Transportation and Infrastructure Systems Engineering
As a branch of civil engineering, transportation engineering has a history that is long and illustrious and a future that is full of promise. The National Academy of Engineering has identified restoring urban infrastructure and implementing smart mobility as grand challenges. We need coordinated approaches to tackle transportation issues by integrating car, rail, bus, truck, walking and bicycling to meet sustainability goals. Currently, we see how smartphones have enabled ride sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, while taxis and GPS-equipped cars and trucks are providing massive amounts of data that was unimaginable a few years back. Before long, it may be common to have vehicles are talking to infrastructure (V2I) and vehicles talking to each other (V2V). Traffic flow with automated vehicles is expected to be much safer and more efficient than with human drivers.
The journey to that future will be fascinating and challenging. The safe and efficient movement of people and goods relies on infrastructure. Highways, airports, railroads, waterways and pipelines need to be planned, designed, operated, and maintained. Purdue's Transportation and Infrastructure Systems Engineering faculty offer a wide range of classes, research facilities, and experiences. Their efforts will have noticeable impacts on challenges such as:
- Asset management
- Data acquisition and analytics
- Emergency response
- Energy
- Freight Transportation and Logistics
- Environment
- Smart Mobility
- Sustainability
- Urban infrastructure
The award-winning Purdue Student Chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers introduces students to the transportation profession and fosters a close association of students with practicing engineers, educators from other institutions, and local and national chapters of ITE.
Spotlights
July 6, 2026
Alek Habecker (CCE intern) and Bala Reddy Kolanu (ECE graduate student) represented Purdue at the 28th International Roboracer Competition that took place in Detroit as part of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (IEEE IV), June 22–25, 2026.
July 1, 2026
Professor Samuel Labi, along with CCE students and staff and volunteers from Purdue and other universities, organized and hosted the 5th Annual Next Generation Transport Systems conference at the Burton Morgan Entrepreneurship Center, West Lafayette, IN, on May 22, 2026.
June 23, 2026
A team of Purdue faculty and students including Professor Sam Labi and members of the Purdue Polytechnic Institute competed at the 3rd Annual Artificial Intelligence Maritime Maneuver Indiana Collegiate Challenge (AIMM-ICC) held April 17-18 at Pokagon State Park in Angola, Indiana.
June 18, 2026
The Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering hosted the 2026 annual National AKS Competition held at the Purdue Grand Prix track in West Lafayette, May 18-22, 2026.
June 18, 2026
Research co-authored by Gaia Cervini (MSCE 2022, PhD 2026), Lavan Teja Burra, and CCE faculty Jinha Jung & Nadia Gkritza on the effect of environmental conditions on battery electric vehicle (BEV) adoption has been published in Sustainable Mobility and Transport, a Nature partner journal.
April 10, 2026
A Purdue-led project that wirelessly charges moving electric trucks has received a major state honor.
April 7, 2026
CCE undergrad Kalaya Sriver has been selected by the Indianapolis Chapter of the Women's Transportation Seminar (WTS) as the recipient of the Sharon D. Banks Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded annually to inspire and support women who aspire to pursue a career path in transportation.
April 7, 2026
PhD student Rishika Tumula has been selected by the Indianapolis Chapter of the Women's Transportation Seminar (WTS) as the recipient of the Helene M. Overly Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded annually to inspire and support women who aspire to pursue a career path in transportation.
April 7, 2026
CCE undergrad Maeve Hegarty has been selected by the Indianapolis Chapter of the Women's Transportation Seminar (WTS) as the recipient of the Sharon D. Banks Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded annually to inspire and support women who aspire to pursue a career path in transportation.
March 9, 2026
For the first time in the U.S., a roadway wirelessly charged an electric heavy-duty truck driving at highway speeds, demonstrating a key technology that could help lower the costs of building electrified highways for all electric vehicles to use.
February 26, 2026
Darcy Bullock, Lyles Family Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Joint Transportation Research Program, was presented with the National Safety Award by the American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA) during the 56th Annual Convention & Traffic Expo.
February 5, 2026
Richard Ajagu, Masters student in the Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering, was awarded the CCAT Student of the Year by the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC).
January 20, 2026
Samuel Labi, Professor of Civil Engineering, has been appointed chair of the International Road Federation (IRF) Committee on Alternative Financing.
January 6, 2026
PhD student Bruno Cesar Krause Moras has been selected as an International Road Federation (IRF) Fellow for the Class of 2026. He was co-nominated for this prestigious award by Professor Nadia Gkritza and Professor Samuel Labi. This fellowship has been the cornerstone of the careers of many who are now leading figures in the realm of roads and transportation globally.
December 21, 2025
A Purdue team led by Professor Samuel Labi will participate in the 3rd Annual Artificial Intelligence Maritime Maneuver Indiana Collegiate Challenge (AIMM ICC) at the Pokagon State Park in Angola, Indiana, April 17-18, 2026.
December 11, 2025
Lyles faculty member and Purdue team advisor Samuel Labi, together with CCE students Kendrew Agbemadzo, Yuvraj Segal, Jiayu Zhu, Andres Moreno, and Richard Ajagu and ECE graduate student Sashank Modali will be hosting the 4th Annual international AKS competition at the Purdue Grand Prix Track in West Lafayette, IN, May 21, 2026.
December 8, 2025
After more than 50 years of transforming global transportation education and research worldwide, Purdue University professor Kumares Sinha is retiring from the Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering. The Edgar B. and Hedwig M. Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering and member of the National Academy of Engineering celebrated his retirement on Nov. 19 with colleagues, former students and collaborators from around the world.
December 4, 2025
For the first time in the U.S., a roadway has wirelessly charged an electric heavy-duty truck driving at highway speeds, demonstrating key technology that could help lower the costs of building electrified highways for all electric vehicles to use. The experimental highway segment tests a patent-pending system designed by Purdue engineers. The segment, built by the Indiana Department of Transportation, is a quarter-mile stretch on U.S. Highway 52/U.S. Highway 231 in West Lafayette.
November 5, 2025
The Connected Automated and Resilient Transportation (CART) Lab from the Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Purdue University was invited to participate in the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) 60th Anniversary Symposium, held Oct. 2-3 in Ann Arbor, MI.
October 31, 2025
A team of Purdue University researchers including Yiheng Feng, Assistant Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering and Assistant Director of the Center for Road Safety (CRS), have introduced a new, physically practical method called DetStorm that reveals a critical vulnerability in how autonomous vehicles process visual information.
