Research Activities
- As coordinator of this Major Research Initiative (MRI), Asad Khattak had developed a work plan with the involvement of UT faculty (Han, Cherry, & Nambisan), Civil Engineering faculty from the University of Kentucky (Chen), and faculty from the University of Central Florida (Aty). Substantial work was accomplished, with a final report for year one activities submitted by Khattak for the UT portion of the project. The project has already resulted in several technical papers in refereed journals and presentations at conferences (Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.). Work was done on submitting research papers to the 2016 TRB annual meeting during the reporting period.
- Khattak gave an invited talk in the Plenary Session of the 15th COTA International Conference of Transportation Professionals, CICTP, Beijing, China, June 2015. He discussed safety issues and highlighted some of the STC work on big data generated by connected and automated vehicles during the talk.
- Charged by STC Director Steve Richards and STC Research Director Reg Souleyrette to promote and seek inter- and intra-MRI synergistic efforts, Han’s team of doctoral students continued to work on the Big Data MRI. Specifically, they worked on error propagation models of real-time GPS data collected from circumstances similar to “Naturalistic Driving” type of efforts.
- Han’s team collected and analyzed real-time travel time data on multiple sections in Nashville, TN. The data were collected from license plate readers, Bluetooth readers, probe vehicles, INRIX database, NAVTEQ, Remote Traffic Microwave Sensors (RTMS), and several other sources, all in real time. The quality of the data and the accuracy of different technologies were studied as part of the Big Data MRI.
- Cherry gave an invited talk in the Tennessee Bike Summit, Knoxville, TN, April 2015. He discussed the study of bicycle crash at railroad tracks funded by STC
- Khattak worked on an analysis of work zone data, meant to enhance the work zone procedure in HSM. Khattak used work zone data to prepare a technical paper for the 2016 Transportation Research Board annual meeting (the paper was accepted for both presentation at the TRB annual meeting and publication in the Transportation Research Record, TRB, Washington, DC.).
- Han and Khattak of the University of Tennessee worked with the coordinators (Radwan & Stamatiadis), to develop simulations of large-scale incidents during evacuations. Work continued on various tasks that involve review of commonly used simulation tools and their capability to model incidents, accidents, and traffic operation under such conditions. Initial results were presented at the STC Fall Conference in Knoxville.
- In his role as co-coordinator, Nambisan continued to work with Polzin (USF) on the MRI with Cherry’s participation.
Educational Activities
- Nambisan served as the Director of Education, Southeastern Transportation Center, coordinating the educational component.
- Leveraging the STC funding Shashi Nambisan worked on a $1.2 Million, three-year research project sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control on improving night-time seat belt use through education and enforcement strategies with broad stakeholder participation
- A course on intelligent transportation systems covering safety aspects of connected and automated vehicles was offered by Khattak during fall 2015, with 10 graduate students. Another safety course on accident reconstruction was offered in summer 2015 by Richards. These two transportation safety courses were revised and updated for delivery. A total of 5 courses were offered in spring 2015 as part of the transportation curriculum in Civil & Environmental Engineering.
- Cherry participated in STEMPUNK Reverse Science Fair, a part of UT’s Middle School Introduction to Engineering Systems for rising seventh-graders, which is funded by National Science Foundation. Cherry introduced some of the STC work on big data and urban transportation safety.
The recent weekly Speaker Series and Webinars included
- Marc Fialkoff, Oak Ridge National Lab.
- Patricia Hu, Director, Bureau of Transportation Statistics, U.S. Department of Transportation
- Mark Best, ITS/Traffic Manager, TDOT Region 1 TMC
Previously recorded seminars are available at: Transportation Seminars
- Han gave two invited talks at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu and at Chang’an University in Xi’an, China in October 2014. Both talks were about massive real-time data collection, filtering, imputation, analysis, and fusion challenges and research activities at UT. Faster-than-real-time simulation is a key issue for incident/emergency operations to maintain and attain safety and security.
- Cherry gave an invited talk at Stanford University about the role of low speed electric two wheelers (e.g. E-bikes) in multi-models transportation system, focusing on sustainability and safety. Cherry also gave a related talk at the conference on Transportation Planning and Implementation Methodologies for developing countries in India.
- The UT team of students won the ITE Traffic Bowl for the Tennessee Section
- Nine UT students received the TSITE scholarships
- STC sponsored travel of 3 University of Tennessee students to attend and present technical papers at the Orlando conference.
- Six UT students received the STC scholarships. They worked on safety issues during 2015.
- A new group of 9 students recruited successfully for fall 2015.
- A paper titled “Transportation Systems STEM Summer Academy for Teachers” by Shashi Nambisan, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Jennifer Richards, Department of Food Science and Technology – was selected as the best paper in the STEM and Community Engagement section at the Engineering Leaders for Grand Challenges conference held in November 2014 at Texas A&M University at Qatar. The paper summarized efforts related to and outcomes from the development and implementation of a three day, transportation-systems-based summer academy for teachers. They have been invited to submit the paper for publication in the inaugural issue of the Engineering Education Letters.
- A paper titled “Transportation Systems Based Summer Academy for Teachers” by Shashi Nambisan, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Jennifer Richards, Department of Food Science and Technology – was accepted for presentation in a session sponsored by the K-12 and Precollege Engineering Division at the Annual Conference of the American Society for Engineering Education in Seattle, WA in June 2015 and for publication in the conference proceedings.
- Shashi Nambisan, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is partnering with the Office of Diversity Programs, College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee to conduct eVol9, a weeklong program for 9th Grade Students, as part of the 2015 Summer Pre-College Program. The program is titled “Experiments in Transportation: Speed, Distance, Volume, Mass, Acceleration, Braking – So What?” and it is expected to have thirty-two 9th graders participating in it from June 14 to 19. He will be supported by Mr. Kwaku Boakye and Ms. Ebony Lemons, Graduate Students in Transportation Engineering, and 8 undergraduate peer-mentors from the Office of Diversity Programs.
- Transportation Systems STEM Summer Academy for Teachers. This program had participation of 14 selected elementary, middle, and high school teachers from across East Tennessee. The program included a brief “in-class” overviews of transportation systems, logistics and supply chain management, followed by “Site” or “Field” visits to a variety of real-life settings such a state Department of Transportation District Headquarters, a lock-and-dam systems and navigation system, a commercial airport and airfield, a traffic signal systems laboratory, and a crash-reconstruction study site. Teachers also had the experience of using a driving simulator operated by TESP on UT campus.
- Shashi Nambisan, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, partnered with the Office of Diversity Programs, College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee to conduct eVol9, a weeklong program for 9th Grade Students, as part of the 2015 Summer Pre?College Program. The program was titled “Experiments in Transportation: Speed, Distance, Volume, Mass, Acceleration, Braking – So What?” and thirty (30) 9th graders participated in this residential progam in June 2015. Mr. Kwaku Boakye and Ms. Ebony Lemons, both graduate students, provided support. The primary foci of this program were first to introduce 30 ninth grade students to aspects of transportation engineering, particularly on how human and vehicle factors impact the design and operation of roadways and secondly, to educate teenagers on why road safety should be of value and priority to them. Specific activities included the following: Lecture sessions on topics related to road infrastructure, vehicle and road users; Experimental design of how “stopping sight distance” impact the design of road infrastructures; in class activity on how vehicle loads impact the design of roadway pavement; evaluations were made through a before and after in-class and online survey. Results of the surveys showed a positive impact of the program.
- CURENT & TESP Summer Research Program for High School Students. In this program two high school students were mentored by Professors Nambisan anc Cherry, and Kwaku Boakye, a graduate student, to conduct research related to transportation and energy. This program was a 6-week joint effort organized by TESP and CURENT (Center for Ultra-Wide-Area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission Network). The topic the students research on was “Analysis of Naturalistic Electric Bike Rider Behavior: Energy and Power Considerations.” At the end of the program, the students made PowerPoint and poster presentations at a fair hosted by CURENT.