Researchers at the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation continue to conduct important work and take on new challenges in transportation during the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. Here are some of our recent highlights.
Research Highlights
Progress continues to be made on The New Brunswick Innovation Hub – Smart Mobility Testing Ground project. Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT), in partnership with Middlesex County, The City of New Brunswick, and additional private and public partners, plans to turn downtown New Brunswick into a a test bed for high-resolution mobility data-gathering, analysis, and sharing technologies that will help implement autonomous vehicle systems in the future.
Working with its partners, the team has established a project that will address connected mobility in the region, spur research into autonomous and connected vehicles, and help drive the local innovation economy forward. This research has the potential to create safer pedestrian and driving environments while also building up public transit through the integration of autonomous vehicles.
And now, a recent article in Crain’s New York Business highlights how by the fall this living laboratory for innovation will debut in downtown New Brunswick. Read more about the project here, and watch the video below about innovation in Middlesex County, including the Smart Mobility Testing Ground project.
In the News
U.S. News & World Report recently published its 2022 Best Graduate Schools ranking, which evaluated a number of academic programs across disciplines, such as engineering, for students interested in furthering their education beyond college. Engineering programs at Rutgers University, as well as at a number of our UTC partner schools such as the University at Buffalo, Cornell University, and more were ranked.
Read the rankings here to learn more.
Ithaca Week highlighted a new research project, that is a part of the National Science Foundation’s Civic Innovation Challenge and involves CAIT UTC partner Dr. David Orr, centered around hyperlocal weather forecasting. Dr. Orr, director of the Cornell Local Roads Program, said that the project will help make localized weather data and information readily available to stakeholders who want to track weather and road conditions at a hyperlocal level.
This type of data and information can help both local towns and counties, as well as individuals, make plans during winter storm events, he said.
Learn more here.
According to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), in the United States between 2015 and 2019, incidents of pedestrians being struck by trains at crossings grew by 25 percent, and the number of pedestrians killed in these incidents grew by 71 percent.
NJ.com recently highlighted a new project between CAIT and NJ Transit attempting to better address this issue of pedestrian safety around rail crossings. A $357,000 grant award from the Federal Transit Administration’s Safety Research and Demonstration Program was given to fund the project, and will allow the team to research and analyze pedestrian detection at NJ Transit highway rail crossings to reduce fatalities, and deploy new Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that will gather data and help transit agencies develop trespasser avoidance solutions.
Check out the coverage here to learn more about the issue and ongoing research project.
This March, NJBIZ announced its list of winners for the 2021 Digi-Tech Innovators Award. Officials said that the leaders selected for the award had introduced significant technological advancements in New Jersey and helped to enhance the productivity and performance of their companies and the region.
Among the winners was CAIT-affiliated researcher Dr. Peter Jin, an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Dr. Jin’s research area is in Intelligent Transportation Systems with special interests in mobile sensor and content data, connected vehicles, and active transportation and demand management. Recently, he has helped lead the development of the New Brunswick Innovation Hub – Smart Mobility Testing Ground project.
See the list of award winners here.
