Manuel Salmerón, a PhD student in the Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering.

Things wear out, sometimes with catastrophic results. It’s vital to predict the degradation process to anticipate failure in advance and make good decisions about how to manage that inevitability. Manuel Salmerón, a PhD student in the Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering under the supervision of professor Shirley Dyke and co-advised by professor Julio Ramírez, wants to develop a framework that will allow us to better understand infrastructure and product degradation so we can design smarter and optimize maintenance for more predictable performance and reliability.

What investigative avenues are you pursuing?

My research focuses on the degradation of engineering systems. I am interested in how the functionality of the things we use every day decays as they get old or are exposed to adverse environments. Everything deteriorates over time, whether it is a bridge we drive on or the electronics in our pockets. I hope to develop a unified evaluation framework that allows researchers and engineers to better model, test and predict the degradation trends of critical infrastructure and key industrial products. Right now, anticipating such degradation trends is challenging; thus, overconservative and often expensive designs are chosen to avoid failure. Understanding how our infrastructure and products degrade can help us develop smarter and more efficient designs and improve our maintenance strategies.

What spurred your interest in this topic and line of research?

I have always been interested in the interaction between society and technology. The topic of degradation is one fascinating interaction because it directly impacts how we, as a society, allocate our limited resources. All of us want a functional network of roads or trustable electronic devices. But things do not last forever. Thus, we must decide what is more efficient: Do we design our assets for them to last longer? Or do we aim to replace them once they start degrading? Answering this question is not easy. On the one hand, our world can no longer afford to use resources irresponsibly to replace disposable items at the slightest sign of degradation. On the other hand, there are critical assets that we cannot permit to degrade because their failure could lead to tragedies. I find this search for the balance between resource allocation and keeping things functional and safe very interesting.

Why did you choose Purdue to continue your studies as a graduate student?

It was the multidisciplinary cooperation culture at Purdue. I studied civil engineering, but my master's, which I did in Mexico, was strongly oriented towards system dynamics and control theory. These fields typically belong to the mechanical or electrical engineering curricula. I liked them so much that I wanted to continue studying them for my PhD. I had the opportunity to come as a visiting scholar at Professor Dyke’s research group during the last semester of my master’s. During my stay, I noticed that in her group, there are no boundaries between disciplines. Everybody comes from different backgrounds and uses various tools from several fields. In my opinion, this represents very well Purdue’s spirit of constantly pushing the boundaries of research far and beyond.

When did you first get interested in engineering and science?

Growing up, I was more interested in subjects related to social sciences and the humanities, like history or language. I liked the way these fields connected to people and explained the world. Mathematics, on the other hand, was challenging for me; it felt too abstract. That perception changed in high school when I took calculus. It was a revelation. For the first time, math felt logical and intuitive. I liked how calculus provided a straightforward way to verify answers and how it connected to geometry and the physical world. Then I realized that math and physics are tools to understand and explain our surroundings, very much like history and language help explain society. Engineering provides us with the ability to wield such tools not only to describe but also to transform the world. This realization led me to study civil engineering, a discipline that looks into how infrastructure shapes communities (and how communities shape infrastructure!).

What’s it like studying at Purdue?

The community at Purdue takes the “Next Giant Leap” motto very seriously: everyone here is pushing the boundaries of science and technology. Every research project I have been involved in or heard about investigates the unknown and integrates tools and methodologies from different disciplines. I have witnessed this pioneering approach firsthand in my research group. Professor Dyke is always encouraging us to explore new paths, learn from others and apply solution strategies across seemingly unrelated fields. As a result, our teams are highly multidisciplinary, encouraging collaboration and ensuring we approach problems from multiple perspectives.

Beyond subject matter, what else have you learned as a Purdue graduate student?

It is great to have ideas and let imagination fly. However, it is equally important to organize, communicate and systematically pursue the realization of these ideas. Our research ideas must be both innovative and actionable. This is a very valuable lesson I have learned here at Purdue. For example, writing proposals has taught me to frame research attractively to those who will benefit from it. The very process of writing helps to refine concepts and make the research more meaningful and applicable. Collaboration also plays a key role: it allows you to see how your ideas look from different perspectives. This exchange of viewpoints strengthens the research and helps present it more effectively to different audiences.

What is the Purdue research environment like?

Purdue has access to a wide range of research opportunities, which fosters interdisciplinary collaboration. You can work on a project for the Indiana Department of Transportation, a NASA-funded grant, or both. This multidisciplinary view lets you extrapolate what you learn in one area into another, thus enriching all the communities you collaborate with.

I also advise graduate and undergraduate students. This is one of the most important and valuable learning opportunities I have had here at Purdue. As a mentor, one should be a guide, not a manager. Getting the tasks of a project done is important, but helping your mentees develop their skills is critical. It is rewarding to see how they can go past beyond the point of needing specific directions to start proposing solutions by themselves. I enjoy having weekly meetings with my advisees. It is always gratifying to discover what jump, or leap, they have had since the last time we met.

I have also been privileged to teach the CE299 course, “Developing Tomorrow’s Infrastructure.” This is an introductory civil and construction engineering summer course geared toward high school students. As instructors, we are allowed to design the contents of our lessons so we can let our imaginations fly. This space has let me convey to young prospective civil and construction engineers the importance of considering the interactions between our built environment and the society it is meant to serve and benefit. Their reactions and enthusiasm when teaching about this topic have been one of the most valuable memories of my stay at Purdue.

So far, I have also had the opportunity to publish two research papers in scientific journals as a first author. The first was the outcome of a project for the Indiana Department of Transportation, where we investigated the impact that construction defects can have on the long-term deterioration of concrete bridge decks. The second one is part of my collaboration with the Resilient Extra-Terrestrial Habitats Institute (RETHi) at Purdue. I helped to develop an experimental technique to assess the effects of micrometeoroid impacts on the thermal response of Lunar habitats. Both publications have in common that they aim to evaluate the performance of one or another engineering system when facing damage or degradation.

What advice might you give to other students deciding where to attend graduate school?

I keep telling everyone about the honor of being part of the “Cradle of Astronauts” (or that university mentioned in an episode of “Stranger Things,” haha). Few places offer the amazing options that Purdue does: diverse research opportunities, dedicated advisors and teachers, a vibrant college community, and an attractive cultural offer.

What about the future? What are your goals; what are you looking to accomplish in this field?

It has always been my dream to be a researcher. It is a job that requires you always to keep learning and creating knowledge. This was the main reason I decided to pursue a PhD. I hope to get a research position in a university or a national laboratory, continue pursuing my research on degradation and tie it to other related disciplines such as reliability engineering and system dynamics. I want to contribute at least a bit to the complex resource allocation problem. I am sure that understanding what happens with our assets as they age will help us design more intelligent and sustainable maintenance and production policies.

Might you share with us a little window into your personality?

I am always inclined to interdisciplinary thinking. When facing a new task, I often split it into parts that different disciplines can solve. Next, I approach people who are experts in each field and ask them how they would solve that piece of the problem. My passion for interdisciplinarity has helped me assemble teams and collaborate with people from varied backgrounds.

Outside of work, I try to keep alive my passion for social sciences. I like reading fiction novels, short stories, historical essays and philosophical works. I also enjoy playing piano and singing. Karaoke is one of my life’s passions, so for anyone reading this, don’t hesitate to invite me to it!