The new school year is upon us and it truly feels like the Purdue University campus that I have known and grown to love.

For the first time since 2019, the opening of the school year was not met with, at best, cautious optimism, but a true sense of joy and excitement. And it could not have been possible without the incredible cooperation demonstrated over the past few years by students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends.

It is interesting how “normalcy” became something to strive for in the last few years — a hard-fought goal that took countless hours of work by tens of thousands of Boilermakers on campus to achieve. Yet, here we are — excited that we are fast approaching pre-pandemic form.

Another word that has often been brought up over the past few years is “resilience.” For civil engineers, this word has significant meaning and continues to be an integral part of our design philosophy. Our students, faculty and staff have and continued to demonstrate that same resilience. We adjusted, held strong and shared in each other’s successes.

This cooperation also allowed us in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering to continue what we do best: educate the civil engineers of tomorrow and lead the world in cutting-edge research.

In this edition of IMPACT, we share several examples of our innovative research. Stories include a study on indoor air quality; collecting data from satellites and unmanned aerial vehicles to map urban and rural environments; the development of polymers that can reduce the volume of tailings; and research into improving both quality and environmental impact of concrete.

The work and research conducted here at the Lyles School of Civil Engineering continues on with the goal of improving the world around us. Because while normalcy is always appreciated, we will continue to strive for excellence.

All the best,

Rao S. Govindaraju
Bowen Engineering Head of Civil Engineering and
The Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Professor of Civil Engineering