Purdue University Northwest > College of Technology > Labs and Facilities

Labs and Facilities

Dedicated technology labs provide application-oriented learning experiences with “real-world equipment,” making graduates career-ready and attractive to prospective employers.

By partnering with industry, the technology laboratories are maintained at state-of-the-art levels. The following is a list of laboratory and computing facilities and the associated tools and equipment that support instruction in the College of Technology:

A modern facility for learning how to produce metal products, this lab contains full-size, industrial-quality metal casting, welding and machining equipment. Much of the equipment is new and includes computer-controlled equipment for learning computer numerical control (CNC) programming.

Lab software includes:

    • Computer Aided Design: AutoCAD, Inventor, SolidWorks, Fusion 360.
    • Structural Calculations: Visual Analysis Edu, MD Solids.
    • CNC: Fusion 360.

 

A teaching laboratory for lectures and hands-on experiments in construction scheduling, construction management, materials testing, soils and land surveying. Includes 24 Windows student workstations.

Lab software includes:

  • Computer Aided Design: AutoCAD, Architectural AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Revit
  • Structural Calculations: Visual Analysis Edu, MD Solids
  • Cost Estimating:Blubeam
  • Project Scheduling:MS Project

 

 

A teaching/research facility with state-of-the-art equipment for testing soils according to the American Society for Testing and Materials.

Lab software includes:

  • Structural Calculations:Data Studio, Logger Pro, Visual Analysis Edu, MD Solids, Convert.
  • Project Management: MS Project.

 

 

A teaching/research facility with state-of-the-art equipment for testing the performance and durability of construction materials and structures.

The lab includes a teaching area for environmental-health hazards students are likely to face in industry.

Lab software includes:

  • Structural Calculations: Data Studio, Logger Pro, Visual Analysis Edu, MD Solids, Convert.

 

 

 

This is a teaching laboratory. Lectures and hands-on experiments covering the topics of computer graphics, sketching, and multimedia production and editing take place in this facility. There are 32 Windows 64-bit workstations in this lab.

Lab software includes:

  • 3D CAD, Rendering and Animation: 3DS Max, Maya, Mudbox, Inventor.
  • Graphic Design: Adobe Creative Cloud, GIMP, Axure.
  • Game Design: Unity, Unreal Engine.
  • Programming: Notepad ++, Python, Java Development Kit, Eclipse Oxygen.
  • Computer Forensics: FTK Forensics, Elastic Search.
  • Network Utilities: Wireshark, Putty, Cisco Packet Tracer.
  • Server Applications: SQL Server Express, SQL Management Studio, XAMPP.
  • Simulation/Machine Learning: MATLAB, Praat, Weka.

The lab is also equipped for scanning media.

This laboratory is a support room for students, faculty, and projects using Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing). There are eight (8) 3D printers offering a variety of materials and capabilities. This space also has 3D filament testing capabilities. The secondary function is as a small format research space for undergraduate, graduate, and faculty research.

Lab software includes:

  • Computer Aided Design: Inventor, SolidWorks, Fusion 360, and G-Code generators.

This lab offers ideal facilities for hands-on training covering computer-aided Design. There are 28 Windows 64-bit student workstations in this lab.

Lab software includes:

  • Computer Aided Design: AutoCAD, Inventor, SolidWorks, Fusion 360.
  • Structural Calculations: Visual Analysis Edu, MD Solids.
  • CNC: Fusion 360.
  • Simulation: MATLab, Minitab, Simio.
  • 3D Rendering/Animation: 3DS Max, Paint.

 

This lab offers ideal facilities for hands-on training on computer numerical control (CNC) programming, additive manufacturing, rapid prototyping and 3-D parametric design. There are 28 Windows 64-bit student workstations in this lab.

Lab software includes:

  • Computer Aided Design: AutoCAD, Inventor, SolidWorks, Fusion 360.
  • Structural Calculations: Visual Analysis Edu, MD Solids.
  • CNC: Fusion 360.
  • Simulation: MATLab, Simio.
  • 3D Rendering/Animation: 3DS Max, Paint.

 

A hands-on teaching lab covering topics in Lean Six Sigma, Ergonomics and RFID, equipped with 30 seats that can be reconfigured for team projects covering industrial and manufacturing engineering technology.

Lab software includes:

  • Statistics: Minitab.
  • Simulation: Simio.
  • Project Management: MS Project and MS Visio.
  • Structural Calculations: Visual Analysis and MD Solids.

 

A fully configured teaching laboratory offering hands-on training in computer-aided design and sketching (in courses covering residential and commercial construction, route surveying and land surveying), estimating and construction costs and bidding. Equipped for outputting E-size plots, it includes 32 Windows student workstations.

Lab software includes:

  • Computer Aided Design: AutoCAD, Architectural AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Revit.
  • Structural Calculations: Visual Analysis Edu, MD Solids. Cost Estimating: CostWorks.
  • Project Scheduling:Blubeam, MS Project.

 

 

This is a teaching laboratory. Lectures and hands-on experiments covering the topics of computer networking, programming, database, security, machine learning, and artificial intelligence take place in this facility. There are 30 Windows 64-bit workstations in this lab. Lab equipment includes 16 Mobile Racks (Startech 12U) containing PDU, Patch Panel, Cisco routers, Cisco switches, Cisco Firewall devices. Console cables, passthrough cables and straight through cables for lab interactions.

Lab software includes:

  • Graphic Design: Adobe Creative Cloud.
  • Programming: Visual Studio, VS Code, Python, Visio, Project.
  • Network Utilities: Wireshark, Putty, Cisco Packet Tracer. Server Applications: SQL Server Express, SQL Management Studio, XAMPP.
  • Simulation/Machine Learning: Scholar (Cloud Cluster)

 

 

The David Roberts Center for Innovation and Design, located on Indianapolis Boulevard just a few blocks west of the PNW Hammond Campus.

The goal of the 4,500-square-foot, technology-driven facility is to promote collaborative efforts with key industry partners and pursue faculty grantsmanship and scholarly work. The Center will support industry-sponsored senior design projects and provide the opportunity for students to work as an interdisciplinary team. It will advance applied research and foster innovation.

The Center is named in recognition of David Roberts for his significant gifts to Purdue Northwest. Roberts, a graduate of Purdue Northwest, served as the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Carlisle Companies, Inc.

Operated by the College of Technology, this 18,000-square foot facility provides state-of-the-art laboratories with advanced manufacturing-training equipment including robots, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), electrical and mechanical machinery.

This lab provides a wide variety of process control and instrumentation experiments, including easy access to three-phase AC as well as variable-output high voltage DC power supplies. Nine workstations are equipped with Tektronix 50 MHz oscilloscopes, Tektronix 2 MHz signal generators, DMMs and +/-20 VDC triple output power supplies. Seven workstations are equipped with Rockwell PLC Trainers, eight workstations with LabVolt Power Trainers and 12 B&R PLC Trainers.

Smart Systems Integration Lab (SSIL) provides research equipment and resources from the Consortium for Rapid Smart Grid Impact- CRSGI (www.pnw.edu/ET) for smart grids and IoT platform development and learning. Industry partners Landis+Gyr and Schweitzer Engineering Labs (SEL) assist education and research, providing technical support and state of the art Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) platform and real-world smart grid devices, such as Volt/Var controllers, Synchrophasors, Smart Meters, and Grid Controllers.

A maker’s space for IoT platforms allows integration of IoT sensors, edge devices, custom IoT Platform development, and commercial cloud service integration to develop solutions for Industry 4.0, Energy Management 4.0, Livestock 4.0, Manufacturing 4.0, etc. Industry mentors from Cisco Systems and Microsoft guide student projects. Collaborative international research opportunities with students from the State University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, are available. Prof. Athula Kulatunga directs applied research in this lab.

This laboratory offers hands-on experience in the complex equipment that produces and packages items consumers purchase daily. Students learn advanced programming techniques, interfacing automated equipment, sensor design, machine design and troubleshooting in this lab. There are four Rockwell PLC Trainers with a robotic arm, HMI, bottle-capping station and pneumatic conveyor system in the lab.

 

A teaching lab with 19 computers and 19 student stations where two students can work as a team. Each station has a digital multi-meter, power supply, arbitrary function generator and an oscilloscope for various circuit setups and electrical testing.

 

A teaching lab with 19 computers and 19 student stations where two students can work as a team. Each station has a digital multi-meter, power supply, arbitrary function generator and an oscilloscope for various circuit setups and electrical testing. AMATROL’s state of the art process control trainers with real-world devices provide hands-on learning related to controlling process variables such flow, level, and temperature using PI and PID controllers.

 


Powers (PWRS) 129 serves as the primary student workspace for PNW’s National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education. The workspace meets the unique requirements of researching cybersecurity topics, team preparation for collegiate competitions, student research projects in partnership with CIT faculty, and industry-sponsored projects.

The layout provides work surfaces for individuals and both small & large team projects. The furniture is easily relocatable to allow the workspace to be reconfigured for multiple roles. Open floorspace in the layout is reserved for placing Industry 4.0 research equipment.

The DTech Research Workspace supports students to focus on problems that industry encounters in practice… problems for which a solution is unknown and that require a higher level of knowledge and innovation.

This is a fully configured teaching laboratory with 28 computers. The lab is equipped with Windows workstations containing the latest version of industry standard software.

Lab software includes:

  • Graphic Design: Adobe Creative Cloud.
  • Programming: Visual Studio, VS Code, Python, Visio, Project.
  • Computer Forensics: FTK Forensics, Elastic Search.
  • Network Utilities: Wireshark, Putty, Cisco Packet Tracer.
  • Server Applications: SQL Server Express, SQL Management Studio, XAMPP.
  • Simulation/Machine Learning: Scholar (Cloud Cluster).

This is a fully configured teaching laboratory with 28 workstations. This lab offers hands-on training covering the topics of Computer Forensics and System Assurance. The lab provides the opportunity to configure routers, investigate security breaches and configure network system security.

Lab software includes:

  • Graphic Design: Adobe Creative Cloud.
  • Programming: Visual Studio, VS Code, Python, Visio, Project.
  • Computer Forensics: FTK Forensics, Elastic Search.
  • Network Utilities: Wireshark, Putty, Cisco Packet Tracer.
  • Server Applications: SQL Server Express, SQL Management Studio, XAMPP.
  • Simulation/Machine Learning: Scholar (Cloud Cluster).