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
October 9, 2020
In the United States, the transportation sector accounts for 28% of energy consumption, 70% of petroleum use and 29% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It is argued that as much as an 80% reduction in worldwide emissions may be needed to stabilize the atmospheric concentration of GHG over the next three decades — at the same time that our nation’s infrastructure is aging, and in need of trillions of dollars in repairs and reconstruction.
August 4, 2020
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has chosen Purdue University to participate in a new Engineering Research Center dedicated to advancing sustainable, electrified transportation.
June 9, 2020
As part of the
Engineering Rising to the Challenge initiative, the College of Engineering at Purdue University joined industry and government partners to host a free webinar on "Advancing Driver-Centric Automation to Enhance Safety and Efficiency in Freight Trucking" on June 16 from 2:30-3:45 p.m.
May 29, 2020
More people are speeding during the pandemic, but the number of speeding tickets has decreased. The Indy Star quoted Civil Engineering’s Darcy Bullock explaining that while law enforcement is effective at getting people to slow down while they're present, the effect goes away when the troopers do.
March 18, 2020
CE master's student Justin Mahlberg has been named a recipient of the 2020-2021 Edward J. Cox Memorial Transportation Scholarship Award. The award is presented annually by the Indiana Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.
March 12, 2020
CE master's student Sarah Adsit has been named a recipient of the 2020-2021 Edward J. Cox Memorial Transportation Scholarship Award. The award is presented annually by the Indiana Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers.
March 5, 2020
A leader in John Deere innovation will give the keynote address during the 106th annual Purdue Road School. This year's road school – designed for federal, state and local agency, industry, consulting, and academic colleagues – begins Monday (March 9) afternoon and will continue until Wednesday afternoon (March 11) with meetings and sessions at Purdue University Memorial Union and Stewart Center.
January 30, 2020
Darcy Bullock, Lyles Family Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the Joint Transportation Research Program, says a recently-announced partnership between Purdue and Germany-based Magment Concrete Wireless Power aims to address future electric vehicle charging needs. The partners will be working on several electric transportation pilots, including the development of wireless charging technology for electric scooters.
January 24, 2020
Dr. Jian Wang, who completed his Ph.D. at Purdue University under the supervision of Dr. Srinivas Peeta in December 2018, has received the 2019 COTA Best Dissertation Award from the Chinese Overseas Transportation Association (COTA).
January 16, 2020
A team of Purdue and INDOT colleagues was recognized with an exceptional paper award by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) committee on Traffic Signal Systems.
January 3, 2020
Recent PhD graduate Sikai Chen has been selected to receive the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) Milton Pikarsky Award, a national level prize. This prestigious award recognizes one outstanding PhD dissertation in transportation science and technology.
January 2, 2020
Grad student Bortiorkor Alabi has been awarded the 2019-2020 Greater Indianapolis Women's Transportation Seminar (WTS) Chapter Helene M. Overly Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship recognizes an outstanding graduate female in the transportation industry and academia.
December 17, 2019
PhD student Theodora Konstantinou has received the Charley V. Wootan Memorial Award from the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC). The award is given annually for the best Doctoral dissertation and Master's thesis in the field of policy and planning in transportation studies. This national student award recognizes her outstanding Master's thesis, "Market Adoption and Impact of Electric Roadways on Criteria Pollutants and Greenhouse Gas Emissions."
December 4, 2019
Sikai Chen, a recently graduated PhD who worked with Professor Samuel Labi in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering and the Center for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAT), has been named recipient of the Spring/Summer 2019 Civil Engineering Best Dissertation Award.
December 4, 2019
Magment Concrete Wireless Power and Purdue University officials announced Wednesday (Dec. 4) an innovation partnership to advance electric transportation pilots at Purdue’s Discovery Park. Magment and Purdue University researchers in the Joint Transportation Research Program will be working on several test cases including micro-mobility scooters, autonomous electric utility vehicle equipment and robotic shop floor delivery systems.
November 4, 2019
Next time you drive your car or truck, consider this: Your vehicle probably knows more about the road conditions you face than the agency that built and maintains the roads.
October 30, 2019
Crash reconstruction is not the kind of mapping mission you'd usually associate with drone technology. It's also not the type of application that first comes to mind when you think of applications harnessed by first responders. But, thanks to research being conducted by CE Professors Darcy Bullock and Ayman Habib, this is a field in which drones are already making a tangible difference.
October 2, 2019
PhD student Takahiro (Taka) Yabe received 2nd place in the 2019 NetMob conference poster competition for his research titled, "Understanding post-disaster population recovery patterns."
September 26, 2019
PhD student Hemant Gehlot (advised by Dr. Satish V. Ukkusuri and Dr. Shreyas Sundaram) has been awarded an honorable mention as one of the three finalists for the Best Student Paper Award at the IFAC Workshop on Distributed Estimation and Control in Networked Systems (NecSys) 2019 for the paper entitled, "Approximation algorithms for the recovery of infrastructure after disasters under precedence constraints."
August 22, 2019
Transportation incidents like poor bridge or highway performance often leave drivers wondering if their local roads and bridges are adequate. A nationwide effort that began in Indiana and New York – and is now celebrating its 60th anniversary – aims to ensure the safety of local drivers. The Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP) helps street departments, county highway departments and local elected officials to better meet the needs of the public by acting as a resource for training, technical assistance and technology transfer.
