See the launch of Purdue’s ‘Boilers to Mars’
See the launch of Purdue’s ‘Boilers to Mars’
A new short film markets the university’s ‘Cradle of Astronauts’ role, past and future. Plus, Lafayette schools become first locally with a formal AI policy for students
Purdue launched a new, short film Thursday, looking for “Boilers to Mars” to position the university as a place doing the work and inspiring a next generation to add to the “Cradle of Astronauts.”
Clocking in a 11 minutes, the short runs backwards from 2033, following the steps of Purdue grads – in professional fight technology, agriculture, aeronautical and astronautical engineering and business – from the launch of a mission to Mars back through their time at Purdue, their first steps on campus and back to getting their acceptance letters from the university while in high school.
If you remember “What Can You Imagine at Purdue?” – a heartwarming, two-minute marketing piece from 2023 that generated more than 29 million views on YouTube – this one has a similar vibe.
Kelly Hiller, Purdue’s vice president of marketing, said the project was a year-and-a-half in the making and was a first for the university’s marketing operations. Hiller said the characters were based on faculty and students on campus, doing work in aerospace engineering to sustainable agriculture.
“We are the ‘Cradle of Astronauts’ at Purdue, and we expect that when we do go to Mars, that a Boilermaker will be in the lead, leading that effort,” Hiller said from a movie-premiere carpet – this one gold – outside Stewart Center’s Fowler Hall. “So, we decided to take that heroic vision and do it into a short film to hopefully inspire that story and a future generation of space explorers.”
Hiller said the film will be touted on social media; a site called BoilerstoMars.com, which also highlights Purdue’s role in space; and directly through YouTube. (Check it out at the end of this story.)
“Obviously, there is a recruitment lens here that we’ll lean on heavily during our (enrollment) yield season to show people what is possible at Purdue for those prospective students interested in us,” Hiller said. “But this one runs deeper. We’re aiming it at younger audiences, as well, to show them what’s possible. But overall, from a brand awareness play … many of us know that we are the ‘Cradle of Astronauts,’ but we want to hold that megaphone and yell a little bit louder and really get that message out as far and wide as possible.”
The budget for the film done through the university and MadHouse Productions wasn’t revealed, though Hiller said support came from SpaceKids Global. That organization is aimed at instilling interest in STEM and space-related fields with grade-schoolers and is led by Sharon Hagle. Sharon and Marc Hagle, a Purdue grad, gave the lead, $10 million donation for Hagle Hall, the new, $20 million home of the Purdue Bands and Orchestras. They also were among the passengers for Blue Origin’s 20th mission in April 2022, becoming the first married couple in space – and, as Marc Hagle reminded Thursday’s audience, owners of “probably the first legal kiss in space.” (At the time, Purdue created a new term for Marc Hagle, calling him the first “spacefarer” alongside 27 alumni astronauts.)
Purdue made an event out of the premiere. During a panel discussion after the premiere, a group including the Hagles, former astronaut Drew Feustel and Purdue faculty working in on space-related projects said the marketing effort was timed well.
“We're at an inflection point in human space exploration, where our technologies and capabilities are finally catching up with our desires and intentions in space,” Feustel said. “That, to me, is really exciting. … In the next 20 years or 50 years, we're going look back at the shuttle era, the Apollo era, the Gemini era, even the SpaceX Dragon era and think how these were humble beginnings that led to all the great advances that we're going see, I think, in the next few decades.”
Briony Horgan, a professor of planetary science in the Department of Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, is co-investigator and long-term planner on NASA’s Perseverance rover mission now on Mars. She said she marvels at the thought that students who were in her classrooms and others on the West Lafayette campus 10 years ago could be among the first to get that chance. And she said the push for planetary travel is “not just flags and footprints anymore.”
“The thing I'm most excited about, looking ahead to having humans on Mars, is the amazing science we're going to get to do,” Horgan said. “We’re going not just for exploration but to learn new things. .. We're trying to do that right now with the Perseverance rover, searching for signs of ancient microbial life on Mars, trying to collect samples to bring it back to Earth one day. But that's the first step, right?”
D. Marshall Porterfield, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering, said the gap between technology and desire that Feustel mentioned likely relies more on advancing the science of health, agriculture and other means to sustain life than on the capability of getting to Mars. He said the new film showed how labs on campus were working on those questions.
“It looked like home, because the students in the greenhouse (in the movie), those were my students in the greenhouse just this morning to me,” Porterfield said. “What we're trying to do in space is solve all the problems that are already a problem here on Earth, but they're harder in space. … There's so much energy and excitement right now with some of the students and students groups who are starting to respond to these opportunities.”
Check the film here:
LAFAYETTE SCHOOLS FORMALIZE AI POLICY FOR STUDENTS
Lafayette schools will be the first in Tippecanoe County with a formal policy for acceptable student use of artificial intelligence software in the classroom, as districts navigate a new ChatGPT-era landscape.
The Lafayette School Corp. board on Wednesday approved guidelines “for responsible and effective integration of AI,” in an attempt to balance blending technology into school work while doing it ethically. The new policy also promised frequent reviews to keep up with rapidly changing technology, research and best practices.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Based in Lafayette, Indiana to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.