6TH ANNUAL UTC CONFERENCE FOR SOUTHEASTERN REGION
C2M2 hosted the 6th Annual University Transportation Centers Conference for the Southeastern Region, at the Madren Conference Center in Clemson, SC. This conference featured, Carla Bailo of the Center for Automotive Research as a keynote speaker, a State DOT Panel, research presentations by students and faculty with prizes for the top three student poster presentations and top three student oral presentations, and a Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Technology Demonstration.
Dr. Chowdhury, C2M2 Director, and Ms. Charlotte Ryggs, Program Coordinator, Clemson University, led the planning committee for the 6th Annual UTC Conference for the Southeastern Region, which will be hosted by C2M2 on October 24 and 25, 2018 at Clemson University. The planning committee was made up of UTC directors from the Southeastern Region, with representatives from Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education (STRIDE), University of Florida Transportation Institute (UFTI), Center for Urban Transportation Research (CURT), and other partnering schools. This planning committee held monthly calls, culminating in the fall conference.
C²M² Fall 2017 Conference
On November 3rd, 2017, C²M² hosted our first annual Fall Conference. The theme was “New Frontiers in Connected Multimodal Mobility.” The proceedings featured several exciting speakers and a live demonstration of the Center’s connected vehicle technology. The conference opened with an overview of our partner institutions and the key components of our Center. Each of our Associate Directors — from Benedict College, the Citadel, South Carolina State University, and the University of South Carolina — spoke briefly about the work that their schools are contributing to C²M² and the research that they are engaged in. Their presentations were followed by our keynote speaker, Dr. Chris Hendrickson, who is the Director of the Traffic21 Institute and the Hamerschlag University Professor of Engineering Emeritus at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Hendrickson spoke about “Transformational Transportation Technologies,” and more specifically about the work that the Traffic21 Institute is doing with autonomous- and connected-vehicle technology. After Dr. Hendrickson spoke, C²M² director Dr. Mashrur “Ronnie” Chowdhury took the stage to discuss his research on connected vehicles and connected infrastructure. Our last speaker of the morning was Fred Payne, Greenville County Councilor, who was instrumental in acquiring a four million dollar grant to launch autonomous taxis in Greenville County. Mr. Payne’s talk was well received and followed by a lively question and answer period. After lunch, our final speaker of the day was the South Carolina Department of Transpor-tation (SCDOT) Deputy of Intermodal Planning, Jim Feda, who gave a talk on the SCDOT’s ten-year plan to rebuild South Carolina’s road system. Mr. Feda’s talk was followed by a change in venue, as conference at-tendees were bused to another location where a live demonstration of C²M²’s connected vehicle technology was given. The demo was spread over two adjacent sites. At the first site, attendees could watch on two screens as connected vehicles sent notifications when the cars were stuck in a queue and when collisions were imminent. We also demonstrated our CVGuard, which is a V2I cybersecurity platform and real-time CV data-sharing toolkit, which will make the data from the Clemson testbed available to researchers in real time. The attendees were then able to inspect the technology within the vehicles and ask questions. The second site demonstrated our CV devices and big data analytics for connected vehicles. Our conference concluded after the attendees were bused back to the Madren Center. Videos of our speakers’ talks and our CV technology demonstrations have been posted on our YouTube channel and below.