Centers

The centers housed within the Purdue Polytechnic Institute take advantage of the research expertise of faculty members by focusing their efforts on specific topics.

From aviation research to technology development, and from professional studies to product lifecycle management, the centers help address current industry issues and provide solutions.

The Advanced Aviation Analytics Institute for Research (A³IR- CORE), a University-level Center of Research Excellence that resides in the School of Aviation and Transportation Technology, is focused on the dual mission of solving industry problems and providing educational experiences for students by actively involving both graduate and undergraduate student researchers working closely with faculty mentors in a highly-collaborative multidisciplinary environment.

The mission of Aerospace & MRO Technology Innovation Center is research, development and deployment of aerospace and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) technology innovations in air transportation operations. Working collaboratively with schools and departments around the University, the Center will produce human-friendly technology solutions to the aerospace and MRO industry’s most urgent needs.

The center is focused on:

  • Operational process/production, real-time status, and visualization
  • Tracking and authentication of high value parts
  • Real-time operational safety/hazard alerting and control
  • Layered, adaptive, amplified technical task data on-demand at the point of operation. 

The Center's research efforts are housed in the School of Aviation and Transportation Technology's Hangar of the Future.

(AirTIES) aims to facilitate academic and industry researchers in developing aviation alternative fuels solutions for practical use in aviation.

The Center for Design-Construction Integration (CDCI) provides a trans-disciplinary structure for development of curriculum and courses across all areas in the built environment.

The mission of the Center for Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Ecosystems is to serve as the master integrator of resources and expertise to address grand challenges of the global aviation industry while creating opportunities for URM faculty, staff, and students.

The global aviation industry has identified grand challenges in safety; sustainability; workforce development; artificial intelligence/machine language and data sciences in aviation operations; advanced air mobility; financial resource management; and cybersecurity. The School of Aviation and Transportation Technology has been developing faculty expertise and industry partnerships to respond to these challenges. In this pursuit, we have secured state-of-the-art research and instructional equipment, recruited leading faculty experts, developed master’s and doctoral programs, hosted a national symposium on aviation, and facilitated conditions to set-up formal agreements with key industry partners and funding agencies. The next logical step is to create an organizational entity—such as the proposed center—to facilitate administration and purposeful growth of the research projects, customized micro-credentials, short courses, and stackable instructional modules, and support meaningful faculty development, including the creation of fellowships for URM candidates. CREATE will provide an entrepreneurial platform to harness the university’s global partnerships such as the recently announced corporate partnerships with Saab and Ericsson in support of a smart airport, as well as the more developed partnerships in countries such as India and Colombia, that are strategically poised for growth across the transportation ecosystem.

(CTD) develops innovative technologies focused on product, process, system and manufacturing efficiency.

The mission of PEGASAS is to enhance general aviation safety, accessibility, and sustainability by partnering the FAA with a national network of world-class researchers, educators and industry leaders.

Purdue's Digital Enterprise Center (DEC) is an interdisciplinary research center housed in the School of Engineering Technology in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. It is located at the Indiana Manufacturing Institute (Suite 400) in the Purdue University Research Park.

(ICBR) engages industry on projects that involve testing and evaluation of technologies and protocols, develop global standards for the use of biometric technologies, develop innovative performance metrics, and apply their Human Biometric Sensor Interaction (HBSI) model to a variety of technologies.

The goal of the center is to build a sustainable, special relationship between Purdue University and Tsinghua University in education, research and industrial outreach in the general field of open innovation.

The Robotics Accelerator showcases faculty and student robotics research and innovation across many colleges within Purdue. It serves as an umbrella center that brings together other Purdue centers — such as the NSF RoSe-HUB center investigating robots for human well-being — and specialized labs focused on search and rescue robots, micro-robots, wireless robots, soft robots and medical robots. It fosters collaboration and knowledge sharing to accelerate Purdue’s international robotics reputation in both academic and entrepreneurial circles. The center also acts as a focal point for the integration of undergraduate research experiences in robotics and sensing into Purdue Polytechnic’s curriculum.

Director: Richard Voyles, PhD, professor of electrical engineering technology

Online graduate programs for working professionals, featuring Graduate Certificates, MS Degrees, and a Doctorate, in Aviation Management, Construction Management, IT Project Management, IT Business Analysis, and Leadership.

The Research Center for Open Digital Innovation strives to engage in a revolution of innovation, researching the best way digital technologies can shape the process of open innovation. Open innovation combines an organization’s own research with additional information from external sources to solve problems and develop new products or services.

ROSE-HUB is a multi-university NSF I/UCRC focused on applied robotics and sensing research in a wide range of industries, including healthcare, energy, transportation, agriculture, material handling, homeland security, and emergency preparedness and response. University partners include: Purdue University, University of Minnesota, University of Pennsylvania, University of Denver, and UNC Charlotte. This is the only NSF I/UCRC focused on robotic and sensing technology for human safety and security.