Krishna Muralidharan wins Big Idea Challenge award
Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, U of A senior vice president for research and partnerships, delivers remarks at the May 12 pitch event for the Big Idea Challenge. Six teams, all made up of experts from across campus, have been chosen as the challenge's inaugural awardees.
Six teams of University of Arizona experts who presented proposals to accelerate transdisciplinary projects with the potential to transform lives, shape policy, drive economic impact and provide training for the next generation of talent were chosen as the 2025 Big Idea Challenge awardees.
Krishna Muralidharan, a professor of MSE, was named a Big Idea Challenge awardee for his work on the project "Making Space for off-Earth Scalable Cloud Computing and Data Infrastructure."
Administered by the Office of Research and Partnerships, the inaugural challenge generated strong engagement with 72 proposals submitted representing 19 units across the university. Submissions came from teams spanning a broad range of career stages, from undergraduate students to senior faculty.
ORP will provide $250,000 over two years and strategic guidance to the finalists to support transformative research that seeks novel solutions to grand challenges.
"The teams selected as awardees of the 2025 Big Idea Challenge exemplify the kind of visionary thinking and convergent research that define Arizona’s research enterprise," said Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, U of A senior vice president for research and partnerships.