December 9, 2021
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December 9, 2021

CMU Heinz College Masters of Information Systems Management Capstone students Shiyi Liu,  Yanwen Peng. Jiaoying Mu, Kehan Li,  Yilin Hua and Zhenyuan He made a final presentation of their capstone project developing an automated truck departure user interface.  The client was Klara Oberhollenzer, Manager of Development Autonomous Truck Mission Control Product & Partnerships at Daimler Truck North America and the course advisor was Stan Caldwell, Executive Director, Mobility21 UTC.

August 27, 2021
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August 27, 2021

Traffic21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell and Mobility21 Program Manager Lisa Kay Schweyer will serve as advisors for Heinz College student capstone projects throughout the fall 2021 semester.  The students engage in semester long capstone projects to apply coursework to real world scenarios.  Stan will work with students engaged with Daimler Trucks North America on the Departure of the Autonomous Truck and Lisa Kay will work with students engaged with Smart Cities, US Ignite, Fort Carson and the City of Colorado Springs.

April 16, 2021
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April 16, 2021

Students from Community College of Allegheny County,  Mobility21 UTC academic partner, met at the Steel Center for Career and Technical Education facility and engaged in a discussion about the changes in the automotive field, such as ADAS systems and the need to understand sensing technology, and the various other employment opportunities within ITS.

February 8, 2021
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February 8, 2021

The CMU Transportation Club kicked off the year with their first meeting.  During the meeting, attendees learned more about Traffic21, Mobility21, upcoming events for the Spring 2021 semester and internship opportunities. If you’re interested in transportation or want to learn more about transit in PGH, then check out the transportation club!

February 1, 2021
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February 1, 2021

Mobility21 UTC researcher Meg Ryerson of the University of Pennsylvania, along with Mobility21 UTC US DOT Student of the Year Camille Boggan, are working to continue to make transportation more equitable to all in the future.

“There’s so much you’re going to miss if you’re not collecting the right data. And sometimes to do that, you have to actually ask or observe travelers themselves,” says Boggan.

Read the full article here.

January 27, 2021
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January 27, 2021

Students Emily Kennedy and Seunglee David Park of the University of Pennsylvania, a Mobility21 UTC academic partner, published an op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer which discusses a new way for Philadelphia transportation leaders to measure the impact of system changes on racial equity.  Both are students in the Master of City Planning  in Transportation course led by Dr. Megan Ryerson.  Read their article here.

January 21, 2021
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January 21, 2021

Mobility21 UTC researcher Maxine Eskenazi’s student, Yulan Feng, presented the paper “Towards Automatic Route Description Unification in Spoken Dialog Systems,” which describes the construction of a pipeline to automate the route description unification process in spoken dialog systems during the Spoken Language Workshop today.  Her 15-minute presentation introduced the technical details of the pipeline, the overall GetGoing system, and the collaboration her team had with UPMC.

The SLT Workshop is a biennial flagship event of IEEE Speech and Language Processing Technical Committee. The main theme for SLT 2021 was “Spoken language technologies: deep learning and beyond” (as deep learning has witnessed great success in spoken language technologies over the last decade).

January 6, 2021
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January 6, 2021

Camille Boggan was honored tonight as Mobility21 University Transportation Center’s “Student of the Year” at the Council of University Transportation Center’s annual awards banquet.

Annually, the United States Department of Transportation honors the most outstanding student from each participating University Transportation Center for his/her achievements and promise for future contributions to the transportation field. Students of the year are selected based on their accomplishments in such areas as technical merit and research, academic performance, professionalism, and leadership.  Read about all the Students of the Year in the annual booklet.

Carnegie Mellon University’s Traffic21 Institute houses Mobility21, the National University Transportation Center for Improving Mobility. Students from CMU, University of Pennsylvania, The Ohio State University, or Community College of Allegheny County were eligible for the Mobility21 UTC nomination.

Meet our winner:

Mobility21, the National University Transportation Center for Improving Mobility Student of the Year.

Camille Boggan is a current city planning graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Miami University (Ohio) in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. Camille has worked as a graduate research assistant in Dr. Megan Ryerson’s Smart Mobility Lab, supporting research efforts on transportation safety and wayfinding. In 2020 she interned with the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Transportation and has served on the transit steering committee of 5^th Square, Philadelphia’s urban activist PAC, since 2019.

In 2019 Camille was part of the winning team of ITS America’s Emerging Leaders Program Global Challenge. Her team developed a transportation pricing model for Philadelphia to reduce congestion and direct funds to public transportation services. She was also recently awarded a graduate scholarship from the WTS Philadelphia chapter.

Educating, recruiting and training new workers is critical to managing our country’s infrastructure safely and efficiently. We strive to help develop a transportation workforce capable of designing and maintaining the complex transportation systems of tomorrow. Help us congratulate our 2021 UTC Student of the Year!

To learn more about the University Transportation Centers’ Student of the Year awards please click here.

September 2, 2020
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September 2, 2020

Mobility21 UTC academic partner, the Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research (CAR) undergraduate student Paul Crock shares his internship experience with Uber, “My role over the summer was being a virtual test engineering intern. Falling under the Systems Engineering and Test category of the organization, our job is assessing the current status and capabilities of the vehicle and performing the testing to ensure that it is working properly and exactly as intended by the designers.”  Read more here.

August 18, 2020
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August 18, 2020

The Women in Transportation Seminar, Pittsburgh Chapter awarded the Leadership Legacy Graduate Scholarship to CMU student Kathryn Schlesinger.

“Although originally hailing from sunny, south Florida, Ms. Schlesinger considers Pittsburgh to be her second home after living here for nearly ten years. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 2014 with a dual B.A. and GIS Certificate, Ms. Schlesinger accepted an AmeriCorps Fellowship position at Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group (PCRG), a nonprofit membership based organization, where she served for close to four years as the Transit Research and Policy Fellow, and later went on to become the Policy Coordinator. Over her time at PCRG, Ms. Schlesinger earned her LEED Green Associate accreditation and began the Master of Public Management program at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College in January 2018. She will be graduating in December 2020.”

The published award profile further explains that “After transitioning to a new role at the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership in fall 2018, Ms. Schlesinger now works on the Mobility Team as the Mobility Project Manager. In this role, she has had the opportunity to work on and lead a variety of mobility and public realm improvement projects to enhance the vibrancy and character of Downtown Pittsburgh. Among many other projects currently underway, her team is leading a process to develop a Mobility Plan designed to improve the Downtown experience for all users and identify ways to improve the pedestrian, transit, biking, vehicle, and delivery realms. Outside of work and school, Ms. Schlesinger enjoys living in Squirrel Hill with her longtime partner, Josh, and their two cats, Pluto and Ezio. “

August 11, 2020
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August 11, 2020

The Women in Transportation Seminar Pittsburgh Chapter 2020 Sharon D. Banks Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship Recipient honoree is CMU student Sharika Hegde.

The award winner “Sharika J. Hegde is a senior at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) majoring in Civil & Environmental Engineering with a minor in Computer Science. Sharika is interested in intelligent transportation systems, shared mobility, and connected and automated vehicle technology. Combining her experience in transportation and computing, she is also interested in using machine learning and data analytics techniques to tackle issues within the transportation domain.”

The write-up in the WTS program also stated that “Sharika has completed numerous internships, most recently at FHWA’s Saxton Transportation Operations Laboratory, where she supported their Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment program and CARMA platform. During this internship, Sharika authored a paper on connected vehicle data privacy, which she then presented at the 2020 Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting. On-campus, Sharika served as the 2019 President of CMU’s student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. She is also involved with transportation research at CMU, as a researcher at Prof. Sean Qian’s Mobility Data Analytics Center. Sharika will continue her education and research by pursuing a Ph.D. in transportation systems in the fall of 2020.”

July 30, 2020
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July 30, 2020

Mobility21 UTC welcomes Traffic21 Women in Transportation Fellow for 2020-2022, Hajra Shahab.

Hajra Shahab grew up in Karachi [Pakistan], one of the largest and most populated cities in the world. Growing up, she witnessed complex deep-rooted problems in the city such as weak institutional capacity, absence of public transit system and marginalization of vulnerable groups. During her undergraduate studies as an Economics major at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), she was able to apply economics and public policy frameworks to real-world issues. However, it was not until she got selected to attend an exchange semester at Waseda University, Japan, her interest in transportation and mobility solidified. Intrigued by a robust and efficient public transit system, Tokyo became a living laboratory for her urban planning interests and helped her trace factors that make cities sustainable and resilient in the long-run.

After finishing her undergraduate in 2018, Hajra worked briefly at a trading company before pursuing her research interests. She was able to take her research forward through a grant received from the Saida Waheed Gender Initiative (SWGI) at LUMS. Her team assessed women mobility patterns which got her interested in exploring multiple dimensions of an Intelligent Transport System (ITS) such as real-time information about bus delays or seat availability making women less vulnerable to harassment. In 2019, Hajra joined Technology for People Initiative (TPI), a research lab jointly funded by Google and the World Bank, as a Research Associate to work on child protection with UNICEF. As the project team lead, she helped in the design and implementation of a novel Information Management System (IMS) to be deployed in 4 provinces of Pakistan. Hajra carried out fieldwork in Balochistan, one of the most marginalized provinces in the country, and assessed existing digital infrastructure of the public offices, mapped possible system integrations and generated user requirements. Designing a bespoke system for people with low levels of digital literacy and different perspectives helped her understand the importance of context in policy design. She wants to further explore child-centric community planning such as transport connectivity especially in hotspot areas of child abuse that can mitigate the odds of school dropouts due to long commute; an issue that currently stands at 53% in Pakistan for females.

Her budding interest in data-driven policymaking also stems from her work on Pakistan’s 1st open data portal at the National Center in Big Data and Cloud Computing (NCBC) at LUMS in collaboration with Higher Education Commission (HEC). She supervised a group of researchers on large datasets, including crime, education, and financial inclusion. She strongly believes making data accessible to the public can also help in developing more democratic and participatory planning processes, empower people and help in meaningful civic engagement.

During her time at Heinz, she would like to continue to understand how users interact with cities and transportation systems, specifically. She believes Carnegie Mellon University’s MSPPM program will provide her with an opportunity to master her data and policy skillset, engage with interdisciplinary groups, and explore technological breakthroughs to develop smarter, and well-connected mobility networks in cities.

Hajra says, “It is an honor to have earned the Traffic21 Women in Transportation Fellowship. I strongly believe that this fellowship has brought me a step closer to my career aspirations in transportation and mobility. Traffic21 is steering discussion around transportation in the 21st century, and I believe this futuristic approach will provide me with unparalleled exposure to cutting edge research, mentoring, and technological advancements.”

Learn more about all the Mobility21 student leaders here: https://mobility21.cmu.edu/about/leadership/student-leadership/.

————–

The Traffic21 Women in Transportation fellowship provides financial support to an incoming student who is entering either the Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College MSPPM (Public Policy and Management) or MISM (Information Systems Management) degree programs.  Students who have demonstrated an interest and commitment to Intelligent Transportation Systems are eligible to apply for the fellowship.  The fellow’s work supports the Mobility21 University Transportation Center’s activities.

July 24, 2020
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July 24, 2020

Mobility21 UTC’s Robotics Institute Summer Scholars (RISS) program participant Fausto Vega continues his work, exploring more about aerospace.

“My experience with RISS has been great as I have learned about the aerospace field which is a career I hope to pursue in the future. I am grateful for the weekly workshops, speakers, and the members of the Air Lab as they have allowed me to grow as a researcher.”  Watch a short video where Fausto explains more about his experience and project here.

Carnegie Mellon’s RISS Program is an eleven-week summer (June 1 to mid-August) undergraduate research program that immerses a diverse cohort of scholars in cutting-edge robotics projects that drive innovation and have real-world impact. Launched in 2006, RISS is among the best and most comprehensive robotics research programs for undergraduates in the world.

July 20, 2020
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July 20, 2020

Mobility21 UTC’s Robotics Institute Summer Scholars (RISS) program participant Beverley-Claire Okogwu continues to interact and excel as her project explores getting agents to overcome ambiguous and sub-optimal behaviors of humans in Human-Robot Interaction.

“One thing I am certainly proud of while conducting my research is my ability to thoroughly read and understand the basic ideas of research papers, and utilizing these ideas (algorithms, open source ware) into the simulator. I believe this is an important skill as I advance in my educational and career interests…So far, the RISS experience has surpassed my expectations due to its remote nature. I have interacted with a lot of people and have discovered a variety of online resources and platforms that I may not have found in an in-person setting. ”

Carnegie Mellon’s RISS Program is an eleven-week summer (June 1 to mid-August) undergraduate research program that immerses a diverse cohort of scholars in cutting-edge robotics projects that drive innovation and have real-world impact. Launched in 2006, RISS is among the best and most comprehensive robotics research programs for undergraduates in the world.

June 30, 2020
Posted in What's Happening

June 30, 2020

With COVID-19 school closures, the continuity of education for the majority of Pennsylvania’s students is at risk.  Inequities of resources, staffing, and lack of Internet connectivity are making online learning inaccessible for some of our most at-risk communities. This decrease in classroom learning time, both in-person and virtual, is leaving some students further behind and threatens to deepen the chasm in learning outcomes and opportunities. Public-private partnerships are emerging to create just-in-time educational resources to support communities and families. RobotWits LLC, and the PA Rural Robotics Initiative, both Mobility21 deployment partners, and WQED partnered to create the accessible STEM instructional resources, the Robot Doctor, for high school students and teachers.

The Robot Doctor series comprises two parts: 1) eight 14-minute video lessons for students and 2) educator instructional support and feedback channels. The series was broadcast on all seven PBS stations across Pennsylvania to provide immediate instructional support to high school students. Designed to be accessible to most of Pennsylvania’s students in no-tech and low-tech formats, the series can be downloaded from partner websites, streamed, and could be rebroadcast this fall.

The series reinforces critical mathematics concepts taught in high school. The learning objectives in each episode are linked directly to Pennsylvania State Standards in Math and Science and focus on the Pennsylvania Department of Education-recommended content. The Robot Doctor ties math concepts taught in high school to cutting-edge robotic technologies from drones to autonomous vehicles to humanoids.

“The Robot Doctor teaches core math concepts through the lens of robotics,” Explained Maxim Likhachev, co-leader of the project is an associate professor in Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute and the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC), and director of the Search-Based Planning Laboratory (SBPL) at CMU. He founded RobotWits, the Pittsburgh-based technology company focused on self-driving solutions that created the Robot Doctor content and are supporting educator engagement and professional learning opportunities. A key goal of the materials, as described by Likhachev, is to decrease perceptions that STEM careers are inaccessible.

Cathy Cook, WQED Director of Education Projects, explained, “With in-person instruction still being uncertain, the challenge for WQED will be figuring out how to educate students when accessibility is still an issue. With equity as a huge problem, how can students be held accountable if not everyone has access to the same learning opportunities? And, how can WQED help bridge that divide?”

“COVID-19 increased the urgency of addressing the digital divide”, said Rachel Burcin, the project co-lead. “Families do not have uniform access to technology platforms and stable Internet connections. Accessible content that is tied to standards is becoming even more critical as school districts and individual teachers scramble to make remote learning work. In this new normal, TV broadcast is becoming a central tool to reach as many families as possible.” Tim Heffernan, the founder of the PA Rural Robotics Initiative, notes that bringing world-class resources to rural communities like those that he supports opens tremendous opportunities and contributes to economic and workforce development.

“The Robot Doctor is unique for WQED because it is rooted in public television’s core mission of educating our audience and providing direct instruction to students over our airwaves. Additionally, due to unforeseen circumstances from Covid-19, huge gaps were identified by the Department of Education, and we were asked to respond, in real-time, to the need,” according to WQED’s Director Educational Partnerships Gina Masciola.

This public-private partnership engages key stakeholders from government, non-profit, and private entities and enterprises, including the Pennsylvania Department of Education, RobotWits LLC, PA Rural Robotics, and leverages expertise and leadership from roboticists and educators. To learn more or to bring these free resources to your school or community, contact Rachel Burcin at rachel@robotwits.com or Maxim Likhachev at maxim@robotwits.com.

June 18, 2020
Posted in What's Happening

June 18, 2020

Mobility21 is pleased to welcome and support Beverley-Claire Okogwu and Fausto Vega as participants in the 2020 Robotics Institute Summer Scholars (RISS) Program.

At Mobility21, we view research and education as two sides of the same coin. We cannot educate for future generations without exposing them to research, development and deployment. On the other hand, we cannot do successful research, development and deployment without the input of future generations.

“The Carnegie Mellon University RISS Program is an intensive summer research program for talented undergraduate students. Summer Scholars have the opportunity to participate in state-of-the-art research projects, interact with a diverse research team, and to be mentored by leading faculty and technical staff. The program introduces aspiring students to dynamic research resources and methods, RI graduate education programs and research projects. The Summer Scholars program lasts 11 weeks.”

More about the Mobility21 RISS Summer Scholars, Beverley-Claire Okogwu and Fausto Vega

Beverley-Claire Okogwu is a rising senior at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania majoring in Computer Science, with a minor in Mathematics. This summer at the Robotics Institute Summer Scholars Program, she is working on developing and using Reinforcement Learning environments to experiment with and model autonomous vehicles and smart cities. Through the RISS program, Beverley-Claire hopes to fully comprehend the techniques and skills needed in writing and presenting research. In addition, she will also learn how to conduct fluid research (especially in the fields of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence) and have an idea of what graduate school would be like. Although she is mainly conducting remote research this year, she sees it as gaining an adaptability skill that will make her familiar with simulation environments.

Aside from research, she is also enjoying the various online platforms – Discord, Slack, zoom – that are being used in communication with her fellow scholars. She is learning so much about each member despite being in different parts of the world! Beverley-Claire is truly grateful to be given this opportunity at RISS.

Fausto Vega is an undergraduate student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). He is part of the Honors College, majoring in mechanical engineering, and minoring in mathematics. He conducts research at the Drones and Autonomous Systems Laboratory at UNLV on several robotics concepts. He is excited to be participating in the Robotics Institute of Summer Scholars at Carnegie Mellon University. He hopes to learn efficient research methods from his mentors as well as gain more insight in drone and aerospace technologies. This experience will allow him to prepare for graduate school through the writing and professional development workshops. It will also allow him to expand his network with scholars, faculty, and professionals from around the world.

More about RISS
“RISS connects students from across the country and world to contribute to robotics research alongside top CMU researchers. With 42 scholars from 11 countries and 33 home universities, the 2020 RISS cohort is the largest cohort since the inception of the program in 2006. Forty percent of the participating scholars are from communities underrepresented in STEM…The RI scholars’ research experience is guided by outstanding research mentors that represent the incredibly diverse robotics research from across the Institute. This year 25 individuals and their teams are undertaking the challenge of navigating a remote experience. We welcome eight new mentors and thank returning mentors who have had a tremendous impact on the lives and careers of the scholars. Mentors guide, support, create new possibilities, and nurture students’ potential.”

https://riss.ri.cmu.edu/

May 12, 2020
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May 12, 2020

Mobility21 UTC Executive Director Stan Caldwell and Program Manager Lisa Kay Schweyer participated in the final class project presentation by CMU Remaking Cities Institute students.  The students’ project was “Planning by Design: Campuses, Waterfronts, Districts, and Cities.”

April 28, 2020
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April 28, 2020

The primary goal of Mobility21, a National University Transportation Center for Improving Mobility, is to develop and deploy technologies, policies, incentives and training programs for improving the mobility of people and goods in the 21st century efficiently and safely. We accomplish this through a comprehensive program of interdisciplinary research; education and workforce development with a focus on diversity; collaboration with university, deployment, and government partners; and technology transfer and leadership efforts.

We view research and education as two sides of the same coin. We cannot educate for future generations without exposing them to research, development and deployment. On the other hand, we cannot do successful research, development and deployment without the input of future generations.

Therefore, when we were approached to help support 2 regional high schools (Frazier and Norwin) as they compete in the Autonomous Innovative Vehicle Design Challenge, the answer was a resounding “Yes.”

The Square One Autonomous Innovative Vehicle Design Challenge
Update provided by Barb Land, Executive Director

The Square One Education Network (Square One) is a Michigan-based non-profit K-12 STEM educational organization, annually reaching nearly 12,000 students and 500 teachers with hands on, project based STEM programming. This year, Square One partnered with ITS America to offer their Autonomous Innovative Vehicle Design Challenge to kids across the United States. Building upon a toddler jeep platform, students are introduced to Arduino, Python, GPS and sensor technologies as they re-engineer their jeep to complete various mission challenges autonomously. “Our goal is to engage high school students in real world STEM challenges that will lead them toward college and career pathways in leading edge technologies such as autonomous and connected vehicles. Students build their professional and technical skills that will help to narrow the skills gap and fill the needs for our future STEM workforce!” said Barb Land, executive director Square One Education Network. “We are thrilled to build these new partnerships in Pennsylvania with Carnegie Mellon University and to serve students at Frazier and Norwin High Schools.”

Frazier High School, Perryopolis, PA (Fayette County)
Update provided by Michael Smith, Technology Education Teacher

At Frazier, we were in the beginning stages of research before school cancelled for the year. My Aerospace class was working on this project. Since our last unit was autonomous design, I felt this was the class for this challenge.

At Frazier, we have been trying to get involved anywhere we can. The more exposure we give our students, the better off they’ll be for future endeavors. We have a robotics club at our school, advised by another teacher, and are starting to get more into robotics as we hope to hold VEX competitions at our school starting next year.

We are excited to take on this project and hopefully others within square one. The sad part is that the students who were working on the Jeep are all seniors and will not be able to finish out the project but there will be more interested students ahead.

Norwin High School, North Huntingdon, PA (Westmoreland County)
Update provided by Robert Shuber, Technology Education Department Chair

During the 2019-20 school year I was forwarded an email from my administration at Norwin. The email was from Mike Post of Traffic Products and it was an offer for our high school to join other schools across America in an Autonomous Innovative Vehicle Design Competition.

For us, this competition would include a partnership with The Pennsylvania Chapter of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America among others. Upon further research into the program, we learned that the organization behind all this was the Square One Education Network.

As a technology, robotics, and engineering teacher I have been involved in several robotics and engineering competitions. I have been involved in Bots IQ combat robotics, Sea Perch Underwater robotics, and other Engineering design challenges. All these challenges offered a unique experience for my students. When I looked into the AIVD design competition I was intrigued that once again I could offer another unique experience for my students at Norwin High School.

I assembled my group of students to embark on this adventure of hacking into a Power Wheels Jeep and make it self driving. My students are all part of the Norwin Technology Club, where our mission is to provide the latest and greatest STEM opportunities to our students.

I currently have nine students that take part in the AIVD program. They worked hard at assembling the JEEP from the start. Once it was assembled, we began to brainstorm for solutions on how to meet the task challenges. They were provided opportunities to 3D print custom parts and learn how to program an arduino using the ROBOTC programming language.

They were able to successfully complete the Alpha task as well as the Bravo task. These completed tasks were video recorded and submitted to the Edmoto platform which allows all members to view from across the country.

Another great opportunity that this program has offered is the partnerships with local businesses and universities such as Carnegie Mellon. These partnerships add another level of depth to our students and their quest to find a career that will have an impact on their future and the future of others.

Next Steps

We look forward to continuing to support Frazier and Norwin High School’s competitors. We are also working with each school to find ways to increase exposure to Carnegie Mellon University, Traffic21 Institute and Mobility21 UTC.  We wish them the best as they continue in this year’s competition.

April 24, 2020
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April 24, 2020

The Traffic21 Smart Transportation Podcast features and shares information from thought leaders and highlights the smart transportation work happening at Carnegie Mellon University and in the community.

In this episode you’ll be hearing from Bonnie Fan, who is the 2018 – 2020 Traffic21 Women in Transportation Fellow.  Bonnie’s interest in urban life, transit and technology began brewing during her time as an Economics major at the University of Chicago.  Bonnie saw the developmental and infrastructure challenges in Southside Chicago, and with her growing interest in entrepreneurship, she wanted to create new socially conscious solutions for the city after graduating. Bonnie joined the Chicago Transit Authority as a Data Scientist on the Performance Management team, where she worked on service optimization and manpower management projects. Now a second-year at Heinz College in the Data Analytics track, she is creating a foundation about policy and data she can apply to new mobility technology solutions and make an in impact on transportation.  Listen in as we talked about her experiences as a graduate student and on the Traffic21 student leadership team.

Listen to this episode here.

The Traffic21 Smart Transportation Podcast is hosted and produced by Mobility21 UTC Diversity Fellow Allanté Whitmore.

April 24, 2020
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April 24, 2020

CMU Master of Language Technologies Student Yulan Feng contributed to the 2020 CMU Symposium on AI & Social Good by presenting on “CMU GetGoing: Dialogue System Designed for Seniors.”  Yulan works with Mobility21 UTC Researcher Maxine Eskenazi on the project “CMU GetGoing Dialogue System.” The 2020 CMU AI and Social Good Symposium aims to address these challenges by bringing together AI researchers and social impact leaders to present their ideas and applications for maximizing the social good.

April 6, 2020
Posted in What's Happening

“Allanté Whitmore [Mobility21 UTC Diversity Fellow] guides the conversation naturally, as though there weren’t a studio microphone between her and Shena Marshall, her current interview subject. The two eagerly swap stories in a soundproof studio about how they came to graduate school at Carnegie Mellon University. Whitmore will take the recording and send it to an editor, who will shape it into an episode of her podcast “Blk+ In Grad School,” which recently released its 100th episode.”

Read the entire article here: https://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2020/april/blk-in-grad-school.html 

March 26, 2020
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March 25, 2020

Mobility21 Researchers Sean Qian and Stan Caldwell joined University of Pittsburgh Professor Alexandros Labrinidis on an Intelligent Transportation Systems panel for a joint Carnegie Mellon/University of Pittsburgh “Smart City and Technology” undergraduate mini-course.  The class is typically held on Saturdays, but the panelists recorded their session to comply with social distancing.

March 5, 2020
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March 4 & 5, 2020

Mobility21 UTC Program Manager Lisa Kay Schweyer met with UTC faculty and students during her semi-annual visit to the Mobility21 academic partner, the Ohio State University.  She visited and received updates from Umit Ozguner (OSU PI), Keith Redmill (researcher), Beth Snoke (Director, Transportation and Traffic Management), David Cooke (Senior Associate Director of the Center for Automotive Research), Danny Freudiger (Ph.D. candidate & outgoing Smart Campus Group Leader, and Anita Nti (student and incoming Smart Campus group leader).

February 21, 2020
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February 21, 2020

Traffic21 Director Chris Hendrickson met with CMU students working on a Environmental Engineering Sustainability project.  The students are developing a migration plan for a Zero-Emission Bus System in the Mid-Atlantic Region.  Chris provided technical support and copies of the policy document he previously helped create, called Which Alternative Fuel Technology is Best for Transit Buses?.

February 3, 2020
Posted in What's Happening

Mobility21 UTC researcher Sean Qian along with Ph.D. student Rick Grahn, studied the relationship between Uber and public transportation, proving it can vary by time of day and location.  Read more here:  https://engineering.cmu.edu/news-events/news/2020/02/03-transportation-relationships.html.