Research Centers

The Transportation Technology Transfer Center is one of the fifty eight (58) centers of the United States under the Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP). It is sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW), and the Virgin Islands Department of Public Works. This center offers training and technical skills to employees of the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW), the Puerto Rico Highways & Transportation Authority (PRHTA), the seventy eight municipalities of Puerto Rico, and officers of the Virgin Island Transportation in areas such as analysis and design, inspection, evaluation, operation, maintenance and rehabilitation of highways. The seminars offered are accredited for continuing education by the College of Engineers and Surveyors of Puerto Rico.

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The Civil Infrastructure Research Center (CIRC) was established under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation. It is part of the program to stimulate competitive research at the University of Puerto Rico. The main objective of the center is to help the government and the industry in the analysis, management, and maintenance of the infrastructure in Puerto Rico. The research center’s activities are closely linked to the undergraduate and graduate academic activities. The current research focuses on structural  and geomechanical systems, management of stormwater runoff, transportation systems, management and maintenance of construction and the effects of natural disasters such as hurricanes, winds, floods, landslides, earthquakes and other disasters. The center welcomes and sponsors national and international scientific and educational workshops.

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The mission of the Puerto Rico Strong Motion Program is to mitigate both human and economic losses during high-intensity earthquakes through accurate and reliable seismic records. The Strong Motion Program began operations in 1975. At the beginning, it was in charge of the College of Engineers and later on of Water Resources. In 1987 the Puerto Rico Strong Motion Program passed to the hands of the Civil Engineering Department of the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez.

As a result of hurricanes Hortensia in 1996 and Georges in 1998, the Federal Agency for the Emergency Management provided funds for the installation of 69 strong motion stations and the seismic instrumentation for the Lucchetti Dam in Yauco, the Viaduct of Mayaguez, and a bridge in PR-52 of Ponce. In 2002, Law 106 is signed and it provided recurrent funds to the program for its operation and maintenance.  Nowadays, they count with 100 strong motion stations in open fields in Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic, and it also features nine instrumented structures (three buildings, three bridges, and three dams).

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The traditional Education and Research Internship Program is sponsored by the US ARMY Corps of Engineers and coordinated at the Department of Civil Engineering and Surveying at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus. For 10 weeks the student will receive a technical and scientific training in the different laboratories of the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC). ERDC has seven research labs where our students may participate.

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Our mission is to improve the social, infrastructural, economical and the natural environment resilience towards natural disasters (such as flash floods, hurricanes and any other abrupt change in weather) within coastal zones by conducting research and educating the community.

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