global Industrial Internet Consortium.
Excellence at Scale
Purdue is ranked in the top 10 most innovative universities in the United States—a title it has maintained for six years in a row. It is also the only university ranked among Fast Company’s list of the top 50 most innovative companies. In 2022, the Purdue Research Foundation (PRF) received 192 patents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, placing it fifth internationally.
In April, PRF and the university formed Purdue Innovates, which serves as a conduit for faculty, staff, students, alumni, industry partners, and investors to bring their ideas and innovations to the marketplace. Leaders from Purdue Innovates will showcase its initiatives at the Entrepreneurial Alumni Reunion and discuss how the organization is elevating excellence at scale for both inventors and entrepreneurs.
Brooke Beier (BME’08, MS BME’10, PhD BME’11), senior vice president of Purdue Innovates, emphasizes the significance of bringing Boilermaker entrepreneurs back to campus: “This will be an invigorating and impactful weekend to celebrate journeys in entrepreneurship. The networking and learnings will be invaluable to our Purdue-connected startups. We are extremely excited about the impact these alumni will have on the Purdue startup community.”
Tyler Mantel (ChE’13, ME’13), director of the Startup Foundry at Purdue Innovates, is excited to see successful alumni in the Purdue ecosystem.
“Three factors are important to startups: customers, community, and capital. West Lafayette has ideal access to both customers and community. You can achieve significantly greater access to an organization in the Midwest than in places such as Boston or New York City. That’s really fertile grounds for building a startup’s customers.”
However, capital can be a struggle, and the Entrepreneurial Alumni Reunion aims to address this issue by uniting alumni, investors, and experts willing to support Boilermaker innovations.
“At the reunion, we’ll showcase people from various industries and different corners of the country,” says Madison Sowards, venture community manager for the Startup Foundry. “There’s a lot of power that comes with getting like-minded people in the same room at the same time.”
The event will feature investment pitches, networking opportunities, panel discussions, and presentations from impactful speakers. “This is an occasion for the community to actively engage with the Purdue Innovates initiative as it grows and becomes ingrained in Purdue’s DNA,” Sowards says.
The Entrepreneurial Alumni Reunion will also mark the launch of a new angel network at the Purdue Foundry, providing support to companies in the Indiana ecosystem and beyond.
“This is a first-of-its-kind event for Boilermaker entrepreneurs. Attendees will write the next chapter of Purdue University’s story as a global leader in research and innovation.”
The Entrepreneurial Alumni Reunion will take place November 9–11 on the university’s West Lafayette campus. Registration is open now—check out the reunion website for more information.
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