Now more than ever — though perhaps every generation says that — we need tools to help us make sense of this world. Sensemaking is one of those tools, and we most often need it when our understanding of the world becomes unintelligible in some way. We need sensemaking when…

Every unruly environment needs someone to keep tabs on all the comings and goings, like the hall monitors who are ubiquitous in schools. …

Used to be, getting to another planet was a wild dream. Now we’re talking about living on one. That’s going to require autonomous transformable systems — shape shifters — in future space missions. These multipurpose systems will meet the needs of the rapidly-growing space domain business. They can provide more…

Mechanical engineering (ME) has a storied history, from the first use of tools in prehistoric times through the invention of the wheel in Mesopotamia, to ME’s early-modern flowering during the 18th century and Industrial Revolution in Europe, to today’s computationally-intensive advanced discipline. Five faculty members from Purdue’s School of Mechanical…

The lack of access to fresh water is epidemic in the modern world. Currently, 3.6 billion people lack adequate access to water for at least one month out of each year — a figure projected to increase to more than 5 billion people by 2050, according to a November 2022…

Understanding materials and how they transport themselves from one state to another at the nano- and micro-scale can help researchers tailor their physical, chemical, thermal and mechanical properties for specific engineering applications. …

Supply chain burst upon the scene as a suddenly familiar topic to the general public with the global COVID-19 pandemic, as illness and lockdowns stymied companies large and small in their efforts to get commodities and parts to make everyday products from toilet paper to cars. But supply chains, with…

Autonomous driving seems far away, but our vehicles already are equipped with some of its enabling technologies. …

Nuclear energy is critical for a sustainable future because it is not only a reliable energy source but also one of the lowest CO2 emitters. …