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.

Innovation Hub Presentation Slide

A number of CAIT research projects were presented at the 22nd Annual NJDOT Research Showcase.

Research Highlights:

The 22nd Annual NJDOT Research Showcase was held virtually this year from October 27th-29th and provided an opportunity for researchers to showcase latest work and innovations to the larger New Jersey transportation community.

Each day of the event offered presentations from experts on topics such as emerging technologies, effects of COVID-19 on transportation, and more. Presentations from CAIT researchers were featured throughout the research showcase. 

Drs. Sotiris Theofanis and Maria Boile, both CAIT-affiliated researchers, gave a presentation titled “The Effect of Covid-19 on the Port Industry – Global Trends & Regional Effects.” It covered the role of ports in facilitating global supply chains in response to and during the COVID-19 pandemic and more.

CAIT Director Dr. Ali Maher and affiliated researcher Dr. Peter Jin discussed the New Brunswick Innovation Hub Smart Mobility Testing Ground project during their presentation. The project plans to turn the downtown New Brunswick area into a test bed for high-resolution mobility data-gathering, analysis, and sharing technologies that will help implement autonomous vehicle systems in the future.

The NJDOT Flood Risk Visualization Tool was another CAIT project presented by affiliated researcher and executive director of the Alan M. Voorhees Transportation Center at Rutgers, Mr. Jon A. Carnegie. This tool aims to enhance capacity for NJDOT personnel to assess the flood vulnerability of its infrastructure and assets.

To watch these presentations and learn more about the featured CAIT research, visit the NJDOT Tech Transfer website.

In the News:

UTC partners at Rowan University were recently featured for their Research and Education in Advanced Transportation Engineering Systems (CREATES) lab. CREATES is studying a number of transportation questions including ways to improve roads, traffic signal performance, the effectiveness of pedestrian safety campaigns, and more.

Visit Rowan Today to learn more about the program. 

CAIT-affiliated researcher, and an assistant professor of civil engineering and engineering mechanics at Columbia University, Dr. Sharon Di has won a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for her work in the nascent field of autonomous vehicles and shared mobility transportation.

Read more about the award and her research here.

CAIT-affiliated researcher Dr. James W. Hughes has been tracking the impact of COVID-19 on New Jersey’s economic recovery through the CAIT-published “Fast Track Research Notes.” To date, the six reports published have been downloaded more than 7,500 times on the Rutgers University Library system. 

Read more about the latest report, “Coronavirus Economic Advances Wane: Fast Lane to Slow Lane in New Jersey and the Nation,” here and stay tuned for more in the new year.