The Purdue University Board of Trustees on Friday (Oct. 7) ratified the appointment of Luna Lu as the Reilly Professor of Civil Engineering.

How lightning travels from the sky to the ground inspired the concept behind a new algorithmic approach to digitally separate individual trees from their forests in automatic forest mapping.

With today’s “smart” homes, you can activate lights and air-conditioning with a simple verbal request. But are these systems really “smart” enough to know which room you’re in? Can they save energy by cooling just one specific corner of the room? That’s the idea behind the Human Building Interactions Laboratory (HBIL), a first-of-its-kind interactive facility at Purdue University that will enable HVAC systems to become truly reconfigurable, right down to the specific wall panels.

CE senior Lauren Sparber is one of seven seniors announced as 2022-2023 Purdue Engineering Fellows. The program was designed to recognize the accomplishments, contributions and potential of outstanding seniors.

Laura Gustafson, senior in the College of Engineering, the College of Liberal Arts and the John Martinson Honors College, has been named a 2022 Udall Scholarship Honorable Mention. The prestigious Udall Scholarship awarded by the Udall Foundation recognizes college sophomores and juniors for leadership, public service and commitment to environmental sustainability.

Willis "Rick" Conner, PE, SE (BSCE 1976) has been elected to the National Academy of Construction. Established in 1999, NAC recognizes industry leaders from across the U.S. who demonstrate exceptional leadership and service with a continued commitment to innovation.

The Lyles School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor. Applicants who have a strong interest and expertise in the structural engineering area of hardened infrastructure are of particular interest.

WaveLogix, a startup technology company founded by Purdue University Civil Engineering Professor Luna Lu, received a federal SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop its Internet of Things sensors for concrete strength monitoring.

Satish V. Ukkusuri, Reilly Professor of Civil Engineering and director of the Urban Mobility Networks and Intelligence (UMNI) Lab at Purdue, has been named a fellow by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Board of Directors.

U.S. News & World Report has released its national rankings of undergraduate programs for 2023 with Purdue Civil Engineering ranked #7 in the nation. The rankings are computed from the responses to a survey sent to deans, heads, and selected senior faculty. Purdue Civil Engineering has been consistently ranked as a top 10 undergraduate program by U.S. News & World Report for over a decade.

A joint project between the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) and Purdue University to develop one of the world's first dynamic wireless power transfer highway segments has earned a place in the 2022 Top 100 Strategic U.S. Infrastructure Project Report.

A multidisciplinary research team led by Panagiota Karava, the Jack and Kay Hockema Professor of Civil Engineering, recently received a $400,000 supplement from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to further its work on “Sociotechnical Systems to Enable Smart and Connected Energy-Aware Residential Communities.” This award builds on an initial $3.5 million award in 2018.

CE alumnus Ron Klemencic and Professor Amit Varma have worked together to design and test a concrete-filled, composite steel-plate shear wall core system for high-rise construction – dubbed SpeedCore – with the benefit of speeding construction by as much as 43% over a traditional cast-in-place reinforced-concrete core design

PhD student Fabian B. Rodriguez has received a 2022 John Faber Scholarship from the American Coal Ash Association Educational Foundation (ACAAEF). The ACAAEF awards scholarships to graduate and undergraduate students with demonstrated interest in the management and beneficial use of coal combustion products (CCP).

A team of Purdue civil engineers led by Ayman Habib and Darcy Bullock have developed a fully automated, portable system to estimate the volume of stockpiles of bulk supplies like salt and other materials used in industrial, highway and agricultural applications.

The 21st Annual Paul Zia Distinguished Lecture, “Design and Construction of the Rainier Square Redevelopment Project,” will be presented on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. Presenters include Ron Klemencic (BSCE 1985), PE, SE, Hon AIA, chairman and CEO, Magnusson Klemencic Associates and Dr. Amit Varma, Ph.D., Karl H. Kettelhut Professor of Civil Engineering and director of the Bowen Laboratory for Large-Scale Civil Engineering Research.

Benesch President and CEO Kevin Fitzpatrick, PE (BSCE 1985) has been elected to the National Academy of Construction. Established in 1999, NAC recognizes industry leaders from across the U.S. who demonstrate exceptional leadership and service with a continued commitment to innovation.

Mentoring circles are structured with two current faculty members serving as mentors and four to six graduate students and postdocs as mentees.

Dr. Siddharth Saksena (MSCE '14, PhD '19), Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, has received the A. Ivan Johnson Award for Young Professionals presented by the American Water Resources Association.

In this webinar, Andrew Whelton, Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Ecological Engineering and Director of the Purdue Center for Plumbing Safety, joins a panel of experienced professionals who have helped communities throughout the West and Southwest US inspect, test and help guide the decontamination of water systems affected by wildfire events.