June 1, 2023
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June 1, 2023

Raj Rajkumar, Director of the new Safety21 National University Transportation Center, led a delegation of CMU staff and partners from the Community College of Allegheny County, the Community College of Philadelphia, Morgan State University, the Ohio State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley to Washington, DC for the grant kick-off meeting with representatives of the U.S. Department of Transportation UTC program, including Director of the U.S. DOT’s office of Research Development and Technology Dr. Firas Ibrahim and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Research and Technology Dr. Robert Hampshire.

May 30, 2023
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May 12, 2023

Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell joined Smart Belt Coalition members from Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New Jersey at the Transportation Research Center in East Liberty, OH.  During this meeting, Stan presented updates on the design of the PennSTART test track and CMU’s new Safety21 National UTC.

May 27, 2023
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May 27, 2023

Students from the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn-Autoware Team, led by Mobility21 UTC researcher Rahul Mangharam, were crowned Autonomous Karting Series 2023 Champions for their wins in both categories of racing – reactive and open category for motion planning.  They competed against teams from UC San Diego, Purdue, UC Berkeley, and several other universities.  Watch the race here.

May 23, 2023
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May 23, 2023

Mobility21 UTC researcher Carlee Joe-Wong‘s work was recently featured in ADAS & Autonomous Vehicle International Magazine, which highlighted her UTC project, “Mixed-Autonomy Era of Transportation: Resilience & Autonomous Fleet Management.”  Read her op-ed here.

May 10, 2023
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May 10, 2023

The City of Pittsburgh hosted a community engagement roundtable event in Hazelwood Green for thought-provoking discussion on the current state of Autonomous Vehicles in Pittsburgh and to uncover invaluable insights on how to effectively engage with emerging technologies, featuring Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell as a panelist.

View expert opinions and panels from the event here.

May 4, 2023
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May 4, 2023

Students presented their final projects as part of the CMU course, The American Railroad: Decline and Renaissance in the Age of Deregulations of the Original Business Network.  The course is taught by Henry Posner, Carnegie Mellon University Adjunct Professor and chairman of the Railroad Development Corporation (RDC).

May 4, 2023
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May 4, 2023

Members of the Mobility21 team toured the East Broad Top Railroad’s Pop-Up Metro, a transit infrastructure alternative utilizing low-density freight lines and North America’s only battery-propelled passenger cars.

May 3, 2023
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May 3, 2023

Traffic21 Women in Transportation Fellow Maggie Harger completed her fellowship by presenting her capstone project for Pittsburgh Regional Transit.

May 2, 2023
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June 2, 2023

Today, Mobility21 UTC released its latest “Research Recap” for Carnegie Mellon University researcher Patrick Carrington’s project “Developing Data Collection Systems to Support Community-Driven Integrated Mobility Services.” Recaps are one-page overviews of the UTC funded research that describe the research project’s purpose, approach, key findings, conclusions, contact information for the research team and a link to the final research report.

April 26, 2023
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April 26, 2023

Mobility21 UTC researcher Burcu Akinci, along with four other Carnegie Mellon University faculty members, has been elevated to the rank of University Professor, the highest distinction a faculty member can receive at Carnegie Mellon.  Read more here.

April 25, 2023
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April 25, 2023

Mobility21 UTC Executive Director Stan Caldwell spoke on a panel titled “Reinventing the Rustbelt: Oxidation to Innovation” at the Intelligent Transportation Society of America‘s Annual Meeting.  The panel was moderated by Jim Katsafanas of Michael Baker Corporation and also included Colin Castle from Michigan DOT, Preeti Choudhary from DriveOhio and Stephen Zubyk from Eastgate COG in Ohio.

April 21, 2023
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April 21, 2023

Today’s Smart Mobility Connection session featured Mobility21 UTC researcher Yorie Nakahira.  She discussed her UTC work, “Safety of Intelligent Systems Operating in Uncertain and Interactive Environments.”  Watch the recording here.

April 19, 2023
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May 5, 2023

Today, Mobility21 UTC released its latest “Research Recap” for Carnegie Mellon University researcher Pingbo Tang’s project “Towards Data-Driven and Continuous Safety Inspection of Commercial Trucks and Trailers.” Recaps are one-page overviews of the UTC funded research that describe the research project’s purpose, approach, key findings, conclusions, contact information for the research team and a link to the final research report.

April 18, 2023
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April 18, 2023

Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell presented at the bi-monthly meeting of the Pennsylvania Transportation Alliance on the new Safety21 National UTC and the Pennsylvania State Transportation and Research Track.  The alliance, organized by Pennsylvania Statewide Independent Living Council, discussed how these research efforts could support mobility for people of all abilities.

April 17, 2023
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April 17, 2023

Miovision,  which acquired Mobility21 Spin Off Company Rapid Flow Technologies and maintains an office in Pittsburgh, made the following announcement:

Miovision, a leading provider of intelligent transportation solutions that enable cities to reduce traffic congestion and vehicle emissions while improving public safety, announced today it has raised $260M in growth funding in a round co-led by TELUS Ventures, Maverix Private Equity and Export Development Canada (EDC).

“This investment will enable Miovision to continue to develop our platform and quickly integrate new acquisitions, including our recent acquisition of Global Traffic Technologies (GTT), building on the momentum the company has achieved over the last 18 months with the acquisitions of Traffop, Rapid Flow and MicroTraffic,” said Miovision CEO Kurtis McBride. “These acquisitions are helping Miovision rapidly add new applications that we can deliver via our network of devices at the roadside and intersection, reducing the upfront cost of deploying data-driven solutions that can help cities make their transportation networks safer and cleaner while supporting broader urban planning objectives.”

Read the full article here.

April 17, 2023
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April 17, 2023

Lisa Kay Schweyer, Mobility21 Program Manager, attended the first meeting of her term on the Community Advisory Council for the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank.  She was able to share her experience  working with employers and commuters and transportation to work.

April 15, 2023
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April 15, 2023

Carnegie Mellon University graduate students from interdisciplinary courses joined forces to win second place in the Kellogg Design Challenge, the world’s largest MBA design case competition.  Assisted by Traffic21 Director Raj Rajkumar and Metro21 Executive Director Karen Lightman, they were able to explore autonomous vehicles and transportation policies to narrow down the problem space for their sponsor, Nissan.

April 14, 2023
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April 14, 2023

Mobility21 celebrates our student workers Sreya Vangala and Women in Transportation Fellow 2021-23 Maggie Harger for their hard work and contributions during National Student Appreciation Week at Carnegie Mellon University.

April 13, 2023
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April 13, 2023

The Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University hosted the Project Olympus Show & Tell, a popular venue for connecting CMU startups with the wider business and entrepreneurial community.  Mobility21 UTC researcher Dr. Destenie Nock provided insight into her research, while Heinz College MISM student Adam Knapp provided information on his customer discovery kickstart, “Parkor,” a program that helps customers find parking in real time.

April 12, 2023
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April 12, 2023

Karen Lightman, Executive Director of Metro21: Smart Cities Institute, recently joined University of Pittsburgh Law School Professor Michael Madison for a discussion on his new book, “Governing Smart Cities as Knowledge Commons” to explore data in smart city planning and practice.

April 7, 2023
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April 7, 2023

Mobility21 UTC partner and CCAC professor Dr. Justin Starr recently worked with the Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority at the 2023 Pennsylvania Water Environment Association’s Stormwater Summit to provide a demo of a stormwater pipe assessment using a drone.

April 6, 2023
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January 30, 2023

Mobility21 UTC researcher Venkat Viswanathan will partner with MIT and 24M for a $3.2 million EVs4ALL award from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Project Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).  The initiative will focus on developing fast-charging and low-cost electric vehicle batteries.  Read more here.

April 4, 2023
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May 19, 2023

Today, Mobility21 UTC released its latest “Research Recap” for Carnegie Mellon University researcher Sarah Fox and Nik Martelaro’s project “Designing the Future of Transit Work.” Recaps are one-page overviews of the UTC funded research that describe the research project’s purpose, approach, key findings, conclusions, contact information for the research team and a link to the final research report.

April 4, 2023
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April 4, 2023

During THE (Transportation Helping our Environment) Climate ACTion Summit, sponsored by the Association for Commuter Transportation, Lisa Kay Schweyer, Mobility21 Program Manager, led 3 discussion groups on Creating Equitable Transportation.  The discussion groups talked about how equity has been and can be successfully baked into decision making and transportation options that have a positive impact on climate including free transit fares, electric vehicle charging stations, and guaranteed basic mobility.

March 31, 2023
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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.