Research

Our Research

IEAM's community engaged research cohort has grown over the years and will include approximately 200-225 researchers ranging from freshmen undergraduates to graduate students to tenured faculty during the 2025-2026 academic year. We follow the design cycle to Understand and Define various problems related to hunger and mobility, then Ideate, Prototype, & Test proposed solutions with community partners. Together, our goal is to create efficiencies and increase the effectiveness of Central Indiana's charitable food system using a human-centered design approach to research.

Visit our website on Food Pantry Logistics
Watch a video about research conducted by Luddy School of Informatics graduate students during 2024-2025.

Caring Culture: Designing the Food Pantry Experience

Read the Executive Summary of our interdisciplinary team's work at five Central Indiana food pantries during the 2023-2024 school year.

Mobility & Logistics for Food Pantries: Inventory Control & Volunteer Coordination

A 2025 Human-Computer Interaction Capstone Project at the IMPACT Center Pantry in Greenwood, Indiana.

Food Delivery Optimization

A Senior Mechanical Engineering Capstone Project in Partnership with Nine13 Logistics in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Mobility as a Care: Designing the Future of Food & Mobility Services

A 2025 project by Year 1 graduate design students at Herron School of Art + Design in collaboration with Central Indiana food pantries.

Through the FLEET Center, now funded as an IUCRC in conjunction with the National Science Foundation, IEAM's colleagues from Purdue Engineering collaborate with the University of Memphis and industrial partners working to address challenges faced by the freight, logistics and original equipment manufacturing related industries in the areas of electrification, automated operation, supply-chain and human factors through pre-competitive research.