March 23, 2023
Nine US states with concrete interstate highways will test sensors developed by Purdue University that tell engineers when a section of road is ready for heavy traffic. Attached to rebar or formwork and buried under the pour, the sensors send data about the concrete’s condition directly to engineers’ phones. The point of the so-called “talking concrete” is to let engineers know exactly when a stretch of road has cured sufficiently. Current methods – in use for more than a century – use lab testing of a given concrete mix to calculate how long that mix should cure before opening the road. But discrepancies between lab and outdoor site conditions can give inaccurate estimates, leading to premature openings and early road damage. Concrete roads are more difficult to repair than asphalt ones. Civil engineering professor Luna Lu, acting head of Purdue’s Lyles School of Civil Engineering, started developing the sensors in 2017.
US states line up to see how ‘talking concrete’ can cut repairs
March 20, 2023
Early COVID-19 pandemic suspicions about dogs’ resistance to the disease have given way to a long-haul clinical data gap as new variants of the virus have emerged. “It is not confirmed that the virus can be transmitted from one dog to another dog or from dogs to humans,” said veterinarian Mohamed Kamel, a postdoctoral fellow at Purdue University. During the pandemic’s early days, dogs seemed resistant to the coronavirus, showing little evidence of infection or transmission, said Mohit Verma, assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering and Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. “As the virus evolved, or maybe the surveillance technology advanced, there seem to be more instances of potentially asymptomatic dogs.”
Lack of canine COVID-19 data fuels persisting concerns over dog-human interactions
March 20, 2023
College of Engineering: Deva Chan, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Young Faculty Award, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Elsje Pienaar, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, NSF Career Ward College of Health and Human Sciences: Monica Kasting, Assistant Professor of Public Health, Public Health Education and Health Promotion Early Career Award, American Public Health Association College of Science Lauren Ann Metskas, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, DP2 (New Innovators Award) from NIAID/NIH
March 16, 2023
An increasing number of U.S. interstates are set to try out a Purdue University invention that could save millions of taxpayer dollars and significantly reduce traffic delays. The invention, a sensor that allows concrete to “talk,” decreases construction time and how often concrete pavement needs repairs while also improving the road’s sustainability and cutting its carbon footprint.
‘Talking’ concrete could help prevent traffic jams and cut carbon emissions
March 15, 2023
Purdue professor Luna Lu developed concrete sensors that "talk" to engineers, communicating with engineers about their strength, cracks, damage and preventing potholes, according to the school.
Sensors put into North Texas highway that allow the road to "talk" with engineers
March 13, 2023
An increasing number of U.S. interstates are set to try out a Purdue University invention that could save millions of taxpayer dollars and significantly reduce traffic delays. The invention, a sensor that allows concrete to “talk,” decreases construction time and how often concrete pavement needs repairs while also improving the road’s sustainability and cutting its carbon footprint. Embedded directly into a concrete pour, the sensor sends engineers more precise and consistent data about the concrete’s strength and need for repair than is possible with currently used tools and methods. “Traffic jams caused by infrastructure repairs have wasted 4 billion hours and 3 billion gallons of gas on a yearly basis. This is primarily due to insufficient knowledge and understanding of concrete’s strength levels,” said Luna Lu, the Reilly Professor and acting head of Purdue’s Lyles School of Civil Engineering, who has been leading development of the sensors since 2017.
‘Talking’ concrete could help prevent traffic jams and cut carbon emissions
March 10, 2023
On the surface, the career path chosen by Luna Lu, an associate professor of civil engineering in Purdue University’s Lyles School of Civil Engineering, doesn’t sound all that exciting. Lu devotes herself to studying concrete—a product that’s been used for large-scale construction since Roman times and is still mixed, poured and cast using techniques the Colosseum’s builders would recognize. What, exactly, is left to know at this point? Turns out, quite a bit. Lu has made an international name for herself by creating potentially game-changing iterations of one of the world’s oldest construction staples. She and her team are working on (among other things) self-healing concrete that can seal small surface fissures before they grow larger, and road concrete that uses its own internal heat, plus the vibrations of passing vehicles, to generate enough electricity to power nearby streetlights and traffic signals.
Purdue professor puts high-tech spin on old-time construction staple
March 7, 2023
Utkuhan Genc stood in front of a white screen, with logos of several Big 10 schools sprawled across a graph. Below the schools’ logos, various years were listed, ranging from 2025 to 2050, showing when each university planned to reach net-zero carbon emissions. Genc pointed out a notable omission from the graph: the logo of Purdue University. “We have research capacity, we have graduates, we have faculty, we have undergraduates, all who are passionate about (fighting climate change) and are trying to solve these problems,” he said, “yet Purdue is the only Big 10 university to have no (net-zero carbon emissions goal) at all.”
March 6, 2023
Have you heard about PI4D’s programs on YouTube? PI4D has been posting recordings of three programs that you will want to check out, hit the “like” button and subscribe to the channel. Please, send this to your students, friends and colleagues.
March 3, 2023
HemaChrome, a digital health startup that uses smartphone technology to noninvasively and instantly measure blood hemoglobin levels, has won phase 1 of the National Institutes of Health’s RADx Tech for Maternal Health Challenge. The technology was developed by Young Kim, HemaChrome’s founder and chief science officer. Kim is a professor and associate head for research at Purdue University’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. He also is a Showalter Faculty Scholar and University Faculty Scholar at Purdue. Huiri Kim is HemaChrome’s CEO.
Purdue-connected digital health startup wins phase 1 of NIH competition for maternal health
