COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Research Centers

Research Mission: "To foster a diverse and creative learning environment that will empower students and faculty with the necessary knowledge and facilities to be international leaders in creating new technologies and services that will improve tomorrow's economy and environment.National & State Research Centers:

Utah Transportation Center

Director:  Paul Barr
Office:      EL 262
Phone:     435-797-8249
Email:       paul.barr@usu.edu

The Utah Transportation Center is one of 22 federally funded Tier II University Transportation Centers. The Center's theme is "Innovative Engineering Against Hazards". The goal of the Center is to advance the understanding of transportation systems and infrastructure through research and teaching activities using state of the art design tools, and best practices in planning, design, operations and management.

Utah Water Research Laboratory (UWRL)

Director:     Mac McKee
Office:         UWRL 103
Phone:        435-797-3157
Email:          mac.mckee@usu.edu

The UWRL is located on the Logan River and provides more than 100,000 square feet of space for research, testing, and training related to the areas of hydraulic engineering, water resources planning and management, and environmental and natural systems engineering.

Anderson Center for Wireless Teaching and Research

Director:   Jacob Gunther
Office:       EL 172
Phone:      435-797-7229
Email:        jake@ece.usu.edu

This center provides state-of-the art wireless communication teaching and research with emphasis on industry-relevant design projects.

 Buried Structures Laboratory

The Buried Structures Laboratory was established in 1967. These facilities, faculty, and staff have allowed USU to become the leading laboratory in the world in conducting research into the performance of buried pipes. The laboratory has performed research on both flexible and rigid pipes. Almost all pipe materials, pipe sizes, and various soil types have been studied. The laboratory has a rich history of over 35 years of experience in research and testing from which to draw.

Synthetic Bio-Manufacturing Center

The SBC is distributed across two colleges, Engineering and Science, four laboratories, and uses the inherent chemical machinery present in single-cell organisms, both prokaryotic and eukaryotic, to transform raw materials into usable low cost bio-products. The goal of the center are to adapt single-cell organisms through synthetic biology approaches and tools to become small solar or chemically powered factories, which may use CO2 as their primary carbon source, and that will secrete useful and natural biomaterials and energy. The center will also develop the downstream bioprocessing techniques necessary to collect, separate, purify, concentrate, and prepare the new biomaterials for commercial products.

Rocky Mountain NASA Space Grant Consortium

Director:    Doran Baker
Phone:       435-797-3666
Office:        EL 302D
Email:         spacegrant@usu.edu

The Rocky Mountain NASA Space Grant Consortium was founded on September 1, 1989. One of the consortium's objectives is to "...recruit, mentor, and fellowship outstanding students into space-related educational career paths." The website details many other objectives. Diversity, competitiveness, maintaining NASA, industry, and government ties are other important objectives and activities.  

 The Sustainable Waste-to-Bioproducts Engineering Center

The Sustainable Waste-to-Bioproducts Engineering Center is a collaboration between the Biological Engineering Department, College of Engineering at Utah State University, and the Environmental Department, City of Logan, Utah.  The Center will develop new bio-based sustainable engineering technologies that convert wastes into bioproducts for municipalities and industries in Utah, the intermountain west, and the nation.

 Utah Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP)

Provides technology transfer, training, and technical assistance to local, state, and federal transportation agencies. They specialize in projects such as road surface management, asset management, traffic operations, highway safety, innovative contracting, infrastructure management, and other transportation challenges.

Utah On-Site Wastewater Training Center

Director:    Judith L. Sims
Phone:       435-797-3230
Office:        UWRL 243 or ENGR 402R
Email:         judith.sims@usu.edu

This center provides education, training, and technology transfer to installers, inspectors, regulators, and homeowners within the Rocky Mountain Region on the proper design and use of wastewater treatment systems.

 Center for Space Engineering

The Center for Space Engineering is a multi-disciplinary group of faculty who are principal investigators of programs with strong ties to the Space Dynamics Laboratory.