Lafayette Online » IUPUI

Online tool helps students plan transfer credits to Purdue

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:43:19 +0000

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Students interested in transferring to Purdue University can use a new online tool to help them evaluate any credits that might transfer.

“In addition to the transfer credit database that will help prospective students determine if credit from other institutions will transfer to Purdue, this also will help current students evaluate whether a course they want to take at a hometown school during summer break will be accepted,” said Karan Bowerman, an assistant director who supervises credit evaluation in the Office of Admissions.

The transfer credit database, as well as information about transferring credit to Purdue, can be found at http://www.admissions.purdue.edu under the “Applying” header.

In the past, students relied on Purdue credit evaluation staff to provide a report. This new public site allows students to plug in a course name and number from another institution. The database immediately lets the user know if the course will be accepted.

This database also covers classes taken at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis because many of the courses there are offered by Indiana University. The credit evaluation is not applicable to Purdue’s Calumet, Fort Wayne and North Central regional campuses courses at those locations are offered by Purdue.

Purdue system’s total enrollment is on the rise

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:11:18 +0000

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University on Friday (Sept. 11) reported its enrollment numbers and that the system-wide total increased this year.

Purdue’s total enrollment, which includes the West Lafayette campus, Purdue Calumet, Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Purdue North Central and the statewide technology sites, is 74,319 compared to 71,984 a year ago. More than 54,000 – or nearly 73 percent – of the students are Indiana residents.

“The growing enrollment at the regional campuses demonstrates there are multiple pathways to a Purdue education,” Purdue President France A. Córdova said.

Statewide campus enrollment totals include:

Purdue Calumet, 10,133
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, 13,675
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, 4,964 enrolled in Purdue programs
Purdue North Central, 4,463
Statewide Technology, 1,387. College of Technology degrees are offered in Anderson/Muncie, Columbus/Greensburg, Indianapolis, Kokomo, Lafayette, New Albany, Richmond, South Bend and Vincennes.

Purdue also reported that the academic quality of its freshman class at the West Lafayette campus increased for the fourth year in a row.

This year’s freshman class of 6,171 students is composed of 3,808 Indiana residents, 1,673 U.S. non-residents and 690 international students. SAT scores for this freshman class increased by 11 points: eight points for math, one point for critical reading and two for writing. This year’s increase comes on the heels of the 13-point increase attained by last year’s incoming freshmen for a cumulative increase of 24 points over the two-year period. The average high school grade point average this year remained at 3.5.

“Our freshman class is well prepared to succeed at Purdue,” said Randy Woodson, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. “I am very excited to see what these students will be able to accomplish while they are here.”

Overall, almost 10,000 Indiana residents applied for freshman admission to the West Lafayette campus, and all but about 200 were offered admission within the Purdue system.

“The economy has been an issue for all colleges and universities this year, and despite these tough times, Purdue’s West Lafayette campus had its second highest application volume ever,” said Pamela Horne, assistant vice president for enrollment management and dean of admissions. “I think the value of a Purdue degree is clear.”

The value of a Purdue degree also continues to be recognized internationally. The number of international undergraduate students at the West Lafayette campus increased from 2,360 last year to 2,818 this year.

The continued interest in Purdue from international students is a sign of Purdue’s outstanding international reputation, said Michael Brzezinski, interim vice provost for global affairs and dean of international programs. In addition, the presence of students from all over the world enhances the experience for Indiana and other American students.

“This prepares Purdue graduates to compete and cooperate in a global economy,” he said. “International students also become Purdue alumni, and they often return to their home countries where they share their positive experiences in America and Indiana.”

Other West Lafayette enrollment highlights:

Total undergraduates: 31,145
Undergraduate residency: Indiana students, 20,079; U.S. non-Indiana students, 8,248; and International students, 2,818
Ethnicity overall: African-American students, 1,360; Hispanic students, 1,107; Native American students, 183; and Asian American students, 2,010
Total international students: 5,990
Graduate school: 7,639
Professional programs (Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy): 913
Incoming transfer students: 1,253
Women: 16,731, and men, 22,966

Research initiative will benefit Hoosiers statewide

admin — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:23:26 +0000

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — A federal award to fund the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute validates Indiana’s position as a biomedical research leader, and citizens across Indiana and beyond will benefit, say Hoosier life sciences leaders.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a five-year grant of $25 million to the IU School of Medicine to fund Indiana CTSI activities at Indiana and Purdue Universities. The NIH created the clinical and translational awards program as a high priority effort to improve the process by which the laboratory discoveries of basic science are transformed into new medical treatments and products – a process called translational research.

Officials at the NIH said the Indiana CTSI is one of the most broadly collaborative of the more than two dozen such programs it has funded to date, with community partners including Clarian Health, Eli Lilly and Co., BioCrossroads, Cook Group, Roche, Wellpoint, the Indiana Economic Development Corp., the Indiana Department of Health and the Marion County Health Department.

“The institute harnesses all of Indiana’s major life sciences research centers into a commonly focused enterprise that will give Indiana’s research scientists many new advantages in finding ways to do their work more effectively and efficiently,” said IU President Michael A. McRobbie. “Over the long term, this will have an enormously positive impact on the state and will make laboratories at both IU and Purdue far more competitive for the major research awards of the future.”

“This partnership creates the only national clinical and translational sciences institute that’s a statewide research laboratory, and the National Institutes of Health acknowledged that,” said France A. Córdova, president of Purdue. “This unique structure means Purdue and Indiana university researchers can address the human health needs of the entire state, especially those in our more rural communities.”

One key to the success of the Indiana CTSI will be its ability to go beyond translating scientific discoveries to treatments and standard health care practices, said Anantha Shekhar, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at IU School of Medicine and IU assistant vice president for life sciences, who has been named director of the Indiana CTSI.

“We will build systems that facilitate all levels of research and provide community feedback to researchers. This will enable the researchers to improve and refine the conduct of their science and improve care of their patients. We call it the “translational circle,’ ” Dr. Shekhar said.

Connie Weaver, Ph.D., head of the Department of Foods and Nutrition at Purdue, has been named deputy director of the CTSI at Purdue. Bennett Bertenthal, Ph.D., dean of the IU College of Arts and Sciences, has been named deputy director for the IU Bloomington campus.

D. Craig Brater, M.D., vice president for life sciences of IU and dean of the IU School of Medicine, noted that the institute represents the future of biomedical research.

“The health issues facing us are enormous, the science is complex, and resources must be used carefully. Just as the emphasis on translational science is of vital importance, so are broad-based partnerships and collaborations keys to our success in Indiana. Both are epitomized by the CTSI,” Dr. Brater said.

The heart of the CTSI process will be project development teams, composed of researchers with a broad range of relevant backgrounds. The teams will meet regularly to hear proposals from scientists, assigning project managers to help move discoveries through the additional research and testing steps necessary to produce new medicines and treatment practices.

Because children are under-represented in clinical research, and recognizing IU’s expertise in both pediatric basic science research and treating young patients through such institutions as the Wells Center for Pediatric Research and Riley Hospital for Children, a separate team will focus on children’s health research. The Pediatric Research Acceleration Team will be headed by Scott Denne, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics at the IU School of Medicine.

“We believe that focusing attention on children’s health is one of the ways the Indiana CTSI stands out among the clinical initiatives, and will bring dramatic benefits to children everywhere,” said Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, M.D., executive associate dean for research affairs at IU School of Medicine and president and CEO of Riley Hospital.

Another such team, the Translating Research into Practice Team, will focus on ways to help practicing physicians implement research findings in their work. For example, research has shown that collaborative efforts can help cancer patients in the community get better treatment for pain and depression. Researchers at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center and the Regenstrief Institute, both CTSI partners, are jointly implementing such a program with cancer physicians in Indianapolis incorporating telemedicine and partnerships with pain treatment specialists.

Another key aspect of the Indiana CTSI is its mission to train a new generation of researchers that are well versed in new technologies such as molecular medicine, community-based clinical trials, implementation studies of effective treatments, and economics of health practices. Kurt Kroenke, professor of medicine at IU, heads the training programs within the Indiana CTSI. Eli Lilly has made a substantial commitment to support training activities within the CTSI.

One aspect of the Purdue program will connect the new institute with Purdue’s statewide Extension educators.

“Carol Boushey, associate professor of foods and nutrition, will serve as a liaison between CTSI and our county educators,” Weaver said. “Carol’s work will be especially important in ensuring that we address the health issues of Indiana. This is where access meets impact.”

Boushey will communicate with county Extension leaders to identify the major community health issues in their areas and report her findings to the institute. Those findings will help researchers conduct community-based interventions and study the effects on the population. Similarly, when public health discoveries are made, Boushey will take the information back to counties that will benefit from it by developing training modules for county Extension educators based on the findings.

In addition to its work in Indiana’s 92 counties, Purdue will handle the nutrition and diet planning for clinical studies under the new partnership. Purdue’s School of Veterinary Medicine will spearhead the pre-clinical animal modeling studies for issues relating to human diseases.

Purdue’s Discovery Park will receive funding to create the third lab in the United States authorized to perform particular types of testing related to Vitamin D absorption and reaction in humans. The testing is necessary for studies of bone health.

The two universities bring a broad array of complementary resources to the initiative to develop faster and more effective methods for moving research discoveries from the laboratory to the patient bedside and to the marketplace. The Indiana CTSI will draw upon deep expertise at the IU School of Medicine in Indianapolis in operating clinical (patient) studies, advanced biomedical research technologies such as genomics and bioinformatics, methodologies for conducting and analyzing research, training physicians and scientists, and bioethics.

“At IU Bloomington, we have a rapidly growing capacity for life sciences research across a broad range of disciplines,” Bertenthal said. “Our resources include new multi-disciplinary laboratories with state-of-the-art core facilities, such as imaging, supercomputing and magnetic resonance instrumentation that put us in the top tier of research universities. These facilities will play a major role in this new initiative.”

The Indiana CTSI builds on investments in research and technology transfer made by Purdue and IU, particularly since 2000. For example, in 2001 Purdue launched Discovery Park, which involves more than 1,000 scientists drawn from every academic unit at Purdue and has led to the creation of 20 new companies. IU has significantly bolstered its research enterprise, attracting top-flight scientists with such support as the $105 million granted by the Lilly Endowment for the Indiana Genomics Initiative. The Indiana General Assembly, meanwhile, has provided financial support for necessary new research facilities and granted $20 million in 2007 for new research initiatives at IU and Purdue.

“The main focus of Purdue’s Discovery Park is bringing people together to solve large-scale problems and then moving the solutions into the marketplace more quickly,” said Alan Rebar, senior associate vice president for research at Purdue and executive director of Discovery Park. “This new center will allow us to accelerate those efforts into more areas of human health.”

The CTSI’s organization will include an external advisory committee composed of Indiana business and government leaders and representatives of other NIH-funded clinical and translational science institutes.

“The CTSI is a nationally significant example of an unprecedented partnership among IU, Purdue, BioCrossroads, corporate leaders and local health care organizations to uncover new life sciences opportunities that can more quickly be put to work to advance human health,” said David Johnson, president and CEO of BioCrossroads. “Receiving this prestigious grant is just further evidence that we’re at the forefront of health care discovery and delivery. Being able to bring research out of the laboratories and into our communities will benefit Hoosiers all over the state.”

“The Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute is another demonstration of the collaboration and commitment among Indiana health care leaders to bring cutting-edge treatments from the bench to the bedside,” said Daniel F. Evans, Jr., president and CEO of Clarian Health.

Because CTSI’s activities will reach out to scientists, health care providers, businesses and communities statewide, CTSI officials will create an Internet-based home for the initiative, the CTSI HUB.

The CTSI HUB will give Hoosier investigators access to a rich database of the scientific resources available in Indiana – researchers and their work, research programs and institutes, and experts that can help them move their work forward. The HUB will help CTSI researchers more easily communicate, collaborate, and track their progress. It will link the Indiana CTSI to other clinical translational science organizations around the country. It also will enable CTSI to better communicate with, and educate, health care providers and consumers throughout Indiana.

“This represents the essence of the Indiana CTSI – a powerful statewide resource for a healthier Indiana,” said Dr. Shekhar.

Lafayette Online » IUPUI

Online tool helps students plan transfer credits to Purdue

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