Carnegie Mellon University

Traffic21

A transportation research institute of Carnegie Mellon University

Traffic21
A transportation research institute of Carnegie Mellon University  ›  Traffic21  ›  University Transportation Centers  ›  T-SET

Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation

tset-logo.png

From 2012 to 2018, the Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation (T-SET) University Transportation Center (UTC) focused on designing, testing, deploying, and evaluating technology-driven solutions for both local and national transportation issues. Housed in the Traffic21 Institute, the T-SET UTC was a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania. This multidisciplinary effort focused on 5 core areas: In-Vehicle Technologies, Infrastructure Technologies, Human-Vehicle Interactions, Mobility/Data Analytics, and Policy.

Read our End of T-SET Overview


Learn more about our T-SET UTC projects 

Addressing Cyber-Security Issues in Intelligent Transportation Systems
Dan J. Klinedinst
Friday, May 4, 2018

Smart Mobility Connection: Security of Electric, Hybrid, and AV Battery Systems
Venkat Viswanathan
Friday, March 30, 2018

Distinguished Speaker Series: Exploring Impacts on Time Use for Early Adopters of Autonomous Vehicles
Eric Williams
Friday, February 23, 2018

Safety in Transportation
Chris Hendrickson and Sean Qian
Friday, February 16, 2018

Video Analytics in Transportation
Christoph Mertz and Bernardo Pires
Friday, February 2, 2018

Enhancing Mobility for People with Disabilities
Aaron Steinfeld and Stephen Smith
Friday, December 1, 2017

How Innovative Technology Can Improve Mobility: Featuring the Awardees of the Smart Mobility Challenge
Alexandre Jacquillat, Bernardo R. Pires, and Sean Qian
Friday, November 3, 2017

User-driven Service Order Adjustments for Efficiency in Collaborative Consumption of Transportation Supply
R. Jayakrishnan
Friday, October 13, 2017

Human Mobility Modeling Based on Extensive Data From a Ride Sharing Service
John Paul Shen and Abhinav Jauhri
Thursday, April 27, 2017

Modeling and Analysis of Dynamic Pricing of Ride-Sourcing Services
Yafeng Yin
Wednesday, April 14, 2017

Electrical Vehicles, Air Pollution, and the Motorcycle City: Consumers’ willingness to adopt electric motorcycles in Indonesia?
Erick Guerra
Wednesday, March 29, 2017

From Set-and-Forget Traffic Control to Connected Midas: A Possible Future of Proactive Traffic Management Systems
Pitu Mirchandani
Friday, March 24, 2017

Heaven or Hell? Which Way Forward With Self-driving Cars?
Robin Chase
Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Transportation Camp Pittsburgh 2016
Saturday, November 19, 2016

Human Mobility Analytics and Services: Insights from a Ride Sharing Service
John Paul Shen
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Watch seminar.

Getting Things Done: A New Way of Governing
Martin O’Malley
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Watch seminar.

Park Smart: Parking Space Availability Monitoring at Pittsburgh International Airport
Alexander Hauptmann
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Watch seminar.

Computer Vision for Safer Biking and Walking
Bernardo Pires
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Watch seminar.

Smart Transportation: Small Changes for Big Impact
Paul Mackie
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Watch seminar.

Connected and Automated Vehicles in Pennsylvania: Demonstrations and Public Policy Challenges
Chris Hendrickson
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Watch seminar.

A Radical Approach To Save A Few Billion Dollars Collecting Fares In London
George Kocur
Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Emerging Data Sources and Urban Informatics: Examples, Prospects and Challenges
Piyushimita (Vonu) Thakuriah
Tuesday, September 6, 2016

What’s Next for Surtac: Impacts for Freight, Buses, Bicycles and Pedestrians
Greg Barlow
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Watch seminar.

Automated Cars: Safety and Cost Savings
Corey Harper
Wednesday, April 5, 2016
Watch seminar.

Urban Transportation Solutions
Kari Watkins
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Watch seminar.

Traffic21/Bike Pgh! Speed Monitoring Hack Night
Matt Bauman
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Watch seminar.

Service Reliability
Yanfeng Ouyang
Friday, November 13, 2015

Distracted Driving
Maxine Eskenazi
Thursday, October 29, 2015

Seminar Series: Mobility Data Analytics Center with Sean Qian
Sean Qian
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Watch seminar.

Seminar Series: Pittsburgh’s Connected Vehicle TestBed
Zachary Rubinstein and Stan Caldwell
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Watch seminar.

Seminar Series: What Will Our Streets Look Like in 2040?
Al Bieher and Chris Hendrickson
Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Seminar Series: What if bikes could talk to cars?
Anthony Rowe
Thursday, November 20, 2014

Seminar Series: Smartphone-enabled Urban Solutions: Mobility On Demand and Mobility On Sale
Shih-Fen Cheng
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Watch seminar.

Seminar Series: Keep Aging Infrastructure Safe
Hae Young Noh
Thursday, September 11, 2014

Seminar Series: The Case for Autonomous Vehicles
James Anderson and Constantine Samaras
Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Faculty Seminar Series: Addressing the Pothole Situation in Pittsburgh
Christoph Mertz
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Watch seminar.

Faculty Seminar Series: Smart Headlights
Srinivas Narasimhan
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Watch seminar.

Faculty Seminar Series: Tiramisu
Aaron Steinfeld
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Watch seminar.

Faculty Seminar Series
Ozan Tonguz
Monday, October 28, 2013
Watch seminar.

Safety Should Be Beautiful
Jonathan Ota and Ethan Frier
Monday, October 7, 2013
Watch seminar.

Robots Take Over East Liberty Traffic Signals! Real-Time, Adaptive Traffic Signal Control
Stephen F. Smith
Monday, April 8, 2013

Autonomous Vehicles: Not If But When!
Raj Rajkumar
Monday, February 11, 2013
Read IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge-Pittsburgh Report.

Executive Leadership

Raj Rajkumar, Director
raj@ece.cmu.edu
412-268-8707
Fax: 412-268-1124
Website

Raj Rajkumar is the director of Pittsburgh’s T-SET University Transportation Center, and a George Westinghouse professor at CMU’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Raj also serves as Co-Director of the General Motors-Carnegie Mellon Information Technology Collaborative Research Laboratory. His work is primarily in cyber-physical systems, such as autonomous driving and vehicular networks, and wireless/sensor networks, including the creation of Nano-RK, the reservation-based real-time operating system (RTOS). Raj has won six best paper awards, and his paper on Priority Inheritance Protocols proposed a solution to ‘priority inversion problem,’ allowing for the success of the 1997 Mars Pathfinder Mission.

Dan Lee, Penn Director
ddlee@seas.upenn.edu
215-898-8112
Website
Stan Caldwell, Executive Director
stancaldwell@cmu.edu
412-268-9505

Stan Caldwell is the Executive Director of Traffic21 and the T-SET University Transportation Center, managing the daily operations at both research centers. He started the highly acclaimed Traffic21 blog. In 2014, Stan was appointed Adjunct Professor of Transportation and Public Policy at CMU, where he teaches courses and advises student projects. Additionally, Stan serves as the Director of State Relations for CMU’s office of Government Affairs. Before joining CMU, Stan served as the Executive Director to U.S. Senator Arlen Specter’s Pittsburgh Office, in addition to serving for many other Pennsylvania elected officials. Stan received his Master of Public Policy and Management degree from the University of Pittsburgh.

Lisa Kay Schweyer, Program Manager
lkschweyer@cmu.edu
412-268-1178

Lisa Kay Schweyer serves as the Program Manager for Traffic21 Institute and the T-SET and Mobility21 National University Transportation Centers. She came to CMU from the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission where she managed the federally supported regional ridesharing program, CommuteInfo. She also currently serves as chair of the Vanpool Council for the international Association for Commuter Transportation. Lisa Kay received her BA in Political Science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and her Masters of Public Management degree from the Heinz College at CMU.

Student Leadership

Joohyun Sarah Cho, Traffic21 Women in Intelligent Transportation Fellow

jscho@andrew.cmu.edu
Joohyun Sarah Cho received her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2014, where she focused on exploring pragmatic applications of optical systems for telecommunication. Alongside her academic career, Sarah actively participated in the student chapter of Engineers Without Borders, IEEE, and the Society of Women Engineers. Before joining Traffic21, Sarah was a Radio Frequency Engineer at a wireless technology integrator company, designing and managing the deployment of Wireless Distribution Systems. Today, Sarah is working toward her Master of Science in Public Policy and Management at CMU, and is excited to be the new Women in Intelligent Transportation fellow at Traffic21. Read more about Sarah’s story.

Amanda Johnson, Communications Assistant

amandajohn1990@gmail.com
Amanda Johnson is a second year MS Candidate for Public Policy and Management at CMU. Originally from Ames, Iowa, Amanda completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Political Science and Public Policy. In her studies at CMU, she will concentrate in Environmental Policy with special interests in transportation and connected and automated vehicles. Her summer internship involved planning Pennsylvania’s first Automated Vehicle Summit as a policy intern at PennDOT. She is excited to be the Research Assistant at Traffic21, writing about the Institute’s applied research projects that are revolutionizing the future of transportation.

Stephanie Milani, Women in Transportation Robotics Institute Summer Scholar 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. Read more about Stephanie’s story.

Ngani Ndimbie, Traffic21 Women in Transportation Fellow

nndimbie@andrew.cmu.edu
Ngani Ndimbie is a MS Candidate for Public Policy and Management at CMU. She’s a Pittsburgh native who is passionate about equitable policies, economic justice, and healthy communities. Before joining Traffic 21 as the Women in Transportation Fellow, she held positions at some of Pittsburgh’s most influential non-profits including the ACLU of Pennsylvania, and the Black Political Empowerment Project. Most recently she served as the communications manager for Bike Pittsburgh, a bike and pedestrian advocacy organization. In August, Ngani was named one of Pittsburgh’s 40 under 40. In her free time, she loves biking, drinking dark beers, and playing bocce.

Allanté Whitmore, Mobility21 Diversity Fellow

awhitmor@andrew.cmu.edu
Allanté Whitmore is a Ph.D. Candidate for Civil and Environmental Engineering at CMU. Originally from Detroit, Allanté received her Bachelor’s degree in Biological Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University, and her Master’s degree in the same field from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Before coming to CMU, Allanté was a supervisor for the McNair Scholars program in Detroit, where she worked with first generation or underrepresented undergraduate students preparing them for doctoral studies through research. As Mobility21’s first Diversity Fellow, Allanté is excited to learn more about connected and automated vehicles, particularly through the lens of public policy. Read more about Allanté’s story.

The Women in Intelligent Transportation Fellowship is awarded annually to an incoming Heinz student who has demonstrated commitment to Intelligent Transportation Systems. The fellow receives a stipend, and a half to full tuition scholarship. For more information, visit the Heinz page.

Faculty

Carnegie Mellon Faculty

  • Burcu Akinci (CEE)
  • Mario Berges (CEE)
  • Jacobo Bielak (CEE)
  • Fernando De La Torre (Mobility Lab)
  • Anind Dey (CS, HCII)
  • John Dolan (Robotics)
  • Maxine Eskenazi (CS, LTI)
  • Martial Hebert (Robotics)
  • Chris Hendrickson (CEE)
  • Bob Iannucci (ECE)
  • SeungJun Kim (CS, HCII)
  • Ian Lane (ECE)
  • H. Scott Matthews (CEE, EPP)
  • Christoph Mertz (Robotics)
  • Louis-Philippe Morency (LTI, SCS)
  • Srinvasa Narasimhan (Robotics)
  • Luis E. Navarro-Serment (Robotics)
  • Hae Young Noh (CEE)
  • John Peha (ECE, EPP)
  • Bernardo Pires (Robotics)
  • Sean Qian (CEE, Heinz)
  • Constantine Samaras (CEE)
  • Vyas Sekar (ECE)
  • Steve Smith (Robotics)
  • Aaron Steinfeld (Robotics)
  • Robert Tamburo (Robotics)
  • Venkat Viswanathan (MechE)
  • Jinhang Wang (Robotics)

Penn Faculty

  • Rahul Mangharam (Penn)
  • Jianbo Shi (Penn)
  • Kostas Danillidis (Penn)
  • C.J. Taylor (Penn)
  • Vijay Kumar (Penn)

Advisory Council

Raymond T. Betler
President and CEO of the American Transportation Research Institute

Allen Biehler
Recently retired from CMU as Distinguished Service Professor and Executive Director of the University Transportation Center, formerly Secretary of Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

Rebecca M. Brewster
President and Chief Operating Officer of the American Transportation Research Institute

Deborah Butler
Former Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Norfolk Southern Corp.

Joseph M. Casey
Former General Manager, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority

Douglas I. Foy
President of Serrafix; former Secretary Office of Governor Romney

Charles L. Hammel III
President and owner, PITT OHIO Express

Ashley Hand
Co-founder CityFi; formerly Transportation Technology Strategist Fellow for Los Angeles

John M. Inglish
Former Chief Executive Officer of the Utah Transit Authority

Jane Lappin
Director, Public Policy & Government Affairs, Toyota Research Institute

Ellen McLean
Chief Executive Officer, Port Authority of Allegheny County

Dr. Michael D. Meyer
Senior Advisor to Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc and former Director of the Georgia Transportation Institute

William W. Millar
Past President of American Public Transportation Association

James A. Misener
Director of Technical Standards at Qualcomm and former Director of UC Berkley PATH

Leslie Richards
Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

Robert E. Skinner Jr.
Former Executive Director of Transportation Research Board

Kirk T. Steudle
Director of the Michigan Department of Transportation and past president of AASHTO and ITS America

Affiliates

  • Robotics Institute
  • Vision and Autonomous Systems Center (VASC)
    • Advances Sensor Based Defect Management at Construction Sites
    • Bow Legged Hopper
    • CTA Robotics
    • ChargeCar
    • Multi-view Car Detection Registration
    • Object Recognition Using Statistical Modeling
    • RERC on Accessible Public Transportation
  • The Field Robotics Center
    • Air and Ground Collaboration
    • Robot City
  • Quality of Life Technology Center (QoLT)
    • Assessing Cognitive Load of Elder Drivers
    • DriveCap
    • DriveCap Navigator
    • PerMMA: Driving Surface Classification
  • Traffic21
    • Oakland Demonstartion Area for Deployment of Smart Transportation Technology
    • “Wireless Waterway” Planning for the Port of Pittsburgh Commission
    • Bus Scheduling and Stops
    • Smart Parking Information
    • Real Time Transit Rider Information
    • Dynamic Real Time Scheduling for ACCESS Paratransit Service
    • Machine Learning of Driver Preferences
    • Decentralized Robotic Traffic Signalization
    • Real Time Road Surface Condition Monitoring and Reporting
    • Vehicle Sensed Bridge Condition Monitoring and Reporting
    • Traffic Camera Video Analytics
    • Smart Vehicle Pedestrian Detection and Avoidance
    • Smart Navigation Aids for Blind Travelers
    • Regional Traveler Information System
    • Smart School Bus Rider/Parent Location Information
  • General Motors Collaborative Research Lab
    • Dependable Embedded Systems
    • Design Methodologies
    • Human Computer Interaction
    • Wired and Wireless Multimedia
  • National Robotics Engineering Center
    • Autonomous Vehicle Technology
    • Unmanned Vehicles
  • NavLab
    • RERC on Accessible Public Transportation
    • Understanding and Modeling Trust in Human-Robot Interactions
  • The Intelligent Coordination and Logistics Laboratory
    • Access Scheduling
    • Adaptive Traffic Signal Control
  • Center for Sensed Critical Infrastructure Research
    • Networking the Interstate
  • The Human Computer Interaction Institute
  • Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Public Transportation
  • iLab
    • Mobility Analytics
  • People Image Analysis Consortium
    • Virtual Background Motion Detection
    • Image Enhancement: Denight and Defog
    • Video Surveillance and Monitoring (VSAM)
    • Tracking Evaluation Testbed
    • Multi-view Car Detection and Registration
  • Cylab
    • Saferide
    • Trineta: Mobile Technologies for Assisting the Blind and Visually Impaired
  • Engineering and Public Policy
    • Vehicle Electrification Group
    • Center for the Study and Improvement of Regulation
    • Center for Energy and Environmental Studies
  • Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT)
  • Machine Learning Department
  • Center for Climate and Energy Decision Making
  • The Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies
  • Remaking Cities Institute
  • Entertainment Technology Center
  • The Donald H. Jones Center for Entrepreneurship at the Tepper School of Business
  • The Institute for Social Innovation (ISI) at Heinz College
  • The Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation (CTTEC)
  • Intel Science and Technology Center – Cloud Computing

AECOM

American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

ACCESS Transportation Systems

Accessible Transportation and Workforce Interagency Cooperative

Alco Parking

Allegheny Conference on Community Development

Allegheny County

Allegheny County Airport Authority

American Public Transportation Association

Arada Systems

Beth’s Barricades

Bike Pittsburgh

Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.

Bosch Research and Technology Center, North America

City of Philadelphia

City of Pittsburgh

Conference of Minority Transportation Officials

Delaware River Port Authority

Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission

Economy League of Greater Philadelphia

General Motors Global Research & Development Center

IBM

Innovation Works

League of American Bicyclists

Open Roads

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

Pennsylvania Motor Truck Association

Philadelphia Parking Authority

PITT OHIO

Pittsburgh Technology Council

Port Authority of Allegheny County

Port of Pittsburgh Commission

Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority

Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission

Sustainable Pittsburgh

Takata

Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board

University of Pittsburgh

Women’s Transportation Seminar

2017 Overview

Third Annual Summit of University Transportation Centers for Safety: Continuing the Tradition.2017summit.png

Carnegie Mellon University’s Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation (T-SET) University Transportation Center (UTC) hosted our third and final National UTC Safety Summit on Thursday, April 6, 2017 at the Holiday Inn Washington – Capitol. Following the Summit, CMU has handed the baton over to a newly awarded National UTC for Safety – the Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety housed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Carnegie Mellon will continue to be one of five national University Transportation Centers funded by the United States Department of Transportation, but our newly awarded center is under the theme of improving the mobility of people and goods. In continuing the tradition, we will host another National Summit in 2018 – this time on mobility.

At this year’s summit, we held three panels. The first panel, “Rebuilding our Infrastructure with Technology for Improved Safety,” was moderated by David Harkey, Director of the Highway Safety Research Centercat the University of North Carolina, and featured Una Connolly of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, Sue Chrysler with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, Art Guzzetti from the American Public Transportation Association, Brian Watson representing the American Traffic Safety Services Association, and Tom Weakley with the Independent Drivers Association Foundation. During this discussion, panelists covered ideas of incorporating new technologies to meet the goal of improved safety.

The second panel, “How Do We Safely Deploy Connected and Automated Vehicles,” was moderated by T-SET’s Stan Caldwell, and featured Mike Knodler, Director of the UMass Transportation Center, James Pol of the Federal Highway Administration, Ian Reagan with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and Vinn White of Deloitte’s Future of Mobility and Smart Cities. The panel featured a discussion on enabling and embracing new innovations while maintaining that safety is paramount. Panelists talked about distinctions in terms related to autonomy, expectations for connected infrastructure, dealing with human factors in automation, and liability.

Over lunch, various safety-themed University Transportation Centers gave brief presentations on their research and education efforts to improve transportation safety. 

After lunch, we heard from the last panel, “Safety Issues for Rural Transportation,” moderated by Steve Albert, Executive Director of the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University. The panel featured Rosemarie Anderson of the Federal Highway Administration, Max Donath with the Roadway Safety Institute at the University of Minnesota, Peter Kissinger representing AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, and Darrin Roth from the American Trucking Association. Panelists, shown in the photo above from left to right, discussed key themes in rural transportation, including infrastructure, working with limited resources, improving communication and connectivity, and balancing the need for safety with other important needs.

The Summit closed with a networking reception and Research and Technology Showcase highlighting students and faculty work supported by UTC funding. Thanks to all who participated, continuing the National UTC Safety Summit as a critical forum to convene UTCs with government and industry partners, and ensuring that safety research continues to address real-world transportation needs.

2017 Presentations

Advancing Rural Transportation: Building a Solid Foundation
Steve Albert, Montana State University

Safety Through Disruption (SafeD): Goal Zero National University Transportation Center
Sue Chrysler, Texas A & M University

Human Centered Solutions to Advance Roadway Safety
Max Donath, University of Minnesota

Collaborative Sciences Center for Road Safety
David Harkey, University of North Caroline

Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation, National University Transportation Center
Chris Hendrickson

PacTrans Safety Outreach Project
Cole Kopca, University of Washington

Crash-Imminent Safety (CRIS) UTC
Arda Kurt, The Ohio State University

Southeastern Transportation Center Regional UTC: Comprehensive Transportation Safety
Reginald Souleyrette

2016 Overview

A Summit of University Transportation Centers for Safety: Working in partnership to address real-world transportation problemstriangle.png

Driverless cars, vehicle sensors and actuators, real-time navigation assistance integrated into social networking…these are all technologies being developed to make transportation safer and more efficient. And while the process of creating these technologies is important, innovations like these can only come about when researchers talk to government and industry to know the real-world transportation problems and issues that are being faced.

As one of five national university transportation centers funded by the United States Department of Transportation, Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation Center, the National University Transportation Center for Safety—a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania—is creating opportunities for these innovators, regulators and users to collaborate.

On March 30 and 31, 2016, T-SET UTC hosted the second annual Safety Summit of USDOT University Transportation Centers – a summit of 9 university transportation centers for safety that represented over 50 universities across the country. The two-day event was hosted in Washington, DC at the Capitol Skyline hotel.

The USDOT Acting Undersecretary, Carlos Monje, provided the keynote while a VIP panel focused on the Role of Safety-Themed UTCs in the Future of Mobility. On the panel where Nathaniel Beuse, Associate Administrator, Vehicle Safety Research National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; Michael Trentacoste, Associate Administrator for Research Development and Technology; and Vinn White, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of the Secretary of Transportation.

Panel sessions gave representatives from government, industry associations and the community a chance to voice their priorities regarding transportation safety. Speaking about these issues from a government perspective, along with Acting Under Secretary Carlos Monje, were representatives from the Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Highways and Transit Subcommittee.

“The Safety Summit was an excellent opportunity to learn more about the activities and expertise at the safety related University Transportation Centers and how they potentially fit with government, industry and community safety priorities,” described Monique Evans, the director of safety research and development with the Federal Highway Administration.

Speaking on transportation safety priorities from the industry and community perspective were panel participants from the American Automobile Association (AAA), the American Trucking Association, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the League of American Bicyclists, and the Transportation Research Board.

University faculty then presented on their related research.

“T-SET UTC focuses on real-world problems. And the only way to do this is to partner with the real world,” explained Carnegie Mellon’s T-SET UTC Director Raj Rajkumar. “The summit gave researchers, government, and industry representatives this opportunity to have conversations in order to create new collaborate efforts to further transportation technology.”

2015 Overview

DOT Assistant Secretary Greg Winfree Keynotes UTC Safety Summit To Address Real-World Transportation Problemssecreatary-visit-small.jpeg

Driverless cars, vehicle sensors and actuators, real-time navigation assistance integrated into social networking…these are all technologies being developed to make transportation safer and more efficient. And while the process of creating these technologies is important, innovations like these can only come about when researchers talk to government and industry to know the real-world transportation problems and issues that are being faced.

As one of five national university transportation centers funded by the United States Department of Transportation, Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation Center, the National University Transportation Center for Safety—a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pennsylvania—is creating opportunities for these innovators, regulators and users to collaborate. On March 19 and 20, 2015, T-SET UTC hosted a summit of 14 university transportation centers for safety that represented over 50 universities across the country. US Department of Transportation Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology provided the keynote address and highlighted importance of this event in bringing UTCs together with government and industry leaders to address the DOT’s top priority of safety.

“T-SET UTC focuses on real-world problems. And the only way to do this is to partner with the real world,” explained Carnegie Mellon’s T-SET UTC Director Raj Rajkumar. “The summit gave researchers, government, and industry representatives this opportunity to have conversations in order to create new collaborate efforts to further transportation technology.”

The two-day event hosted in Pittsburgh, PA, began with a welcome and introductions offered by James Garrett, dean of Carnegie Mellon’s College of Engineering; Rajkumar; and Dan Lee, the University of Pennsylvania’s T-SET UTC director.

Panel sessions gave representatives from government, industry associations and the community a chance to voice their priorities regarding transportation safety. Speaking about these issues from a government perspective, along with Assistant Secretary Winfree, were representatives from the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

“The Safety Summit was an excellent opportunity to learn more about the activities and expertise at the safety related University Transportation Centers and how they potentially fit with government, industry and community safety priorities,” described Monique Evans, the director of safety research and development with the Federal Highway Administration.

Speaking on transportation safety priorities from the industry and community perspective were panel participants from the American Automobile Association (AAA), the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Trucking Association, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, the League of American Bicyclists, and the Transportation Research Board. University faculty then presented on their related research.

The second half of the summit was an “unconference.” Participants had the opportunity to respond to the presentations and post about issues or topics that they wanted to discuss. These issues and topics were grouped into themes for breakout sessions: 1) Human Factors and Behavior, 2) Safety Policy, 3) Intelligent Transportation Systems, 4) Innovation, Deployment and Workforce, and 5) Data.

“During the breakout discussions, several areas were identified where partnerships could potentially be formed to leverage resources, minimize duplication, and enhance development of innovations,” Evans said.

This was the first time the UTC’s nationally came together in this manner with government industry to focus primarily on how their education and research initiatives can address the real-world transportation safety needs In closing, Al Biehler, executive director of T-SET, said “Having all the safety-related UTC’s in the same room sharing their work was eye opening and a great first step. Everyone supported having the safety summit become an annual event to perpetuate research collaboration plus demonstrate the value of our collective work in solving real-world challenges.”

Read the 2015 Summit Report

2015 Presentations

Transportation Safety Priorities from the Government Perspective

Transportation Safety Priorities: AASHTO/State Perspectives
Kelly Hardy, AASHTO

Federal Railroad Administration Safety Research Opportunities for the Future
Kevin Kesler, Chief- Rolling Stock R&D, USDOT Federal Railroad Administration

Advancing Safety Through Innovation
Jeffrey Onizuk, Intelligent Transportation System Joint Program Office, U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)

Transportation Safety Priorities from the Government Perspective
Monique R. Evans, P.E., Director, FHWA Office of Safety R&D

Transportation Safety Priorities from the Industry & Community Perspective

AAA: Safety Research Priorities
Avery Ash, Director, Federal Affairs

ASCE and Private Sector Perspectives
Terry Neimeyer, Fellow

Transportation Safety Priorities form the Trucking Industry Perspective
P. Sean Garney, Director, Safety Policy

Research Priorities
Jessica B. Cicchino

ITS America – UTC Safety Summit Presentation

Bicyclists: Advocates for Zero Deaths
Andy Clark, President and CEO, League of American Bicyclists

Safety Research within Strategic Highway Research Program 2: Past, Present, Future
Paul P Jovanis Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Penn State

TRB Safety
Bernardo B. Kleiner, Transportation Safety Specialist

University Transportation Centers’ Safety Research and Education Overview

Technologies for Safe and Efficient Transportation, the USDOT National UTC for Safety
Raj Rajkumar, Director

Institute for Safety and Operations of Large-Area Rural-Urban Intermodal Systems (SOLARIS)
Chuck Reider, P.E and Dr. Hao Xu, Assistant Professor, University of Nevada Reno

Midwest Transportation Center, Overview of Safety Related Activities
Shauna Hallmark

National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC)
Jennifer Dill, Director

PacTrans Safety Research and Education Overviews
Zhibin Li, Ph.D., University of Washington

Overview of SAFER SIM UTC Research
Dr. David A. Noyce, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin – Madison

Southeastern Transportation Center
Stephen Richards, Director

University Transportation Center for Railway Safety
Constantine Tarawneh, Ph.D., UTCRS Director

Crash Imminent Safety
Professor Umit Ozguner

ATLAS Center Research and Education Programs
Lidia P. Kostyniuk, Ph.D., P.E., Research Coordinator

Safety Research at the Data-Supported Transportation Operations and Planning (D-STOP) UTC
Dr. Jen Duthie

Larson Institute Transportation Operations Program Safety Research
Paul P. Jovanis, Professor Emeritus and Eric Donnell, Associate Professor

Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation, Rutgers University
Mohsen Jafari