About PTI

The Pennsylvania Transportation Institute (PTI) is an interdisciplinary research unit of Penn State’s College of Engineering. Since its founding in 1968, PTI has maintained a threefold mission of research, education, and service has aspired to:

  • conduct innovative relevant research directed toward current and future transportation needs;
  • provide significant interdisciplinary educational and research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students;
  • promote continuing education for transportation professionals;
  • disseminate research results within and outside of the transportation field;
  • provide transportation-related expertise to local communities, the Commonwealth, and the nation.

Located in a research complex on the Penn State’s University Park Campus, PTI has several full-scale field facilities and a number of experimental laboratories—including the Structures Testing Laboratory, the Transportation Materials Testing Laboratory, and several tire/pavement laboratories—as well as in-house microcomputer systems with applications ranging from data acquisition to vehicle simulation and visual and acoustical analysis. PTI’s one-mile oval test track has full-scale field facilities that provide researchers with the means to examine:
  • pavement durability and roughness;
  • skid resistance, hydroplaning, and other tire/pavement phenomena;
  • effects of crashes and impacts on barriers and vehicles;
  • bridge construction, design, and evaluation;
  • escape-ramp performance;
  • vehicle components and dynamics;
  • intelligent transportation systems (ITS).

PTI research associates specialize in areas such as architectural, civil, electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering, as well as agriculture, business logistics and management, economics, geography, psychology, and statistics. The institute’s energies are directed toward solving problems in five major areas of transportation-related research: construction engineering and management, pavements and materials, transportation operations, transportation structures, and vehicle systems and safety. The institute’s research activities, educational efforts, and service projects are conducted through four main program areas: Transportation Operations; Pavements, Materials, and Construction; Transportation Structures; and Vehicle Systems and Safety.

The Pennsylvania Transportation Institute ©2006
This page was last updated November 15, 2006.
Comments and questions may be directed to PTI-Web@psu.edu