PaveX receives NSF funding to help agencies plan road repairs sooner, more efficiently

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — PaveX, a Purdue University-related startup that uses advanced AI to automate road condition assessments and help public works departments maintain infrastructure, has received a $305,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop its technology.

Mohammad Jahanshahi, CEO and founder, said the broad impact of the 18-month project is to develop the company’s patent-pending, low-cost, vehicle-mounted sensing approach that can be deployed widely to state, national and international infrastructure agencies.

“The system will collect street-level data and produce practical road condition ratings that help agencies plan repairs sooner and more efficiently,” he said. “By enabling more timely maintenance decisions, the project can reduce vehicle damage costs while improving safety.”

Jahanshahi is an associate professor in Purdue’s Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering with a courtesy appointment in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He developed the AI platform and disclosed it to the Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization, which applied for a patent to protect the intellectual property and granted PaveX the exclusive license to commercialize the technology.

Project details and success targets

Jahanshahi said the project will investigate PaveX’s automation framework.

“The framework enables comprehensive, lane-level road coverage using low-cost mobile sensors while reducing two key bottlenecks: manual route planning and the manual validation of uncertain pavement-distress detections,” he said.

Jahanshahi said the project also will improve distress detection reliability by developing a Bayesian multiframe data fusion framework that integrates redundant observations across consecutive frames.

“Rather than treat each image independently, the fusion approach will combine evidence over time to suppress false positives and strengthen consistent detections, improving accuracy and reducing reliance on human review,” he said.

Phase I success targets include measurable reductions in route planning overhead and improved detection performance under real-world variability.

PaveX national milestones

Since January 2025, PaveX has surveyed and assessed more than 6,200 miles of roads in Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Utah and California.

Jahanshahi said the NSF-funded project is an important step toward scaling PaveX’s technology for widespread development across transportation networks.

“In the future, PaveX could be integrated into autonomous vehicles, enabling them to continuously collect roadway-condition data as they travel and provide agencies with more frequent, comprehensive infrastructure assessments,” he said.

About PaveX

PaveX merges cutting-edge AI technology with advanced sensors to provide a seamless, cost-effective approach to road condition monitoring. Our mission is to empower communities with smarter, safer infrastructure.

About Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization

The Purdue Innovates Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology transfer programs among leading research universities in the U.S. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university’s academic activities through commercializing, licensing and protecting Purdue intellectual property. In fiscal year 2025, the office reported 161 deals executed with 269 technologies licensed, 479 invention disclosures received, and 267 U.S. and international patents received. The office is managed by the Purdue Research Foundation, a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. Contact otcip@prf.org for more information.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a research institution ranked among the top 10 public universities in the United States. More than 106,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, including more than 57,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. As a land-grant university committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row, enabling more students than ever to graduate debt-free.