One of the reasons for this is that no one group is driving innovation in the U.S. construction industry. Materials suppliers, such as brick, concrete, glass, etc., are not exhibiting evidence of innovation. In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the use of solid waste materials in the highway industry. Most states have laws or regulations addressing this issue, and federal government acts mandate the use of recycled materials in highway construction. In addition to the construction materials courses in Civil Engineering, students in the Construction Materials Graduate Program can select from courses in other Civil Engineering areas, including transportation and geotechnical.
Students also have the opportunity to select from a wide array of courses in other related areas.
The Transportation Technology Transfer Center also offers numerous programs and workshops related to transportation materials. The Construction Materials Laboratory contains equipment necessary to perform research in the area of aggregates, portland cement concrete, asphalt cement, and asphalt concrete. Most of this equipment is also used to conduct research in the area of the utilization of waste materials in construction materials. Funding for materials research has come from FHWA, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Science Foundation, the South Carolina DOT, and private industry, including Michelin, Milliken, and Vulcan Materials. Some recent research efforts include the development of quality assurance specifications for asphalt pavements, the use of rubberized asphalt in pavements, alternative procedures for asphalt content determination, use of solid waste materials in asphalt concrete mixtures, use of gel permeation chromatography to evaluate asphalt cements, and the development of performance-related specifications for asphalt pavements.