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The ASPIRE Engineering Research Center (Advancing Sustainability through Powered Infrastructure for Roadway Electrification) explores a diverse range of transportation questions, from electrified highways that energize vehicles to the placement of charging stations, data security and workforce development. The $26 million center is led by Utah State University with many partner institutions including ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Boulder, Purdue University, University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Auckland New Zealand. Other ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ partners include researchers at ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ State University, University of ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Springs, and the National Renewable Energy Lab in Boulder.
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Engineering Research Centers are the National Science Foundation’s flagship program for transformative, federally funded, industry-partnered, multi-institutional research. They have a proven record of transforming industries and spurring economic development in their regions and across the nation. ASPIRE is one of four new such centers announced in 2020, providing a holistic and convergent research approach to advancing equitable transformations across the transportation and electric utility industries.
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ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Boulder is a key partner in the center with faculty from multiple departments in the College of Engineering and Applied Science serving in leadership roles. Qin (Christine) Lv is ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Boulder’s campus director, a co-principal investigator of the center and will lead the data research thrust within it. While Dragan Maksimovic is the co-director of ASPIRE’s engineering workforce development initiative. Additionally, center director Regan Zane workedÌýas a professor of electrical, computer and energyÌýengineering at ÃÛÌÇÖ±²¥ Boulder before starting at Utah State University.
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