June 6, 2019 - Mobility21 UTC Participates in the Celebration of the Oakland Eruv - Angela Blanton, CMU Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer and Lisa Kay Schweyer, Mobility21 UTC Program Manager were in attendance to help celebrate the extension of the local eruv to now include Oakland. When the original Pittsburgh Jewish community\'s eruv was constructed, circa mid-1970\'s, it primarily encompassed parts of the Squirrel Hill community. By the mid-1990\'s and early 2000\'s the eruv was expanded to include larger sections of Squirrel Hill and sections of Point Breeze, Greenfield, and Regent Square. UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and Carlow University assisted with the extension of the Squirrel Hill eruv to Shadyside and the Oakland neighborhoods, which includes hospitals and universities, allowing greater mobility on Sabbath and Yom Kippur for Jewish communities, especially the Orthodox Jewish communities. Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell was an active member of the planning committee for this eruv extension.
June 5, 2019 - OSU Participates in Meetings with Ohio Congressional Offices to Discuss Mobility Projects - June 5, 2019 Maryn Weimer, Director of Mobility & Senior Associate Director of the Ohio State University\'s Center for Automotive Research participated in meetings with Congressional offices with representative leaders from TRC, COTA, the Columbus Partnership, and DriveOhio. The group met with Senator Brown, and Representatives Stivers, Beatty, Balderson, and Jordan. The purpose of the meetings was discuss various mobility projects and programs.
June 5, 2019 - Mobility21 UTC Program Manager Serves as Hack-a-thon Judge - Lisa Kay Schweyer, Program Manager for the Mobility21 UTC, served as a judge for the International Association of Transportation Regulators (a non-profit educational organization comprised of government transportation professionals) for their 4th Annual Hack-A-Thon competition. The proposals being judged included solutions to problems and innovative multi-modal mobility service and safety enhancements to promote the guiding principles set forth by the city of Calgary.
June 4, 2019 - Mobility21’s Executive Director, Stan Caldwell, takes part in ITS America Annual Meeting - June 4-7, 2019 ITS America held their annual meeting in Washington D.C. entitled “Intelligent Mobility: Safer. Greener. Smarter.” Mobility21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell, was there representing Mobility21 UTC research efforts. UTC spin-off, Rapid Flow Technologies, was an exhibitor, to showcase their Surtrac technology.
June 3, 2019 - Carnegie Mellon University student, Sharika Hedge, Spending Her Summer at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center - June 3, 2019 Carnegie Mellon University student, Sharika Hedge, is a senior at CMU, majoring in Civil Engineering with a minor in Computer Science. She is currently an intern at Leidos in the Transportation Solutions Division, but is spending her summer as a contractor at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center. Her team, FHWA\'s Saxton Transportation Operations Laboratory (STOL), works on national connected and automated vehicle (CAV) research, develops new CAV technology, and increases the accessibility of these technologies to various state DoTs. She also participated in the attended the Traffic Safety and the 5.9 GHz Band Conference in Washington D.C on June 3, 2019. Last summer, Hedge was a CEE Summer Research Fellow at CMU\'s Mobility Data Analytics Center, under the guidance of UTC Researcher Sean Qian, as well as a part-time Transportation Software Intern at Michael Baker International. Hedge’s interests are primarily in ITS, data analytics, and CAV systems. Currently, she is working on a variety of data visualization and CAV research projects this summer, including FHWA\'s Cooperative Automation Research Mobility Applications (CARMA) platform.
June 3, 2019 - Mobility21 Researcher Participates in the Traffic Safety and the 5.9 GHz Band Conference - June 3, 2019 Mobility21 UTC researcher, Steve Smith participated in a panel at the Traffic Safety and the 5.9 GHz Band Conference in Washington D.C. along with the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology, Diana Furchtgott-Roth. The purpose of the panel was to provide examples of Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Communications deployment. Professor Smith highlighted research deployed in Pittsburgh connecting blind pedestrians to smart traffic signals.
June 1, 2019 - CCAC Faculty Leads Transportation Discuss with Career and Technology Center Students - June 1, 2019 Bob Koch from the Community College of Alleghey County visited the Western Area Career and Technology Center to discuss the career opportunities available in the transportation industry with their students. The class, led by Koch, also discussed the impact these new technologies could have on the economy, and how do they see it impacting those living in a rural environment.
May 30, 2019 - UTC Faculty Received Award from Office of Naval Research - May 30, 2019 Venkat Viswanathan, Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and UTC funded faculty received a 2019 Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research to research how to improve battery safety in low temperatures. Learn more about the award recipients here.
May 29, 2019 - Comcast Leadership Tours NavLab - May 29, 2019 Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell and UTC Researcher, Christoph Mertz led Comcast’s Heartland Regional Team on a tour of CMU\'s NavLab. The Comcast leadership was interested in learning more about the research, development and deployment of Mobility21-led research in the region.
May 29, 2019 - Mobility21 Welcomes New Women in Transportation Fellow – Carlee Benhart - Mobility21 welcomes Women in Transportation Fellow for 2019– 2021, Carlee Benhart. Carlee developed an interest in smart transportation, urban infrastructure, and transportation equity during her time studying Regional Planning at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. While pursuing her degree, she undertook internships with the Indiana County (PA) Office of Planning and Development where she worked as the Indiana County WalkWorks community liaison to address the challenges of introducing alternative transportation infrastructure, and with Quaker Valley Council of Governments in Allegheny County, where she served as manager of an pilot online geographic information systems implementation for the rollout of a new municipal property and structure condition assessment. After graduating, Carlee maintained her professional relationship with the Quaker Valley Council of Governments to work on the Route 65 Corridor Study Multi-Municipal Project as a research intern. She would like to incorporate a synthesis of technical and social science methods to improve the equity of all types of mobility. Upon completion of graduate school, Carlee hopes to work to improve the accessibility and integration of a spectrum of transportation modes with humans and the built environment. She is excited for the opportunity to hone her knowledge and skills in Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College Public Policy and Management program, and to continue her academic career in transportation planning and smart mobility as a Traffic21 Women in Transportation Fellow. Learn more about the current Women in Transportation Fellow, Bonnie Fan, here: https://mobility21.cmu.edu/about/leadership/student-leadership/. -------------- The Traffic21 Women in Transportation fellowship provides financial support to an incoming female student who is entering either the Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College MSPPM (Public Policy and Management) or MISM (Information Systems Management) degree programs. Female 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.
May 19, 2019 - Key Lessons in Urban Mobility Podcast Featuring Mobility21 UTC Executive Director Stan Caldwell - May 21, 2019 Stan Caldwell, Mobility21’s Executive Director, sat down with Ken Dunlap, Managing Partner of Catalyst-Go, a company that specializes in the autonomous technologies industries, to discuss urban mobility in their latest podcast. The podcast entitled ““Key Lessons in Urban Mobility” explores a wide variety of topics, including how Pittsburgh has transitioned from an industrial city to one that competes with Silicon Valley for companies and talent. Ken and Stan discuss the role of Traffic21 and Mobility21 in the transformation of Pittsburgh including the model of using seed funding from partners to develop, research and deploy technology in the city. Stan discusses how the formula has led to successful university-government partnerships and how these partnerships are helping the mobility of the greater Pittsburgh region and subsequently nation-wide. The podcast then shifts gears to discuss the whole picture of Mobility21 and how the transportation center and the future of transportation is not simply about automation but rather using new urban mobility technologies to ensure that all, not just some, communities benefit. Stan describes the difference between Pennsylvania\'s approach to automation and policy compared to states like California - and how Pennsylvania\'s might be a better recipe for success. Listen to the podcast to hear Stan share the lessons he and his Mobility21 colleagues have learned and are learning while research, developing and deploying technology in mobility: https://www.catalyst-go.com/thinkingthroughautonomy/2019/5/24/stan-caldwell-lessons-in-urban-mobility.
May 17, 2019 - Mobility21 and Metro21 host lunch with Secretary Foxx - May 17, 2019 Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx, a Distinguished Executive in Residence at Carnegie Mellon University, joined Mobility21 students, staff and faculty for a lunch and learn today to discuss the variety of transportation related research being done at Carnegie Mellon University.
May 16, 2019 - Mobility21 Faculty, Sean Qian was awarded the Posner, Molloy and Pietrandrea Career Development Chair in Civil Engineering - May 16, 2019 Mobility21 Faculty Sean Qian, was awarded the Posner, Molloy and Pietrandrea Career Development Chair in Civil Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. With his research, CEE Assistant Professor Qian is working toward a different world, one where real-time and historical data allow us to better manage our aging and overcrowded infrastructure.
May 16, 2019 - Mobility21 Executive Director Participates in PennStart Planning Meeting - May 16, 2019 Mobility21\'s Executive Director, Stan Caldwell, participated in the second workshop of the Pennsylvania Safety Transportation and Research Track (PennStart). This proposed test track is a collaboration with the PA Turnpike, FHWA and PennState. Stan attended to provide expertise on connected and automated technology testing applications.
May 16, 2019 - Atlanta Link Leadership Visits to Pittsburgh to Learn about Public-Private Partnerships - May 16, 2019 The Leadership Involvement Networking Knowledge (LINK) from the Atlanta Regional Commission visited Pittsburgh to learn about new ideas and approaches for dealing with the issues and challenges facing metro areas. During their visit to Pittsburgh, they discovered how the city is driving innovation through city/university partnerships and much more. The team heard from Lisa Kay Schweyer, Mobility21 Program Manager on how Mobility21 and the City of Pittsburgh are using partnerships to solve Pittsburgh’s mobility challenges.
May 14, 2019 - Mobility21 Executive Director Promotes Mobility21 Research at Washington DC Events - May 14, 2019 Stan Caldwell, Exec. Director of Mobility21 presented research at the Council of University Transportation Center spotlight conference held at the Rayburn Office in Washington DC. Stan was also able to participate in visits to legislative offices to highlight Mobility21\'s education initiatives, including a visit with Claire Borzner, Legislative Assistant to Congressman Mike Doyle.
May 8, 2019 - Mobility21 Executive Director gives Overview of Mobility21 to the Young Presidents Forum (YPO) - May 8, 2019 Mobility21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell, presented an overview of Mobility21 activities and research to the Young Presidents Forum (YPO). The YPO is a global organization where members meet with innovative and influential business leaders with the goal of inspiring business, personal and community impact.
May 8, 2019 - CMU’s Traffic21 Announces Winners of Second Smart Mobility Challenge - May 8, 2019 Today, Carnegie Mellon University’s Traffic21 announced North Huntingdon Township and the Airport Corridor Transportation Association (ACTA) as the winners of its second Smart Mobility Challenge. Traffic21, a research institute operated out of CMU’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy and Mobility21, its affiliated USDOT National University Transportation Center in the College of Engineering, sponsored this year’s challenge as a continuation of its mission of transforming southwestern Pennsylvania into a testbed for mobility innovation. With generous funding from the Hillman Foundation, the Smart Mobility Challenge invited representatives of municipalities and public transit operators in Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington and Westmoreland counties to identify real-world mobility challenges affecting their communities and apply to receive support from CMU faculty and students. “The problems submitted for consideration illustrate the mobility challenges we face in southwestern Pennsylvania and the awareness and dedication of our local leaders and transit operators to find solutions” said Lisa Kay Schweyer, Program Manager of Traffic21. Lynn Manion, Executive Director of the ACTA, and Michael Turley, Assistant Manager of North Huntingdon, represented this year’s award recipients. Their challenges were selected based on the availability of data to answer the stated problem and alignment with the academic strengths of the Carnegie Mellon University Mobility Analytics Center (MAC) team. Manion’s mobility challenge involves designing a flex route first and last mile system to maximize mobility and operating efficiency as well as ridership comfort, while Turley seeks a solution to alleviate congestion, ensure safety and anticipate travel demand on a heavily trafficked roadway. As recipients of this year’s Smart Mobility Challenge, Manion and Turley will receive support from MAC, which collects, integrates and learns from massive amounts of mobility data and contributes to the development of smarter transportation systems. MAC will use the mobility problems identified by Manion and Turley to provide data, analytics and recommended solutions for each mobility problem. “We look forward to solving the challenges presented by the ACTA and North Huntingdon,” said Heinz College Dean Ramayya Krishnan. “Only at Carnegie Mellon do we have this unique opportunity to collaborate with partners in our region to solve real-world problems faced by their communities.” “The solutions that result from these projects can provide other cities with ideas on how to apply big data to address their own transportation problems,” says Jonathan Cagan, the interim dean of Carnegie Mellon Engineering. For the submissions not selected, CMU offered to connect representatives from municipalities and public transit operators with faculty from across campus to explore additional solutions through class projects. Manion and Turley will begin working with CMU on July 1, 2019, with the projects to be completed by June 30, 2020.
May 8, 2019 - Summer School in Advanced Mobility Held at Ohio State University - May 8, 2019 More than 25 individuals from both industry and academia had the opportunity to learn from each other at the inaugural Summer School in Advanced Mobility held at The Ohio State University (Mobility21 UTC academic partner), May 6-8, 2019. This three-day program provided a high level overview of topics related to automotive mobility including electrification and storage, connected and autonomous vehicles, multi-modal transportation and security, all taught by Ohio State faculty experts. Learn more here.
May 7, 2019 - UTC Faculty Advises Data Driven Heinz College Capstone Project - May 7, 2019 Director of the Mobility Data Analytics Center and UTC Faculty, Sean Qian, advised a Heinz College Capstone student Project Team that focused on extreme weather events impacts on bridges. The capstone project examined a variety of publicly available data sources to develop a data-driven model for 1) better prediction of washout events and 2) scour critical risks for all bridges in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
May 7, 2019 - Amtrak Capstone “Improving Intercity Rail Data Analytics” Advised by Stan Caldwell - May 7, 2019 Mobility21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell, advised the The Heinz College Capstone project with Amtrak entitled “Improving Intercity Rail Data Analytics\". Today, the capstone project team presented their project results, which included their examination of a variety of data sources to develop a data-driven model for identifying and marketing to new customers.
May 7, 2019 - Mobility21 Co-Hosts Transport PGH 2019 Spring Forum with T.I.R.E.S - May 7, 2019 Mobility21 co-hosted Transport PGH 2019 with T.I.R.E.S. The Forum was a free event featuring guest presentations by transportation providers sharing resources available in and around Allegheny County. The event brought together the region’s leading providers and advocates to help educate the public on what is available. Mobility21 Program Manager, Lisa Kay Schweyer gave welcoming remarks and an overview of the Mobility21 UTC and Shikib Mehtri, Masters of Language Technologies student at CMU\'s Language Technologies Institute presented his research in collaboration on a Spoken Dialog System for The General Public with UTC Faculty, Profs. Maxine Eskenazi.
May 6, 2019 - CCAC’s Bob Koch Joins Westmoreland Career & Tech Center to Discuss the Future of Automotive Jobs - May 6, 2019 Bob Koch, faculty at the Community College of Allegheny County, joined automotive students and their instructors at Central Westmoreland Career and Technology Center to discuss career opportunities in the automotive field including Intelligent Transportation options, Hybrid & Electric Vehicles, Connected & Autonomous Vehicles and Ride Sharing options. The group discussed the economic impact all of this will have on their careers and how they can prepare.
May 6, 2019 - Smart Mobility Challenge Project: Traffic Impact Study of CSX Pittsburgh Intermodal Rail Terminal and Mitigation Plans for McKees Rocks - May 6, 2019 In September 2017, CSX Transportation began operations at its newest Pittsburgh Intermodal Rail Terminal, located in Stowe and McKees Rocks. The facility provides shippers a new transportation option to move freight to and from the region and enhances the area and the company’s competitive advantage through greater connectivity. However, studies show the development of the facility will also add to a number of trucks in and through the Borough of McKees Rocks, increasing demands on the existing infrastructure and increasing congestion to already congesting roadways. Located along the south bank of the Ohio River just a few miles from downtown Pittsburgh, McKees Rocks & Stowe Township is home to 13,000 residents. To study this traffic increase and possible mitigation strategies, the Borough of McKees Rocks applied for this new development and its traffic impacts to be a research project as part of Traffic21’s Smart Mobility Challenge. As a winning project, the CDC of McKees Rocks were partnered with CMU’s Mobility Data Analytics Center (MAC) to conduct an in-depth analysis of the potential growing traffic impact in high temporal and spatial resolutions. During the research, Mobility Data Analytics Center (MAC) develops a large-scale regional traffic model that simulates nearly 700 thousand of trips of cars and trucks during a typical weekday. Using a variety of data sets, MAC was able to simulate individual trucks and cars and model route choices, travel time and mixed traffic flow conditions. The result includes the travel time, travel delay, vehicle-mile-traveled, fuel use and emissions for each road segment and intersection by time of day. In addition, the team examined the effectiveness of traffic management strategies in different scenarios. During a recent project update meeting with community representatives shared that being chosen as a Smart Mobility Challenge project provided them a predictive model (that would normally be out of reach for communities like McKees Rocks) to help analyze truck traffics impacts in their community. Although this research project focused on several particular applications such as trucks and roadway usage to demonstrate the method and leverage resources, the methodology can be applicable and scalable to other cities and regions, and to any general disruptive change to the infrastructure network. The research completed in McKees Rocks could also be of value to various groups interested in infrastructure, travel demand management, green design, environmental policies and more. Now that the research part of the project is complete, the next steps for McKees Rocks includes a review of the research, engagement on discussions about the project results, and the provision of input for the decision makers to consider. Learn more about this project here: https://ppms.cit.cmu.edu/media/project_files/60-final.pdf.
May 4, 2019 - Second Annual National Mobility Summit Recap - May 4, 2019 The Second Annual National Mobility Summit was held on April 11, 2019 in Washington D.C. The National Mobility Summit is an opportunity for US DOT University Transportation Centers to come together to discuss the real-world problems, opportunities and innovations in today’s transportation landscape. Find a full recap of the National Mobility Summit here: https://mobility21.cmu.edu/events/the-national-mobility-summit/the-national-mobility-summit-2019/.
May 3, 2019 - Women in Transportation Fellow presents her final capstone project report entitled “Cost of Curbs” - May 3, 2019 Mobility21 Women in Transportation Fellow, Sarah Cho, presented her final capstone project report entitled “Cost of Curbs Final Presentation” at the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership. The presentation was attended by leaders from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh Parking, Port Authority and the City of Pittsburgh.
May 3, 2019 - Mobility21 UTC Executive Director Featured Guest on NPR’s OnPoint - May 3, 2019 Today\'s National Public Radio On Point show \"There\'s Talk Of $2 Trillion For Infrastructure. How Should The U.S. Spend It?\" features an interview with Mobility21 UTC Executive Director Stan Caldwell. Listen to the broadcast here: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/05/02/infratstructure-trump-congress-democrats.
May 2, 2019 - Mobility21 Program Manager Meets with Colorado Springs Regional Leaders - May 2, 2019 Mobility21 Program Manager, Lisa Kay Schweyer, Metro21 Executive Director, Karen Lightman, and City of Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure Assistant Director, Alex Pazuchanics, joined the Colorado Springs Regional Leaders to provide an overview of the public-private partnership between CMU and the City of Pittsburgh.
May 1, 2019 - Mobility21’s Program Manager and Traffic21 Diversity Fellow join MASITE Luncheon as Keynote Speakers - May 1, 2019 The Mid-Atlantic Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (MASITE) hosted their Western Area Luncheon Seminar Series entitled \"The Black and Yellow Brick Road: Transportation Research & New Mobility in Pittsburgh\" in Pittsburgh. There were more than 60 people in attendance for the event where Lisa Kay Schweyer, Mobility21 Program Manager and Allante\' Whitmore, Mobility21 Diversity Fellow were the keynote speakers.
May 1, 2019 - Colorado Springs Chamber & Economic Development Corporation Tour CMU - May 1, 2019 Mobility21 welcomed Colorado Springs Chamber & Economic Development Corporation and their regional leaders to the City of Pittsburgh. The regional leader Leaders in Science & Technology visited Carnegie Mellon University’s NavLab where Traffic21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell, led a discussion about how our Smart Cities Institutes manage relationships between external partners and researchers.
May 1, 2019 - Mobility21 Executive Director Attends PA Chamber of Commerce Legislative Briefing - May 1, 2019 Mobility21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell, attended the Philadelphia & Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce Legislative Briefing in Harrisburg to promote Mobility21 research efforts. The briefing included stakeholders and regional policymakers to help strengthen relationships between the region’s business community and elected officials.
April 26, 2019 - Smart Mobility Connection features Steve Quick - April 26, 2019 The last Smart Mobility Connection of the Spring \'19 semester featured Steve Quick, Adjunct Faculty in the School of Architecture at CMU. Quick highlighted his UTC project that is currently investigating how the integration of multimodal policies onto regional corridors will impact small towns differently from urban and suburban corridors. Watch the full series here.
April 24, 2019 - April ’19 Faculty Meeting Highlights CCAC’s Commitment to Automotive Education - April 24, 2019 The final UTC Faculty Meeting of the Spring \'19 semester featured Bob Koch & Josh Kern from the Community College of Allegheny County. Bob & Josh described how the community college is updating their workforce training and curriculum to reflect the advancements and technology changes in the automotive industry.
April 23, 2019 - Mobility21 Program Manager, Lisa Kay Schweyer Shares Expertise During the Pittsburgh Cities of Inclusion Summit - April 23, 2019 The Pittsburgh Cities of Inclusion Summit was held today at PNC park where over 150 leaders gathered. This Summit brought together individuals with disabilities, family members, city officials, community leaders, non-profits, corporate leaders, foundations and other funders, to jointly create a vision for Pittsburgh as an inclusive city.* Mobility21 Program Manager, Lisa Kay Schweyer, shared her expertise as a thought leader in the Access to Services breakout sessions. * An inclusive city is an urban community that values social inclusion for all, ensuring people of all abilities are involved in their communities, able to effectively pursue opportunities and contribute, safely express themselves, and exercise their rights. These cities provide access and opportunities for everyone to take part in employment, education, health, housing, and to access community services.
April 22, 2019 - Mobility21 UTC researchers, Sean Qian and Costa Samaras will head a Department of Energy funded project on “intelligent delivery zones” - April 22, 2019 Mobility21 UTC researchers, Sean Qian and Costa Samaras will head a Department of Energy funded project on \"intelligent delivery zones.\" Learn more about this project here: https://www.cmu.edu/cee/news/cee-news-magazine/images/spring-2019-issue---cee-news.pdf.
April 16, 2019 - Mobility21 UTC Program Manager Lisa Kay Schweyer Discussion Leader at the Association for Commuter Transportation’s Emerging Mobility Summit - April 16, 2019 Today, Mobility21 UTC Program Manager Lisa Kay Schweyer led 3 discussion groups on equity and new mobility at the Association for Commuter Transportation’s Emerging Mobility Summit in Austin, Texas. The discussions brought Transportation Demand Management professionals together to share their thoughts on how equity is defined, how equity considerations are or are not being built into the new mobility modes, and best practices from around the country.
April 15, 2019 - The Vision Zero Toolbox - April 15, 2019 Erick Guerra, UTC Faculty and Assistant Professor in City and Regional Planning in the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania, was an advisor for The Vision Zero Toolbox in Philadelphia project. The project aims to help decision-makers at the local level prioritize initiatives and projects which will achieve the greatest traffic safety benefit and ensure the success of Vision Zero Philadelphia.
April 15, 2019 - Mobility21 UTC Researcher Sean Qian Awarded Posner, Molloy, and Pietrandrea Career Development Chair in Civil Engineering - April 15, 2019 With his research, Mobility21 UTC Researcher and CEE Assistant Professor Zhen (Sean) Qian is working toward a different world, one where real-time and historical data allow us to better manage our aging and overcrowded infrastructure. Through data modeling and frameworks, Qian is not only finding ways to reduce congestion, energy use and emissions within existing systems but also to design sustainable, resilient, and intelligent infrastructure for the future. Read more about this award here: https://www.cmu.edu/cee/news/news-archive/2019/04-2019-qian-awarded-posner-molloy-and-pietrandrea-career-development-chair-in-civil-engineering.html.
April 15, 2019 - Hands-On Design Courses Equip Students for Success - April 15, 2019 \"Whether you’re designing infrastructure for transportation, buildings, water systems, or something entirely different, taking on your first project as a recently graduated civil or environmental engineer can be daunting. For starters, there is the multitude of objectives, the risk and uncertainty, the complex planning and scheduling constraints, and of course the challenge of learning to work and communicate within a team...\" Read the rest of this article and how Mobility21 UTC researcher Costa Samaras is involved, here: https://www.cmu.edu/cee/news/news-archive/2019/04-2019-learnin-by-doing.html
April 14, 2019 - UPenn Presents at CPSWeek Conference in Montreal - April 14, 2019 The UPenn UTC Team including Rahul Mangharam, Matt Kelly, Yash Pant and Houssam Abbas attended the Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet-of-Things Week Conference in Canada to present their research.
April 11, 2019 - Mobility21 Hosts Second Annual National Mobility Summit - April 11, 2019 Today, Mobility21 hosted the Second Annual National Mobility Summit in Washington D.C. The summit provided a unique opportunity for 125 people, made up of faculty members, researchers, government, community, and industry representatives from across the country to discuss improving mobility for people and goods. The day also highlighted work from 10 of the mobility-themed UTC\'s around the country (representing 50+ educational institutions) and a research showcase to share their ideas and create new collaborative efforts to transfer research to deployment.
April 9, 2019 - UTC Faculty Gives AC Tour to President of AAA East Central - April 9, 2019 Ding Zhao, Assistant Professor and CMU and Director of the Safe AI Lab, gave a tour of Carnegie Mellon University\'s autonomous vehicles to the President and CEO of the Automobile Club of Southern California and the President of AAA East Central.
April 9, 2019 - Community College of Allegheny County hosts Butler County Vo-Tech - April 9, 2019 Bob Koch, UTC Faculty and Community College of Allegheny County Professor of Automotive Engineering, hosted students from the Butler County Area Vocational-Technical High School automotive program. Bob engaged the students in discussions about career opportunities for automotive technicians and included technician training with Intelligent Transportation, Connected Vehicles, EV and PHEV’s, Data Analytics and Cyber Security and how they relate to transportation industry.
April 9, 2019 - Teresa Leatherow, an Elsie Hillman Honors Scholar of Traffic21, presented at Engineering Sustainability 2019 - April 9, 2019 Teresa Leatherow, an Elsie Hillman Honors Scholar of Traffic21, presented at Engineering Sustainability 2019: A Climate for Change at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. This conference brought together scientists from academia, government, industry, and nonprofits to share results of cutting-edge research and practice directed at development of environmentally sustainable buildings and infrastructure. Teresa\'s research focused on automation and long-haul trucking applications for supply chain and operations, infrastructure, and policy. Additional information: https://www.engineering.pitt.edu/mcsi/conference/
April 8, 2019 - UTC Faculty, Bob Koch, Attends Pittsburgh Regional Clean Cities EV and Stakeholder Event - April 8, 2019 Bob Koch, UTC Faculty and Professor of Automative Engineering at the Community College of Allegheny County participated in today\'s Pittsburgh Regional Clean Cities Electric Vehicles (EV) and Stakeholder Event. The event discussed ways to promote EV vehicles and infrastructure.
April 8, 2019 - Transportation Club hosts Dinner with Women in Transportation - April 8, 2019 CMU Transportation Club co-hosted an event with Women in Transportation (WTS) that featured a panelists of women who currently work in the transportation industry. The panelists highlighted WTS and how students can get involved with WTS and the transportation industry.
April 8, 2019 - Traffic21’s Women in Transportation Awardee Joining CMU’s Machine Learning Ph.D. Program - April 8, 2019 CMU\'s Traffic21 and Robotics Institute Summer Scholars Program have partnered to provide talented undergraduate students mentored robotics research experiences with top scientists creating innovative solutions for transportation at Carnegie Mellon University. Stephanie Milani, the recipient of the 2017 Women in Transportation Award funded by Traffic21, is joining the CMU Machine Learning Ph.D. program in fall 2019. The Traffic21 scholarship enabled Stephanie to learn about computer vision and deep learning while working with Dr. Christoph Mertz. Stephanie explained how important this was in her trajectory and growth, “Before RISS, I was unfamiliar with robotics research. Through the various programs and events, RISS provides a great, overarching view of the interdisciplinary nature of robotics research, but simultaneously allows scholars to dive deeply into an area through their summer research.” Investing in early research experiences creates an enormous impact and opportunity for new solutions and approaches that will make our communities smarter and more livable. Congratulations Stephanie!
April 5, 2019 - Ohio State’s Center for Automotive Research Spring External Advisory Board focuses on Safety and Cybersecurity - April 5, 2019 Industry, government and campus partners attended The Ohio State Center for Automotive Research (CAR) semiannual External Advisory Board meeting. The meeting opened with a state of the center presentation by CAR Director, Giorgio Rizzoni who shared research and facility updates with the audience. In addition, faculty and researchers from across Ohio State presented on their work related to safety and cybersecurity, showing just how far reaching this topic is and the variety of work being done in this space all across campus. Learn more here.
April 5, 2019 - Mobility21 Executive Director Hosts Italian Delegation - April 5, 2019 A delegation from Italy traveled to Pennsylvania to learn more about policy, mobility technology and the modernization of train/rail travel. The organization that came to CMU was “Ditecfer” District for Rail Technologies, High Speed, Safety and Security based in Pistoia, Italy. Tuscany is the leading cluster for innovative rail technologies in Italy. This organization considers the U.S. as their top priority for international collaboration and because both countries have significant railway supply chains based on SMEs and important integrations that can be built in the railway sector, they have identified Pittsburgh as a prime opportunity. Executive Director, Stan Caldwell, presented the RD&D from Mobility21.
April 5, 2019 - Smart Mobility Connection Features John P. Shen and Abhinav Jauhri - April 5, 2019 This week\'s Smart Mobility Connection Series featured Professor John Shen and PhD Student, Abhinav Jauhri from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Carnegie Mellon University. This talk highlighted their work with Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and how they’re using data sets to improve ride sharing services, mitigating traffic congestion and even what-if scenarios for intelligent transportation systems. Watch the talk here.
April 4, 2019 - Mobility21 UTC Researcher Hae Young Noh Awarded Best Paper Award - April 4, 2019 Mobility21 UTC Researcher Hae Young Noh Awarded Best Paper Award at the IEEE Machine Learning Conference. Read more about this award on page 17: https://www.cmu.edu/cee/news/cee-news-magazine/images/spring-2019-issue---cee-news.pdf.
April 3, 2019 - Mobility21 UTC Hosts Lunch and Learn For Business Managers - April 3, 2019 20+ Business Managers representing faculty across the Carnegie Mellon University attended a \"lunch and learn\" hosted by Mobility21 to learn more about the Traffic21 and Mobility21 UTC funding. During the event, Rhonda Kloss & Heather Depasquale of the Research Accelerator, and Scott Petyak & Olivia Wells of the Heinz College reviewed the funding sources and shared some tips with the business managers.
April 3, 2019 - Mobility21 Fellow Wins CUTC Seat at Eno’s Annual Future Leaders Development Conference - April 3, 2019 The 2019 Eno Future Leaders Development Conference will be held in Washington D.C. from June 2-June 6, 2019 this year - and Mobility21 UTC\'s Women in Transportation Fellow, Bonnie Fan, will be at the event at the winner of the CUTC\'s reserved seat.
April 1, 2019 - Mobility21 UTC Researcher Helps Contribute to New Whitepaper on “Driverless Cars and Accessibility” - Mobility21 UTC Researcher & CMU Associate Research Professor Aaron Steinfeld helped contribute to the new whitepaper on \"Driverless Cars and Accessibility\" published by ITS America, which examines the opportunities around fully automated vehicles: when they begin to be deployed in significant numbers, they will offer the potential to usher in enormous positive changes. The white paper can be downloaded now: http://www.itsa.org/s/ITSAmerica_Driverless-Cars-Accessiblity-Mobility_April2019.pdf.
April 1, 2019 - Mobility21 “Story” Shared at the Inclusive Innovation Summit’s Story Slam - March 30, 2019 Lisa Kay Schweyer, Mobility21 UTC Program Manager shared the Mobility21 story at today\'s Inclusive Innovation Summit\'s Story Slam. Attendees learned about the history of the UTC, the research thrust areas, and how they could get involved.
March 29, 2019 - CMU Student Elyana Hurst Receives WTS Scholarship - March 28, 2019 Tonight the Women in Transportation Seminar (WTS) Pittsburgh Chapter held its 2019 Annual Scholarship Gala. Elyana Hurst, a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon University majoring in Civil & Environmental Engineering and Engineering & Public Policy, with a minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies was awarded the 2019 WTS Pittsburgh Chapter Molitoris Leadership Scholarship for Undergraduates during the event. Elyana is interested in transportation infrastructure, specifically within and around cities, and hopes to pursue research regarding autonomous vehicles. She is involved in the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers at her university, and she serves as an ambassador for the Engineering & Public Policy department. Elyana aims to pursue a career that allows her to combine her passion for the transportation industry with her knowledge of environmental concerns and the importance of government policies. Members of Mobility21 staff, students and deployment partners also participated in the event and were able to congratulate Elyana as she received her scholarship award.
March 28, 2019 - UTC Faculty from CCAC, attended the ITS/PCB workshop in Tampa, Florida - March 27 - March 28 Bob Koch, UTC Faculty from the Community College of Allegheny County, attended the Intelligent Transportation Systems Professional Capacity Building workshop in Tampa, Florida collaborating with other educators and practitioners defining ITS entry-level workforce competencies, and discussing educational goals. They also looked at training products and strategies to fill unmet educational needs. He also had the opportunity to network with other educators and practitioners to exchange ideas and best practices in ITS.
March 27, 2019 - Mobility21 Exec. Director Meets with Consulate General of Sweden - March 27, 2019 Stan Caldwell, Executive Director of Mobility21, met with the Consul General, the Honoray Consul and the Head of Trade and Business Promotation from the Consulate General of Sweden in New York City. The Consulate General was interested in meeting with Mobility21 to learn more about sustainability transportation systems and potential university-to-university collaboration.
March 26, 2019 - UTC Program Manager Gets Updates on Student Projects at the University Of Pennsylvania - March 26, 2019 Lisa Kay Schweyer met with UTC faculty and students during her semi-annual visit to the Mobility21 academic partner, the University of Pennsylvania. She heard presentations from students on their research on ridehailing services\' impact on transit ridership, pedestrian deaths and injuries, and predictors of cycling.
March 25, 2019 - IIT Driverless Studio Visits CMU to Learn about AV Design - March 25, 2019 Mobility21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell, in collaboration with UTC Faculty Steve Quick, hosted the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Driverless Studio from Chicago. The team traveled to Pittsburgh to learn more about how the City and CMU are using design to strategically implement new technologies and designs around autonomous vehicles.
March 22, 2019 - Smart Mobility Connection Features Steve Smith - March 22, 2019 The Smart Mobility Connection featured UTC Faculty and Research Professor, Steve Smith. Smith gave us an overview of Surtrac technology that his spin-off company, Rapid Flow Technology, is using to help solve 21st century mobility challenges. Smith is utilizing his research on a wide variety of projects. In addition to improving the flow of traffic, this technology is helping people communicate with buses and enabling populations with disabilities to safely navigate intersections. Watch the full talk here.
March 21, 2019 - UTC Faculty Presents Work at User2Agent Workshop - March 21, 2019 Dr. Maxine Eskenazi gave a talk at the user2agent workshop of the IUI conference on \"The User and How Alan Turing Led Us Astray.\" She discussed how many intelligent agents are developed with traits that do not take the user into account and proposed a new direction for these agents: creating partners that are aimed at serving the user.
March 20, 2019 - Mobility21 Attends Center for Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure’s Annual Transportation Forum. - March 20, 2019 The Center for Sustainable Transportation Infrastructure at the University of Pittsburgh hosted their Annual Transportation Forum. Mobility21 Program Manager, Lisa Kay Schweyer, participated in the event to represent Mobility21. The forum gave Schweyer an opportunity to discuss partnership opportunities with fellow participants from regional government, community and industry transportation experts.
March 20, 2019 - U.S. DOT Secretary Elaine L. Chao Discusses Automation & Workforce - March 20, 2019 U.S. DOT Secretary Elaine L. Chao invited stakeholders to address the increasing deployment of automated vehicle-related technology and how might this new technology impact the transportation workforce. USDOT convened key stakeholders representing industry, labor, public sector, academia and research to discuss the automation adoption scenarios. UTC Faculty, Aaron Steinfeld attended the meeting and represented Mobility21 and Carnegie Mellon University. To learn more & review the materials from the workshop please click here.
March 19, 2019 - UTC March Faculty Meeting Features Fei Fang - March 19, 2019 The UTC Faculty meetings give researchers the opportunity to highlight their Mobility21 projects progress. This month featured CMU Researcher, Fei Fang with her work \"Incentivizing Participation in Peer-to-Peer Ride-Sharing Platform\". Fang highlighted her recent work on scheduling and pricing ridesharing.
March 13, 2019 - Mobility21 Exec. Director Joins Pennsylvania State Transportation Innovation Council - March 13, 2019 Mobility21 UTC Executive Director Stan Caldwell was appointed to the Pennsylvania State Transportation Innovation Council (STIC) and participated in the quarterly meeting in Harrisburg which was co-chaired by FHWA Division Administrator Alicia Nolan. Caldwell is honored to represent the UTC at STIC.
March 13, 2019 - The Ohio State University Gives UTC Program Manager a Tour of their Electric Racing Vehicles - March 13, 2019 During her semi-annual visit to the Mobility21 academic partner the Ohio State University, Mobility21 UTC Program Manager Lisa Kay Schweyer participated in a tour of the Center for Automotive Research\'s various electric racing vehicles. In addition she met with UTC faculty and students to learn more about their research activities.
March 12, 2019 - Mobility21 Represented at SxSW - March 12, 2019 John Zimmerman, Mobility21 faculty, Tang Family Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Human Computer Interaction, joined a panel at SxSW for \"Accessible Transportation for All\" along with Bonnie Epstein, senior planner for the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority; Kate Hartman, chief-Research, Evaluation, and Program Management in the ITS Joint Program Office at the U.S. Department of Transportation; and Maria Town, of the Mayor\'s office for People with Disabilities in Houston. Zimmerman talked about the work being done to approve accessibility to public transit for persons with disabilities.
March 12, 2019 - PA Rural Robotics Initiative Takes Off and Thanks CMU’s Traffic21/Mobility21 for Assistance - March 12, 2019 Twelve months ago, Franklin Area High School had four lonely VEX robots that students traveled around Pennsylvania and West Virginia with, searching for teams to compete against. Fast-forward to the end of this February and those four robots have 180 new companions right next door. Together they make up the Pennsylvania Rural Robotics Initiative, a consortium of 11 school districts, one technology center, and an intermediate unit that all share a common robotics platform and curriculum. Twenty-five schools, covering five counties, have found like-minded friends in higher education, business and industry, state and local government, non-profits, and regional economic and workforce development that not only support their initiative but help it to thrive. The Traffic21 and Mobility21 Institute’s leadership team has been a trusted advisor since the conception of PA Rural Robotics and continues to look for ways to support their mission. Both faculty and graduate students from the Robotics Institute are working to bring CMU and these young STEM students together. PA Rural Robotics was also excited to find themselves partnered with a team of CMU undergraduate students as part of the Information Systems Spring Project. The Office of Outreach and Engagement have provided a menu of options that can further the CMU connections as the initiative grows. The most recent Carnegie Mellon connection was with the CMU CS Academy. PA Rural Robotics plans to introduce their member schools to the CS1 course and discuss the potential it could have in expanding computer science offerings within all of the member districts.
March 12, 2019 - Traffic21 and Mobility21 Welcome Marathon Petroleum at CMU - March 12, 2018 Some members of the Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) Board of Directors met with Carnegie Mellon University representatives, including Stan Caldwell of Mobility21 and Chris Hendrickson of Traffic21 to explore collaborative opportunities with Carnegie Mellon University.
March 6, 2019 - Elsie Hillman Scholar Presents Final Project - March 6, 2019 Mobility21 Elsie Hillman Scholar, Teresa Leatherow, organized the Sustainability and Transportation: Building the Systems of Tomorrow event as her final deliverable for her research with Mobility21. The event featured panelists from the City of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh who discussed challenges, progress and the future of sustainable transportation.
March 6, 2019 - 10th Annual Sustainability Conference - March 6, 2019 The 10th Annual Sustainability Conference co-hosted by ASCE, EWRI, Metro21 and Sustainable Pittsburgh was hosted at the August Wilson Center in Pittsburgh. The Conference featured Carnegie Mellon University’s Don Carter as the keynote speaker and Metro21’s Executive Director, Karen Lightman who gave a presentation on research, development and deployment from Metro21 and Mobility21.
March 4, 2019 - Mayor Peduto Issues Transformative Policies for Autonomous Vehicle Testing & Development - March 4, 2019 Pittsburgh\'s Mayor William Peduto issued an Executive Order today outlining City objectives and expectations for the safe testing of autonomous vehicles in Pittsburgh, and assigning responsibilities for the development of transparent and constructive reporting guidelines for the growing technology sector. Raj Rajkumar, Mobility21 Director, present when the Mayor issued the order, said “This Order and the guidelines help to protect the public while enabling this technology born in Pittsburgh 35 years ago to be tested and matured right here – attracting jobs, opportunities and talent to the City.\" Read on
March 4, 2019 - Teresa Leatherow, a student at the University of Pittsburgh and an Elsie Hillman Honors Scholar working with Traffic21, attended the Institute of Politics “Never A Spectator” event - February 28, 2019 This forum brought together student leaders at Pitt with Pittsburgh city leaders, ranging from for-profit and non-profit spaces, for the opportunity to expand their networks and work toward increased civic engagement initiatives. The event honored Elsie Hillman\'s legacy to the city of Pittsburgh, captured through her quote \"It is possible to see something good and to work for it, and even dare to achieve it. Don\'t be a spectator. You are needed in every corner of the community\".
March 1, 2019 - Bosch Curbside Ideation Event - March 1, 2019 Bosch hosted a “Curbside Management Ideation Event” at Carnegie Mellon University. Over 25 students signed up to participate. The event kicked off at 8:30 am with “Welcome’s and Introductions” by Sylvia Vogt from Carnegie Bosch Institute and Oliver Steinig, VP Business Development and Corporate Strategy Americas at Robert Bosc. Karina Ricks, Director of Mobility and Infrastructure from the City of Pittsburgh then shared with the participants the importance of curbside management and Pittsburgh’s specific challenges: Geographically challenged roadway network with congested, narrow avenues Congestion compounded by transit stops, parallel parking, and commuter traffic Competition amongst various modes and users for curb space Lack of universal value for curb access and allocation Lack of real time curbside utilization rates The students were assigned to one of four teams. And after the teams received their instructions on how to conceptualize solutions to Pittsburgh mobility challenges by leveraging Bosch strengths in Video as Sensor, the students quickly got started. An observation from the VP Business Development and Corporate Strategy Americas at Bosch, Oliver Steinig was how diligently the students worked, even choosing to eat lunch with their teams to continue working on their curbside management ideas. At the end of the day, the students’ hard work paid off. Each team presented solutions that combined Bosch sensors, sensible technology and pragmatic policy changes. Mobility21 and Metro21 helped promote the event and engage students and were on hand for the day’s activities. The Curbside Ideation event is an example of how industry, government, and academia can come together to create real solutions to real world problems.
February 25, 2019 - Traffic21/Mobility21 Tours RoadBotics - February 25, 2019 The Traffic21/Mobility21 Team, Chris Hendrickson, Stan Caldwell, and Lisa Kay Schweyer took a ‘road trip’ to RoadBotics to tour their facilities. The team met with Christoph Mertz, UTC Faculty who lead the spin-off of RoadBotics from CMU and Mark DeSantis, CEO of RoadBotics.
February 23, 2019 - Mobility21 Exec Director Guest Lectures for Heinz College - February 23, 2019 Mobility21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell, was a guest lecturer in Heinz College course on Food Insecurity and discussed the mobility challenges getting people to food or getting food to people in poor rural communities. The course is led by both Carnegie Mellon University and Waynesburg University.
February 22, 2019 - Smart Mobility Connection with Chris Hendrickson - February 22, 2019 Today\'s Smart Mobility Connection featured Chris Hendrickson, Director of Traffic21. Based upon the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s study ‘Renewing the National Commitment to the Interstate Highway System: A Foundation for the Future’ Hendrickson led us through a look back at the impacts and innovations of the Interstate Highway System, including engineering, financing and planning challenges. Read the study here. Watch the seminar here.
February 22, 2019 - UTC Researcher Demos Her Personalized Trip Planner for Seniors - February 22, 2019 Maxine Eskenazi, UTC researcher, led a very successful demo of her Personalized Trip Planner for Seniors at the AARP meeting today. The meeting attendees were surprised to learn the service will be free to users. Maxine said she hopes to release the service this summer.
February 22, 2019 - Mobility21 Program Manager Presents Traffic21 Overview at Engineering Accelerator - February 22, 2019 At the CMU Engineering Research Accelerator staff meeting, Lisa Kay Schweyer, the Program Manager for Traffic21 and Mobility21 presented an overview of the Traffic21 Institute. She reviewed the history of the Institute and the T-SET and Mobility21 University Transportation Centers housed within the Institute. She provided highlights of the research projects, partnerships and collaborations and other initiatives.
February 21, 2019 - UTC Faculty Named Professor of the Year by ASCE Pittsburgh - February 21, 2019 UTC Faculty, Costa Samaras was named the American Society of Civil Engineers Pittsburgh Section’s Professor of the Year for his commitment to the profession and to cultivating young students. Samaras is known for his ability to get students excited about engineering and students value him as both a mentor and a friend because of his dedication to preparing them for a career in engineering.
February 20, 2019 - UTC Faculty Meeting Features Financial Support Overview - February 20, 2019 The UTC Faculty Meeting highlighted the financial teams behind Mobility21 and Traffic21. The teams presented on logistics and requirements of research projects. The meeting presented many unique questions were asked, signifying the importance of connected faculty and researchers with finance teams for operations. The meeting also highlighted UTC updates and news.
February 16, 2019 - RoadBotics Featured at Formula E - February 16, 2019 Picture this: It\'s Mexico City, 83 degrees, sunshine, 25,000 visitors and a RoadBotics booth! The Mobility21 UTC spin-off company, RoadBotics, had a booth at the FIA Formula-E Championship in Mexico City. RoadBotics was also there as a finalist for the FIA Smart Citis Global Starup Contest with MassChallenge Switzerland.
February 15, 2019 - Elsevier Article Highlights UTC Research Project Results on Benefits of Partial Vehicle Automation - February 15, 2019 UTC Researchers, Abdullah Khana, Corey D. Harper, Chris T. Hendrickson, and Constantine Samaras, published their work titled “Net-societal and net-private benefits of some existing vehicle crash avoidance technologies.” Bottom line results: even higher net benefits as technology improves. Article shares how $600 per vehicle for warning systems would produce $40 Billion per year in social benefit. Read the full paper.
February 15, 2019 - Smart Mobility Challenge Project: Real-time traffic monitoring and prediction for Cranberry Township - February 2018 If you’ve ever traveled through Cranberry Township, you’ve probably had to wait at more than one traffic signal. Cranberry Township’s unique geographical location at the junction of Interstate 79 and the PA Turnpike (PA 376) poses unique challenges in coordinated signal operations. Furthermore, the Township operates a Coordinated Signal System that relies on historically Generated Signal Timings, coupled with real time technology to manage day to day operations on the local network. Any scheduled or unscheduled events on the limited access highways can cause havoc with operations on roads in the business district. Jason A. Dailey, Director of Public Works in Cranberry Township saw an opportunity with the Smart Mobility Challenge to reduce havoc and maintain efficiency. Together with CMU faculty, Sean Qian, and PhD [caption id=\"attachment_12861\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"150\"] Sean Qian[/caption] student, Weiran Yao, the Mobility Data Analytics Center (MAC) received funding from Traffic21. This research project incorporated real time data inputs monitored from both social media and other public data sources against historical data to trigger predictions of traffic delays at least 30 minutes ahead. These predictions could then be directed to dynamic message boards, smart phone applications, social media, and text messages to alert the public of the anticipated delay. These predictions also alert the Cranberry Traffic Operations [caption id=\"attachment_12860\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\"] Weiran Yao[/caption] Center of the incidents to allow for pro-active adjustments to the operating traffic plan on a real-time basis. At the conclusion of the project, in a real-world demonstration, the system proved to successfully alert the Townships traffic operators of the upcoming traffic gridlock 50 minutes in advance compared to the actual reporting time, which allowed more prompt and effective traffic management. Dailey’s feedback after working with Traffic21 faculty Sean Qian included: “This was another great experience working with CMU through the Traffic21 program. Our project was able to pull existing technology and crowd-sourced data, combine it with other publicly available data that is driven by a multitude of sources including vehicle reporting data and roadway sensors, and produce a recommendation on how to manage our signal system when an event is triggered. We are very fortunate to work with Traffic21 and MAC to help us take advantage of current technology and make sense of it, in a way that industry professionals can then turn it into real world solutions. This project built on another project we had been working on with Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission where we developed contingency plans that were preplanned and would need to be first identified manually, and then entered manually into our traffic signal system. What Sean and his team were able to do, was to create a program that looks locally at traffic inputs, looks regionally at what is happening, identify issues far enough in advance for us to get an alert that then would recommend what signal plan would best resolve the issue that is occurring. While we still need to manually enter the plan, this project far exceeded our expectations and is showing us just how valuable regional data access is for us.” Read the Full Report from Real-Time Traffic Monitoring and Prediction for Cranberry Township: https://ppms.cit.cmu.edu/media/project_files/61-Final.pdf Inspired by Traffic21’s years of successful collaboration with the City of Pittsburgh to become a globally recognized smart city test bed, the goal of the Smart Mobility Challenge is to demonstrate how suburban and rural communities can also benefit from a similar collaboration. This program is supported by Carnegie Mellon University’s Traffic21 Institute and its affiliated US DOT National University Transportation Center, Mobility21. The Smart Mobility Challenge is an opportunity to connect suburban and rural communities to the technologies and resources being developed at Carnegie Mellon University. The first Smart Mobility Challenge was held from 2017 – 2018, and included research done in collaboration with Millvale, McKees Rocks, Bethel Park, Greensburg, Mt. Lebanon, Dormont, Cranberry Township and Lawrence County. Learn more by clicking here. Traffic21 is currently kicking off its Second Smart Mobility Challenge. The goal of this year’s challenge is work with these communities to use data and analytics to solve their municipality’s mobility problems. Representatives of municipalities and public transit operators in southwestern PA are invited to request research assistance through the 2019-2020 Smart Mobility Challenge. Learn more by clicking here.
February 8, 2019 - Smart Mobility Connection with Costa Samaras - February 8, 2019 Today\'s Smart Mobility Connection featured Costa Samaras, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at CMU. Costa highlighted his work with the economic, environmental and travel implications of changes in parking choices due to driverless vehicles. Costa\'s study estimates the potential impact of privately-owned driverless vehicles on vehicle miles traveled, energy use, emissions, parking revenue, and daily parking cost savings in the city of Seattle, Washington from changes in parking decisions using an agent-based simulation model. Click here to watch the video recording of this SMC session.
February 7, 2019 - Mobility21 Executive Director Appointed to CARMA Advisory Group - February 7, 2019 Stan Caldwell, Executive Director of the Mobility21 University Transportation Center was appointed to the advisory group for the Cooperative Automation Research Mobility Applications (CARMA) platform which supports the testing and evaluation of connected and automated vehicle research. This opportunity will have Caldwell directly involved in how research can support advancing the use and implementation of Transportation Systems Management and Operations strategies and more.
February 6, 2019 - Traffic21 Director Appointed as TRB Division Committee Chair - February 5, 2019 Traffic21 Director, Chris Hendrickson was unanimously approved by the National Research Council (NRC) Governing Board to be the new Transportation Research Board (TRB) Division Committee Chair. The TRB Division Committee is charged to ensure that NRC procedures and policies are faithfully employed with respect to study and project committee appointments and report review.
February 1, 2019 - Secretary of the Army, Mark Esper, Rides in Mobility21 UTC Automated Vehicle - February 1, 2019 Carnegie Mellon University hosted the Secretary of the Army, Mark Esper and General Murray, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Futures Command and Brigadier General Matthew Easley, for the announcement that the United States Army is activating its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Task Force at CMU. The event was hosted at both the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) and main campus at CMU. Secretary Esper and CMU’s president, Farnam Jahanian, rode from CMU’s campus in Oakland to NREC in Lawrenceville in the University Transportation Center’s Autonomous Vehicle. The ride was operated by Mobility21 Director, Raj Rajkumar. Although CMU is serving as the hub for the AI Task Force, it will eventually include other leading universities from across the country and the privacy sector and close engagement with the Army Research Lab and the Department of Defense\'s Artificial Intelligence Center. The launch of the national network based will give CMU the opportunity to work closely with our partners and grow the robust network of AI collaborators. Secretary Esper reiterated CMU and Pittsburgh\'s commitment to innovation stating \"Carnegie Mellon and the Pittsburgh area embody the spirit of hard work and innovation essential to shaping the Army of the future.\"
February 1, 2019 - Director of Mobility, Maryn Weimer, appointed to Ohio Governor’s Advisory Committee on Transportation Infrastructure - February 1, 2019 Maryn Weimer, director of mobility and senior associate director at The Ohio State Center for Automotive Research has been appointed to the Ohio Governor’s Advisory Committee on Transportation Infrastructure by Governor Mike DeWine. This new committee will study the current conditions of Ohio’s roadways and recommend options for maintaining and enhancing the state’s transportation infrastructure. Read more...
January 30, 2019 - E-Mobility Workshop Hosted by City of Pittsburgh at CMU - January 30, 2019 Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell participated in an E-Mobility workshop hosted by the City of Pittsburgh and CMU’s Scott Institute for Energy Innovation. This workshop gathered stakeholders to guide the City in its strategies and policies for electric vehicles, micro-transit, mode shift, etc.
January 28, 2019 - UTC Faculty, Jon Peha, Hosted Wireless Research Workshop - January 28, 2019 Mobility21 UTC Faculty, Jon Peha, hosted a Wireless Research Workshop in partnership with CMU Portugal. The workshop, hosted at the Collaborative Innovation Center included topics such as: Challenges for spectrum management in 5G aerial small cells, A City-Scale Low-Power Wireless Network and Energy efficiency in highly dense environments.
January 25, 2019 - Traffic21 Director Featured Speaker at UCF - January 25, 2019 Traffic21 Director, Chris Hendrickson was invited to the University of Central Florida for their Future City Seminar Series. Hendrickson presented \"Past and Future of the US Interstate Highway System\" where he looked back at the impacts and innovations of the Interstate Highway System, including engineering, financing and planning challenges.
January 25, 2019 - Smart Mobility Connection Featuring Scott Matthews - January 25, 2019 Mobility21 kicked off the Spring \'19 academic year with a Smart Mobility Connection featuring Scott Matthews. Matthews presented “Applications of Connected Vehicle Technologies to Improve Safety, Mobility & Emissions.” The talk highlighted ineffective processes for testing emissions and how we can use technology and data to make the process more affordable and efficient. Link to recording: Video Link
January 24, 2019 - CMU PhD Students Present Poster at TRB - January 22, 2019 Two PhD students in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Carnegie Mellon University presented their Mobility21 Research during the poster session at the Transportation Annual Research Board in Washington DC. Rick Grahn\'s presented his team\'s poster \"Public Transit Users and Behaviors in the United States: Evidence from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey\" and Corey Harper presented his team\'s poster \"Net-Societal and Net-Private Benefits of Some Existing Crash Avoidance Technologies.\"
January 23, 2019 - CMU Student Participates in TRB’s Annual Transportation Camp - January 12, 2019 Carnegie Mellon University student Dhruv Mahajan, participated in the 2019 Annual Transportation Camp, part of the TRB Annual Conference. Dhruv reviews his experience as a \"great opportunity to get an informal discussion started on issues related to transportation that you care about. It is very loosely structured and serves as a very good contrast from TRB that immediately follows it. This makes the Transportation Camp, a very unique experience. I had a great time meeting people at Transportation Camp and listening to some really interesting ideas.\"
January 18, 2019 - Chris Henrickson, Traffic21 Director, Fills In for Speaker at TRB - January 16, 2019 Chris Hendrickson, the Director of the Carnegie Mellon University Traffic21 Institute was called upon last minute to fill in for a speaker at the TRB session \"Future of the Interstate Highway System: A TRB Consensus Study.\" As a contributing author of the study, he stepped in to provide the session attendees with an overview of the study.
January 17, 2019 - RoadBotics customer Montgomery, Alabama is one of the winners of the Smart 50 Awards in the Mobility category - January 17, 2019 UTC Spin-off Company, RoadBotics customer Montgomery, Alabama is one of the winners of the Smart 50 Awards in the Mobility category. Smart 50 Awards, in partnership with Smart Cities Connect, Smart Cities Connect Foundation, and US Ignite, annually recognize global smart cities projects, honoring the most innovative and influential work. Read more here: https://spring.smartcitiesconnect.org.
January 15, 2019 - Mobility21 Executive Director Speaks on TRB Panel - January 15, 2019 Mobility21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell served as a speaker for the TRB conference session, Integrating Research and Technology Transfer. His presentation included an overview of how technology transfer happens through the CMU Traffic21 Institute and the Mobility21 UTC, and highlighted some of the companies that have spun out of the UTC funded research efforts.
January 15, 2019 - UPenn ESE Team Wins FAA Raise Award - January 17, 2019 At the 2019 Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, the Executive Committee of the Council of University Transportation Centers on behalf of the Secretary of Transportation, Elaine L. Chao, awarded the Secretary’s RAISE Award to a student team from the University of Pennsylvania (UPENN). The UPENN senior design team members John Kearney, Max Li, William Tam, and Sahithya Prakash and team advisor, Dr. Megan S. Ryerson, accepted their award. The Secretary’s RAISE award was created to recognize innovative scientific and engineering concepts and student achievements that have the potential to significantly impact the future of aerospace or aviation. The team focused on the design and implementation of a centralized air traffic control (ATC) system for autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (aUAVs) in order to mitigate the risk of aUAV-on-aUAV mid-air collisions. [UPENN is an academic partner in the Mobility21 University Transportation Center.]
January 14, 2019 - Students Get Together at TRB - January 14, 2019 Students from Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pennsylvania, and the Ohio State University (all academic partners of the Mobility21 UTC) made time to get together during the TRB conference in Washington DC. Students shared information on their academic pursuits, research interests, and brainstormed ways to continue meeting and working together during the spring semester.
January 12, 2019 - Carnegie Mellon University’s Traffic21 Institute Honors Two “Students of the Year” - January 12, 2019 Amelie Bonde and Kristen Scudder, were honored tonight as “Students of the Year” at the annual winter meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington, DC. Annually, the United States Department of Transportation honors the most outstanding student from each participating University Transportation Center (UTC) 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. Carnegie Mellon University’s Traffic21 Institute houses Mobility21, the National University Transportation Center for Improving Mobility and the T-SET National University Transportation Center for Safety. Students from CMU and University of Pennsylvania were eligible for the T-SET UTC nomination and 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 winners: Mobility21, the National University Transportation Center for Improving Mobility Student of the Year [caption id=\"attachment_12434\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"300\"] Amelie Bonde[/caption] Amelie Bonde completed a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science in 2014 at Carnegie Mellon University, and is currently a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University. Amelie worked on research pertaining to a structural vibration-based building occupancy estimation system at CMU and more recently on an in-automobile heartbeat monitoring system using vibration sensors installed in a car seat. She is an NSF Graduate Research Fellow with a focus in the area of cyber-physical systems, smart homes and devices. Pei Zhang, Carnegie Mellon University Associate Research Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering nominated Amelie for this honor saying, “…She is an amazing researcher that has many novel ideas and will surely be a star researcher one day.” Amelie’s research thesis is on vibration sensors on vehicle seats that can feel the movement of humans in the car. These small movements can allow for the detection of activities the person is engaged in and biometrics such as heart rate and breath rate, with an aim of assessing driver stress and distractedness. T-SET National University Transportation Center for Safety Student of the Year [caption id=\"attachment_12435\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"300\"] Kristen Scudder[/caption] Kristen Scudder is pursuing a Master of City and Regional Planning with a concentration in Sustainable Infrastructure and Transportation from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to graduate school, she received her B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Southern California and spent 6 years as a structural engineer and data automation specialist on global infrastructure projects. In addition to using eye tracking to perform safe mobility research for Mobility21 Research Director Dr. Ryerson, Kristen serves on the Penn Student Transportation Club board and is a Freight and Aviation Planning Intern at The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission. Her nominator, Megan S. Ryerson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of City and Regional Planning, PennDesign, Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, PennEngineering and Associate Dean for Research, PennDesign at the University of Pennsylvania described Kristen as “…Kristen is a standout Master of City Planning student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. Kristen brings a rigorous background in Civil and Environmental Engineering to her urban planning education, and she is combining these fields to tackle complex issues including the design of urban transportation infrastructure for safety and designing routing plans and policies for urban freight vehicles.” Kristen’s research focuses on planning urban infrastructure, city planners and traffic engineers use aggregate data, such as pedestrian and cyclist flow counts and the number of reported crashes per intersection, to identify critically unsafe locations. By using eye tracking data on how pedestrians and cyclists perceive surrounding infrastructure, street design convention can be expanded beyond relying on pre-set road designs and killed and seriously injured (KSI) as a metric for safety. 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 2018 UTC Students of the Year! To learn more about the University Transportation Centers’ Student of the Year awards please click here: https://www.transportation.gov/utc/outstanding-students-year
December 13, 2018 - CCAC Hosts Student Automotive Competition - December 13, 2018 CCAC and Greater Pittsburgh Automotive Dealers Association hosted a student automotive competition event at CCAC. During the competition, Bob Koch, talked to both students and instructors about “Intelligent Transportation Careers” and how these students fit into the workforce with their knowledge and skills they’re currently learning. They discussed what they can do to help prepare these high school seniors for various transportation careers. They also talked about various opinions regarding vehicle to V2V, V2I and autonomous vehicles, and what can we do to help them prepare the technicians of the future.
December 11, 2018 - GHSA Visits CMU for AV Tour - December 11, 2018 The Government Highway Safety Association visited Carnegie Mellon University to learn more about Mobility21\'s policy, technology, people in autonomous vehicles. They spent time learning more about the AV\'s here on campus and visiting the Navigation Lab.
December 7, 2018 - Mobility21 Director Shares Expertise on Autonomous Vehicles in Axios Article - December 6, 2018 Raj Rajkumar, Director of Mobility21, the National USDOT University Transportation Center for Mobility, shares his expertise on autonomous vehicles in Axios article \"1 big thing: The price of driverless cars.\" Read the full article here: https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-future-e692a32f-6272-4add-bd11-2e450c1f5967.html?chunk=0#story0.
December 6, 2018 - Mobility21 Program Manager Attends PAIC Groundbreaking - December 6, 2018 Mobility21 Program Manager, Lisa Kay Schweyer, joined Carnegie Mellon\'s Chief of Staff and Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, Daryl Weinhert at the Pittsburgh Airport Innovation Campus (PAIC) Groundbreaking. The PAIC will provide space at the airport for innovation testbeds for aviation and customer service technologies.
December 6, 2018 - Elsie Hillman Honors Scholar Presents Research at PennState - December 6, 2018 Teresa Leatherow, an Elsie Hillman Honors Scholar working with Traffic21, presented her semester\'s research on automation and long-haul trucking at the Pennsylvania State University Transportation Engineering and Safety Conference. Other topics that were presented on by students include dedicated bus lanes, network resilience, and parking demand models for urban areas. Conference attendees were able to participate in various breakout sessions on safety, operations, planning, design, and technology and had the opportunity hear from Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation Leslie Richards!
December 5, 2018 - Project Presentations for the User-Centered Research and Evaluation - December 5, 2018 Project presentations for the Carnegie Mellon University User-Centered Research and Evaluation class, in which students investigated user needs for transportation on campus, were displayed today in the University Center. Students collected data from participants using a wide variety of methods, and used their insights to propose new solutions to address these needs for more visibility, efficiency, and opportunities with campus transportation. The results will be shared with the Graduate Student Assembly who will determine next steps.
December 5, 2018 - Two CMU Students Selected as 2018 Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program Awardees - December 5, 2018 Matt Battifarano and Rick Grahn, both PhD students in Carnegie Mellon University’s Civil and Environmental Engineering Department were selected as prestigious Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program awardees. [caption id=\"attachment_12070\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"150\"] Matt Battifarano[/caption] Before starting his coursework at CMU, Matt Battifarano spent three years as a data scientist at Bridj, a smart urban transportation startup where he built models of transit demand within a city and methods to optimize vehicle routes to meet that demand. He received my Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics with a minor in Computational Neuroscience from the University of Chicago in 2012. [caption id=\"attachment_12071\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"150\"] Rick Grahn[/caption] Rick Grahn worked as a structural engineer and obtained his Professional Engineer certification in the State of California before enrolling in CMU. He also served a year with Americorps providing affordable housing to residents in Oakland, CA. He has a BS in Civil Engineering (2009) and MS in Structural Engineering (2011) from the University of New Mexico. The mission of the Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program is to attract the nation’s brightest minds to the field of transportation and advance transportation workforce development. The DDETFP is managed by Technology Partnership Program, Federal Highway Administration. The DDETFP encompasses all modes of transportation. The DDETFP awards are fellowships to students pursuing degrees in transportation-related disciplines. This program advances the transportation workforce by helping to attract the nation\'s brightest minds to the field of transportation, encouraging future transportation professionals to seek advanced degrees, and helping to retain top talent in the U.S. transportation industry. From its initial support of graduate research fellowships in 1983, to the current program\'s inception in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, the DDETFP has awarded over $50 million to the brightest minds in the transportation industry. From this investment, fellows have pushed for innovative change in multimodal areas from highway infrastructure to aviation to maritime, making the industry more effective and efficient. Fellows pursue careers in academia, private industry, and public service, becoming leaders across the nation. DDETFP awards are merit-based and generally result in 150-200 grants annually, subject to the availability of funds. [Source: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/innovativeprograms/centers/workforce_dev/post_secondary_education.aspx] Congratulations to Matt and Rick for being selected as 2018 Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program Awardees!
December 5, 2018 - CMU Research Drives Economic Case for Electric Semi-Trucks - December 5, 2018 Scott Institute & Mobility21 UTC Faculty Venkat Viswanathan and Ph.D. student Shashank Sripad published new research comparing the cost of traditional semi-trucks to electric semi-trucks, and suggest that it might be time to make the switch. Read more: https://www.cmu.edu/energy/news-multimedia/2018/economics-semi-trucks.html.
December 4, 2018 - Ohio State helps introduce new smart shuttles to Columbus - December 4, 2018 Engineers from Ohio State’s Center for Automotive Research are playing a key role in a new line of self-driving shuttles expected to debut in Columbus next month. Maryn Weimer, senior associate director of CAR, said DriveOhio goes to CAR for research purposes to make sure safety and efficiency goals are met. Read the full article
November 30, 2018 - Smart Mobility Connection Features Fei Fang - November 30, 2018 The final Smart Mobility Connection (SMC) of Fall 2018 Spring featured Fei Fang, Assistant Professor in the Institute for Software Research at CMU. Fei described her work with peer-to-peer ridesharing programs, including incentivizing both riders and financial supporters and pricing.
November 29, 2018 - Transportation Club Hosts Career Panel - November 29, 2018 CMU\'s Transportation Club hosted a career panel with leaders from Mobility21\'s deployment partners including Uber, Port Authority, Healthy Ride, Propel IT and Noblis. The audience learned about opportunities for transportation-related careers in addition to the challenges and rewards of the industry.
November 28, 2018 - Smart Mobility Connection with Hae Young Noh - November 16, 2018 Hae Young Noh presented “Structures as Sensors: Using Vehicle Structures to Indirectly Monitor Humans and Surroundings”. The talk introduced \"structures as sensors\" for the indirect monitoring of cyber-physical-human systems by sensing and analyzing their noisy physical structural responses. Watch the full talk from the series here.
November 28, 2018 - Trends in Bike Share and Shared Micromobility - November 28, 2018 This event featured a presentation from Aaron Ritz, the Transportation Systems Manager for oTIS (the Office of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Sustainability) and the manager of the City of Philadelphia’s bike share system, Indego. Aaron is a graduate of the Penn MCP program with a lifelong passion for biking and walking. He presented on the trends in bike share and in shared micromobility (scooters). Discussion unfolded later on topics such as China’s bike share models and the coordination between public and private sectors on shared mobility.
November 27, 2018 - TriState Infrastructure Summit - November 27, 2018 160 industry and public sector representatives attended the 2018 TriState Infrastructure Summit, presented by the TriState Infrastructure Council and its partners, at the Regional Learning Alliance in Cranberry Township, Pa.
November 27, 2018 - Traffic21/Mobility21 Director participates in Paving the Way for AV hosted by Babst Calland - November 27, 2018 Stan Caldwell, CMU Executive Director of Traffic21 and Mobility21 participated with Justine Kasznica of law firm Babst Calland’s Mobility, Transport and Safety practice on the panel Paving the Way for Autonomous Vehicles hosted by Babst Calland. The presentation included a discussion about autonomous vehicles in the broader context of infrastructure design and development, and issues related to urban infrastructure and research and advancements in mobility technologies.
November 16, 2018 - UTC Spin-off company, RoadBotics has raised $3.9M in its series seed round of financing - November 16, 2018 UTC Spin-off company, RoadBotics, developer of advanced computer vision technology for inspecting roads and infrastructure, has raised $3.9M in its series seed round of financing, led by Boston-based Hyperplane Venture Capital. The capital will help the company revolutionize the way engineering firms, local governments and municipalities manage and maintain roadways and other infrastructure. RoadBotics, headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA, is a rapidly-growing two-year-old company that uses deep learning to assess roadways for 78 cities, towns and counties across the US and Australia. The company emerged from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in December 2016 and grew out of Carnegie Mellon’s extensive research in autonomous vehicles. Read more here: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/roadbotics-secures-3-9m-to-transform-road-management-300750045.html.
November 15, 2018 - CCAC Presents Mission Critical: Filling Tomorrows Jobs - November 15, 2018 CCAC hosted an event titled \"Mission Critical: Filling Tomorrow\'s Jobs\" where they discussed how business and labor can collectively address the rising challenges of the growing skills gap and anticipated worker shortage.
November 15, 2018 - Mobility21 Exec. Director Gives Lecture at Osher - November 15, 2018 Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell provided a guest lecture at the Urban Planning Choices course of the Carnegie Mellon University Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. He presented Mobility21 research and highlighted the policy implications of new technologies disrupting transportation and urban planning.
November 14, 2018 - UTC Professor’s Group Published 6 Papers for ITSC Conference - November 2018 Two CMU PhD students, Mansur Arief and Jiacheng Zhu, from Mechanical Engineering ME presented at the ITSC conference. UTC Professor, Ding Zhao and his group published 6 papers in this conference, which is considered to the top conference in the autonomous vehicles field. Mansur Arief, Peter Glynn, Ding Zhao, \'\'An Accelerated Approach to Safely and Efficiently Test Pre-production Autonomous Vehicles on Public Streets,\'\' Proceedings of the IEEE 20th International Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC), Hawaii, USA, November 4-7, 2018. Jiacheng Zhu, Wenshuo Wang, Ding Zhao, \'\'A Tempt to Unify Heterogeneous Driving Databases using Traffic Primitives,\'\' Proceedings of the IEEE 20th International Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC), Hawaii, USA, November 4-7, 2018. Xun Gong, Yaohui Guo, Yiheng Feng, Jing Sun, Ding Zhao, \'\'Evaluation of the Energy Efficiency in a Mixed Traffic with Automated Vehicles and Human Controlled Vehicles,\'\' Proceedings of the IEEE 20th International Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC), Hawaii, USA, November 4-7, 2018. Zhiyuan Huang, Mansur Arief, Henry Lam, Ding Zhao, \'\'Synthesis of Different Autonomous Vehicles Test Approaches,\'\' Proceedings of the IEEE 20th International Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC), Hawaii, USA, November 4-7, 2018. Yan Chang, Weiqing Yang, Ding Zhao, \'\'Fuel Economy and Emission Testing for Connected and Automated Vehicles Using Real-world Driving Datasets,\'\' Proceedings of the IEEE 20th International Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC), Hawaii, USA, November 4-7, 2018. Songan Zhang, Huei Peng, Eric Tseng, Ding Zhao, \"Accelerated Evaluation of Autonomous Vehicles in the Lane Change Scenario Based on Subset Simulation Technique,\" Proceedings of the IEEE 20th International Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC), Hawaii, USA, November 4-7, 2018.
November 14, 2018 - Miovision: Smart Intersections - November 14, 2018 PTC invited Sajad Shiravi and Stefan Pidzamecky from Miovision to discuss the vision that Miovision has for the future of smart cities, smart intersections, and open traffic data. Miovision is a smart cities and traffic data innovation company that helps cities solve today’s problems while laying the foundation for tomorrow’s smart city. It aims to put cities back in control of their data and gives them the tools they need to improve their cities and the lives of their citizens.
November 13, 2018 - Lisa Kay Schweyer speaks at Association for Commuter Transportation’s Transportation Demand Management Summit - November 13, 2018 Lisa Kay Schweyer, Program Manager for the Carnegie Mellon University Traffic21 and Mobility21 University Transportation Center (UTC) spoke at the Association for Commuter Transportation’s Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Summit in Nashville, Tennessee. As part of the “Partnering with Students to Advance TDM on Campus” panel, she explained that after almost 15 years working for the regional metropolitan planning organization managing the regional commuting options organization, she moved over to Carnegie Mellon University to work on the Traffic21 Transportation Research Institute and its University Transportation Center, Mobility21. She shared that in her new role, she was surprised to learn the extent to which the federal department of transportation provided funding for academic institutions to do transportation research through the University Transportation Center program. And she cautioned the attendees who would say, \"research does not relate to me\" --- to think again. Lisa Kay explained that research centers across the country, like Mobility21, are looking to connect with people (like those at the conference) who can provide real world feedback and perspective on what the transportation needs are. For example, the Mobility21 engagement includes the center’s Deployment Partner Consortium. This 80+ member group of community, industry and government partners is utilized 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. Lisa Kay is looking to continue to her efforts to promote the work of the UTCs and engage the TDM community by developing a conference workshop session for the Association of Commuter Transportation’s annual international conference to be held in the summer of 2019 in New York City, New York.
November 9, 2018 - Research, Development and Deployment In Action: Mobility21 Deployment Partner Consortium Symposium Provides Opportunities for Engagement - On Friday, November 9, 2018, over 100 attendees participated in the annual Symposium of the Traffic21 /Mobility21 Deployment Partner Consortium. Participants included consortium members from the public and private sectors along with faculty and students. The symposium is sponsored by the Carnegie Mellon University Traffic21 Institute and Mobility21 National University Transportation Center and held on CMU’s campus. [caption id=\"attachment_11912\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"] Ramayya Krishnan, Dean, Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy[/caption] The group was welcomed by Ramayya Krishnan, Dean, Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. He thanked everyone for their involvement and critical role in providing the “real life” connection to the research. Then Chris Hendrickson, Director, Traffic21 Institute and Raj Rajkumar, Director, Mobility21 National University Transportation Center provided an overview of both Traffic21 and Mobility21 activity and plans. The day included three panels focused on industry, government, and community along with lots of audience participation. Each panel featured thought leaders who shared their perspective on how new transportation technology is impacting industry and communities and and how research or education might address these real-world needs. [caption id=\"attachment_11903\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"] Raymond Betler, President and CEO of Wabtec Corporation[/caption] The first panel focused on industry, with panelists discussing “Emerging Technology Trends.” Rebecca Brewster, President and Chief Operating Officer of the American Transportation Research Institute Raymond Betler, President and CEO of Wabtec Corporation Robert Grant, Head of Government Relations, Aurora Jim Misener, Senior Director of Technical Standards at Qualcomm [caption id=\"attachment_11914\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"] Johanna Jochum, Attorney, Mobility, Transport & Safety Practice Group of Babst Calland[/caption] The second panel of the day was the Government Panel which focused on “New Technology Policy Challenges.” Roger Cohen, Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation Johanna Jochum, Attorney, Mobility, Transport & Safety Practice Group of Babst Calland Karina Ricks, Director, City of Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure Paul Skoutelas, President and Chief Executive Officer of The American Public Transportation Association [caption id=\"attachment_11906\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"] JaLissa D. Coffee, Director of Operations, Conference of Minority Transportation Officials[/caption] The last panel highlighted community issues and the “Societal Impacts of Disruptive Technology.” JaLissa D. Coffee, Director of Operations, Conference of Minority Transportation Officials Ashley Hand, Co-founder, CityFi Ken McLeod, Policy Director, The League of American Bicyclists Chris Sandvig, Policy Director, Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group [caption id=\"attachment_11905\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"] Leslie Richards, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation[/caption] The keynote speaker for the event was Leslie Richards, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Secretary Richards shared her thoughts on the future of transportation in the commonwealth, the new autonomous vehicle testing policy, and the challenges of keeping up with all the changes. She also spent time answering questions from the symposium attendees. The day concluded with a research poster session and networking reception. Over 16 research projects were featured during the event. Researchers were able to share information about their projects, exchange ideas with attendees, and even forge some new partnerships. [caption id=\"attachment_11908\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"] Poster Session[/caption] Putting our research, development and deployment approach into action - the symposium provided an opportunity for interaction and discussion among researchers, students and deployment partners. Conversations were held not only during the formal program, panels and poster sessions, but during breaks and over lunch. The Mobility21 team is a tight collaboration among Carnegie Mellon University (Lead), the University of Pennsylvania, the Ohio State University and the Community College of Allegheny County, and brings to bear the reach and scale of all four institutions. Tackling the multi-faceted nature of Mobility21 objectives requires coordinated research, education, workforce development and technology transfer. This work is supported by researchers spanning multiple disciplines such as engineering, computer science and robotics, public policy, urban design, information systems and data analytics. Deployment Partner Consortium members represent public agencies, non-profit organizations, private sector companies, and other research institutions who actively support Traffic21 and Mobility21 research. Learn more about the Deployment Partner Consortium by clicking here.
November 8, 2018 - Engaging the Experts: Mobility21 National UTC Advisory Council Weighs In - On Thursday, November 8, 2018, a talented group of national leaders attended the Carnegie Mellon University Traffic21 Institute and Mobility21 National University Transportation Center (UTC) Advisory Council meeting, held on CMU’s campus. [caption id=\"attachment_11898\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"] CMU Interim Provost, Laurie R. Weingart welcoming the Advisory Council to CMU.[/caption] The group was welcomed by CMU Interim Provost, Laurie R. Weingart. She shared her thoughts on the role of education, research, innovation and technology transfer happening at university. She also talked about the importance of the advisory council and thanked the council for their role in the work being done through Traffic21 and the Mobility21 UTC. Mobility21 UTC Director, Raj Rajkumar and Traffic21 Director, Chris Hendrickson then provided an overview of update of activities and plans at the centers. The day continued with Traffic21 and Mobility21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell leading a discussion on technology transfer and plans for the upcoming National UTC Mobility Summit scheduled to be held in Washington, DC on April 11, 2019. Advisory Council members shared their expertise and ideas on workforce demand, technology trends, research needs, and new funding opportunities to advance the missions of Traffic21 and Mobility21. One of the members reflected on the experience and reported the meeting was a “Great opportunity to meet with CMU leaders and Advisory Council members with whom I don\'t normally interact with in the transportation industry.” # # # The Mobility21 team is a tight collaboration among Carnegie Mellon University (Lead), the University of Pennsylvania, the Ohio State University and the Community College of Allegheny County, and brings to bear the reach and scale of all four institutions. Tackling the multi-faceted nature of Traffic21 and Mobility21 objectives requires coordinated research, education, workforce development and technology transfer. This work is supported by researchers spanning multiple disciplines such as engineering, computer science and robotics, public policy, urban design, information systems and data analytics. The distinguished Advisory Council of national leaders provides strategic guidance and counsel. Advisory Council members include: Raymond T. Betler, President and CEO of Wabtec Corporation Rebecca M. Brewster, President and Chief Operating Officer of the American Transportation Research Institute Robin Chase, Co-founder Zipcar, Veniam, NUMo Ty Gourley, Vice President of the Hillman Family Foundations Charles L. Hammel III, President and owner, PITT OHIO Express Ashley Hand, Co-founder CityFi; formerly Transportation Technology Strategist Fellow for Los Angeles Katharine Kelleman, Chief Executive Officer at Port Authority of Allegheny County Jane Lappin, Director, Public Policy & Government Affairs, Toyota Research Institute Ken McLeod, Policy Director at The League of American Bicyclist James A. Misener, Senior Director, Technical Standards at Qualcomm Leslie Richards, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation David Roger, President of the Hillman Family Foundations Paul Skoutelas, President and Chief Executive Officer of The American Public Transportation Association Kirk Steudle, Director of Michigan Department of Transportation Learn more about the Advisory Council members here. The next in person meeting of the Advisory Council will be in November 2019.
November 8, 2018 - Traffic21 Director Chris Hendrickson Presents at CMU Transportation Energy Monthly Lunch - November 8, 2018 Traffic21 Director, Chris Hendrickson and Rick Grahn from the Mobility Data Analytics Center Rick Grahn presented a talk for discussion titled \"Travel Behavioral Trends in the United States: Evidence from the 2017 National Household Travel Survey. \"
November 6, 2018 - USDOT Shines Its “Spotlight” on Mobility21 UTC - November 6, 2018 #AmazingUTCs Spotlight shines on @CarnegieMellon @Traffic21CMU @Mobility21 and the Surtrac - smart adaptive traffic signal system. https://www.transportation.gov/utc/surtrac-people-upgrading-surtrac-pittsburgh-deployment-incorporate-pedestrian-friendly …
November 5, 2018 - Traffic21 Director, Chris Hendrickson, Presents to NAIOP - November 5, 2018 Chris Hendrickson presented Traffic21 research to NAIOP, Commercial Real Estate Development Association Nashville Chapter during their visit to Carnegie Mellon University.
November 2, 2018 - Traffic21 Spin-Off is Tied to Smart City Award in Alabama - November 2, 2018 Mobility21 faculty Christopher Mertz was a driving force in Montgomery, Alabama being recognized nationally as one of the most technologically advanced cities in the country. The City of Montgomery was awarded the 2018 Digital Cities Survey from the Center for Digital Government. This was due in large part to a Mertz’s company RoadBotics. RoadBotics is a Traffic21 spin-out founded by Professor Mertz, which analyzes roads around the world to give cities deep insight into the condition of their paved roads. Read more about Montgomery\'s Smart City Award
November 2, 2018 - Smart Mobility Connection Featuring Ding Zhao - November 2, 2018 The Smart Mobility Connection Series featured Ding Zhao, Assistant Professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering with affiliation positions at the Robotic Institute and the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation at the Carnegie Mellon University for his talk titled \"Safe AI - One of the Last Pieces of the Puzzle for the Deployment of Autonomous Vehicles.\" The talk dove into the topic of the autonomous vehicles boom in the last few years. Astronomical amount of money has been invested in the field abruptly and companies are eager or forced to announce their mass production plans. However, recent crashes pose concerns regarding their safety when operating in a mixed traffic with human road users. AI, by nature, could be smart, thanks to ever-growing training datasets and computational power, but not necessarily safe or reliable due to its complex and nonparametric structure -- learn more by watching full lecture.
November 2, 2018 - Mobility21 Elsie Hillman Honors Scholar, Teresa Leatherow, wins first prize for poster - November 2, 2018 Mobility21 Elsie Hillman Honors Scholar, Teresa Leatherow, won first prize for her poster at the 2018 Supply Chain Management Symposium. Her poster titled \"Automation and Long-haul Trucking: Challenges and Opportunities for Logistics Solutions Providers in the Digital Age\" described the purpose of this research is to understand the ways in which autonomous vehicles will impact areas of efficiency, suitability, and affordability of transportation and logistics solution providers.
October 31, 2018 - Maximizing the Amtrak Network - October 31, 2018 PTC invited Tania Nikolic and Natalie Shieh (both PennDesign alumnae) from Amtrak to discuss Amtrak’s NextGen Vision, which proposes dramatic reductions in travel times between major cities, more frequent trains, and new, dedicated infrastructure for high-speed trains. The presentation centered on Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, which plays an important role in this vision as a major multimodal transportation hub for the greater Philadelphia region and a vital link along the busy Northeast Corridor. The speakers discussed how the 30th Street Station Improvement Project would fit into the larger, Northeast Region plan and the challenges of planning transit for a mega-region.
October 26, 2018 - Ohio State EcoCAR Team Competes in EcoCAR Challenge - October 26, 2018 The defending champion Ohio State EcoCAR team has once again been selected to participate in the next EcoCAR competition where they will be challenged to re-engineer a 2019 Chevy Blazer. EcoCAR Challenge Read the full article
October 25, 2018 - The Future of Transportation in Pennsylvania - October 25, 2018 Leslie S. Richards, the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and a PennPlanning alumna, was invited to talk about how she has been shaping the future of transportation policy and planning in Pennsylvania. Following Professor Ryerson’s warm welcome, Secretary Richards shared her career path, gave an overview of PennDOT’s responsibilities, and elaborated on their achievements and challenges. As the conversation went on, Secretary Richards engaged in active discussion with faculty and students on innovations and refinements for the future of PennDOT’s work.
October 24, 2018 - Women in Transportation Fellow at Rail-Volution - October 22, 2018 Ngani Ndimdie, a student alumni from CMU and last year\'s Women in Transportation Fellow returned to Pittsburgh to attend Rail-Volution. Ngani is now working for PennDOT in the Policy Office. Captured here is Ngani and Chris Sandvig from the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group talking transit at the Rail-Volution conference.
October 23, 2018 - OSU Participates in Smart City, Smart Mobility in China - October 23, 2018 The Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research, as well as Ohio State alumni, faculty and academic and corporate partners participated in “Smart City, Smart Mobility,” the first Ohio State Pan-Asia Forum held October 22- 23 in Shanghai, China. Full Article
October 22, 2018 - Rail-Volution 2018 Comes to Traffic21 - October 22, 2018 Rail-Volution, a national transit-orientated conference, hosted in Pittsburgh, included a \"Walkshop\" that featured several of Mobility21\'s projects and researchers including Steve Smith with Surtrac. The walkshop included a visit to Smart Traffic Lights and presentations by Mobility21.
October 22, 2018 - Bring Your Boss to School Day: Philadelphia Transit Panel - September 5, 2018 To kick off the academic year, PTC hosted a panel of local transit planners from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA), the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), and the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Transportation, Infrastructure, and Sustainability (oTIS). Participants were not only exposed to exciting topics such as trolley modernization, Regional Rail, and comprehensive bus network redesign, but they also seized the chance to learn about each of these planning agencies as well as what a day in the life of a transit planner is like.
October 19, 2018 - Smart Mobility Challenge: Connecting Millvale to the River and the Region - October 2018 One of Millvale’s greatest features is its proximity to the Allegheny River and Three Rivers Heritage Trail. Unfortunately, the Borough is severed from the river access by highway and railroad infrastructure and navigating the pathways from the river to Millvale Borough is often dangerous and confusing. A research project was proposed as part of the Traffic21 Smart Mobility Challenge, to identify and prepare design solutions that would improve the safety and enhance the quality of access between Millvale and the Allegheny Riverfront. The goal of this Smart Mobility Challenge project was to improve accessibility and safety problems at the complicated intersection in Millvale and in turn, transform this gateway location into a catalyst for further revitalization of the Borough and reconnect Millville to the river and the region. A research team from The Remaking Cities Institute Urban Design Studio Course developed a set of interventions in the built environment that improve access and safety and contribute to the Borough’s economic and social vitality. The proposed improvements ranged from short-term tactical moves to long-term investment in infrastructure and landscape: Improved Crosswalks Smart Signalization Painted Walls Entry Signage Street Trees Street Banners Traffic Lights Artistic Lighting The team evaluated each intervention based on physical, financial and procedural impacts and determined that planting street trees, painting murals on the highway walls, and installing new entry signage should be prioritized because they would have a high impact and good feasibility. The next steps included building community awareness of the potential of better connections, working with key stakeholders on improvements that benefit both businesses and community, and building on riverfront events, such as an upcoming food truck celebration. Converting space from the now-demolished 43rd Street Bridge from boat storage to a plaza (with café or restaurant in the adjacent brick building) was discussed as the best opportunity for a public-private partnership that will benefit both business and community, as well as create a regional asset. As a result of the project, Millvale is able to take the study and community feedback and communicate with various entities who manage the infrastructure to advance one or more of the recommendations. Read the Final Report: https://ppms.cit.cmu.edu/media/project_files/Millvale_Mobility_Study_Final_Report_180526e_kX9BLzG.pdf Inspired by Traffic21’s years of successful collaboration with the City of Pittsburgh to become a globally recognized smart city test bed, the goal of the Smart Mobility Challenge is to demonstrate how suburban and rural communities can also benefit from a similar collaboration. This program is supported by Carnegie Mellon University’s Traffic21 Institute and its affiliated US DOT National University Transportation Center, Mobility21. The Smart Mobility Challenge is an opportunity to connect suburban and rural communities to the technologies and resources being developed at Carnegie Mellon University. The first Smart Mobility Challenge was held from 2017 – 2018, and included research done in collaboration with Millvale, McKees Rocks, Bethel Park, Greensburg, Mt. Lebanon, Dormont, Cranberry Township and Lawrence County. Learn more by clicking here. Traffic21 is currently kicking off its Second Smart Mobility Challenge. The goal of this year’s challenge is work with these communities to use data and analytics to solve their municipality’s mobility problems. Representatives of municipalities and public transit operators in southwestern PA are invited to request research assistance through the 2019-2020 Smart Mobility Challenge. Learn more by clicking here.
October 17, 2018 - Research, Development, and Deployment – Our Motto in Action - October 17, 2018 Since the beginning of Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) Traffic21 Institute in 2009 our focus has been intelligent transportation systems and our motto has been Research Development and Deployment. CMU’s current University Transportation Center (UTC), awarded under the FAST ACT, called the Mobility21 National University Transportation Center (Mobility21), focuses on improving mobility of people and goods. Academic partners include: CMU, the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), the Ohio State University (OSU), and the Community College of Allegheny County. All have impressive records of accomplishment in successful technology transfer, extensive networks for commercializing faculty inventions and innovations, including providing gap funds, social media networks, test tracks and incubator spaces on or near campus. Key to this success is the real-world partnerships forged for each research project, including public agencies, non-profits, and private enterprises. These partnerships ensure the research team does not proceed in an academic vacuum, while ensuring ready and willing advocates for implementation and transfer. Our UTC Deployment Partner Consortium began in 2012 with 30 public, private and non-profit members. Currently the consortium exceeds 80 local, state and national partners. An annual Consortium Symposium is held to facilitate; 1. Researchers understanding real-world transportation problems and industry trends, 2. Deployment partners exposure to cutting edge research and technology, and 3. Networking sessions to connect deployment partners with researchers and students. CMU has research agreements with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. In 2016, our University Transportation Center was the lead partner in the City of Pittsburgh’s finalist proposal for the US DOT Smart City Challenge. The Ohio State University was a critical partner to Columbus’ winning proposal. In addition, local governments in southwestern Pennsylvania have been strong deployment partners including: Borough of Franklin Park, Borough of Millvale, Borough of McKees Rocks, North Huntingdon Township, and Cranberry Township. In 2017, we launched the Smart Mobility Challenge which specifically targeted technology transfer in 6 municipalities from 4 counties throughout southwestern PA. Out of our early success in using the Pittsburgh region as a deployment partner in 2014 a broader Metro21: Smart Cities Institute, evolved at CMU and developed formal memorandums of agreement with the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County to outline a formal process for the university and city and county to each designate specific staff and processes to manage the research, development and deployment process. In 2015 CMU applied this Metro21 city/university collaboration model nationally through creating the MetroLab Network which now has 59 university/local government pairs replicating the memorandum of agreement to enable universities to use their home municipalities for research, development and deployment. OSU and Penn are also active members of this network engaging the City of Columbus and the City of Philadelphia, respectively, for research deployments. The UTC has directed supported research commercialization. Multiple companies have been spun-off from UTC research including self-driving technology company Ottomatica, purchased by Delphi and then spun off into Aptiv, which created 100+ jobs in Pittsburgh. Roadbotics which innovated low-cost road surface monitoring and Rapid Flow Technologies which created the first artificial intelligence decentralized adaptive traffic signals also spun out of UTC research. Both of these applied robotics to traditional transportation problems, raised significant venture capital and created 40+ jobs in Pittsburgh. Mobility21 disseminates technology transfer products through encouraging and facilitating research publications, posters and presentations: • The Smart Mobility Connection a bi-weekly faculty and student seminar series open to the public and held on CMU campus. These seminars are recorded and posted on our website for students, community members, and transportation professionals to access anytime, anywhere. • Research presentations are made at each UTC Faculty Meeting which are held three times per semester and video linked with all four Mobility21 academic partners. • Mobility21 sponsors the National Mobility Summit in Washington, DC with national partners and fellow UTCs. • Industry and professional conferences such as the Transportation Research Board, American Society of Civil Engineers, Intelligent Transportation Society of America and Pennsylvania, Mid Atlantic Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, American Public Transportation Association, Association for Commuter Transportation, Women Transportation Seminar and Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers. • Academic conferences and journals including the ASCE Journal of Transportation Engineering & Urban Planning and Development, VANET, International Journal of Computer Vision, The International Journal of Robotics Research, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, Journal of Field Robotics, Journal of Machine Learning Research, Journal of Computational Science, Journal of Information Visualization, Journal of Knowledge and Information Systems (KAIS), and ASCE Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering. • Council of University Transportation Centers, American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials Research Advisory Council, and the American Road and Transportation Builders Research and Education meetings. • Hosting tours of campus and community test beds and labs by companies, conference technical tours, government officials, academics and foreign visitors. One of Mobility21’s most effective means of disseminating research outcomes and outputs and making a significant impact on society are our students, particularly those associated directly with the research. Following are specific tactics where Mobility21 supports and facilitates technology transfer through students: • Traffic21 Women in Transportation Fellowships and Traffic21 Diversity in Transportation Fellowship. • Transportation Clubs at CMU and Penn. • Academic and industry conference scholarships. • Mobility21 staff and faculty advisement of student and capstone projects. • Mobility21 internship placement with Deployment Partner Consortium members. • Student presentations and participation in the Smart Mobility Connection. • A new student section on the Mobility21 website highlighting involvement opportunities and student accomplishments. __________________________________ CMU Traffic21 Institute’s first USDOT University Transportation Center, Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation was awarded grants under both MAP-21 and SAFETEA-LU. Then in 2016, we were awarded a 3rd UTC under the FAST ACT, called the Mobility21 National University Transportation Center, focusing on improving mobility of people and goods. Professor Raj Rajkumar serves as the director of Mobility21. University partners include the University of Pennsylvania, the Ohio State University and the Community College of Allegheny County. Learn more about Mobility21 on our website, mobility21.cmu.edu. __________________________________ Photo: House Infrastructure and Transportation Committee Chairman, Congressman Bill Shuster and Pennsylvania State Senator Guy Reschenthaler get a tour of the CMU National Robotics Engineering Center and the research being conducted.
October 16, 2018 - Heinz College Attends MetroLab Network Summit - October 16, 2018 Carnegie Mellon University was represented at the MetroLab Network Summit where Heinz College Dean Ramayya Krishnan, Metro21 Exec. Director, Karen Lightman and Distinguished Fellow, Rick Stafford attended as speakers.
October 12, 2018 - Stan Caldwell Speaks at Odyssey Day - October 12, 2018 Stan Caldwell, Executive Director of the Traffic21 Institute and Mobility21 University Transportation Center, spoke at the Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities 2018 Odyssey Day at the Community College of Allegheny County – West Hills Center. Over thirty alternative fueled vehicles on display as well as vendors in the alternative fuels arena. Almost one hundred fifty attendees that were able to see all the different vehicles from cars, trucks, vans, buses, tractor trailers and other utility vehicles.
October 10, 2018 - Transportation Research on Campus - October 10, 2018 Professors and PhD students at PennDesign were invited to share their exciting research in the transportation field. The wide-ranged topics included: the broad effects of reverse commuting; the impact of TNCs on travel behavior; urban form, transit supply and travel behavior in Latin America; transportation capital investment and evaluation simulation modeling; and planning the air transportation system.
October 10, 2018 - Penn Transportation Club’s Rail Park Walking Tour - October 10, 2018 Paul Levy, a lecturer in the City and Regional Planning Department and the founding President and CEO of the Center City District (CCD), was invited to lead a tour of the Rail Park for both PTC and Real Estate Club members. Phase 1 of the Rail Park was completed this summer with construction funds raised by CCD. When completed, the park will be a three-mile public greenway stretching from Brewerytown to the Callowhill neighborhood.
October 8, 2018 - Sean Qian Publishes New Paper in Science Direct - October 2018 UTC researcher Sean Qian published a new paper in Science Direct on \"Estimating multi-year origin-destination demand using high-granular multi-source traffic data.\" Https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0968090X18302948
October 8, 2018 - Update on Stephanie Milani, Traffic21’s 2017 RISS Scholar - October 2018 Stephanie Milani, Traffic21\'s RISS Scholar in 2017 has continued her research in robotics and spent this past summer with Katia Sycara’s team (at the Robotics Institute, School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University).
October 6, 2018 - UTC Director, Chris Hedrickson Attends ISETT 2018 - October 4 - 6, 2018 International Symposium on Emerging Trends in Transportation in Waikiki Beach, Hawaii with the Chinese Overseas Transportation Association (COTA) and the University of Hawaii. With a theme on Emerging Technologies for Future Mobility Systems, this inaugural symposium aims to stimulate the exchange of ideas among transportation professionals in academia, industry, and government on emerging policy, technology, and innovation trends. CMU\'s Chris Hendrickson presented and represented UTC research.
October 5, 2018 - Jon Peha Talks Connected Vehicles at SMC - October 5, 2018 Our (mostly) bi-weekly Smart Mobility Connection Series this week featured Pizza and Jon Peha, Professor in the Dept. of Engineering and Public Policy and the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. This Session was titled “Connected Vehicles and Intelligent Transportation Systems” and we learned how efficient and effective this can be for both metro areas and rural areas.
October 3, 2018 - Transportation Club Kickoff Meeting - October 3, 2018 The Carnegie Mellon University Transportation kicked off the year with their first meeting. During the meeting attendees heard from Rail-Volution, learned about upcoming events the semester and met the Transportation Club Executive Board. If you\'re interested in transportation or want to learn more about transit in PGH, then check out the transportation club!
September 28, 2018 - Bob Koch Shares Experience with Beattie Career & Technology Students - September 28, 2018 Bob Koch from the Community College of Allegheny County talked to junior and senior automotive students at Beattie Career & Technology in the North Hills about connected vehicles, ride hailing, autonomous vehicles and how that will impact the economy, jobs and career opportunities as they decide what to do after high school.
September 27, 2018 - Mobility21 UTC Faculty Attend PennDOT Symposium - September 27, 2018 Eight Mobility21 National UTC faculty and two students presented research at the 2018 Research Symposium Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Pennsylvania Divisional Office of the Federal Highway Administration.
September 27, 2018 - 2018 Summer RISS Scholar Presents at Tapia Conference - September 2018 Hameed Abdul, Traffic21\'s 2018 Summer RISS Scholar, presented his University of Southern Mississippi research at Tapia: Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference (http://tapiaconference.org/) this September 2018. While there he was also able to meet with CMU participants and share his very positive experience at CMU.
September 26, 2018 - Viswanathan and Team Pitch Electric Vehicle Charger Solution at Global Mobility Hackathon - September 26, 2018 On September 6, a team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers led by Venkat Viswanathan, energy fellow at the Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation and Mobility21 UTC researcher at Carnegie Mellon, in collaboration with Ather Energy, was a finalist in the MOVE: Global Mobility Summit’s Hackathon. The hackathon provides a platform for participants to generate innovative ideas and solutions on issues concerning topics such as commuter mobility, freight, charging infrastructure design and alternative energy. The CMU team, which was one of 30 teams from around the world, presented its solution for efficient charging infrastructure design in New Delhi, India. The team\'s approach, Infrastructure Networks for Charging EVs through Physics-based Transient Systems (INCEPTS), addressed key challenges limiting the wide-spread penetration of electrifying urban modality. The team developed a model to map out charging points and battery swapping stations for electric vehicles (EVs) depending on factors such as traffic, most used routes, time taken, route-wise peak times and range anxiety, vehicle charging patterns, malls, parking areas and conventional fuel stations. \"Many challenges emerged in order to make this model realistic such as effects of weather, user behavior and penetration rates of two vs. three vs. four-wheeler vehicles. Leveraging our supercomputing cluster, we were able to explroe all of these cases in a timely manner by running a massive number of scenarios in parallel on the cluster,\" said Viswanathan, assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at CMU. This approach is in contrast to current, simpler solutions for the problem. \"Several charging infrastructure design algorithms implement \'based on distance limits\' to the closest charging station, but what becomes extremely important in dense cities is to spatially vary the scale of charging infrastructure set up to adequately cater to several areas where the charging power demand is extremely high relative to the average,\" said Dilip Krishnamurthy, a Ph.D. candidate in Mechanical Engineering and member of the INCEPTS team. By combining the same smart routing as most robotic navigation systems with the team\'s vehicle dynamics model and traffic flow data, the researchers were able to accurately simulate the depletion of a vehicle’s battery during operation and determine which of the possible charger locations it should visit. \"We were able to combine this with our previously validated battery models to ensure that battery\'s state-of-change and state-of-health can be tracked accurately as a function of different operating conditions, like weather, traffic flow or driving behavior,\" said Shashank Sripad, another team member and Mechanical Engineering Ph.D. student. Mechanical Engineering PhD Candidate Matt Guttenberg is also a part of the INCEPTS project. The result of the team\'s hard work was a high-resolution map of where the optimal charging locations are, how much demand they are expected to see and how that demand changes with seasons. The team collaborated with Ather Energy, an electric vehicle company based in India, to adapt the solution to the Indian context. \"In India, where the electric vehicle market is still nascent, there are some challenges before the hockey stick growth can start,” said Nishant, senior manager of Charging Infrastructure for Ather Energy. “One of the biggest such challenges, is setting up a cost-effective charging infrastructure network to support the EV ecosystem. Modeling for a future market, which is dependent on many variables like traffic, weather, road density, vehicular density, etc., is the challenge for which Ather and CMU came together.\" Although the INCEPTS team did not win the grand prize, Viswanathan says, “We received an exceptional amount of positive feedback about our approach and numerous new collaboration opportunities have emerged. We hope to take this analysis forward and apply it to other cities and other vehicle types like trucks.\" By Amanda King and Lisa Kay Schweyer LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT
September 25, 2018 - Metro21: Smart Cities Institute Hosts Lunch and Learn - September 25, 2018 Metro21: Smart Cities Institute, a sister organization here at CMU, hosted their first Lunch and Learn of the Fall Academic Year. Liz Monk from the Western Pennsylvania Regional Data Center came to Heinz College to talk Open Data.
September 25, 2018 - Mobility21 at American Public Transportation Association - September 25, 2018 Lisa Kay Schweyer, Program Manager for Mobility21 attended the 2018 national American Public Transportation Association meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. She participated in several sessions and shared information about the Mobility21 University Transportation Center with fellow attendees.
September 24, 2018 - Jung-Hyun Kim from OSU Receives $2.5M from DOE - September 24, 2018 Jung-Hyun Kim, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Ohio State receives U.S. Department of Energy award for work in advanced vehicle technologies. Read the full article
September 21, 2018 - Mobility21 Director, Raj Rajkumar, Keynote Speaker at The Flagstaff Festival of Science - September 21, 2018 Mobility21 Director, Raj Rajkumar, was the keynote speaker at The Flagstaff Festival of Science. The Flagstaff Festival of Science serves to connect and inspire the citizens of Northern Arizona, particularly youth, with the wonders of science and the joy of scientific discovery. Learn more about the event here.
September 21, 2018 - Smart Mobility Connection: Can Ridesharing help the Disadvantaged Get Moving? - September 21, 2018 The Smart Mobility Connection Series continued with an exciting presentation from Lee Branstetter, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Branstetter\'s seminar \"Can Ridesharing help the Disadvantaged Get Moving\" proved to be an exciting topic as we became standing room only and ran out time before Branstetter could answer all the questions. Watch the full seminar
September 21, 2018 - Director of Mobility21 Quoted in Axios - September 21, 2018 Raj Rajkumar, Director of Mobility21 is quoted in Axios: \"Driving is the most complex activity that most adults engage in on a regular basis, just because we do it doesn\'t mean we can teach computers to easily do it. It will be many more years for full automation.\" Read the full article “A car that’s better without a driver”
September 18, 2018 - Register Now! Moving America Forward: Next Generation of Truck Freight Transport Summit - September 2018 The Mobility21 Center, in partnership with the PRECISE Center, at the Engineering School of the University of Pennsylvania will be hosting a two-day event entitled “Moving America Forward: Next Generation of Truck Freight Transport Summit.” The keynote speakers for the summit will be Raymond P. Martinez, administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and Leslie Richards, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The event will be held on October 24-25, 2018 at the Singh Center for Nanotechnology, University of Pennsylvania. More details about the event can be found on PRECISE\'s website
September 17, 2018 - Mobility21 Exec. Director Attends the ITS World Congress - September 17, 2018 Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell was a delegate the 2018 Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress in Copenhagen Denmark where he was joined by ITS experts from academia, government and industry from around the world.
September 15, 2018 - Mobility21 Director, Raj Rajkumar, joins Panel at University of Virginia - September 15, 2018 Mobility21 Director, Raj Rajkumar attended the International Workshop on Next-Generation Cyber-Physical Systems at the University of Virginia. He participated on a Panel Discussion: Future of Cyber-Physical Systems with - Chenyang Lu (moderator), Tarek Abdelzaher, Chris Gill and Al Mok. Learn more about the event here.
September 14, 2018 - UTC Researcher, Christoph Mertz, Traveled to Asia Development Bank - September 12 - 14, 2018 UTC Researcher Christoph Mertz, traveled to The Asia Development Bank Transport Forum 2018 in Manila, Philippines. He was part of a plenary session on autonomous vehicles and \'trying to replace the human drive\'. See the full agenda. To hear Christoph\'s prediction of the future, watch his presentation here.
September 14, 2018 - Mobility21 Director, Raj Rajkumar Moderates Panel at Intersect@CMU - September 14, 2018 Mobility21 Director, Raj Rajkumar, moderated a panel on the Intersection of Tech & Business: Smart Home, Smart Car and Smart City at Intersect@CMU during the Tepper Quad Grand Opening, featuring Secretary Anthony Foxx, Homaira Akbari, Brian Olsavsky & Jay Apt.
September 13, 2018 - Mobility21 Director on Panel at Value of Data Bloomberg Conference - September 13, 2018 Mobility21 Director, Raj Rajkumar attended the Value of Data: How Emerging Technologies are Redefining our Future Bloomberg Conference in New York, New York. He was on a panel titled \"Driverless Cars Run on Data Not Gasoline.\" Watch the full video of the panel See the full agenda
September 13, 2018 - You Know You Can Do That in R, Right? - September 13, 2018 PTC invited Addison Larson, a Planning Data Scientist at the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), to talk about using data to inform governmental decision-making. The exciting talk was focused on DVRPC\'s upcoming Regional Transit Priority Setting web tool and its coding-intensive development process, followed by a lively discussion on the challenges and benefits of data-driven decision-making in regional planning.
September 13, 2018 - UTC Researcher Erick Guerra in the news - September 13, 2018 UTC Researcher Erick Guerra has published several articles and featured in the press. Click here for the list of articles. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967070X17305930 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692318300929 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3156835 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14649357.2017.1416776?journalCode=rptp20 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925753517308937 http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/bike-lanes-philadelphia- https://whyy.org/episodes/making-philly-safer-for-cyclists/ https://islandpress.org/blog/podcast-beyond-mobility https://whyy.org/episodes/hands-off-self-driving-future/
September 12, 2018 - CMU Graduate Students demonstrate IoT applications for novel transportation signage called Zone Crew - October 9, 2018 CMU MISM graduate students demonstrate IoT applications for novel transportation signage called Zone Crew. Connectivity features are designed to increase safety and awareness for Work Zones, Special Events and Emergency Management.
September 12, 2018 - National Electric Drive Week’s Electric Lunch in Market Square (Pittsburgh) - September 12, 2018 Duquesne Light Company and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, with support from Pittsburgh Region Clean Cities, teamed up to celebrate National Drive Electric Week in downtown Pittsburgh. Traffic21 Institute\'s Program Manager, Lisa Kay Schweyer stopped by the Market Square Electric Lunch today to check out the electric cars, busses, scooters and bicycles.
September 11, 2018 - Congressman Bill Shuster and State Senator Guy Reschenthaler visited Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center - September 10, 2018 Congressman Bill Shuster, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and State Senator Guy Reschenthaler visited Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Engineering Center for a tour and round table discussion with representatives from local autonomous and connected vehicle companies. Mobility21 UTC faculty member Chris Hendrickson moderated the discussion and Mobility21 UTC faculty member Steve Smith represented his spin off company Rapid Flow Technologies. Also participating was Raodbotics, another UTC spin off company.
September 11, 2018 - UTC Researcher Fei Fang in the Qatar Tribune - September 11, 2018 UTC Researcher Fei Fang is quoted in the Qatar Tribune\'s article today titled \"AI Helps Humans Bring Poachers To Justice.\" Click here to link to the article: http://www.qatar-tribune.com/news-details/id/138612.
September 11, 2018 - Mobility21 Faculty Awarded 2.5 Million in Combined Funding from the DOE - To continue to improve energy efficiency and increase mobility intelligence, Sean Qian and Costa Samaras were awarded over $2.5 million in combined funding from the Department of Energy. This funding will be used to advance Sean Qian’s project in understanding and improving energy efficiency of regional mobility systems leveraging system-level data and Costa Samaras’ project on drones, delivery robots, driverless cars, and intelligent curbs for increasing energy productivity of first/last mile goods movement.
September 11, 2018 - UTC Faculty Meeting - September 11, 2018 The Mobility21 University Transportation Center held their first Faculty Meeting of the Fall 2018 Academic Year. After introductions, news and updates, we heard from Reed McManigle, senior Manager for the CMU\'s Center for Technology Transfer who discussed resources for start-ups and tech transfers.
September 11, 2018 - ITS PA MASITE Conference Highlights UTC Researchers and Students - September 9 – 11, 2018 The 2018 Annual Conference of ITS PA and MASITE was held in Pittsburgh, PA from September 9 - 11. Over 230 ITS professionals attended the 3 day event. The conference agenda included twelve sessions on various intelligent transportation topics. Several UTC researchers, staff and students were featured during the conference: Dr. Steve Smith spoke on smart infrastructure for future urban mobility and innovative real-time traffic controls. He discussed how real-time traffic signal control presents a difficult challenge in urban road networks where (unlike simpler arterial settings) there are competing dominant traffic flows that shift through the day. And that further complicating matters, urban environments require attention to multi-modal traffic flows (vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, buses) that move at different speeds and may be given different priorities. He shared recent research that has produced an innovative new technology that uniquely addresses these challenges, by taking a fresh perspective and combining principles from artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems, and traffic theory. The initial deployment of this technology, called Surtrac, in the Pittsburgh East End produced significant performance improvements and the technology is now being installed in other US cities. Dr. Smith explained that starting from this technology backbone, a broader future vision of smart transportation infrastructure where, as vehicles become more connected and more autonomous, the intersection increasingly becomes the gateway to real-time traffic information and navigation intelligence. He explained that the current technology development efforts centering on additional use of direct vehicle- (and pedestrian-) to-infrastructure communication to further enhance mobility, on online analysis of traffic flow information for real-time incident detection, and on integrated optimization of signal control and route choice decisions are summarized. Dr. John Paul Shen and Abhinav Jauhri spoke on synthetic data generation for modeling human mobility in urban areas. In their work, they demonstrate a novel technique to generate synthetic data sets of human mobility patterns for a number of large cities in the world. The explained that the availability of large datasets has been a long-standing challenge for the research community. Human mobility patterns are highly dynamic, for meaningful and reproducible research results the availability of representative datasets is essential. Their work highlights methods to extract spatial and temporal properties which help characterize each city\'s human mobility patterns. Such properties can be used to validate similarity between synthetic and real human mobility datasets. To capture human mobility, they specifically target at generating datasets similar to those accessible to ride-sharing services which have become ubiquitous in major cities in the world. They explained that there are multiple motivations for generating such synthetic datasets. First, it demonstrates a non-trivial application of recent advances in Al techniques. Second, to generate synthetic dataset can be used in various what-if scenarios by civic authorities and researchers to provide insights on future patterns of urban mobility and traffic congestion to help advance planning by civic authorities. Researchers that do not have access to large real datasets can now use the synthetic datasets as benchmarks for research on traffic congestion, pre-placement of vehicles, passenger pooling and many others. Lisa Kay Schweyer and Joohyun (Sarah) Cho provided the Carnegie Mellon University\'s Traffic21 Institute rapid-fire research overview. Lisa Kay provided an overview of Traffic21 Institute, explaining it is a multi-disciplinary research institute of Carnegie Mellon University and its goal is to design, test, deploy and evaluate information and communications technology based solutions to address the real-world problems facing the transportation system of the Pittsburgh region and the nation and that the Pittsburgh region serves as a \"learning lab,\" deploying solutions that can be applied around the nation and the globe. She further explained that Traffic21 accomplishes 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. Sarah then provided a rapid-fire overview of some of the Traffic21 research currently being conducted and the new technologies being developed. In addition, the University Transportation Center sponsored 7 students so they could attend the conference and learn from the conference presentations.
September 10, 2018 - Teresa Leatherow, Traffic21 Institute’s Elsie Hillman Honors Scholar attended the Pittsburgh Department of Mobility and Infrastructure meeting - September 10, 2018 Teresa Leatherow, Traffic21 Institute\'s Elsie Hillman Honors Scholar attended the Pittsburgh Department of Mobility and Infrastructure meeting. The meeting included a presentation by guest speaker Jeff Tumlin on \"Arriving at Mobility Solutions\" covering a wide range of important topics about the ways Pittsburgers get around including: changing land use, new mobility options, parking, and more.
September 7, 2018 - Elsie Hillman Honors Scholar Nominated for The Greater Pittsburgh Athena Young Professional Award - September 7, 2018 The Mobility21 Elsie Hillman Honors Scholar, Teresa Leatherow, has been nominated for The Greater Pittsburgh Athena Young Professional Award. The award recognizes exceptional women who demonstrate excellence in their profession, contribute to their community and help other women to succeed through mentorship. She’s also the youngest nominee! Read about all our student leaders.
September 7, 2018 - The First Smart Mobility Connection of Fall 2018 - September 7, 2018 We kicked off the Fall 2018 Smart Mobility Connection Series with Stefani Danes, Adjunct Professor of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University, and her two students. Together they presented their work on connecting Millvale to the River. They discussed the question: is it better to go through, over or under route 28 - and how to do it. Check out the Presentation: Millvale Mobility Watch the Seminar
September 6, 2018 - DASH Car on Display in Detroit - September 6, 2018 The DASH, Ohio State’s autonomous vehicle was on display at the 11th Schaeffler Symposium in Detroit, Michigan. This event highlighted new and innovative mobility solutions!
September 6, 2018 - 2018 Women in Transportation Fellow Named Who’s Next: Transit - September 4, 2018 The Incline Published their list \"Who’s Next: Transit; Meet 17 Pittsburghers helping you get around\" and our 2018 Women in Transportation Fellow, Ngani Ndimbie made the list. Ngani says she \"dreams of a Pittsburgh where there is no relationship between personal car ownership and quality of life.
August 31, 2018 - CMU UTC Director and faculty participated in roundtable discussion with US Congressman Keith Rothfus (PA-12) and US Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy Derek Kan - August 31, 2018 Mobility 21 National UTC Director Raj Rajkumar and other CMU faculty including Martial Hebert and Phil Koopman participated in a roundtable discussion in Pittsburgh with US Congressman Keith Rothfus (PA-12) and US Under Secretary of Transportation for Policy Derek Kan. Pittsburgh Law Firm Babst Calland hosted the roundtable for the Congressman and Under Secretary to discuss autonomous vehicles and drones with leading manufacturers, technology companies, and universities.
August 28, 2018 - UTC Impacts Pittsburgh Wayfinding Sign Design - August 28, 2018 The City of Pittsburgh\'s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure has been working with the North Side, North Shore, Downtown Pittsburgh, and Oakland communities to develop a pedestrian wayfinding system. Today a public meeting was held to display the final design. Mobility21 Program Manager, Lisa Kay Schweyer stopped by and got a picture with the proposed signage. Mobility21 researcher Don Carter and Executive Director, Stan Caldwell have been involved in the design process which led to this final design.
August 23, 2018 - UTC Faculty Present their Research to the City of Pittsburgh - August 23, 2018 UTC Researchers Christoph Mertz and Sean Qian presented their research to the City of Pittsburgh today, including Mayor Bill Peduto and Director of Mobility and Infrastructure, Karina Ricks. The meeting was to discuss potential collaboration for improving paving and asphalt efforts in the city.
August 15, 2018 - AASHTO Committee on Construction Meeting Tours NavLab - August 15, 2018 The AASHTO Committee on Construction Meeting was held in Pittsburgh this year and attendees were able to tour CMU\'s NavLab. The tour included presentations from Christoph Mertz of CMU\'s Robotic\'s Institute and Mobility21 Director, Raj Rajkumar. Attendees were from different DOT\'s from around the country, who were eager to talk AV, policy and have a seat in the autonomous vehicles in the NavLab.
August 14, 2018 - UTC Researcher Maxine Eskenazi Publishes New Book and Wins Best Paper Award - August 14, 2018 UTC Researcher Maxine Eskenazi, along with Laurence Devillers and Joseph Mariani recently published a new book called “Advanced Social Interaction with Agents.” She also published a paper called “Zero-Shot Dialog Generation with Cross-Domain Latent Actions” with Tiancheng Zhao that won best paper award from SigDIAL.
August 8, 2018 - Claire Bornzer, Legislative Assistant for Congressman Mike Doyle Visits CMU - August 8, 2018 Claire Bornzer, legislative assistant for Congressman Mike Doyle visited CMU\'s Pittsburgh campus today, which included an overview of the Traffic21 Institute and the Mobility21 University Transportation Center, and a tour of the NavLab. Pictured (L - R): Christoph Mertz, CMU Principal Project Scientist, Claire Bornzer, Cody Januszko, CMU Scott Institute, Chris Hendrickson, CMU Director of Traffic21, and Debbie Tekavec, CMU Director of Federal Relations.
August 8, 2018 - Traffic21’s Robotics Institute Summer Scholars (RISS) participant, Hameed Abdul, Graduates - August 8, 2018 Hameed completed the Robotics Institute Summer Scholars Program today. During the program he worked with UTC researcher, Christoph Mertz on \"An End-to-End Framework for Landslide Erosion Analysis.\" He shared that the experience made him rethink his future plans and found it transformative. Hameed will be returning to the University of Southern Mississippi for his final year of undergraduate studies.
August 7, 2018 - UTC Spin-off, Roadbotics Uses Their Technology to Improve the Roads of Montgomery, Alabama - August 6, 2018 UTC Spin-off company, Roadbotics, has partnered with Montgomery, Alabamda to analyze 200 miles of roads and improve upon their binary system of road rating. City officials are eager to use the new technology to decide what roads need to be repaired. Director of Public Works in Montgomery said that Roadbotics was cheaper then sending out workers and that it would take subjectivity out of deciding paving needs. Full article
August 6, 2018 - Chris Hendrickson gave keynote at the University Transportation Center for Advance Multimodal Mobility Solutions and Education Research Symposium - August 6, 2018 Chris Hendrickson, Director of Traffic21 Institute, gave a keynote presentation at the University Transportation Center for Advance Multimodal Mobility Solutions and Education Research Symposium today in Charlotte, NC. His talk was titled \'Transition to Connected and Automated Vehicles.\' He also served as a judge for the student poster competition. Pictured are Hendrickson and some of the symposium participants.
August 1, 2018 - Dan Klinedinst was a Panelists at ITS America Forum on Cyber Security Risk and the Future of Mobility - August 1, 2018 Dan Klinedinst of Carnegie Mellon University was a panelists at ITS America Forum on Cyber Security Risk and the Future of Mobility in Denver, Colorado. Dan was on \'The Cyber Industry\' panel where the panelists discussed resources available to address cybersecurity challenges, how do you attract, cybersecurity talent, and building a cybersecurity workforce.
July 31, 2018 - Mobility21 Faculty Discusses UTC Technology and Policy Research with Norfolk Southern - July 31, 2018 Mobility21 faculty members Raj Rajkumar, Chris Hendrickson and Stan Caldwell participated in a visit to Carnegie Mellon University by corporate leadership from Norfolk Southern. The group discussed Mobility21 UTC technology and policy research, issues concerning the railroad industry, and potential opportunities for collaboration.
July 30, 2018 - Traffic21 Program Manager and Vanpool Council Chair for the Association for Commuter Transportation, led the Vanpool Council meeting at the organization’s international conference - July 30, 2018 Today Traffic21 Program Manager and chair of the Vanpool Council for the Association for Commuter Transportation, Lisa Kay Schweyer, led the Vanpool Council meeting at the organization\'s international conference in California. The Vanpool Council addresses and shares information related to vanpools, vanpool programs, public-private partnerships for delivery of vanpool services, contracting, program management, customer services, and promotional issues.
July 26, 2018 - AARP Webinar: AVs in Pittsburgh - July 26, 2018 Traffic21/Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell was an expert panelist for a webinar meeting of the National AARP Autonomous Vehicle Work Group. Other panelists were Karina Rick, Director of Mobility and Infrastructure and Sarah Papperman Program Coordinator for the In Service of Seniors and co-leader of the Age-Friendly Greater Pittsburgh Transportation Working Group. Panelist provided insight and advice on how AARP can educate and activate their members around AV issues.
July 24, 2018 - PennDOT Issues Guidance for Increased Safety Oversight of Highly Automated Vehicles - July 24, 2018 PennDOT Issues Guidance for Increased Safety Oversight of Highly Automated Vehicles. Raj Rajkumar, Director of CMU’s Mobility21 National University Transportation Center and Stan Caldwell, Executive Director, Traffic21 Institute and Mobility21 and T-SET National University Transportation Centers serve on the PennDOT Automated Vehicle Policy Task Force and participated in deliberation and provided feedback for the development of this policy. Read the press release about the new guidance here.
July 24, 2018 - The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Learns about Traffic Deployment in Pittsburgh - July 24, 2018 The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce visited Pittsburgh for their City to City initiative. They met with Stan Caldwell, Executive Director of Traffic21 and Alex Pazuchanics, Assistant Director of the City of Pittsburgh\'s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure to learn about Mobility21\'s transportation deployments in Pittsburgh.
July 23, 2018 - Mobility21 Student Section Live on our Website - July 23, 2018 We have introduced a new Student Section right here on the Mobility21 website. Here you can learn about opportunities for student involvement, read about our past and current student leadership and learn about ongoing student projects. You will also be able to hear about Mobility21 events and explore coursework at CMU that relates to our work.
July 23, 2018 - Exec Director, Stan Caldwell presented Traffic21 Tech Projects to Save Energy to US Representatives - July 23, 2018 Traffic21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell spoke in front of The Alliance to Save Energy\'s 50x50 Commission, including several U.S. Representatives, about Traffic21\'s tech projects to save energy. Stan was joined by Traffic21 researcher, Costa Samaras who discussed “Energy, Sustainability and Climate Impacts of the Transition to Autonomous Vehicles.”
July 18, 2018 - ASCE International Conference on Transportation and Development Tours NavLab - July 18, 2018 The ASCE International Conference on Transportation and Development was in Pittsburgh from July 15 - July 18. A technical tour was offered to visit (1) an intersection equipped with a Surtrac Adaptive Traffic Signal Controller with Research Professor, Steve Smith and (2) the CMU NavLab to view and hear a short presentation on two autonomous vehicles and a video roadway infrastructure inspection system from Executive Director, Stan Caldwell and Principal Project Scientist, Christoph Mertz.
July 18, 2018 - Carnegie Mellon University Students and Researchers make an impact at the International ASCE Conference in Pittsburgh - July 15 - July 18 Two University Transportation Center projects were presented at the ASCE Conference by CMU PhD Students, Xidong Pi and Matthew Battifarano. CMU Undergrad and Vice President of the CMU ASCE Chapter, Sharika Hedge, participated in the Three Minute Pitch competition for younger members where she presented her research on real-time vehicle to vehicle transactions. The winner of the competition was CMU PhD student, Jacob Ward.
July 18, 2018 - Update on Traffic21’s Robotics Institute Summer Scholars (RISS) participant, Hameed Abdul - July 18, 2018 Traffic21’s RISS participant, Hameed Abdul is now about half way through the scholar\'s program. He describes his experience thus far as “broadening.” Hameed reports that he has “visited labs, discussed thoroughly [his] research ideas with [his] mentor and grad students, had the opportunity to do outreach, worked on an abstract, and attend a research-focused conference.” In addition, yesterday, Hameed was a speaker at the AI for All, where he presented his research to high school students.
July 17, 2018 - Stan Caldwell Testifies at Act 89 transportation funding at hearing in Monroeville - On Tuesday July 17, Stan Caldwell, Executive Director of the Traffic21 Institute and the Mobility21 UTC, testified at a hearing of the Pennsylvania Senate Transportation Committee on Act 89, a 2013 transportation bill that generates 2.3 billion per year for infrastructure improvements. This field hearing was held in Monroeville to review the work done in Southwestern PA and Allegheny County because of Act 89, and to consider future needs. Professor Caldwell spoke about the current benefits from Act 89 including how the funding allowed collaboration between researchers, industry, the City of Pittsburgh and the Port Authority of Allegheny County on new technologies and impacts on mobility. Stan highlighted the fact that due to Act 89 funding stabilizing budgets, state and local agencies have been able to begin planning for the opportunities and impacts of disruptive new technologies on transportation safety, mobility and workforce. The Traffic21 and UTC researchers were able to work with the City of Pittsburgh on deploying the world’s smartest traffic signals, help PennDOT plan for autonomous vehicles, and partner with the Port Authority of Allegheny County on connected vehicle research and data analytics to improve service. Furthermore, these technologies have created spinoff companies that are creating good paying jobs here in southwestern Pennsylvania. After testifying, Stan was asked by the committee about broadband infrastructure outside of the city and if that hinders the ability for autonomous vehicles to expand. Stan explained that past infrastructure investments were made for both transportation and economic development interests. These include port, canals, railroads, streets, highways and airports. The next critical transportation infrastructure investment will on need to focus on information and communication technology and that the investments and technology rollouts should be equitably distributed. Here is a link the video testimony, a link to the written testimony and below are the recommendation provided. Recommendations: Maintain a high quality of existing roadways and provide real-time information on road closures. Support the development of information and communications technology infrastructure to enable safety and mobility applications as well as economic development. Invest in research and test beds to develop next generation technology, evaluate emerging disruptive technology and recommend policy. Assist local government in technology investment and policy development. Encourage and promote the emerging transportation technology industry in Pennsylvania. Develop policy to mitigate the risks and unintended societal consequence.
July 16, 2018 - Director of the Traffic21 Institute, Prof. Chris Henrickson speaks at the ASCE International Conference - July 16, 2018 Pittsburgh hosted the American Society of Civil Engineers\' International Conference on Transportation & Development 2018. Pictured is Prof. Chris Hendrickson, Director of the Traffic21 Institute, speaking from the plenary podium.
July 16, 2018 - Mobility21 Diversity Fellow Allanté Whitmore presented at the ASCE International Conference - July 16, 2018 Mobility21 Diversity Fellow Allanté Whitmore presentated at the ASCE International Conference on Transportation & Infrastructure. She spoke on robocars, ethics, & infrastructure.
July 15, 2018 - Mobility21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell Presents Examples of UTC Tech Transfer at ASCE Conference - July 15, 2018 Stan Caldwell, Executive Director of Mobility21, participated in a panel where he presented examples of Mobility21 UTC Technology Transfer. This Pre-Conference Workshop: University Transportation Center (UTC) Technology Transfer was part of the ASCE International Conference on Transportation and Development in Pittsburgh. Also participating on the panel were Kevin Womack and Amy Sterns from the US DOT UTC Program and fellow UTC representatives; Larry Rilett from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln Atorod Azizinamini from Florida International University and David Noyce from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.
July 10, 2018 - Mobility21 Diversity Fellow Participates in Poster Session at the Automated Vehicle Symposium - July 10, 2018 Mobility21 Diversity Fellow Allanté Whitmore attended the Automated Vehicle Symposium in San Francisco. She participated in one of the poster sessions, sharing her recent work on AV ethics.
June 27, 2018 - UTC Researchers were featured speakers at the Accessible Transportation Symposium - June 26, 2018 UTC Researchers Steve Smith and Aaron Steinfield were featured speakers at the Accessible Transportation Symposium. Over 80 people attended the event. The event was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Community Living, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research.
June 27, 2018 - Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell participated in the Federal Highway Administration’s National Dialogue on Highway Automation - June 26 & 27, 2018 Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell participated in the Federal Highway Administration’s National Dialogue on Highway Automation to provide input from the University Transportation Center perspective and share both technology and policy research on vehicle automation. This two day workshop in Philadelphia focused on Planning and Policy is was the first of five national. Read a complete summary of the two-day symposium here.
June 26, 2018 - Traffic21 Presentation to the Allegheny County’s Green Action Team - June 26, 2018 Traffic21 Program Manager, Lisa Kay Schweyer shared the history of Traffic21 and the University Transportation Centers (T-SET and Mobility21). She also provided an overview of the research, the way research involves and is shared with the public, and how green action team members could learn more.
June 22, 2018 - American Society of Civil Engineers Magazine Features UTC Researcher Sean Qian - The June 2018 edition of the Civil Engineering magazine of the American Society of Civil Engineers includes an article featuring UTC researcher Sean Qian discussing CMU’s traffic engineering and intelligent transportation systems interdisciplinary course. He shares details course objectives and how students are engaged in learning.
June 20, 2018 - UTC Faculty, Rahul Mangharam joins Panel as Moderator at SAE Symposium - June 20, 2018 Rahul Mangharam, UTC Faculty, Associate Professor, Electrical & Systems Engineering, Univ. of Pennsylvania moderated a panel on Evaluation of insurance and liability issues across the ADAS spectrum at the SAE Automated and Connected Vehicle Systems Testing Symposium. Included on the panel was Philip Koopman, Associate professor in the Department of ECE at CMU.
June 19, 2018 - Keep On Truckin’ - Logistics company C.H. Robinson tapped Carnegie Mellon students to develop a model that predicts event-related transportation delays. C.H. Robinson wanted to know if it was possible to predict — and more importantly, plan for — such delays. The company turned to CMU’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences for help. Read more here: https://www.cmu.edu/engage/about-us/news/partner/chrobinson.html.
June 15, 2018 - Raj Rajkumar and Stan Caldwell Join Autonomous Vehicle Policy Task Force Meeting - June 15, 2018 Mobility21 National UTC Director, Raj Rajkumar and Traffic21/Mobility21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell attended the Pennsylvania Autonomous Vehicle Policy Task Force. The task force is compromised of Commonwealth Reps, Stakeholders, PennDot and Legislative support. Following several meetings, PennDot has issued guidance to enhance safety oversight of Highly Automated Vehicles in Pennsylvania.
June 15, 2018 - CTAA Expo Attends Connected Vehicle and Robotics Tour at Carnegie Mellon University - June 14, 2018 CMU hosted participants of the CTAA Expo for a two-part tour of an intersection equipped with Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) followed by a tour of National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC). Participants expressed their excitement to take the information and technology back to their home cities to help improve traffic and mobility.
June 12, 2018 - Traffic21/Mobility21 Exec. Director, Stan Caldwell, Attends SPC Resource Panel - June 12, 2018 The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission is the regional planning agency serving the 10-county Southwestern Pennsylvania region. They held a Forces of Change Expert Resource Panel in Pittsburgh. Stan Caldwell joined to represent Traffic21\'s research and initiatives.
June 12, 2018 - CMU Student’s Report on The Future of Work: Truckers on the Road to Automation - The Future of Work Systems Synthesis graduate capstone class team, composed of five Carnegie Mellon University students, partnered with the Aspen Institute Future of Work Initiative to explore potential impacts to long-haul truckers and policy responses to automation in the trucking industry. The team set out to answer two primary questions: How might highly automated commercial vehicles disrupt the trucking workforce and long-haul trucking industry? How are states and state trucking advocacy groups responding to this potential disruption? The next steps, concluded in the thesis, was that policy makers need to systematically manage the future of work for long-haul truckers through data collection. The data might include the exit and entry of drivers in the workforce, rate of displacement from automation and tracking new jobs created by automation. Data could also be collected on the drivers themselves, such as who leaves the industry and where they go. The team concluded that regulators and policymakers need to focus in the short-term on understanding how autonomous technology will be used in the long-haul trucking industry. This will aid policymakers in being empowered and informed when developing policy on how autonomous technology will be used in the long-haul trucking industry, including performance, safety and workforce issues. Read the full reports below: Future of Work: Truckers on the Road to Automation Prediction Future of Work - Truckers on the Road to Automation
June 8, 2018 - Mobility21 Executive Director, Stan Caldwell Moderated Roundtable Discussion at Heinz College Summer Leadership Symposium - June 8, 2018 Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell facilitated a roundtable discussion on the workforce implication of autonomous vehicle technology for the CMU Heinz College 2018 Summer Leadership Symposium for mid-career professionals in the MSIT and Executive Education Programs.
June 5, 2018 - UTC researcher Maxine Eskenazi delivered a keynote speech at the Journees d’Etudes sur la Parole 2018 conference - June 5, 2018 Traffic21, UTC researcher Maxine Eskenazi delivered a keynote speech on Intelligent Agents on June 5th at the Journees d’Etudes sur la Parole 2018 conference in Aix en Provence, France. \"The speech and language Laboratory organizes this conference under the aegis and Scientific guaranty of the Francophone Association of spoken Communication.\"
June 5, 2018 - Metro21 Exec. Director, Karen Lightman, Presents for the 2018 TMA Summit - June 5, 2018 Metro21: Smart Cities Institute Executive Director, Karen Lightman, presented for the 2018 TMA Summit: Oakland Mobile Workshop at CMU organized by the Oakland Transportation Management Association (OTMA). The OTMA works to improve mobility, access and safety for commuters. Karen presented Metro21 projects that focus on making our cities smarter for people in the Oakland area.
June 5, 2018 - Stan Caldwell is a featured keynote panelist at Council of University Transportation Center’s conference - June 5, 2018 Stan Caldwell, the Executive Director for the CMU Traffic21 Institute and the T-SET and Mobility21 National University Transportation Centers, was a featured keynote panelist at this morning’s Council of University Transportation Center annual conference. His presentation highlighted ways Traffic21 conducts “Community and Publicly Engaged Research.”
May 31, 2018 - Traffic21 welcomes and is pleased to sponsor Hameed Abdul as part of this year’s CMU Robotics Institute Summer Scholars program - Traffic21 welcomes and is pleased to sponsor Hameed Abdul as part of this year’s CMU Robotics Institute Summer Scholars (RISS) program. Hameed is an undergraduate computer science student at the University of Southern Mississippi with an expected graduation date of December 2019. During his time at RISS, he hopes to further refine his ability to do research and communicate with his peers and non-researchers alike. He wants to fully immerse himself in the Robotics Institute environment and learn as much as possible because he feels the collaboration and work being done there is truly fascinating. His research interests include: Computer Vision Applications for Agriculture, Transportation and Resource Management (Pollution, Waste, etc.). During his time at RISS he will be working with Traffic21 researcher Dr. Christoph Mertz on Detecting and Predicting the degradation of City Infrastructure. After graduation, Hameed wishes to pursue his Master\'s in South Korea and conduct research on ways that Computer Vision and other forms of artificial intelligence can benefit densely populated societies.
May 30, 2018 - CMU Students Research “Automotive Transportation Experience for Visually Impaired Individuals” - May 2018 CMU students Sarah Papp and Ross Rybalov spent the spring 2018 semester researching Automotive Transportation Experience for Visually Impaired Individuals. The primary goal of this project was to increase personal agency and autonomy for persons with visual impairments through an improved transportation experience. They developed an in-car conversational interface to provide passengers with critical information and system controls to increase access and practicality for passengers with visual impairments. Learn more by viewing their final powerpoint presentation.
May 28, 2018 - UTC Faculty Published for work with Origin-Destination Demand Data - 2018 Sean Qian, Director of the Data Mobility Center and UTC Faculty, was published for his work with a CMU colleague for this research titled “Statistical inference of probabilistic origin-destination demand using day-to-day traffic data.” Read the full article.
May 25, 2018 - Traffic21 Presentation to the Allegheny County Green Team - May 24, 2018 The Allegheny County Green Team invited Traffic21 Program Manager, Lisa Kay Schweyer, to provide an overview of the Institute at their May 24th meeting. She shared the history of Traffic21, an overview of the research, the way information is shared, and how green team members could learn more.
May 24, 2018 - Mobility21 Researchers Costa Samaras and Raj Rajkumar consulted in national media for reactions of the NTSB Uber Crash Initial Report - May 24, 2018 Uber Self-Driving Car That Struck, Killed Pedestrian Wasn\'t Set to Stop in an Emergency The Wall Street Journal It is common for developers to disable built-in vehicle features such as automatic braking to avoid multiple systems issuing conflicting commands, said Raj Rajkumar, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who founded and later sold an autonomous-car software startup. Related coverage in The Washington Post, WIRED, San Francisco Chronicle, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Stuff, Independent Recorder, KJZZ News and Transport Topics
May 23, 2018 - CCAC is training technicians and shop owners on the benefits of propane powered vehicles - May 22, 2018 The Community College of Allegheny County held a training for technicians and shop owners on the benefits of propane powered vehicles. The session included discussion on finding technicians to do repairs and the competition among repair shops for mechanical talent. Bob Koch gave a brief talk regarding Vehicle to Vehicle, Vehicle to Infrastructure, intelligent transportation, and the need for training.
May 21, 2018 - Director of CMU’s Mobility21 National University Transportation Center Discusses Urban Modeling at the Modeling the World’s Systems Conference - May 21, 2018 The University of Pittsburgh celebrated their first year of the School of Computing and Information with a conference that focused on Modeling the World’s Systems. The goal of the conference was rational analysis and management of complicated system and an unusually diverse network of stakeholders. Prof. Raj Rajkumar, Director of CMU’s Mobility21 National University Transportation Center joined D. Tyler Gourley, Vice President, Hillman Family Foundations, Steve Smith, Director, CMU Intelligent Coordination and Logistics Laboratory and Christina Mair, University of Pittsburgh on the Modeling Urban Systems Panel Presentation.
May 17, 2018 - “RoadBotics” Receives ASCE’s Overall Greatest Impact Award - May 17, 2018 The CMU Robotics Institute spinoff, \"RoadBotics\" received the Overall Greatest Impact Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) annual Innovation Contest. RoadBotics also received awards in subcategories including Most Feasible in the Sustainable Engineering category and Most Feasible, Most Innovative and Best Value in the Internet of Things category. RoadBotics uses smartphone and artificial intelligence technology to monitor the condition of concrete and asphalt surfaces.
May 15, 2018 - Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell Moderated the ITS America Smart Cities/Smart State Roundtable - May 15, 2018 Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell Moderated the ITS America Smart Cities/Smart State Roundtable at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill. Stan introduced US DOT Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy Finch Fulton who provided opening remarks and then Stan moderated the a panel discussion on smart cities and smart states deployment activity with: • Cordell Schachter, Chief Technology Officer, New York City Department of Transportation • Wes Maurer, Director of Intelligent Transportation Systems, Colorado Department of Transportation • Steve Ingracia, Deputy Director for Technology and Strategic Planning, Nebraska Department of Transportation • Rebecca Hunter, External Affairs, Corporate Development & Strategy, Crown Castle
May 14, 2018 - UTC Researcher Aaron Seinfeld Shares His Expertise during the USDOT Webinar, Accessible Transportation Technologies Research Initiative Update - May 14, 2018 The USDOT hosted a free webinar to provide an update on the Accessible Transportation Technologies Research Initiative (ATTRI) and the DRRP on Robotics and Automation for Inclusive Transportation, funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) and led by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). The webinar allowed interested stakeholders to learn about some of the progress being made by ATTRI, and more specifically, hear directly from CMU about the successes and challenges of enabling robots and cloud-based autonomy to provide assistance to people in transportation hubs. Part of this effort is funded by the Traffic21 Institute. The first speaker was Mohammed Yousuf, the program manager for the ATTRI at the DOT. He emphasized the different layers and challenges faced by individuals with disabilities and transportation. He identified a deliberate approach is to understand the user needs first. The USDOT has used previous workshops to determine the key applications and building blocks of ATTRI including robotics and automation. The DRRP project is part of the Robotics and Automation building block within the ATTRI program. The second speaker on the Webinar was Ken Wood, Program Specialist and Manager of NIDILRR, an agency that focuses heavily on technology and research of people with disabilities. NIDILRR supports the ATTRI program in several ways including the grant in Robotics and Automation. The primary site for the research is at CMU and some of the work is being done at the University of Washington. Through a cooperative agreement with NIDILRR, CMU is researching and developing seamless transportation assistance from cloud-based autonomy and shared robots located in and around transportation hubs in partnership with key industry, government, and consumer stakeholders. Some stakeholders include: the City of Pittsburgh, Port Authority of Allegheny, TARDEC and ARL, ACHIEVA, BVRS, Tiramisu Transit, and Sphero. Aaron Seinfeld, Associate Research Professor at CMU and an expert in accessible transportation and human-robot interaction was on the webinar to present a talk titled, “Transportation Hub Assistance and Assistive Robots for Blind Travelers.” One of the primary areas of research and deployment is transportation hubs and their ability to make (or break) an independent trip by a person with a disability. A primary issue with transportation hubs is that they are busy, complex, and inadequately prepared for people with disabilities. The DRRP is focused on using technology to support transportation hub use by people with disabilities. The research included areas such as recognizing travel routines, identifying opportunities for forward assistance, characterizing the pedestrian environment, and transportation hub assistance. The current plan for deployment will be cloud-based autonomy using AI with shared helper robots that live in the building. For example, a shared robot in a transportation hub could help a person who is blind get from point A to point B within a transit hub, then go help someone who does not speak the local language. This universal design approach will lead to a higher rate of utilization of the shared robot, thereby increasing value and minimizing cost. The team is aiming to publicly deploy technologies in Pittsburgh within 5 years. CMU is working with the City of Pittsburgh and Port Authority of Allegheny to find a good location for deployment. Expected impacts include open source software useful for a wide range of transportation applications, new ways of detecting and tracking routine behaviors, new knowledge on how technology should provide real-time assistance in transportation hubs, and ultimately a greater independence when moving through transportation hubs for everyone – especially people with disabilities.
May 7, 2018 - UTC researcher, Scott Matthews, presented twice during the Inspection and Maintenance Solutions conference - May 7, 2018 UTC researcher, Scott Matthews, presented twice during the Inspection and Maintenance Solutions conference. First he spoke on the analytics of vehicle trouble codes from emissions inspections as connected to whether the “Check Engine Light” was being illuminated. And secondly he reported results of a survey he had done of last year’s conference attendees in terms of their interest and willingness in the results of data-driven studies of inspection program performance that cross jurisdictional boundaries.
May 4, 2018 - Smart Mobility Connection: Dan Klinedinst - May 4, 2018 CMU Vulnerability Researcher Dan Klinedinst spoke as the last Smart Mobility Connection speaker of the semester on addressing cyber-security issues in intelligent transportation systems. The CERT researcher discussed how he gets to think like a bad guy to determine whether transportation systems are safe, and how he learned to text his car.
May 3, 2018 - UTC Funded Researchers Published in Frontiers in Built Environment - May 3, 2018 UTC Funded Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University were published in Frontiers in Built Environment for their research on indirect train traffic monitoring method to detect and infer real-time train events based on the vibration response of a nearby building. Read the full article here.
May 2, 2018 - Traffic21 Director Chris Hendrickson Speaks at the University of Massachusetts- Amherst - May 2, 2018 Traffic21 Director and CMU Civil and Environmental Engineering professor Chris Hendrickson spoke at the UMass-Amherst as the 2018 History and Heritage Lecturer. His presentation on the past and future of the U.S. Interstate Highway System focused on the planning challenges and engineering and financing standards and issues.
May 1, 2018 - Students in Methods of Policy Analysis Class shared their “Spatial Mismatch” Research - April 30, 2018 Undergraduate students Kenneth Wells, Jamie Slomka, Micah Rabin, Ben Kaplan, Mengjia Ren in Professor Branstetter\'s Methods of Policy Analysis Class shared their “Spatial Mismatch” Research (jobs versus disadvantaged employees/job seekers locations). For this project they received technical assistance from Ngani Ndimbie, Traffic21 Women in Transportation Fellow and Lisa Kay Schweyer, Traffic21 Program Manager.
April 30, 2018 - Traffic21 Fellow Ngani Ndimbie Assisting with City Bike Plan - April 30, 2018 Since March, Traffic21 Fellow Ngani Ndimbie has been interning with the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure to help complete Pittsburgh’s Bike Plan- a document for the public and other key stakeholders that explains the City’s goals for building out it’s bike network. This is the City’s first update since the 1999 bike plan.
April 26, 2018 - UTC Researchers Sean Qian and Scott Matthews mentioned in the CMU CEE News Magazine - April 26, 2018 Sean Qian and Scott Matthews mentioned in the Spring 2018 issue of the CMU CEE News Magazine. Sean for receiving the Greenshields Prize from the Transportation Research Board and Scott for receiving the Steven J. Fenves Award for Systems Research. Check out the article on page 17 of the magazine here.
April 25, 2018 - UTC Researcher Pires Featured in TRB Webinar - April 24, 2018 UTC faculty and researcher Bernardo R. Pires spoke on the Transportation Research Board\'s bi-monthly webinar series- Conversations with Colleagues, focused on bicycle and pedestrian monitoring and research. On this week\'s webinar, titled \"Collecting Bicycle and Pedestrian Data with Video: Methods and Issues,\" Pires spoke about data collection efforts underway at CMU to 60-70 webinar attendees.
April 25, 2018 - CMU Dean and T-SET/Mobility21 Director Present at WABTEC Global Leadership Summit - April 25, 2018 The Dean of the Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering, Jim Garrett, and the Director of the CMU T-SET National USDOT University Transportation Center for Safety, Mobility21, a USDOT National University Transportation Center for Mobility, Raj Rajkumar, were invited by Ray Betler, CEO of WABTEC, to speak at the WABTEC Global Leadership Summit on April 25. Raj gave the keynote presentation on \"Challenges and Opportunities in Rail Automation” to the more than 200 WABTEC executives from around the world.
April 24, 2018 - CCAC’s Bob Koch Speaks at UTC Faculty Meeting - April 24, 2018 Bob Koch, who leads Community College of Allegheny County\'s Automotive Technology Program, spoke at this months UTC faculty meeting about how to prepare technicians for autonomous technologies. Koch noted that with direction from advisory boards, community colleges will be perfectly positioned to educate entry level intelligent transportation technicians in many different career areas.
April 22, 2018 - Distinguished Speaker Series: Raj Kapoor of Lyft - April 19, 2018 Chief Strategy Officer of Lyft and Head of Business for Lyft’s self-driving division, Raj Kapoor, spoke to CMU students about the “Future of Transportation.” Kapoor discussed Lyft’s expectations and plans for the electric, self-driving, and shared future as well as the impact to cities and the auto industry.
April 19, 2018 - Incredible Impacts of the Mobility Data Analytics Center - The Mobility Data Analytics Center (MAC) began in 2013 with funding from the Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation (T-SET) National University Transportation Center (UTC) and continued with support from the Mobility21 National UTC. Director Dr. Zhen (Sean) Qian created the MAC with goals to achieve more efficient, resilient, safe, and environmentally-friendly mobility. Dr. Qian is an expert in intelligent transportation systems, Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering with a joint appointment to the Heinz College, and a T-SET/Mobility21 UTC researcher. For the last few years, MAC has used massive amounts of mobility data to develop and deploy smarter transportation systems. One of the many accomplishments of the MAC includes the development of a centralized data engine that takes an array of mobility data, including crowdsourced and real-time data, and translates it into useful information for policy makers, planners, traffic managers, engineers, and many others. This centralized data engine will help connect previously disparate agencies and municipalities by providing an integrated platform that gives cities, boroughs, and townships the ability to fully utilize the available data to make better planning decisions. [caption id=\"attachment_9350\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"] Figure 1: Dr. Sean Qian talks about goals of the MAC. (College of Engineering, CMU)[/caption] MAC is currently working with public and private deployment partners to conduct research and develop decision-making tools for better management of transportation systems, and to create products or services that improve travelers’ experience. Their research is helping the City of Philadelphia to predict the traffic impact of road closures and plan alternative routes to reduce congestion and emissions. It’s also helping the City of Pittsburgh to predict traffic impacts, and to make the city more ‘bikeable.’ In 2016, MAC created a network model on behalf of PennDOT to predict real-time traffic evolution for all highways and major arterials in the Philadelphia Metro area. Additionally, by optimizing the messages shown on dynamic message signs, MAC was also able to reroute and improve Philadelphia’s traffic flow. To improve bike infrastructure in Pittsburgh, the MAC is developing an optimization model that analyzes safety, traffic flow volume and speed, ride easiness, and bus coverage to determine ‘bikeability’ scores in Pittsburgh. The web application has been shared with the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure at the City of Pittsburgh, PennDOT, the Port Authority of Allegheny County, the Southwest Pennsylvania Commission, and Healthy Ride Pittsburgh. The resulting research has great potential to impact travelers’ daily transportation decisions, promoting cycling and ensuring greater safety for Pittsburgh cyclists, and changing long-term transportation planning. [caption id=\"attachment_9351\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"] Figure 2: Dr. Qian works with student researchers. (College of Engineering, CMU)[/caption] In March of 2016, the City of Pittsburgh was named a finalist in the U.S. DOT’s Smart City Challenge. MAC worked closely in support of this effort to help Pittsburgh bring the DOT’s Smart City vision to life. While Pittsburgh lost the challenge to our neighbors in Columbus, Ohio, CMU’s T-SET hosted its own Smart Mobility Challenge in 2017. Dr. Qian and MAC are assisting three of the local projects that won the challenge, including projects in Townships of Cranberry and Mt. Lebanon, and the Boroughs of Dormont, and McKees Rocks. This is not the first partnership between CMU and Cranberry Township, located at the junction of Interstate 79 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Cranberry has been a deployment partner since installing the region’s first set of Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) radios at the intersection of routes 19 and 228 in 2013. Located only 20 miles north of Downtown Pittsburgh in Butler County, Cranberry Township is home to 30,000, but the previously noted intersection supports 120,000 vehicles per day. Kelly Maurer, Project Coordinator for Cranberry’s Engineering and Environmental Services, and Marty McKinney, Manager of Cranberry Traffic Operations shared some of the daily traffic challenges faced by their township. When there’s a backup on the Turnpike or routes 19 or 228, drivers exit onto the local road systems; “the local roads can’t handle the additional load,” says Marty, “and Sean [Qian] is helping us to mitigate some of the issues that come with that.” This is particularly true when those traffic events are unexpected. [caption id=\"attachment_9347\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"186\"] Figure 4: Intersection of Rts 19 & 228. (Cranberry Township)[/caption] [caption id=\"attachment_9348\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"117\"] Figure 3: Central Based Control System. (Cranberry Township)[/caption] Dr. Qian is using crowdsourced data to support the Township’s Coordinated Traffic Signal System. Using social media, real-time and historical traffic information from INRIX, the Coordinate Signal System will be able to trigger predictions into traffic delays which can be used in dynamic message boards and other communications to alert the public of potential delays. The system collects data from not just Cranberry Township, but from the region, allowing Cranberry to see how incidents in further location affect local traffic the future and be resilient to them. The Coordinated Traffic Signal System will be used to mitigate traffic in Cranberry Township, but also will improve traffic conditions in the three townships sharing inter-municipal agreements, including one in Allegheny County. The benefits experienced in Cranberry Township reach farther than those three townships, though. Research and deployments have been made possible by continued funding from Carnegie Mellon, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of University Transportation Center Program, the Hillman Foundation the Benedum Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, PITA, the Pittsburgh Department of Public Works, TomTom, and many more. MAC receives continued support from CMU’s T-SET and Mobility21 National UTCs. To learn more about the Mobility Data Analytics Center, see their website. You can also watch last year’s Traffic21 seminar on the Mobility Data Analytics Center with Director Sean Qian here.
April 10, 2018 - Societal Consequences of Autonomous Vehicles Class Presents Findings to City - April 10, 2018 The Heinz weekend course taught by Metro21 Director Rick Stafford, Societal Consequences of Technological Change: Autonomous Vehicles in the Central Business District, presented a summary of students’ findings to City officials and the Port Authority of Allegheny County. Recommendations to the City included curb mapping, a use tax on transportation network companies, and deploying an autonomous electric shuttle, among others.
April 7, 2018 - Traffic21’s Chris Hendrickson and Ngani Ndimbie Participate in Sustainability Week Panel Discussion - April 7, 2018 On Saturday morning, T-SET UTC’s Chris Hendrickson & Ngani Ndimbie spoke at the Transit and Equity panel for CMU’s Sustainability Weekend. They were joined by 4 other panelists to discuss the current state of mobility in Pittsburgh, particularly for those with accessibility or socioeconomic challenges.
April 5, 2018 - OSU Researcher Umit Ozguner Speaks at Technology Summit - April 5, 2018 Researcher Umit Ozguner from T-SET partner Ohio State University spoke as an expert at the Technology Summit in Istanbul, held by Trucell and attended by over 2,500 organizations. Ozguner spoke about current 5G technologies and its role in smart transportation systems. Read more Summit here.
April 4, 2018 - Researcher Sean Qian Speaks to Chi Epsilon - April 4, 2018 UTC researcher and CMU professor Sean Qian spoke to the CMU Civil Engineering Honor Society Chi Epsilon about data analytics and optimization. The presentation and discussion focused on using tools such as behavioral economics, software development, life cycle assessment, policy, and others to optimize transportation networks.
April 2, 2018 - UTC Students and Staff Integral in WTS Pittsburgh Scholarship Gala - UTC Students and Staff Integral in WTS Pittsburgh Scholarship Gala On Thursday, March 15th, the Women’s Transportation Seminar Pittsburgh Chapter hosted its second annual Scholarship Gala and Fundraiser, and honored the winner of the 2018 Molitoris Leadership Scholarship. WTS is an organization working to advance women’s careers through professional development and networking opportunities. While WTS International was established in 1977, the Pittsburgh Chapter was created in May of 2015 with help from organizers including CMU’s own T-SET University Transportation Center (UTC), Traffic21. This year’s Scholarship Gala was put together by a planning committee of WTS members; all of whom were credited during the event. The planning committee included one of CMU UTC’s Women in Intelligent Transportation Fellows, Ngani Ndimbie. [caption id=\"attachment_9188\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"280\"] Pictured clockwise from top right are Lisa Kay Schweyer, Allanté Whitmore, Karen Lightman, and Ngani Ndimbie.[/caption] Also representing T-SET University Transportation Center, Traffic21 from CMU were Program Manager Lisa Kay Schweyer, Metro21 Executive Director Karen Lightman, and Diversity in Transportation Fellow Allanté Whitmore. Allanté is a Ph.D. student in the Engineering and Public Policy Department and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering with research interests in societal and environmental impacts of autonomous vehicles. She is studying under CMU faculty Scott Matthews, Costas Samaras, Chris Hendrickson, and Gabrielle Wong-Parodi. [caption id=\"attachment_9189\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"300\"] Pictured above is Keynote Speaker Karina Ricks[/caption] This year’s keynote speaker was Karina Ricks, Director of Department of Mobility and Infrastructure for the City of Pittsburgh. Karina has been a collaborative research partner to CMU’s own T-SET UTC faculty research, playing an integral role in ensuring that UTC research efforts could be tested and deployed in the real world. The winner of this year’s $2,500 scholarship was CMU’s Grace Taylor- an undergrad in the Department of Civil Engineering. The Molitoris Leadership Scholarship is awarded to female undergraduate students demonstrating academic strength and leadership skills, by taking risks and persevering to reach successful outcomes, in the field of transportation.
March 30, 2018 - Smart Mobility Connection: Security of Electric, Hybrid, and AV Battery Systems - March 30, 2018 UTC researcher Venkat Viswanathan talked to students at Heinz College about the safety and security of electric vehicles in his presentation, “Analyzing and Defending Cyberattacks on Electric, Hybrid, and AV Battery Systems.” Venkat’s discussion included the ways hackers could control your self-driving car, cracking Tesla’s wall of silence on the Model 3 battery, and the challenges of electric driving range and battery degradation.
March 28, 2018 - UTC Researcher Presents Work at CMU Seminar - March 28, 2018 UTC Researcher and assistant professor for the Institute for Software Research Fei Fang presented at a student students on his research, \"Integrating Machine Learning with Game Theory for Societal Challenges.\" Fang discussed her application, which uses game theory and machine learning-based models and algorithms to inform, predict, and prescribe solutions to those dealing with security and sustainability challenges.
March 26, 2018 - CMU Poster Session on Commuting and Public Transit Solutions - March 26th, 2018 Six teams in the User-Centered Research and Evaluation (UCRE) class presented their concept posters on solutions to the commuting and public transportation challenges for CMU students. Taught at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, the UCRE class introduces students to the field of human-computer interaction; this year\'s topic was on transportation, and what solutions might be needed if Pittsburgh\'s Port Authority cut bus services. Team posters included ideas to subsidize UberPOOL rides, and create enclosed waiting stations with wifi and USB ports.
March 26, 2018 - UTC Executive Director Speaks at SPC Workshop - March 26, 2018 At the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commissions Chairman\'s Workshop in California, UTC Executive Director Stan Caldwell spoke about the challenges faced by public officials in ensuring that connected and autonomous technologies are being deployed safely. Read more about the presentation here.
March 23, 2018 - Future of Work Feature by UTC Executive Director - March 16, 2018 In Heinz College’s March Future of Work issue, UTC Executive Director Stan Caldwell shares five ways that autonomous vehicles will disrupt policy and current industry practices. Five Automated Vehicle Policy Disruptions was part of a series of articles on cutting-edge work done by Heinz faculty and students surrounding the intersection of society and technology.
March 19, 2018 - Traffic21 Director Chris Hendrickson Speaks to Heinz Class - March 19, 2018 Traffic21 Executive Director Chris Hendrickson spoke to a Heinz class on Public Expenditure Analysis about transportation infrastructure planning and forecasting.
March 13, 2018 - UTC’s Stan Caldwell Speaking at PA Chamber’s Policy Roundtable - March 13, 2018 Mobility21 Executive Director Stan Caldwell spoke at the PA Chamber of Business and Industry’s Policy Roundtable and led a discussion about workforce, economic development and policy implications of disruptive transportation technologies. Caldwell’s presentation followed a policy discussion with Pennsylvania Governor Wolf where transportation was also a topic.
March 8, 2018 - Metro21: Smart Cities Institute Launch - March 2, 2018 The Metro21: Smart Cities Institute celebrated it\'s launch with speakers from Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh, and panels on smart city research and education featuring CMU faculty, and public and private sector representatives. To end the day, T-SET Director Raj Rajkumar spoke about next steps for the Institute, and CMU researchers spoke about their work at the closing reception and poster session.
March 8, 2018 - Transportation Club: Autonomous Vehicles and Equity - February 26, 2018 At CMU’s Transportation Club, Margaret Edwards and Gaurav Gupte, two Ethics, History, and Public Policy students shared their capstone presentation: a report on autonomous vehicle and transportation equity in Pittsburgh. The larger team of eight students presented their work before the Pittsburgh City Council at the end of 2017. T-SET\'s Chris Hendrickson also talked about Traffic21\'s history and initiatives.
March 6, 2018 - Women in Intelligent Transportation Fellow Speaking at National Bike Summit - March 6, 2018 One of T-SET’s Women in Intelligent Transportation’s Fellows, Ngani Ndimbie, spoke on a panel called “Complete Streets in the Age of Automated Vehicles” at the National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. Ndimbie was joined by representatives from BikePGH and Local Motors.
March 2, 2018 - Traffic21 Director, Stan Caldwell Featured on Our Region’s Business - March 2, 2018 https://youtu.be/ZNl1Jva37jE
February 28, 2018 - Traffic21 Funded Research Published in Elsevier Journal - 2018 UTC Faculty, Sean Qian, with another faculty member from CEE at CMU were published in the Elsevier Journal for their research titled “User-centric interdependent urban systems: Using time-of-day electricity usage data to predict morning roadway congestion”. Check out the full article and the research being funded by CMU’s UTC.
February 17, 2018 - Smart Mobility Connection: Safety in Transportation - February 16, 2018 Mobility21’s Smart Mobility Connection featured Traffic21’s Chris Hendrickson and UTC researcher Sean Qian, who discussed safety in transportation. Hendrickson discussed the impacts and accomplishments of CMU, and Qian showed the Mobility Data Analytic Center’s Bikeability Score Platform.
February 13, 2018 - Researcher Costa Samaras Drone Delivery Emissions Paper Covered by National Media - February 13, 2018 News outlets including The Guardian, Forbes, and Wired wrote about UTC researcher Constantine Samaras’ paper, “Energy use and life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of drones for commercial package delivery.” Says Samaras in Wired, “It’s pretty clear that companies are interested in doing this… What’s important is understanding the ways that policy makers could guide the beneficial outcomes now before there are a bunch of drones in the sky delivering packages.” Two of the research paper’s authors also wrote an op-ed for The Conversation that you can read here.
February 7, 2018 - USDOT Offers Free Webinar on Accessible Transportation Technologies Research Initiative (ATTRI) Project - February 8, 2018 The USDOT will host a webinar discussing T-SET UTC researcher Dr. Steven Smith’s safe intersection crossing project. This was one of six projects awarded contracts by the USDOT for it\'s ATTRI initiative to develop technology prototypes to improve mobility options, particularly for those with disabilities.
February 5, 2018 - Traffic21 Founder and Professor Rick Stafford Leads Weekend Course on the Societal Consequences of Autonomous Vehicles at Heinz College - Traffic21 Founder and Professor Rick Stafford Leads Course on the Societal Consequences of Autonomous Vehicles On February 3rd and 4th, CMU students from a variety of colleges and disciplines gathered to learn about the impact of autonomous vehicles in the City of Pittsburgh. The weekend course was strongly supported by Mobility21 University Transportation Center (UTC) staff and faculty, and well attended by UTC student leadership. [caption id=\"attachment_9087\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"840\"] Shown above: Metro21 Executive Director Rick Stafford[/caption] Over the weekend, students were instructed to prepare a presentation and report to the Mayor on the impacts autonomous vehicles might have on the future of Pittsburgh’s Central Business District (CBD). The final products will be used to inform policy makers on what challenges they will face, and the research that should be done to ensure a sustainable and equitable CBD. Students heard from experts in transportation, disruptive technology, and infrastructure. To prepare for the class, students studied pre-work materials from UTC Director Raj Rajkumar. Speakers throughout the weekend included UTC Executive Director Stan Caldwall, UTC researcher and Director of Mobility Data Analytics Center Sean Qian, and UTC researcher Costas Samaras. Heinz College Alumnus Alex Pazuchanics, a Smart City Challenge leader from the City’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure, informed students of challenges specific to the Pittsburgh CBD. [caption id=\"attachment_9088\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"840\"] Shown above: UTC Executive Director Stan Caldwell[/caption] Facilitators included former Secretary of the Department of Transportation Al Biehler, and UTC/Mobility21 faculty and Smart City Challenge leader Don Carter. In attendance were four UTC student leaders – Ph.D. students Allanté Whitmore and Matthew Battifrano, and Heinz graduate students Ngani Ndimbie and Amanda Johnson. [caption id=\"attachment_9089\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"840\"] Students hear from experts about the challenges of autonomous vehicles[/caption] Students worked with speakers and facilitators to learn more about the impact of autonomous vehicles, interact with real-world policy makers, and determine policy interventions that may be a model for other mayors and other cities. UTC faculty, staff, and students were integral in this effort in ensuring that Carnegie Mellon students are well-informed about the societal consequences of autonomous vehicles.
February 2, 2018 - Smart Mobility Connection: Video Analytics in Transportation - February 2, 2018 UTC researchers Bernardo Pires and Christoph Mertz (shown above) spoke about detecting road objects as part of the Smart Mobility Connection seminar series. Both researchers highlighted the rapidity with which computer vision and machine learning is changing, and the vital role that data plays.
January 31, 2018 - Traffic21’s Chris Hendrickson mentioned in “Transportation Solutions” - January 30, 2018 Traffic21 director and UTC researcher Chris Hendrickson was recently featured in Pittsburgh Metroguide’s “Transportation Solutions: Making Pittsburgh More Mobile.” Said Hendrickson, regarding advanced infrastructure deployed by the Traffic21 spinoff Surtrac, “having a city and county be receptive to new technology has really made a difference around Pittsburgh and will make a difference in the future.”
January 31, 2018 - National Safety Council Board Receives Rides in CMU’s Autonomous Cadillac - January 30, 2018 On January 30th, UTC’s Raj Rajkumar provided rides in CMU’s autonomous Cadillac to board members of the National Safety Council. The board members, pictured below, also received a tour of CMU’s College of Engineering to learn about how automation and AI can improve road safety.
January 30, 2018 - Researcher Erick Guerra featured on WHYY Podcast - January 30, 2018 UTC researcher Erick Guerra of the University of Pennsylvania was featured on a Radio Times podcast titled, “Hands off: our self-driving future.” You can also listen to Erick in a Facebook Live interview by Milenio here.
January 17, 2018 - Western Pennsylvania Mobility Showcase - January 4, 2018 University of Pittsburgh, Traffic21 Institute featured a display in theWestern Pennsylvania Mobility Showcase. The Mobility Showcase is a new event created by the City of Pittsburgh’s Mobility and Infrastructure Department, and featured over 20 exhibits.
January 17, 2018 - Olivia Mobayed, SEPTA’s Long Range Planning Department - December 2017 Olivia Mobayed – second year master’s student in City and Regional Planning at UPenn, WTS Sylvia Alston Scholarship recipient, and Mobility21 professor Erick Guerra’s advisee – has spent the semester with SEPTA\'s Long Range Planning Department analyzing bicycle access to subway and regional rail stations. By tracking changes in bike ridership and facility improvements, she has identified the next round of stations to receive upgrades on their bicycle parking facilities. Tasker-Morris Station, pictured here in December, saw a 90% increase in bike ridership to the station in just two years with the installation of mezzanine-level bike parking.
January 17, 2018 - Field Demonstration of Surtrac Adaptive Traffic Signal - December 18, 2017 Mobility21 Researchers provide a field demonstration of Surtrac adaptive traffic signal research to the Pittsburgh Complete Streets Committee and discuss urban applications of connected and adaptive signals for all modes of transportation. Included in the picture are Dr. Greg Barlow and Dr. Steve Smith of Rapid Flow Technologies.
January 17, 2018 - Smart Mobility Connection: Enhancing Mobility - December 1, 2017 T-SET UTC hosted it’s second Smart Mobility Connection on “Enhancing Mobility for People with Disabilities,” featuring UTC researchers Dr. Aaron Steinfeld and Dr. Stephen Smith. Researchers discussed their work in making transit more universal for all users, including handicapped individuals, and demonstrated the powerful impacts of CMU transportation technologies.
January 17, 2018 - Three Penn Transportation Students Win Women’s Transportation Seminar Awards - November 30, 2017 A record of three standout PennPlanning students won Women\'s Transportation Seminar (WTS) awards at this year\'s Awards Banquet. The three Penn Transportation Planning students shown above - Olivia Moyabed, Carrie Sauer, and Rachel Finfer - were honored for their dedication to accessible transportation, Vision Zero, safe mobility, and for helping students at the collegiate and high school level connect with transportation. Also pictured is T-SET UTC researcher Dr. Megan Ryerson.
January 17, 2018 - Tepper Tech Innovation Challenge - November 17 - 18, 2017 Mobility21 and T-SET UTC\'s Stan Caldwell helped judge the Tepper Tech Innovation Challenge. This year\'s challenge was on \"The Future of Transportation Technology.\" Winners of the challenge are students from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and are shown above.
January 17, 2018 - Visit from Mifflin Academy of Science and Technology - November 16, 2017 Members from the Mifflin Academy of Science and Technology and the Mifflin County School District toured CMU\'s NavLab.
January 17, 2018 - Annual Sustainability Conference - November 16, 2017 Traffic21’s Chris Hendrickson spoke at for the American Society of Engineers’ (ASCE) Annual Sustainability Conference. Chris was joined for a panel on ‘Sustainability and Innovation in the Pittsburgh Region’ by the City of Pittsburgh’s Director of Mobility and Infrastructure Karina Ricks, PennDOT Deputy Secretary of Planning Jim Ritzman, and Michael Baker Senior Vice President Dan Cessna.
January 17, 2018 - Open Pittsburgh wirEless Research Accelerator - November 15, 2017 CMU and T-SET UTC hosted the Open Pittsburgh wirEless Research Accelerator (OPERA). OPERA is a proposed advanced wireless testbed, bringing together the public and private sector with academia to deploy advanced at-scale wireless infrastructure to create opportunity for innovation and growth. In the city of bridges, tunnels, valleys and hillsides, \"if you can get wireless technologies to work in Pittsburgh, you\'re done,\" said OPERA Principal Investigator and T-SET UTC Director Raj Rajkumar.
January 17, 2018 - Anthony Foxx Speaks at CMU - November 10, 2017 Former Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx spoke at CMU in celebration of CMU’s 50 year anniversary weekend. Secretary Foxx discussed trends in transportation, the Smart City Challenge- noting that the best solutions were context-dependent, and ways in which communities can optimize their use of land, transit, and ports. To see more about the event, click here.
January 17, 2018 - Center for Connected Multimodal Mobility - November 3, 2017 Traffic21 Director Chris Hendrickson spoke at the USDOT Center for Connected Multimodal Mobility’s (C2M2) Fall Conference in Clemson, South Carolina to share knowledge between both UTCs. C2M2 is a consortium of higher education and research institutions in South Carolina working toward the vision to create a globally recognized multimodal mobility innovation center for moving people and goods, specializing in connected and autonomous vehicle research.
January 8, 2018 - CMU Team wins Greenshield’s Prize - January 2018 T-SET researcher Dr. Sean Qian, Assistant Professor in CMU\'s CEE program Yiming Gu, and Ph.D. student Guohui Zhang won the 2017 Greenshields Prize at the TRB Annual Conference for their paper, \"Traffic State Estimation for Urban Road Networks Using a Link Queue Model.\" The Greenshields prize, honoring Dr. Bruce D. Greenshields, is awarded to the best paper submitted through the TRB Annual Meeting paper submission process that bases sound theory on rigorous empirical analysis and has practical applications or implications.
January 7, 2018 - TRB Students of the Year - January 6, 2018 T-SET UTC students, Max Li of the University of Pennsylvania and Amanda Johnson of Carnegie Mellon University, won the U.S. DOT\'s Outstanding Student of the Year Awards. They were recognized for their achievements and accomplishments in the field of transportation during the Council of University Transportation Centers Banquet during the annual winter meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB).
January 7, 2018 - Research Assistant Represents UTC at TRB War Games - January 7, 2018 At the 2018 Transportation Research Board Conference, the first ever \'War Games\' was held to bring together all types of transportation professionals and develop and understanding on potential trends and scenarios arising as new technologies come to market. CMU\'s UTC was represented by Mobility21 research assistant Amanda Johnson who participated on the Department of Transportation team, along with nine others from across the country.
January 7, 2018 - Amanda Johnson Participates in TRB War Game - January 7, 2018 The 2018 TRB Annual Meeting hosted its first Strategic War Game, and a video has been released to summarize this year\'s event. War games are fast-paced simulations involving teams that represent a market or customer, a set of competitors, and a series of other uncontrollable factors or entities. Amanda Johnson, student researcher for Traffic21 participated in this year’s event, saying it was “…a real fast paced high intensity exciting brainstorming opportunity that generated new and exciting ideas.” Click here to view the video: Video: Strategic War Games at the 2018 TRB Annual Meeting.
November 3, 2017 - Intelligent Transportation Society World Congress 2017 - The Intelligent Transportation Society hosted its World Congress 2017 in Montréal from October 29th to November 2nd. Stan Caldwell, Executive Director at Traffic21 Institute, participated in a panel discussion on the SMART Belt Coalition, a multi-state collaboration, and infrastructure challenges and opportunities. Several CMU students and faculty also participated: Adam Mistick (pictured above), MS candidate for Information Security Policy and management, presented his research on Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities in Autonomous Vehicle Development, CMU-Silicon Valley Professor Dr. Bob Iannucci, presented three papers related to Smart Cities and was joined by CMU students Samarth Mathur and Ashotosh Tadkase, both MS candidates for Environmental and Civil Engineering. Dr. Iannucci and his students\' papers grew from a UTC T-SET funded project.
November 3, 2017 - Smart Mobility Challenge - Awardees of the Smart Mobility Challenge, Alexandre Jacquillat, Bernardo R. Pires, and Sean Qian, spoke to CMU students about how innovative technology can improve mobility. This was the first events of the new Smart Mobility Connection forum, a bi-weekly series to connect faculty and students interested in transportation.
October 23, 2017 - Women in Transportation & Government Seminar - Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Leslie S. Richards, and Traffic21 and Mobility21’s Courtney Ehrlichman joined Heinz students for the Women in Transportation & Government panel discussion. Both women shared personal stories on how they found themselves in leadership roles in transportation, and the barriers they overcame. The discussion was moderated by Melanie Harrington, President and CEO of Vibrant Pittsburgh.
October 23, 2017 - Heinz College and PennDOT Coordinated Facebook Live Interview - Traffic21 research assistant Amanda Johnson, and Women in Intelligent Transportation fellow Ngani Ndimbie were joined by Secretary Leslie S. Richards for a Heinz College and PennDOT coordinated Facebook Live interview. Both Heinz students discussed with the Secretary their internships at PennDOT over the summer, and the importance of increasing diversity in government. Amanda and Ngani are both in their second year at Heinz studying Public Policy and Management.
October 20, 2017 - Traffic21 UTC researchers Srinivasa Narasimhan and Robert Tamburo win the 3Rivers Venture Fair, for their Smart Headlight project - https://twitter.com/Traffic21_TSET/status/1009431556182761474
October 13, 2017 - Distinguished Speaker Series: Professor R. Jayakrishnan - Professor R. Jayakrishnan from the University of California-Irvine presented his research on collaborative consumption in transportation as the first 2017-2018 Distinguished speaker. Professor Jayakrishnan’s presentation “User-Driven Service Order Adjustment for Efficiency in Collaborative Consumption of Transportation Supply,” suggested that a paradigm-shift in transportation, initiated by more peer-to-peer communication, presents a new opportunity for users to consume with more complete information and greater satisfaction. The Distinguished Speaker series is made possible by CMU’s Traffic21, Mobility21, and T-SET UTC.
October 13, 2017 - 2017 Women in Transportation RISS Intern - Stephanie Milani was this summer\'s Women in Transportation Robotics Institute Summer Scholar (RISS) intern, with funding from Mobility21. The Riss program is an eleven-week research program that allows undergraduate students to work on cutting-edge robotics projects in one of the top robotics for undergraduate programs in the world. Stephanie is currently a junior at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County, and is studying Computer Science and Psychology. Read more about Stephanie\'s RISS experience here.
October 10, 2017 - Transportation Engineering Conference - Traffic21 and T-SET UTC\'s Stan Caldwell spoke at the Ohio Transportation Engineering Conference in Columbus Ohio. Caldwell participated in a panel on the Smart Belt Coalition, a first-of-its-kind collaboration between transportation and academic partners from Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania that seeks to enhance emerging technologies across state lines.
October 6, 2017 - University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson Engineering Seminar Series - T-SET UTC researcher Zhen (Sean) Qian presented \"Statistical Interference of Probalistic Origin-Destination Demand Using Day-to-Day Traffic Data\" at the University of Pittsburgh\'s Swanson engineering seminar series. Qian\'s research involves developing a novel theoretical framework for estimating the mean and variance matrix of O-D demand considering the day-to-day variation induced by travelers\' independent route choices.
October 6, 2017 - UTC’s New Diversity Fellow - Traffic21 welcomes its new Diversity Fellow, Allanté Whitmore. Whitmore is excited to finally be at Carnegie Mellon, where she says thirst for knowledge is encouraged and the interdisciplinary culture is powerful. While she’s a veteran to the field of engineering, she’s taking her first swing at public policy.
October 6, 2017 - Chris Hendrickson Attends Odyssey Day - T-SET researcher Chris Hendrickson attended Odyssey Day in Oakdale, hosted by Pittsburgh Regional Clean Cities and the Community College of Allegheny County, a consortium member of CMU’s UTC for Improving Mobility. Odyssey day is an annual event that focuses on leading edge research promoting alternative fuels and advanced technology vehicles. Activities included Ride-n-Drives, vehicles displays of a Chevy BOLT and Chrysler Pacifica, workshops, demonstrations of mobile refueling and electric boom lift, panel discussions and more.
October 6, 2017 - Mobility Lab’s symposium, “Autonomous Vehicles” - Traffic21 and T-SET UTC’s Courtney Ehrlichman attended Mobility Lab’s Symposium, “Autonomous Vehicles: Planning Impacts on Cities and Regions” in Washington D.C. The symposium, convened by the American Planning Association, National League of Cities, Eno Transportation Center, and others, included panel discussions and scenario-base planning to set the direction for future research and education to prepare cities and regions for new technologies.
October 4, 2017 - UTC’s Chris Hendrickson Presents to Fellow UTC - Traffic21 Director Chris Hendrickson presented as a distinguished speaker at a transportation seminar held by the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Hendrickson presented CMU\'s research efforts in \'transformational transportation technologies\' supported by Traffic21 and related University Transportation Centers. His presentation is available here.
October 3, 2017 - Transportation Research Board’s Future Interstate Study - Traffic21 and T-SET UTC congratulate Chris Hendrickson for his role in the Transportation Research Board\'s Future Interstate Study. Hendrickson is one of fourteen committee members- experts in transportation research, planning, and policy, who will play an integral role in revisioning our interstate system. Over the course of 30 months, members will hear from key stakeholder groups and compile a comprehensive final report. To get updates about the Future Interstate Study, let the committee know by e-mailing interstate@nas.edu.
June 1, 2017 - UTC Faculty Sean Qian Published in Elsevier Journal Transportation Research - June 1, 2017 The Elsevier Journal published UTC Faculty, Sean Qian and another CMU researcher in their Transportation Research for their research into a theoretical approach to identify optimal traffic routing strategy for managing transportation systems. Read the full article titled “A stochastic optimal control approach for real-time traffic routing considering demand uncertainties and travelers’ choice heterogeneity.”
May 30, 2017 - UTC Faculty Published in Elsevier Journal for Work with Lane Management Models for AV - May 30, 2017 Infrastructure will have to adapt to connected and autonomous vehicles. UTC Faculty, Sean Qian and a team were published in Elsevier Journal for a model can serve as a useful decision tool for near future CAV lane management. Read the full article titled “A mixed traffic capacity analysis and lane management model for connected automated vehicles: A Markov chain method”
May 14, 2017 - UTC Faculty Published for work with Statistical Traffic Assignment - May 14, 2017 Static traffic assignments play an important role in roadway operations and planning. UTC Faculty Sean Qian was published in the Elsevier Journal’s Transportation Research for his work titled ‘On the variance of recurrent traffic flow for statistical traffic assignment” Read the full article.
February 27, 2017 - UTC Faculty and Team Published in Elsevier Journal for Meter Data Research - February 28, 2017 UTC Faculty Sean Qian and another CMU Faculty member from CEE were published in the Elsevier Journal’s Transportation Research on estimating on-street time-varying parking. Read the full article titled “Turning meter transactions data into occupancy and payment behavioral information for on-street parking.”
January 28, 2017 - UTC Faculty Published for Research on Fare Policies - 2017 Have you ever wondered if fare policies on public transit effect dwell time? UTC Faculty Sean Qian used Pittsburgh as a case study to answer the question. Read the full article “Effect of Fare Policies on Dwell Time” to learn more.
July 1, 2016 - UTC Faculty Published in Elsevier Journal - July, 2016 UTC Faculty Sean Qian and Costa Samaras were published in the Elsevier Journal’s Transportation Research for their research on Effectiveness of incentives on electric vehicle adoption in Norway. To learn how effective Norway adopted electric vehicles, Read the Full Article.
February 21, 2016 - UTC Faculty Sean Qian Published in Elsevier Journal - February 21, 2016 UTC Faculty and Director of the Data Mobility Center, Sean Qian, was published in the Elsevier Journal’s Transportation Research for his work with Real-time traffic incident detectionusing social media data. To learn how we can use social media to predict traffic, read the full article.
February 16, 2016 - UTC Faculty Sean Qian Published in Elsevier Journal - February 16, 2016 UTC Faculty Sean Qian, was published in the Elsevier Journal’s Accident Analysis and Prevention for his work with investigating driver injury severity patterns in rollover crashes using support vector machine models. To learn more about this research, read the full article.