July 13, 2023
Posted in What's Happening

July 13, 2023

Chris Hendrickson, Faculty Director of Traffic21 Institute and Mobility21 researcher, was interviewed by a high school student in Missouri participating in the MIT Introduction to Technology, Engineering and Science Program.  The topic of the interview was the relative desirability of battery electric versus internal combustion engine vehicles.

June 15, 2023
Posted in What's Happening

June 15, 2023

Mobility21 provides a comprehensive list of transportation-related courses offered by Carnegie Mellon University … check out the updated listing for the fall 2023 semester.  Find the list of courses offered for the current and past semesters here.

March 31, 2023
Posted in What's Happening

March 31, 2023

Update from Mobility21 sponsored Robotics Institute Summer Scholar Student Rayna Hata:

My research with the RISS program and Dr. Stephen Smith of the Intelligent Coordination and Logistics Lab at CMU RI started in the summer of 2021. For the past two years, I have been researching methods of Blind Pedestrian Navigation on Urban Crosswalks using the PedPal app, first created by Dr. Smith and his team. This project touched upon my interest in assistive technology, a theme that has been a driving factor in many of my research projects. Assistive technology such as these is essential as vision-impaired pedestrians face multiple difficulties when crossing urban crosswalks, leading them to stray off the path or spend multiple signal cycles at the intersection. This directly impacts the safety and efficiency as they cross the intersection.

 

In my first summer at RISS, I researched methods on devices that could best track and localize the pedestrian, ultimately landing at ultra-wideband devices. Continuing to research under Dr. Smith during the school year and into a second summer at RISS, I worked to develop an algorithm to continually localize the pedestrian as they approach and cross the intersection, warning them if they start to stray off the path. I also worked to create a simulation where this algorithm could be tested and visualized. At the end of RISS, I presented my research to other RISS peers and professors at the Robotics Institute, where I received thoughtful feedback and comments about my research and my presentation—every moment at RISS allowed me to grow as a researcher. 

 

My summers at RISS were also much more than just conducting research. I could attend seminars hosted by renowned researchers in various fields, see firsthand amazing research done at CMU, and form connections with peers as passionate about robotics as I am. My overall experience at RISS solidified my interest in attending graduate school and obtaining my Ph.D. in robotics to further my education and research experience in assistive technology and human-computer interaction. I am excited to return to the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute this fall as a PhD student and to learn from and research alongside incredible researchers in the field. 

March 24, 2023
Posted in What's Happening

March 24, 2023

Carnegie Mellon University doctoral student Lindsay Graff presented a poster on her Mobility21 project “A MultiModal Network Modeling Framework to Evaluate Time-Dependent Accessibility Under Generalized Costs” at the CMU Civil and Environmental Engineering Research Showcase.

March 23, 2023
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March 23, 2023

Mobility21 Program Manager Lisa Kay Schweyer and 2021-2023 Women in Transportation Fellow Maggie Harger participated in the 6th Annual WTS Pittsburgh Chapter Scholarship Gala.  The event was an opportunity to network with current and future transportation industry professionals and leaders, and to celebrate the achievements of the scholarship recipients.

February 16, 2023
Posted in What's Happening

February 16, 2023

Students from the CMU Transportation Club attended the Hitachi Rail Open House to learn about the career and development opportunities that Hitachi Rail offers.  Students had the chance to speak with several of the Hitachi Rail top business leaders, toured the research labs, and participated in individualized sessions to learn more about their projects and available positions.

January 3, 2023
Posted in What's Happening

January 3, 2023

Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Academy has entered into an  agreement with Pittsburgh Technical College, allowing any CMU Robotics Academy graduate who chooses to enter Pittsburgh Technical College’s robotics and autonomous engineering technology associate degree program to receive a 12-credit exemption and save up to $4,000 on tuition.

December 19, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

“Wenhao Ding and Jiacheng Zhu, Ph.D. students in [CMU UTC researcher Ding] Zhao’s lab, proposed a new method, Learning to Collide, to identify risky scenarios leveraging the reinforcement learning technique. This method builds a framework where the autonomous system is a victim attacked by the scenario-generation algorithm. … Ding and Zhu’s proposal, ‘Safety-Critical Scenarios Generation and Generalization for Autonomous Driving’ was awarded the 2022 Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship, which promotes innovation, execution, and teamwork.”  Read more here.

December 12, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

December 12, 2022

On October 29, after arriving to Phillips Park to help with a local clean-up effort, Mobility21 UTC Program Manager, Lisa Kay Schweyer was surprised to learn 3 Carnegie Mellon University students (Shirui Liang, Maria Manrique, Keziah Virdayanti) were also there to help with the volunteer activity.  She joined the students while picking up litter and had a chance to share what she does at CMU, hear about their trip on the local bus to the park (and uncertainty of riding somewhere new), and learn more about the students’ interest in transportation and the project they had been thinking about for their Integrated Innovation Institute Design Methods class.

Within a week, the students invited Lisa Kay to meet with the project team to learn more about her experience in helping commuters find non-single occupancy vehicle travel.  From that conversation, and their own experience navigating transit systems, the group decided to work on a way to use technology to make the experience of first-time bus riders less stressful.

The team, Shirui Liang, Kaila Richardson, Dongwen Xu, Siyue Shen, Saisri Akondi, Mei Tamaki, and Ashish Mangal dove in, conducted research, used various integrated innovation methods and conducted testing to finally propose their solution – an “AR Your Guide“!

The solution is an augmented reality feature that can be integrated into existing transportation apps. The design turns the bus searching and riding experience into a “Pokemon Go” like game. It provides users with an interactive guide that leads them to unfamiliar bus stops and instructs people new to bus transportation how to pay, track, and request stops.

The team is hoping that app developers use their work to make this solution a reality.

December 7, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

December 7, 2022

In an effort to give back to the community, the students in the Ford ASSET Program at the Community College of Allegheny County assembled and dropped off a kid-sized Bronco at Eat-N-Park at the Waterfront in Homestead just for Jackson.  Robert Koch, Chair for Community College of Allegheny County Skilled Trades Department and Automotive Ford ASSET program professor was on hand for the special delivery.  Watch the video here.

November 12, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

November 12, 2022

Members of the CMU Transportation Club recently attended Transportation CampPGH, an “unconference” event hosted by Mobility Southwestern Pennsylvania. Individuals from a variety of backgrounds were in attendance, from areas such as academia, the private sector, advocacy groups and the City of Pittsburgh. Attendees chose the topics of discussion themselves by submitting topic idea cards, which were then sorted based on theme. The themes chosen for discussion included street design, transit-oriented communities, and advocacy work. Additionally, Vince Valdes, Executive Director and CEO of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, and Beth Osborne, President of Transportation For America presented as keynote speakers.

November 10, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

November 10, 2022

Members of the CMU Transportation Club took an exclusive behind the scenes tour of the xBridge Innovation Center at Pittsburgh International Airport.  This technology center is a test bed for new tech that can benefit the airport, airline partners, and air travelers. Members of the transportation club were able to see a remote-controlled vehicle that may be ultimately utilized to move passengers around the airport, algae which can filter air throughout the interior, and a delivery robot which could help facilitate the movement of goods through security. The students were also able to learn more about construction of a new terminal at the airport, and how this will help facilitate the travel of passengers arriving and departing from Pittsburgh.

November 3, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

November 3, 2022

The Traffic21/Mobility21 University Transportation Center Deployment Partner Consortium Symposium kicked off earlier today with Mobility21 UTC Director, Raj Rajkumar, providing a welcome and an overview of updates on activities and plans at the Mobility21 National University Transportation Center.

Putting our research, development and deployment approach into action – the annual deployment partner symposium provides an opportunity for interaction and discussion among researchers, students and deployment partners.  Over 135 people attended today’s symposium and engaged in the day’s events.

The Symposium’s first panel focused on Driving the Economic Engine of the Region.  The panel was moderated by Karen Lightman, Executive Director of Metro21 and featured:

• • Scott Andes, Program Lead $1 Billion Build Back Better Regional Competition, U.S. Economic Development Administration
  • Richard Ezike, Program Communications Specialist, Joint Office of Energy and Transportation
  • Ellie Ezzell, Economic Development Specialist, RIDC of Southwestern PA

The event’s keynote speaker was Carl Andersen, Technical Director, Operations Research and Development, FHWA, Turner Fairbank.  He highlighted FHWA’s existing programs and new initiatives.

The Symposium’s second panel highlighted UTC Impacts from the Partners’ Perspectives.  The panel was moderated by Stan Caldwell, Executive Director, Mobility21 and featured:

• • Rajeev Chhajer, Group Leader – Connected Technologies Research / Associate Director – 99P Labs, Honda
  • Kelly Maurer, Director of Public Works, Cranberry Township
  • Ben Schmidt, Global Chief Technology Officer, RoadBotics by Michelin

The event wrapped up with the UTC Research/Education Showcase & Networking Reception, which featured 19 displays:

• • Analysis of the Potential for Micromobility to Replace Short Car Trips in Urban Areas, And Impacts on Congestion – Corey Harper and student, Zhufeng Fan (CMU): Transportation is a basic social and economic need but those mobility options conceived a generation ago may not be economically or environmentally sustainable with rising urban populations. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), the average U.S. household produces about 9.5 trips a day. About half of these trips are within three miles, but fewer than 2 percent of those trips are made by bicycle. Private vehicles like cars, pick-up trucks, and SUVs, account for almost 50 percent short distance trips (i.e., trips within 3 miles), in most U.S. metro areas. As a result, commuters are spending increased amounts of time in congestion, which has associated costs such as wasted fuel and emissions. Micromobility (defined as shared bikes, e-bikes and e-scooters) represents a significant opportunity to replace short distance trips made by personally owned vehicles (POVs) and provide first-and last-mile solutions for underserved public transit riders. The purpose of this research is to estimate the number of short distance POV trips that could be replaced by micromobility options and the resulting environmental benefits, and to develop policy recommendations that could assist policymakers in better understanding where the greatest opportunities for expanding active transportation exist.
  • BusEdge – Christoph Mertz and student, Anurag Ghosh (CMU):  The BusEdge platform is an edge-cloud system to analyze visual data stream freshly-captured from the transit buses in a scalable and responsive manner. It includes components that execute on the bus (the edge) and on a central server (the cloud) for different kinds of real-time and non-real time road scene understanding efficiently. This data stream and the processing platform enables us to perform city scale spatio-temporal analysis. For example, we can detect which garbage cans are full and need intervention from the agency. Furthermore, we are able to detect and track long term changes in the built environment, we can detect construction zones and changes in sidewalk and inform HD map updates for autonomous vehicles.
  • Can Ridesharing Help the Disadvantaged Get Moving – Lee Bransetter, Beibei Li and student, Seth Chizeck (CMU):  Research undertaken by co-PIs Lee Branstetter and Beibei Li has used randomized controlled trials to measure the impact of access to smartphone-enabled new transportation options, including ridehailing, on the geographic and socioeconomic mobility of low-income residents of the Pittsburgh region. Research team members will describe two projects and results to date.
  • CMU Transportation Club – Maggie Harger (CMU):  The CMU Transportation Club aims to connect students to opportunities for networking, career development, research and education in the transportation sector. During their poster session, they will be presenting on past activities the club has hosted for students interested in the field of transportation. Members of the club will also be in attendance to share their experience and how they have developed professionally as a result of the club.
  • Controlled Deployment of Analytical Solutions for Essential Transportation Services in Low-Income Neighborhoods – Peter Zhang (CMU): Heritage Community Transportation (HCT) provides essential transportation service in low-income neighborhoods in east Pittsburgh. We are collaborating with HCT for another year (July 2022 – June 2023) to fully roll out the deployment in a controlled way, which will help evaluate technical solutions on the ground and adjust quickly to ensure the overall success and continuity of service change. This project also provides opportunities for faculty and students to learn and conduct research in an under-studied area.
  • Creating and Integrating Solutions for the ‘Complete Trip’ – Stephen Smith (CMU):  This project is developing a smartphone app that integrates capabilities for accessible routing, safe intersection crossing, real-time traveler-to infrastructure communication, and autonomous wheelchair navigation to provide ‘complete trip’ support for pedestrians with disabilities.
  • Determining traffic volumes using video imagery obtained from transit buses in regular service – Mark McCord (The Ohio State University): Vehicles appearing in video imagery from cameras installed on transit buses for non-traffic purposes can be used to estimate traffic volumes over urban networks on a regular basis. A method to estimate traffic volumes from transit bus platforms is developed and applied on The Ohio State University roadway network on a regular basis. Vehicle miles traveled are monitored over time. Comparisons to road tube data and known changes in traffic by year and by time-of-day support the promise of the approach and demonstrate much better accuracy than results obtained when using data from a popular on-demand location-based-service data integrator.
  • Dynamic Coupling Strategy for Interdependent Network Systems Against Cascading Failures – Carlee Joe-Wong, and student, I-Cheng Lin (CMU):  In networked systems, initial failures at only a small part of the network may trigger a sequential failure process called cascading failures. The vulnerability is further exacerbated in modern systems that consist of multiple networks.  We study the robustness of such systems against cascading failures and develop a dynamic coupling coefficient strategy that adjusts the portion of load being redistributed internally and externally during the cascading failure process.  We show our step-wise optimization (SWO) strategy significantly improves the robustness compared to prior work that mainly focuses on static coupling coefficients. This is shown through extensive simulations of different network topologies.
  • F1tenth Demo – Rahul Mangharam and student, Ahmad Amine (University of Pennsylvania):  We will be showcasing F1tenth as an educational, research, and development platform. The F1TENTH Autonomous Vehicle System is a powerful and versatile open-source platform for autonomous systems research and education. We will be demonstrating the use of this platform through a sample race where two cars will be racing head-to-head autonomously. https://f1tenth.org/
  • Low Dimensional Representation and Analysis of Traffic Mobility – Vijayakumar Bhagavatula and student, Dereje Shenkut (CMU):  A deeper understanding of mobility patterns enables a better design of vehicular networks. One type of relevant traffic data is the set of vehicle mobility traces from a fleet of taxis. Previous works in this area were mainly conducted by doing analysis in the spatio-temporal domain. However, using spatio-temporal analysis for high-volume and high-dimensional transportation data makes it difficult to discern underlying patterns as the representation is noisy and garbled. To solve this problem, spectral analysis can be used to reduce the dimensionality of the mobility data. This technique helps find the existence of a stable, low-dimensional spectral structure (which may not be clearly visible in spatio-temporal analysis). The proposed spectral analysis approach enables the low-dimensional representation of transportation data, providing interpretable insights into urban mobility and potentially tackling practical problems like traffic anomaly detection.
  • Mobility Data Analytics Center – Sean Qian and student, Bin Gui (CMU): Leverage multi-source emerging data to develop smart decision-making systems for public agencies and mobility service providers. https://mac.heinz.cmu.edu/
  • Safety-Cost Aware Inspection Strategy for Commercial Vehicle Fleets – Pingbo Tang and student, Ying Shi (CMU):  This project intends to enhance the safety of fleets of commercial trucks and trailers without compromising mobility and operating costs. Various agencies inspected safety components, such as tires, brakes, and lights through planned or roadside inspections. Targeting these inspections toward safety-critical vehicles and components can ensure safety without losing mobility. We partner with two Pennsylvania firms to create vehicle deterioration digital twins that use inspection histories to guide effective telematics for predictive operations of truck fleets.  https://sites.google.com/andrew.cmu.edu/trsafety/home
  • Spectrum sharing for C-V2X – Jon Peha and student, Bodong Shang (CMU):  Cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) allows vehicles to communicate with each other and roadside infrastructure. Currently, the amount of spectrum available for C-V2X is 30 MHz. However, there are use cases that require more bandwidth to provide the needed data rate, reliability, and/or latency. One way to meet those needs is for C-V2X devices to also use the adjacent unlicensed band, but with today’s technology, this would yield inadequate performance. This project enables C-V2X use of unlicensed bands by designing novel spectrum-sharing algorithms that improve performance for both C-V2X and Wi-Fi. A system-level simulator was developed to evaluate the protocol designs.
  • The Potential of Smart Curbspace to Reduce Congestion and Fuel Consumption – Jeremy Michalek, Constantine Samaras, Kate Whitefood and students, Aaron Burns and Connor Forsythe (CMU):  We are exploring the benefits of a new smart cities technology concept called Smart Curbspace which is similar to an Airbnb reservation system for vehicles and curbside parking spaces.  Our goal is to optimally schedule and shift parking reservation requests such that we can reduce the number of double parked vehicles which have negative impacts for the surrounding environment.  In the first stage of our research we focused specifically on delivery vehicle arrivals and found that a Smart Curbspace system with several parking spaces can reduce double parking and associated vehicle delay and fuel consumption.  Our subsequent research funded by Mobility21 expands our user set to include more curbspace users, e.g. ride hailing, passenger vehicles, etc., more parking spaces and a new optimization model to allow for scalability.
  • Traffic21 Policy Papers – Stan Caldwell & Chris Hendrickson (CMU):  Informed, research-driven policymaking is central to improving our transportation sector. Our expertise in this area helps guide civic leaders to harness the power of intelligent transportation systems, while managing the inherent risks and protecting constituents. Based in the rigorous, cutting-edge findings of CMU faculty and drawing upon Heinz College’s expertise in data-driven public policy, our policy papers are a roadmap for the future of transportation legislation. https://www.cmu.edu/traffic21/research-and-policy-papers/index.html 
  • TraffiQure Technologies – Sean Qian (CMU): A CMU technology spinoff firm, uses Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies to provide services or products that make effective decisions in transportation based on massive data. TraffiQure is actively working for federal and state agencies on addressing data needs for multi-modal transportation planning and operation. www.traffiqure.com

The Traffic21/Mobility21 Deployment Partner Consortium is engaged for identifying real-world transportation needs, research project development and deployment, technology licensing and commercialization, student recruitment for jobs and internships, class and capstone projects.

Photos from the event:

October 24, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

October 24, 2022

Facilitated by the Mobility21 University Transportation Center, Carnegie Mellon’s Career & Professional Development Center, in partnership with Heinz College Career Services, first autonomous vehicle focused career fair was held on CMU’s campus.  The event provided students an opportunity to meet with companies in the autonomous vehicle industry.

October 13, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

October 13, 2022

The University of Florida was awarded a grant from the Council of University Transportation Centers to encourage students to choose transportation as a profession. To do this, they developed a 1-credit course featuring speakers from academia, government, and the private/consulting sectors.  At today’s class both Stan Caldwell, Mobility21 Executive Director and Lisa Kay Schweyer, Program Manager shared their career journeys with the students.

October 7, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

October 7, 2022

Members of the Mobility21 academic partner University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Transportation Club hosted their first guest lecture of the Fall ‘22 semester, where city planner and Penn graduate Robert Ravelli spoke about the intersections of transportation and land use planning. 

October 1, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

October 1, 2022

Metro21 Intern and Heinz College Masters Student Bobby Lincoln moderated a discussion with Congressman Ro Khanna and Congressman Conor Lamb on the future of technology.

Representative Khanna discussed his new book, “Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us,” which offers a revolutionary roadmap to facing America’s digital divide, offering greater economic prosperity to all. In Khanna’s vision, “just as people can move to technology, technology can move to people. People need not be compelled to move from one place to another to reap the benefits offered by technological progress” (from the foreword by Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate in Economics).

September 30, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

September 30, 2022

University of Pennsylvania masters student Jasmine Siyu Wu received “The Ed McClure Award for Best Masters Student Paper” for her paper, “Understanding Inequities in Access to Teen Driver Education.”  Jasmine’s advisor is Mobility21 UTC research Professor Megan Ryerson.   Read more here.

September 21, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

September 21, 2022

2020 – 2022 Traffic21 Women in Transportation Fellow Maggie Harger recently participated the ITS World Congress, an international event that brings together world leaders, practitioners, policy makers, researchers, and private industry to advance and unite the intelligent transportation systems industry.  This conference offered an opportunity to learn about current advances in intelligent transportation systems around the world, as well as strategies of implementation and policy considerations.

September 13, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

September 13, 2022

Traffic21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell presented to the CMU Transportation Club at their first general body meeting of the year about the University Transportation Center.  The inaugural meeting had 30+ students in attendance from various backgrounds, including undergraduates, graduate students, students in public policy, engineering, architecture and information systems management.  The students were able to learn about the club, meet members of the board, and learn about how to get involved.  2020 – 2022 Women in Transportation Fellow, Maggie Harger serves as the chair for the club.

July 15, 2022
Posted in What's Happening

July 15, 2022

Carnegie Mellon University incoming second year Master’s student and Traffic21 Women in Transportation Fellow Maggie Harger recently started her summer internship with the US Department of Transportation Volpe Center. 

Prior to starting her Master’s degree, Maggie worked in the greater Seattle area to implement accessible and equitable public transportation projects as a mobility coordinator for the North King County region. She is interested in public transportation due to its ability to provide access to economicopportunities for people, as well as its positive impact on carbon emission reduction.

This summer, Maggie will be assisting with a variety of projects for partners across the DOT. For example, she is working to support the Federal Transit Administration’s RAISE Discretionary Grant Program through the compilation of resources and data for decision makers, as well as researching material for the Federal Highway Administration’s Complete Streets program. 

She looks forward to continuing her work this summer, as well as learning more skills related to policy implementation at a federal level.

July 5, 2022
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July 5, 2022

Mobility21 academic partner University of Pennsylvania Professor Rahul Mangharam and Johannes Betz, along with Hongrui Zheng, Alexander Liniger, Ugo Rosolia, Phillip Karle, Madhur Behl and Venkat Krovi co-authored a paper published by IEEE titled “Autonomous Vehicles on the Edge: A Survey on Autonomous Vehicle Racing,” which represents the first holistic survey that covers the research in the field of autonomous racing.

February 18, 2022
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February 18, 2022

Mobility21 UTC academic partner Community College of Allegheny County and the Greater Pittsburgh Auto Show once again held “Career Day at the Auto Show.”  This event promotes the automotive technician trade and what’s coming in the future for these potential technicians.  The event was attended by over 300 local high schools juniors and seniors enrolled in automotive programs at Career and Technology Centers.

These students also had the opportunity to attend the electric drive event sponsored by Duquesne Light, which featured Ford electric vehicles. Students and attendees were able to drive an electric vehicle around an oval short track inside the Pittsburgh Convention Center.

February 3, 2022
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February 3, 2022

Women in Transportation fellows with the Traffic21 institute at Carnegie Mellon, Hajra Shahab and Maggie Harper, participated in the WTS Pittsburgh Chapter meeting at the Engineers Society of Western Pennsylvania. The fellows were able to connect with female professionals in the transportation industry, and better understand the variety of career paths available in the transportation sector.

January 26, 2022
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January 24 & 26, 2022

The US Department of Transportation hosted two virtual workshops – January 24 and January 26 – to showcase current prototypes under development by the Inclusive Design Challenge semi-finalist teams, including Carnegie Mellon University.

Stage I of the Challenge requested written proposals describing the design solution and semifinalists were announced in January 2021.  Stage II had Semifinalists provide an update on their progress. Final demonstration and prizes are expected to be awarded in summer 2022.