Aida Ayuk, a third-year architecture student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, received a third-place honorable mention in the social impact category of the 2020 National Draper Competition for Women Entrepreneurs for her business plan and design proposal for BioFuture, a portable biomaterial digester for military waste.

As classes begin at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute this week, not only has the COVID-19 pandemic changed the format of some courses, it has also assumed a prominent focus in the content of many courses throughout the university. In keeping with the Institute mission to prepare the next generation of world-changing leaders, students will learn how a range of disciplines might respond to the most pressing global health challenge of the modern era.