News - Ray W. Herrick Laboratories - Purdue University

The first ever Herrick Homecoming demonstrated the spirit of a Boilermaker. Just as we had hoped, the event brought us together to celebrate the past, the present, and the future of Herrick Laboratories.

The transportation sector is one of the leading contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. according to the EPA. Brent Yeagy (BS environmental engineering science ’94, MS safety engineering ’98), president and CEO of Wabash, wants to change that. So, he’s partnering with Purdue.

Wabash — one of the largest trailer manufacturers in the nation — will spend the next three years collaborating with Purdue on an R&D project resulting in a device that enables trailers to recapture their own electricity from vibrations, heat and airflow.

New homes see big energy and cost savings by installing state-of-the-art electric heat pumps and smart power controls. But rural communities are often left behind in these energy innovations. A new project from Purdue University and the U.S. Department of Energy plans to bring these innovations to rural electric co-operatives.

The Industrial Advisory Committee held its Fall Meeting at Ray W. Herrick Laboratories on October 24 and 25.

The future of electrified transportation isn’t just consumer vehicles. Tractor-trailers carry nearly 72% of the country’s freight, so innovations on that scale have the potential to make huge strides for sustainability worldwide. That’s why Purdue University researchers have teamed up with Wabash, the largest trailer manufacturer in the country, to investigate an experimental trailer that recaptures its own electricity from vibrations, heat, and airflow.

What if components in aircraft could morph in response to their external conditions, much like a bird changes the shape of its wings? And what if those components could function like an octopus arm, operating independently of a central control system? Inspired by these natural phenomena, a Purdue research team is developing morphing systems for hypersonic vehicles that respond to their environment.

A team of Herrick students was awarded 2nd Place at the 2023-2024 Jump Into STEM Challenge in December. The 2023–2024 JUMP into STEM Challenge asked college student teams from across the country to develop ideas to optimize energy utilization for affordable thermal energy storage, to access high-quality and affordable envelope remediation or construction technologies, and to develop an innovative solution for reducing carbon emissions from US buildings.

Purdue University researchers are using machine learning to train a robot to recognize a jumbled pile of items, locate the one item it needs, and retrieve it in the most efficient way. It’s one small step to creating resilient and versatile robots that can assist astronauts in maintaining future extraterrestrial habitats on the Moon, on Mars, or in deep space.

Eckhard A. Groll, the William E. and Florence E. Perry Head of Mechanical Engineering and Reilly Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has received the F. Paul Anderson Award from ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers), the society's highest honor.

Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and ClimateWorks Foundation have made awards to seven cross-disciplinary teams of early career scientists in the fourth and final year of Scialog: Negative Emissions Science, an initiative aiming to advance the underlying science needed to make technologies to capture and utilize greenhouse gases globally scalable.