October 5, 2016

Bicentennial torch returns to Purdue along the state relay route

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. —It will be in familiar territory when the state's bicentennial torch follows the Indiana Torch Relay route Wednesday (Oct. 12) to Purdue University.

The east-to-west trek across campus is part of the daylong route in Tippecanoe County. The torch is expected to reach campus at 10:30 a.m. at North Grant Street and Northwestern Avenue. Events kick off at 8:30 a.m. outside Loeb Stadium at Wallace Avenue, Lafayette.

The torch was created by a team of students working with Timothée L. Pourpoint, associate professor of aeronautical and astronautical engineering in the College of Engineering.

After seeing the torch travel so many miles of Indiana roadway, Pourpoint said he will enjoy seeing it pass the Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering and Chaffee Hall, where much of the work on the torch was done.

"Purdue University is where the torch was created and developed," he said. "It will be fitting to watch President Mitch Daniels and our students and faculty carry it across campus."

For the last leg of the on-campus portion, members of the student team that worked on the torch will ride the Boilermaker Special in a victory lap around Zucrow Labs.

Highlights of the bicentennial relay across campus will include Daniels carrying the torch past university benefactor and namesake John Purdue's grave and astronaut David Wolf carrying it around the statue of Neil Armstrong.

The route will take the torch from Grant Street and Northwestern Avenue to State Street and around the Memorial Mall. Torchbearers will travel up University Street to John Wooden Drive then south on Steven C. Beering Drive, west on Stadium Avenue to Martin Jischke Drive and west on State Street to Zucrow Labs.

A total of 17 individual runners and the Boilermaker Special will carry the torch across campus. Overall, 55 torchbearers will carry the torch through the county, ending at Klondike School.

Purdue University Police Lt. Andy Standifer said moving roadblocks will be used throughout the majority of the torch relay route on campus.

The west lane of North Grant Street south of the intersection with Northwestern Avenue will be closed off with cones as torchbearers travel that section. That area of Grant Street will be reopened once the torchbearer reaches State Street and turns west.

Torchbearers are expected to travel through that portion of North Grant Street around 10:30 a.m. The route through campus is estimated to take 75 minutes.

After turning west from North Grant Street onto State Street, the torch relay will follow this route:

* West to State Street and Memorial Mall Drive.

* North on Memorial Mall Drive, around Memorial Mall to State Street.

* West on State Street to University Street.

* North on University Street to John R. Wooden Drive.

* North on John R. Wooden Drive around Ross-Ade Stadium to Steven C. Beering Drive.

* South on Steven C. Beering Drive to Stadium Avenue.

* West on Stadium Avenue to North Martin Jischke Drive.

* South on North Martin Jischke Drive to State Street.

* West on State Street across U.S. 52 to Newman Road and County Road 200 W. around Zucrow Laboratories.

The bicentennial torch was a project more than a year in the making for the relay. Students in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics designed the body of the torch and the burner. The Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering researched the E85 torch fuel and additive to be used, and the School of Materials Engineering worked on manufacturing and anodizing the torch's prototype body. Electronics and software angles – including GPS and camera functions with Wi-Fi never before used in a torch relay – were handled by the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

A lighter torch with a plastic flame was planned and produced as a project through EPICS.

Writer: Brian L. Huchel, 765-494-2084, bhuchel@purdue.edu

Source: Timothée Pourpoint, 765-494-9423, timothee@purdue.edu

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