Central State University investigating safety aspects of self-driving cars
March 30, 2023 — Central State University and partners in the Region V University Transportation Center (UTC) received $15 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Center for Connected and Automated Transportation (CCAT).
Along with Central State, partners include the University of Michigan, Purdue University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Akron, Washtenaw Community College, Northwestern University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. This collaboration represents one of the nation's 10 regional DOT Centers of Excellence.
CCAT aims to advance research on the safety, mobility, and sustainability of connected vehicles, connected infrastructure, and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), also called self-driving cars.
The University will investigate the vulnerability of CAVs to cyber threats by engaging faculty and students from Mathematics and Computer Science within Central State University’s John W. Garland College of Engineering, Science, Technology, and Agriculture.
CSU will uniquely address the inclusion of low-income and minorities in CAV research and access to technology by engaging faculty and students from the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Environmental Engineering faculty will investigate how to create sustainable CAV systems using renewable energy sources, minimizing carbon and environmental footprints.
Professor Krishna Kumar Nedunuri explained, "CSU's research focuses on mitigating ground-level pollution from on-road vehicle emissions in congested interstate highways. CSU Environmental Engineering Program is developing a web-based air quality mobile app deployed onboard CAVs that not only collect pollution data but also alerts passengers approaching these highways of any adverse air quality and allows them to search alternate routes.”
According to transportation.gov, the UTC program awards and administers grants to consortia of colleges and universities across the United States. The UTC Program advances state-of-the-art transportation research and technology innovations and develops the next generation of transportation professionals.
Internationally recognized for their capacity to lead, innovate, and educate, UTCs continue to enhance and transform the transportation system, keeping it in step with the nation’s economic, environmental, and societal goals. "They advance U.S. technology and expertise in transportation through education, solutions-oriented research and technology transfer, and the exploration and sharing of cutting-edge ideas and approaches," the website says.
Pictured above: Marauders Jalen Smith and Kimberly Smith of the Central State University Environmental Engineering Program, Department of Water Resources Management, won honors in the undergraduate-level category in the sixth annual CCAT Global Symposium student poster competition, held April 4-5 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
