Research Centers

Build America Center (BAC)

Purdue University, headquarters of the Midwest branch of BAC (based in University of Maryland), mobilizes knowledge and skills in innovative financing, funding, project delivery, procurement, and contracting solutions to foster new approaches to transportation infrastructure development and delivery through the creation of a knowledge hub, spurring innovation with cutting edge research, collaborative partnerships, and the development of an academy to deliver innovative education and training plus tailored technical assistance. This is done through 4 areas: Knowledge Hub management, Innovation, Education and Training Academy, and Partnership. In collaboration with the USDOT, BAC leads cutting-edge research, delivers innovative training, and provides customized technical assistance in support of the implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Center for Connected and Automated Transportation (CCAT)

Purdue’s CCAT is a part of a regional USDOT University Transportation Center based in Michigan (UM Ann Arbor). CCAT’s mission is to significantly advance next-generation transportation systems to promote safety, cybersecurity, mobility, and accessibility, through research, education, workforce development, and technology transfer. CCAT collaborates with state and local DOTs, and the CAV industry to ensure that CCAT research translates to practical outcomes through prototypes, field tests, technology transfer, implementation, and policies at all levels.

Center for High Performance Buildings (CHPB)

The CHPB is dedicated to partnering with industry in the development, demonstration, evaluation, and deployment of new technologies and analysis tools for high performance buildings. CHPB is a multi-disciplinary effort involving researchers from Mechanical, Civil (Architectural), and Electrical Engineering and Psychological Sciences. The team has the expertise and unique facilities to consider a wide range of applications related to engineered environments that address numerous important issues in indoor environmental quality, human comfort and productivity, comfort delivery systems, building envelopes, lighting, equipment efficiency and reliability, environmental impact, controls, automation, etc.

Center for Plumbing Safety

In 2016, the U.S. government provided our multi-university team a $1,989,000 grant to initiate this project in addition to $1,100,000 contributed by our research partners. This project involves organizations from the building construction, plumbing, water utility, education, and public health sectors and input from homeowners and representatives from the general public. Together, we are working to understand how to make certain the water you use at home, at work, and schools is safe.

Center for Road Safety (CRS)

The Center for Road Safety (CRS) conducts research and develops engineering tools in the area of road safety including those relating to the driver, vehicle, and roadway characteristics. The Center has extensive expertise in identifying factors that affect safety, in the development and design of safety databases, and in developing and implementing computer-based tools to assist in all aspects of safety management and planning. The Center utilizes the latest methodological techniques and can deliver decision support systems in user-friendly computer tools customized to end-user conditions and needs. The Center provides service to a wide variety of local, state and federal agencies including counties, cities, the Indiana Department of Transportation, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute, the Federal Highway Administration, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Motor Carriers Association.

Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP)

JTRP is one of the oldest transportation research programs in the U.S. Established in 1937, JTRP is a partnership between the Indiana Department of Transportation and the Lyles School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University and has become a national model for the successful partnership of government, academia, and the private sector, combining their efforts in a mutually rewarding research program. Their function is to make basic studies of materials used in highways; facilitate economical design, construction, and maintenance of county and state highways; investigate traffic, safety, and other items as desired and agreed upon; provide advanced instruction in the fundamentals of highway engineering and related research; and provide practical experience in construction and maintenance procedures in the use of highway materials. JTRP's major outreach activity is the Annual Purdue Road School, which is held annually on the Purdue West Lafayette campus in conjunction with the Indiana LTAP.  Click here for information on FMCSA Title VI compliance.

Lyles Autonomy (Lyles CCE Center for Civil Engineering Autonomous Systems Research)

Lyles Autonomy is a growing collaborative effort of multiple professors in the Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering that are involved in autonomous systems research and applications in the various branches of civil engineering: transportation and infrastructure systems, construction, structural, hydraulic and hydrologic, architectural, geomatics, geotechnical, environmental, and materials. The mission of Lyles Autonomy is to advance autonomous systems through research, education, workforce development, and technology transfer. Lyles Autonomy faculty members work with governmental agencies, the private sector, and citizen groups to ensure that their research leads to the promotion of efficiency, safety, and cost-effectiveness of civil engineering systems and processes through improved standards, technology deployment, and policy. Partner organizations include the Indianapolis Department of Transportation, US Navy, National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Center for Connected and Automated Transportation (CCAT). Initiatives under the Lyles Autonomy umbrella include PAGKI (Purdue Autonomous Go-kart Initiative funded by CCE); Boiler Autonomy (Roboracer F1-Tenth vehicle building and testing, funded by CCE); Roboat (Purdue autonomous marine initiative, funded by US Navy and CCE); the Connected Automated and Resilient Transportation (CART) Lab (funded by NSF, CCAT, etc.) and the Digital Twin Lab.

Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure Network Coordination Office (NHERI-NCO)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) launched the Natural Hazards Engineering Research Infrastructure (NHERI) in 2015 with a $40-million investment. NHERI provides a network of shared, state-of-the-art research facilities and tools at universities around the country to help better understand and resist the impacts of wind, water and earthquake hazards. The Purdue-led Network Coordination Office (NCO) center serves as a focal point and leader of a multi-hazards research community focused on mitigating the impact of future earthquakes and windstorms, and related hazards such as tsunamis and storm surge on our nation's physical civil infrastructure.