Paving the Future through Curiosity and Collaboration

When most people hear the idea of a road that can charge electric vehicles as they drive, it sounds like something from the future. For Oscar Andrés Moncada, a Ph.D. candidate in civil engineering at Purdue University, it’s a future he is building. 

Moncada’s research focuses on the design, construction, structural evaluation, and optimization of pavements equipped with dynamic wireless power transfer technology. The innovative system allows electric vehicles to charge while traveling over wireless charging equipped pavement, helping advance the next generation of transportation infrastructure. 

“I’m currently working on evaluating the mechanical behavior of the DWPT testbed, while also optimizing the pavement design used for DWPT embedment. Most of my work nowadays consists of running numerical simulations and predicting the long-term behavior of the structure,” Moncada shared. 

Unlike many engineering projects that can be evaluated immediately, pavement systems require long-term monitoring to understand how they perform under real-world conditions. 

“His work on the structural analysis and optimization of pavements incorporating dynamic wireless power transfer technology has been instrumental in helping us understand how these systems can be designed and constructed to perform reliably under real-world traffic and environmental conditions,” shared John E. Hancock, Moncada’s advisor and a professor of civil and construction engineering at Purdue University. 

Through both computational modeling and field testing, Moncada’s research evaluates and optimizes the technology for future deployment and long-term evaluations. 

“Every now and then we go to the field and conduct structural tests. But in civil engineering, there’s so much you can understand in just one day of testing,” Moncada said. “Things need time to develop and issues need time to appear, so besides field testing, numerical simulations give us a glimpse into the long-term behavior of the structure, since that question cannot be answered right away, especially for a first-of-its-kind pavement.”

Watching Innovation Take Shape

One of the most rewarding aspects of his research has been watching a once-unbelievable concept become reality. 

“This technology — it sounded crazy from the first moment building a road that charges electric vehicles,” he shared. “Something that amazed me because I’ve been privileged to work pretty closely on how the technology has matured.” 

As the technology evolved, Moncada has been able to witness that progress firsthand. 

“It sounds crazy when you say, ‘a highway that’s capable of charging an electric vehicle,’” he said. “I feel fortunate to have been part of this research as the technology matured over the years. It went from a concept to a prototype to a real road pretty fast.” 

Seeing research transition from concept to application continues to motivate him as he develops solutions for the future of transportation. 

“That amazed me and honestly still motivates me, too,” Moncada added, “because when your work gets translated into something tangible, you see how it started, how it’s growing, how it’s developing… It’s special.” 

The Value of Student Collaboration

While the technology itself is groundbreaking, Moncada believes students are among the most important contributors to the research process. 

“They bring a pool of different ideas and perspectives with the intent of learning and gathering and absorbing as much as we can from an experience,” Moncada said.  

As a civil engineer researcher, Moncada regularly collaborates with students from other disciplines, including electrical engineering. Those opportunities allowed him to learn from different perspectives while contributing to his own expertise.  

“Oscar has grown as a researcher while helping turn what once seemed like a futuristic concept into a working transportation technology,” Hannock said. 

In the recent Joint Transportation Research Program (JTRP) report “Receiver, Vehicle, and Roadway Systems for a Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer Roadway Testbed” led by Moncada, the system delivered 50 to 190 kW of power to a retrofitted Class 8 electrified truck at speeds up to 65 mph, with efficiencies approaching 85%.  

“He has been involved in this project as it progressed from initial designs and numerical simulations to full-scale construction and testing. His contributions have been important to that progress, and he should be very proud of what he has helped accomplish,” Hannock said. 

Testing confirmed reliable performance, strong tolerance to vehicle misalignment, and magnetic files delves well below human exposure limits. This report wouldn’t have been possible without the work of electrical engineers and other expertized mediums.  

“We might be experts on many things, that’s precisely why we’re students in order to learn,” Moncada explained. “What better experience than learning through a platform and an organization that provides not just research but also the opportunity to learn from other perspectives.” 

The multidisciplinary nature of research has become one of the most valuable learning aspects in the engineering field. When working in revolutionary research, especially with multiple expertise in a variety of fields, collaboration is key.  

“At the same time that I’m learning how to tackle the problem and how to resolve it from my own perspective and from my own factors, I’m also learning from the students around me,” Moncada shared. “[It’s] so extremely important for any research process to have students at the forefront.” 

Staying Curious

Just like how Moncada engages in different pathways with others for the future of engineering, in his free time, Moncada explores music as a record collector and musician — enjoying vinyl grooves and a path to electrifying roads. 

As he continues his research and works toward completing his doctorate, Moncada hopes other students will embrace curiosity and see learning, across any field, as a lifelong process. 

“We might not have the answers, but the process of getting towards those answers — it’s what actively teaches us how to move through anything. That might be school, might be life, that might be music, anything.” 

His advice to anyone involved is simple: “Stay curious. Always stay curious.” 

The same curiosity that selects different types of vinyls led him to the forefront of a technology that will transform transportation. Through research, collaboration, and a commitment to learning, Oscar Moncada is turning an ambitious idea into reality.

For the latest news, publications, and research highlights from ASPIRE, visit aspire.usu.edu.