Researcher Develops Way to Measure Crop Health
Published: Friday, January 25, 2019
Three Purdue University researchers have received a total of $121,000 from the Trask Innovation Fund to further develop their technologies and move them through the commercialization pipeline.
The technologies include an alternative to lithium-ion batteries, an innovative handheld sensor that gives plant scientists and farmers a more precise way of measuring the health of crops and a way for consumers to choose a health care provider without revealing sensitive information.
"There were a lot of novel and worthy technologies submitted by researchers. It's a clear indication of the variety of global challenges Purdue researchers are taking on and the potential impacts these innovations can have," said Abhijit Karve, senior business development manager for the Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization.
The Trask Innovation Fund makes funding available twice a year to assist Purdue faculty and staff on their developments that are commercialized through the Office of Technology Commercialization. The Purdue Research Foundation managed fund is an endowed development fund designed to support short-term research and development projects that can enhance the commercial value of Purdue intellectual property.
Vilas Pol, a Purdue associate professor in the Davidson School of Chemical Engineering, was awarded $50,000 to continue research on a sodium-ion battery that would be an alternative to lithium-ion batteries made up of rare lithium. Other sodium-ion batteries have struggled with sodium ions sticking to the hard carbon end of a battery, called an anode, during the initial charging cycles. Pols' team has devised a sodium powder version that fixes that problem.
Jian Jin, an assistant professor in Purdue's Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, who was awarded $50,000 to further develop a handheld sensor that uses hyperspectral-imaging to scan a plant for physiological features, such as moisture, nutrient and chlorophyll levels, as well as different chemical spraying effects and disease symptoms to determine whether it is healthy or under stress. The sensor gathers up-to-the-minute data that users will find valuable.
These innovations align with Purdue's Giant Leaps, celebrating the global advancements in made in health, space, artificial intelligence and sustainability highlights as part of Purdue's 150th anniversary. Those are the four themes of the yearlong celebration's Ideas Festival, designed to showcase Purdue as an intellectual center solving real-world issues.
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