The U. S. government has awarded Penn State a $3.51 million two-year contract to find ways to bomb-proof federal buildings.

Through a new Protective Technology Center, the university will conduct research for the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers on materials and structures that can better survive explosions.

The director of the center, civil engineering professor Ted Krauthammer, said the center would produce reports, but not design specific buildings.

"We are trying to come up with knowledge, not just solve problems in the short term," Krauthammer said.

The center's research will focus on government and military applications.

But the information might also have other uses, such as guarding against industrial accidents, Krauthammer said.

About 30 people will be involved in the Protective Technology Center, including 10 graduate students, Krauthammer said.

The civil, aerospace and mechanical engineering departments are involved in the center.

In the past, Krauthammer and other Penn State researchers have used computer models to study blast impacts on buildings.

Penn State already offers the only training programs in the country on how to use the new technologies to design better buildings and retrofit older buildings to make them safer, according to the university's Department of Public Information.

The $3.51 million grant is just a small fraction of the federal support Penn State gets for research each year.

Last year, federal funds made up about $228 million, or more than half, of Penn State's total research funding.

The Marine Corps Research University, a Penn State program associated with the university's Applied Research Lab, will oversee the Army contract. Penn State will also work with the U. S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Miss.

Separately, Mississippi State University and Jackson State University have also received federal funding for protective technology research.