2018-Annual-Report.Pdf
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ANNUAL REPORT‘18 TABLE OF CONTENTS MISSION & MEDIA STAKEHOLDERS VISION STATEMENT COVERAGE FACILITIES CENTERS, OUTREACH & GROUPS, & COMMUNITY INITIATIVES ENGAGEMENT 04 47 08 32 43 68 62 06 12 46 36 50 PUBLICATIONS MESSAGE FROM PROJECT THE DIRECTOR HIGHLIGHTS SPONSORS, CLIENTS, PRESENTATIONS, HONORS, & PARTNERS AWARDS, & SERVICES 2 3 MISSION & VISION The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) conducts research to save lives, save time, save money, and protect the environment. Researchers and students from multiple fields are continuously developing the techniques and technologies to solve transportation challenges from vehicular, driver, infrastructure, and environmental perspectives. As one of seven premier research institutes created by Virginia Tech to answer national challenges, VTTI has effected significant change in public policies for driver, passenger, and pedestrian safety and is advancing the design of vehicles and infrastructure to increase safety and reduce environmental impacts. 4 5 MESSAGE FROM VTTI: Surpassing milestones, advancing transportation solutions The transportation landscape is rapidly evolving, and VTTI — along with its affiliated corporation in Southern Virginia, the Global Center for Automotive Performance Simulation (GCAPS) — is keeping pace to address THE DIRECTOR industry needs while ensuring the safety of transportation users. This year, the institute surpassed several milestones, including: • Expending more than $40 million in externally sponsored research funding, accounting for approximately $1 out of every $7 of external research in the Virginia Tech portfolio in fiscal year 2018. • Exceeding $51 million in new external contracts and awards received in fiscal year 2018, resulting in a total active portfolio that now exceeds $200 million. This funding supports the institute’s 300 active projects, all of which aim to save lives, time, money, and protect the environment. The institute rapidly expanded, with 40 open positions for new faculty, staff, and students. • Diversifying funding, with more than 50 percent of funding coming from private-sector partners, including 14 auto manufacturers and more than 50 suppliers. • Employing more than 500 faculty, staff, and students, a number that included 280 undergraduate and graduate students from five Virginia Tech colleges and more than one dozen university departments who gained hands-on experience in conducting cutting-edge transportation research. The transportation institute’s $110 million infrastructure, which was built largely via external partnerships with public and private-sector partners, includes GCAPS. Originally funded by General Motors, the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification Commission, and Virginia Tech, the center now generates more than $5 million in revenue each year and has created 70 direct and indirect jobs in the Southern Virginia region. The institute’s infrastructure also includes the recent Virginia Smart Roads expansion project, developed in partnership with the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT). The cornerstone of the transportation institute, Smart Roads research and outreach use this year neared 3,000 hours — or approximately 60 hours per week — across multiple sponsors. Institute researchers are currently working with sponsors such as GM, Ford, Nissan, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to investigate advanced driver-assistance systems and vehicle automation, both of which are quickly transforming the transportation industry. This is certainly exciting in terms of safety and mobility innovations but carries with it serious challenges and questions that need to be answered. For example, how should these cars and trucks be designed, tested, and deployed so they will be able to navigate all road types in all weather and lighting conditions, avoid unexpected obstacles, and ensure that all transportation users are safer as a result? To help address these questions, VTTI researchers are acquiring large quantities of naturalistic driving data via a methodology pioneered by VTTI. Such data can be used in advanced analytics and simulation methods to help industry leaders determine if advanced safety systems and vehicle automation can operate reliably or cause unintended consequences for drivers, such as distraction or reliance upon the system. This approach is ultimately designed to provide a foundation for the safe, efficient development and deployment of advanced vehicles and systems. Another key issue in transportation is teen driving risk and injury prevention. Teen drivers — particularly novice drivers — are overrepresented in national fatality and injury crash statistics. One out of every five young drivers in the U.S. is involved in a crash within the first six months of driving. Researchers at VTTI are dedicated to -Tom Dingus, Ph.D., CHFP reducing these high crash rates and saving teen lives through research and outreach. Director of VTTI The future of transportation holds many challenges, but VTTI — home to the largest group of driving researchers in the world — is diligently working to confront these issues and many others. By working with President of VTT, LLC more than 100 sponsors that include industry partners, government agencies, and suppliers, the institute has Endowed Professor of Engineering at Virginia Tech positioned itself to address critical transportation issues, delivering imaginative safety and design solutions. 6 7 FACILITIES INSTITUTE INFRASTRUCTURE has an infrastructure worth more than $110 unveil four unique expansion projects, each building stitutes across the Commonwealth VTTI million that includes four test beds used upon the Smart Road testing capabilities and collectively are implementing connected applica- extensively for real-world, impactful transportation known as the Virginia Smart Roads: 1) The Surface Street tions that include traveler information, research across both broad and edge-and-corner (open now), which features a residential/urban layout lane closure alerts, and work zone and in- scenarios; more than 120,000 square feet of building with real and reconfigurable buildings, roundabout/ cident management. Under the umbrella of space in Blacksburg and Alton, Va.; and more than 100 stop-controlled intersections, automation-compatible the recently completed Tier 1 U.S. Department owned and leased instrumented vehicles, including pavement markings, and connectivity to the Smart Road; of Transportation (USDOT) Connected Vehicle/ connected-automated light and heavy vehicles. VTTI is 2) The Live Roadway Connector (open now), providing a Infrastructure University Transportation Center, also purchasing an autonomous micro-transit shuttle seamless transition between live traffic and the closed test VTTI, the University of Virginia, and Morgan State that will soon be instrumented for a variety of automation tracks of the Smart Roads while bringing the total length University conducted more than 20 connected projects research projects. of the highway section to 2.5 miles; 3) The Rural Road along the VCC, including emergency vehicle-to-vehicle (opening in 2019), which will be the first testing site of its communications, motorcycle crash warning systems, ing, and deployment of automated-vehicle technology, kind to facilitate advanced-vehicle testing on a controlled eco-speed control, intersection management, and pave- 01. Test Beds with the ultimate goal of helping stakeholders create ro- Headquartered at VTTI, the Virginia Smart Road is a rural roadway environment. The Rural Road will feature ment assessment and management. bust automated and autonomous vehicles. controlled-access facility managed by the institute and hilly, winding roads; short site distances; and will be owned and maintained by the Virginia Department of built to 1965 standards; and 4) The Automation Hub In 2015, VTTI partnered with VDOT, Transurban, the Faculty and students associated with the USDOT-award- Transportation (VDOT). The road is built to Federal (opening in 2018), located on-site at the Virginia Smart Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles, and HERE (a ed Safety through Disruption National University Trans- Highway Administration specifications and features Roads and facilitating short turnaround projects focused high-definition mapping business) to unveil the Virginia portation Center (Safe-D National UTC)—a consortium seven roadside equipment units and two mobile roadside on advanced-vehicle testing in collaboration with VTTI Automated Corridors (VAC). This initiative provides an led by VTTI with partners Texas A&M Transportation equipment sites that facilitate connected-vehicle researchers, industry leaders, and Virginia Tech students, automation-friendly environment that government agen- Institute and San Diego State University— have access to communications; an optical fiber communication system; among others. cies, auto manufacturers, and suppliers can use to test and the Virginia Smart Roads and the Connected and Auto- Ethernet fiber transceivers and Ethernet switches; a certify their systems, providing a system migration path mated Corridors to perform research into disruptive tech- connected-vehicle-compatible intersection controller The Virginia Smart Roads are designed to complement from test-track to real-world operating environments. nologies, such as automated and connected vehicles, big model; varying pavement sections and in-pavement the public testing capabilities offered by the Virgin- The VAC leverages extensive experience in on-road safety data