On the first day of school, kids typically write an essay about all the fun things they did on their summer vacation. For Purdue Mechanical Engineering faculty and students, their summers are busier than most! Here's a full report on all the conferences, awards, and special events that kept us busy this summer.

Creating hypersonic vehicles that travel faster than Mach 5 is a huge goal — which may rely on a tiny material. Purdue University researchers are working to develop 2D materials called MXenes, which are ultra high-temperature ceramic materials less than a nanometer in thickness. These materials may be the key to developing future high-performance hypersonic vehicles.

How will machine learning and AI revolutionize the practice of structural design and evaluation? That’s the question being addressed by a collaboration between Purdue University and the University of Houston, with funding by the National Science Foundation (NSF). They are establishing a new center to empower engineers that are responsible for designing and inspecting structures to use AI and machine learning in their everyday tasks.

Indiana is known as the “Crossroads of America” — partly because America relies on the state’s robust trucking industry to transport vast quantities of freight. That’s why the National Science Foundation (NSF) has chosen Purdue in Indianapolis as the lead site of a new research center for innovation in electrified and automated trucking.

Have you always wanted to become a professor in engineering? Purdue’s College of Engineering has created a program that prepares PhD and postdoctoral students to become innovative faculty members that are committed to broadening participation in engineering.

Boilermakers everywhere know that Purdue University is home of the World’s Largest Drum. But have you heard about the World’s Smallest Drum? David Cappelleri, professor of mechanical engineering, came up with the idea to test out a nano-scale 3D printing technique. At 47 microns across (half the width of a human hair), this drum now holds a Guinness World Record.

The rise of soft robotics has drastically changed the perception of “robots” from hard metallic monoliths to flexible do-it-all devices with many shapes and form factors. But with that change has come a challenge: because soft robots sense the world differently than humans, they also must be controlled differently. Purdue University researchers are investigating how robots and humans can “share the load” of their operation, so that each can benefit from each other’s strengths.

To 3D-print complex high-resolution nanostructures, you usually need very expensive and powerful lasers. Purdue University researchers have developed a new technique that uses two lasers, reducing the cost and power needed, and helping nano-sized 3D printing find wider use in a variety of applications.

The U.S. housing market is in crisis, due to a lack of affordable housing and a shortage of labor and materials to build them. Purdue University has a solution: NextHouse, an initiative to develop the next generation of factory-built housing.

It’s an age-old dilemma: students afraid to raise their hand or participate in class. Studies show that when participation drops, so do learning outcomes. The solution? An AI student who senses the awkward silence, uses large language models to initiate a question, and helps to break the ice on behalf of human students.