The Purdue University College of Engineering's persistent pursuit of excellence – at scale, which is essential to meet today's grand challenges – has fueled numerous breakthroughs by the faculty, who generate 70% of Purdue's U.S. patents received. This podcast will interview outstanding faculty innovators, highlighting their research and its impact as we progress toward our Vision 2030: The Most Consequential Engineering College in the Nation. We will also feature the impactful stories of highly recognized Boilermaker Engineering alumni and students.
It's widely agreed by all that United States infrastructure is in dire need of improvement, getting low grades like C- and D- in various studies. Luna Lu wants to make our aging infrastructure "smarter." She’s leveraging the Internet of Things via her smart, materials-based sensor technology and novel, interpretive data-processing methods, enabling infrastructure to monitor and wirelessly communicate its condition with current and actionable information so we can detect problems earlier and mitigate them. This can vastly improve infrastructure maintenance and modernization, so our roads and bridges can keep commerce and people moving safely and efficiently and the American economy humming. And Lu isn’t done with her innovation journey – her sensor-based testing technology is gaining wider use across other sectors, and next on her agenda is investigating the manufacture of plant-based cement to provide not only carbon neutrality but a carbon-negative construction material that can absorb CO2 in permanent storage.
March 27, 2024