The catastrophic April 2015 earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal, offered Prateek Shah a rare opportunity as an engineering student – a research experience related to his interest field that would also help his hometown.

David McKinley (BS '70) is used to being the odd man out. As one of two professional engineers in Congress, McKinley often finds himself debating legislation and hot-button topics with fellow lawmakers who do not necessarily understand his more scientific approach to solving problems.

As the son of a Beijing man who worked in China's energy
industry, Xuanchi Li, perhaps not surprisingly, chose Purdue for
its international engineering reputation. Now, the junior in civil
engineering is gaining research experience that could literally
pay off down the road. For both the pavement and himself.

Nadia Aljabi is not your typical undergraduate civil engineering student. The daughter of a Syrian father and Costa Rican mother, Aljabi has already traveled much of the world, seeing firsthand how many countries lack the basic infrastructure to live comfortably and productively. Her response: Work to mitigate the impact of natural disasters that cost lives and untold property damage.

For environmental and ecological engineering junior Holly Haflich, the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program was a great way to get experience working on prevalent issues in her field. She joined Amisha Shah's lab last summer to investigate a current issue in water treatment. Professor Shah is an assistant professor of civil engineering and environmental and ecological engineering.

Processing human waste is a circular affair. We fill toilets with potable water, only to contaminate it with nutrient-rich urine. We flush the fouled water to treatment plants, where it's stripped of nutrients, cleaned — and pumped back into toilets.

When thinking about bridges, most people envision elevated arches spanning scenic waterways. But as Xiao Zhang learned from his work in the 2015 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program, some bridges are actually underground drainage culverts; they often go unnoticed by drivers on the roads above them.