Award Data

The Mackinac Technology Company is proposing to develop a novel antireflection film that will virtually eliminate the reflection of interior lighting on transit bus windshields and significantly improve driver visibility and passenger/pedestrian safety. Additives are incorporated into windshield glass to reduce solar glare during daylight hours. These additives have the unfortunate effect of in ...

Weigh-In-Motion (WIM) has been employed as a major technology to collect heavy vehicles’ data on the freeways. Because WIM is one of the most costly and sophisticated data collection system, how to effectively utilize the valuable WIM data, monitor WIM stations' performance, and identify out of calibration stations are especially important. In this project, we propose an innovative and yet pract ...

While thorough assessment of concrete chemistry is vital to evaluating the health of (transportation) infrastructure systems, the costly and time-consuming nature of available chemical analysis methods limit their applications. A nondestructive test method will be developed for thorough evaluation of concrete chemistry and deterioration conditions at different depths. An analytical chemistry metho ...

Loss of control associated with an inability of pilots to recover from upsets and unusual attitudes is the leading cause of world-wide commercial jet accidents. A key component in many of these events is pilot spatial disorientation. Improved pilot training in these abnormal flight conditions, including the ability of training simulators to replicate spatial disorientation, is needed to reduce l ...

Congestion due to a work zone can cause accidents, as the drivers may not be prepared to take sudden actions ahead of a work zone or in some cases may not have enough visibility/time. Transmitting alert messages in advance can enable the driver to take safety precautionary measures so that it is beneficial to both the driver and the work zone personnel. The proposal aims to develop a scalable sol ...

Distracted driving could have severe repercussions leading to loss of life, loss of property, and expensive lawsuits. While there can be many reasons for the driver to get distracted, research shows that the probability of accidents from texting/web-surfing while driving is an order of magnitude higher. Although federal law prohibits texting by operators of commercial vehicles and has strict penal ...

The project develops a flexible (flex) route bus system, as an alternative to fixed route system plans, to enhance a transit rider’s experience by routing buses in real-time based on rider demand. The architecture leverages existing smart phone, wireless, Internet and GPS technologies but drives innovation through online routing algorithms based on recent theoretical work in optimization and mac ...

This project initially examines the theoretical basis by which low cost “automotive grade” (typically devices with L1 signal tracking only) GPS and GNSS devices can be made to perform with a very rapid start-up and acquisition times and still maintain a high level of sub meter kinematic accuracy when in the presence of various local correctional data such as RTCM. The resources of such a chip ...

To properly simulate nighttime visibility conditions for driving simulation, one must first consider visibility issues in human vision. From a safety point of view, the driver must see road markings to maintain lane position and navigate complex intersections. The driver must also be able to detect objects including pedestrians that must be avoided. Furthermore, the simulator should present sce ...

We propose a Smartphone based system that can integrate information commonly available on a mobile phone and real time traffic signal phasing data to provide assistance to pedestrians and cyclists for safer intersection crossing. GPS accelerometer and digital compass information from a smart phone together with digital maps will be integrated to determine the location and orientation of a user. R ...