Diversity Activities – Center for Connected Multimodal Mobility

National Dialogue on UTC and HBCU Relationships

cryggs@clemson.edu — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 18:55:11 +0000

As part of our continuing dialogue on the involvement of HBCUs in University Transportation Centers, C²M² organized and hosted an HBCU Partnership Panel Discussion as part of our C²M² 5th Annual Fall Conference. This morning session was led by Dr. Vareva Harris, Benedict College, and Dr. Mashrur “Ronnie” Chowdhury, Clemson University, and featured the following panelists from various HBCUs around the nation.

Deo Chimba – Tennessee State University
Catherine Armwood-Gordon – Tennessee State University
Stephen Arhin – Howard University
KrishnaKumar Nedunuri – Central State University
Mansoureh Jeihani – Morgan State University
Gurcan Comert – Benedict College
Judith Mwakalonge – South Carolina State University

Panelists discussed how their institutions currently work with UTCs, and the various barriers they face with involvement as well as their thoughts on how to improve these relationships including how to involve HBCUs that are not partnered with a UTC. They answered questions on how they thought UTCs could strengthen their relationship with HBCUs, increase student participation, and what support they would like to see from the USDOT and UTCs. Following the panel discussion, participants broke out into three break-out sessions where our panelists and audience members further discussed the following before returning to the main chat for a debrief.

HBCU leadership and partnership in UTCs
- Moderator: Dr. Mansoureh Jeihani
Involving more HBCUs in UTCs
- Moderator: Dr. Sakib Khan
2021 American Jobs Plan and HBCU partnership
- Moderator: Dr. Vareva Harris

75 people participated in this dialogue and C²M² plans to use the takeaways compiled from this discussion to continue working with our HBCU partners and the USDOT to improve HBCU participation in UTCs.

Path to Entrepreneurship for HBCU Students Webinar

cryggs@clemson.edu — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 14:55:49 +0000

C²M² would like to thank all of our speakers, panel members, and participants who took part in our “Path to Entrepreneurship for HBCU Students” webinar. This webinar featured Shelby M. Scales, Director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, talks from Hebrew Dixon, Mid South Atlantic Region, Small Business Transportation Resource Center, Kendrick Faison, SpatialGIS, Eric Saint-Marc, ThinkAhead, and Matt Bell, SCLaunch Director, and a panel discussion moderated by Will Cruz, SCLaunch Investment Manager, that featured Minority and Female Owned business founders and HBCU students. You will also hear from Nicole Johnson, Boyd Cycling, and Cephus Simmons, M.D., SealCath, both South Carolina business founders as they discuss their path to entrepreneurship.

Resources discussed in this webinar can be found at the following links.

Books discussed

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It – by Michael Gerber
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t – by Jim C. Collins

Featured Speakers

Shelby M. Scales
Hebrew Dixon, III
Eric Saint-Marc
Kendrick Faison
Nicole Johnson
Cephus Simmons, M.D.

C2M2 Webinar Series: Path to Academic Careers for HBCU Students

cryggs@clemson.edu — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 17:44:05 +0000

C²M² would like to thank our moderators, Mansoureh Jeihani, Morgan State University, and Mashrur “Ronnie” Chowdhury, Clemson University, and our panel members, Julian Brinkley, Clemson University, Vareva Harris, Benedict College, Aqueasha Martin-Hammond, University of Indiana-Purdue University Indianapolis, Judith Mwakalonge, South Carolina State University, Laurence Rilett, Auburn University, and Yan “Joann” Zhou, Argonne National Lab, for speaking on the “Path to Academic Careers for HBCU Students.” Our panelists pulled from their experience working at and with HBCUs and their students to give insight on the various career paths to academic careers. You can find this recording and additional resources for students on our Youtube channel and the Webinar section of our website.

Mansoureh Jeihani and Mashrur “Ronnie” Chowdhury

Panel Members

Julian Brinkley
Vareva Harris
Aqueasha Martin-Hammond
Judith Mwakalonge
Yan “Joann” Zhou

Leadership Activities

cryggs@clemson.edu — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 15:23:17 +0000

Note: BC- Benedict College; TC- The Citadel; CU- Clemson University; SCSU- South Carolina State University; and USC- University of South Carolina.

C²M² Affiliate(s)	Activity	Date
TC	Drs. Michalaka and Brown took five students to participate in the City of Charleston Transportation Workshop hosted by the Charleston Mayor, City Council, State Senate, and City Staff	Oct 2017
CU	Clemson student Katherine Brunk received the U.S. DOT Dwight E. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship	Jan 2018
TC	Dr. Michalaka was selected to participate in LeadershipITE, the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) leadership development program	Jan 2018
TC	Dr. Michalaka was selected as the recipient of the ITE “Legacy Fund Scholarship” in conjunction with her acceptance into the LeadershipITE program	Jan 2018
TC	Drs. Michalaka and Brown were nominated as the Chair and Vice Chair of the Engineering Graphics division, respectively, of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Southeast Section (SE)	March 2018
USC	Drs. Huynh and Rizos co-planned and hosted the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-way Association (AREMA) Railway Engineering Education Symposium 2018	June 2018
CU	Mr. Rahman, a Clemson PhD student, hosted four students from the South Carolina Governor School for Science and Mathematics Accelerate Program, mentoring them for a week as they conducted research in the Cyber-Physical Systems Lab	June 2018
CU	Dr. Chowdhury hosted two PhD students from Wingate University studying the efficacy of outreach activities and research dissemination	June 2018
CU	Dr. Chowdhury led the planning committee and hosted the 6th Annual UTC Conference for the Southeastern Region	Jan -Oct 2018
BC	Dr. Comert mentored seven undergraduate students as part of Benedict College’s Summer Undergraduate Research Institute (SURI)	June-July 2018
TC	Dr. Michalaka organized a Connected Vehicle Workshop for professional development for SCDOT engineers	June 2018
TC	Dr. Michalaka organized and led the ITE/ASCE Summer meeting	June 2018
USC	Dr. Mullen served as the honorary chair at the Reliable Engineering Computing Meeting	July 018

Prior Diversity Activities

cryggs@clemson.edu — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 20:14:44 +0000

Note: BC- Benedict College; TC- The Citadel; CU- Clemson University;
SCSU- South Carolina State University; and USC- University of South Carolina.

C²M² Affiliate	Activity	Date
BC & USC	Two day workshop EFFECT (Environments for Fostering Critical Thinking) resulting in a course offered jointing at BC & USC	May 2017
BC	Dr. Comert and a student participated in the Summer Research Team for Minority Serving Institutions at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne	May-Aug 2017
USC & BC	Dr. Huynh hosted Summer Transportation Institute (STI) students at USC and introduced them to local SCDOT professionals	May 2017
CU & BC	Dr. Chowdhury hosts students from STI giving a Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (C/AV) demonstration	June 2017
TC	Drs. Michalaka & Brown gave engineering tours of the Citadel to 80 potential students, demonstrating highway engineering design projects	Fall 2017
CU	Dr. Chowdhury and sponsored students give C/AV demos to prospective students at the Glenn Dept of Civil Engineering Discovery Night	Sept 2017
CU	Dr. Chowdhury gave lab demonstrations as part of Engineering Week at Clemson	Feb 2018
TC	Dr. Michalaka partners with the Citadel student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and the Girl Scouts of Eastern South Carolina to plan and host a “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day” for middle school girls	Feb 2018
TC	Drs. Michalaka & Brown gave engineering tours of the Citadel to potential students, demonstrating sponsored transportation projects	April 2018
SCSU	Dr. Mwakalonge and sponsored students presented posters outlining their work on C²M² sponsored projects at SCSU’s STEM Expo	April 2018
TC	Dr. Michalaka hosted a week long engineering summer program at the South Carolina Governor’s School for Mathematics and Science titled “Tour of Engineering”	June 2018
BC & CU	Drs. Comert and Geter of BC host STI students for the summer and take two trips to Clemson for C/AV demos with Dr. Chowdhury and a trip to USC to vist Dr. Huynh	June 2018
SCSU	Dr. Mwakalonge hosted STI students from Michigan, demonstrating her work on distracted walking	July 2018
CU	Dr. Chowdhury and students participated in the second Engineering Discovery Night at the Glenn Dept of Civil Engineering	Sept 2018
CU	C²M² hosted the 6th Annual UTC Conference for the Southeastern Region	Oct 2018

Distinguished Speaker Series

Speaker	Topic of Discussion	Date
Dr. Essam Radwan, Unv. of Central Florida	“Simulation of Vehicular Pedestrian Conflicts”	Sept 8, 2017
Dr. Chris Hendrickson, Carnegie Mellon Unv.	“Transformational Transportation Technologies”	Nov 3, 2017
Dr. Yan (Joann) Zhou, Argonne National Laboratory	“National Inter-City Freight Energy Analysis of Smart Technologies and Mode Shift”	Feb 23, 2018
Dr. Mohan Venigalla, George Mason Unv.	“Price Discovery in Shared Mobility: Lessons from Capital Bikeshare”	March 15, 2018
Dr. Chris Gerdes, Stanford Unv.	Research at the Center for Automotive Research (CARS)	March 28, 2018
Dr. GG. Md. Nawaz Ali, CU-ICAR	“Mobility for Tomorrow: A Large Scale Smart Mobility Test Bed	April 13, 2018
Dr. Patriciat Mokhtarian, Georgia Tech	“It’s Not All Fun and Games: An Investigation of the Reported Benefits and Disadvantages of Conducting Activities While Commuting	April 27, 2018
Dr. Ardalan Vahidi, Clemson Unv.	“Coordinating Connected Cars and Signals in Smart Cities”	March 28, 2019
Dr. Michael Hunter, Georgia Institute of Technology	“Smart City Real-Time Data-Driven Transportation Simulation”	April 5, 2019
Bryant Walker Smith, Unv. of South Carolina	“Discussing the Laws and Ethics of Autonomous Vehicles”	April 9, 2019
Mac Devine, IBM Cloud Division	“Perfect Storm”	July 23, 2019
Dr. Long Cheng, Clemson Unv.	““Securing Automotive CyberPhysical Systems”	Oct. 10, 2019
Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham, Unv. of Texas, Dallas	“SecAI: Integrating Cyber Security and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Applications in Internet of Transportation and Infrastructures”	Oct. 18, 2019
Dr. Bing Li, CU-ICAR	“Assistive Navigation for Disabled Travelers in the Transportation Chains”	March 5, 2020
Dr. Eric Morris, Clemson Unv.	“Good Trips: The Connection Between Travel and Quality of Life”	March 6, 2020
Ivan Lichtenstein, Georgia Department of Transportation	“Media and the Traffic Management Center”	April 2, 2020
Dr. Dimitra Michalaka, The Citadel	“Dr. Michalaka’s Path – What is Leadership in Today’s Society?”	April 3, 2020
Dr. Gurcan Comert, Benedict College	“Uncertain Quantification from Cyber Attacks and Detection Problems in Connected and Autonomous Vehicles”	April 3, 2020
Mac Devine, IBM Cloud Division	“Enabling the Age of Autonomy with the Internet of Moving Things”	April 10, 2020
Carla Bailo, Center for Automotive Research (CAR)	“Smart Cities, Mobility, and Human Behavior – Seamless Integration?”	April 17, 2020
Dr. Lily Elefteriadou, Unv. of Florida	“Optimizing Traffic Signal Control with Connected and Autonomous Vehicles in Traffic Stream”	May 27, 2020
Dr. Mitch Shue, Clemson Unv.	“Cloud for Connected Mobility – Current State of Cloud Computing”	July 7, 2020
Dr. Kara Kockelman, Unv. of Texas, Austin	“Shifting toward Shared Fleets & Shared Rides, via Autonomous Vehicles & Congestion Pricing”	July 10, 2020
Dr. Mashrur “Ronnie” Chowdhury, Clemson Unv.	“Generating Personal Safety Messages (PSMs) for Pedestrian Safety in a Connected Vehicle Environment”	July 17, 2020
Dr. James H. Lambert, Unv. of Virginia	“Resilience of Advanced Logistics Systems with Emergent and Future Conditions”	Aug. 12, 2020
Dr. Mashrur “Ronnie” Chowdhury, Clemson Unv.	“Public Digital Infrastructure Deployment for Future Mobility”	Aug. 27, 2020
Dr. Richard R. Brooks, Clemson Unv.	“Autonomous Systems Need to be Designed using Game Theory”	Sept. 18, 2020
Dr. Judith Mwakalonge, South Carolina State Unv.	“Personal Electric Mobility Devices (PEMDs): Then, Now, and the Future”	Oct. 9, 2020
Dr. Brian D. Taylor, Unv. of California Los Angeles	“Congested Development: Rethinking the Consequences of Development and Traffic Congestion”	Oct. 16, 2020
Dr. Jennifer Ogle, Clemson Unv.	“Assessment of Safety Benefits of Technologies to Reduce Pedestrian Crossing Fatalities at Midblock Locations”	Oct. 29, 2020
Dr. Kaan Ozbay, New York Unv. Tandon School of Engineering	“Understanding Mobility and Policy Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic in New York City through the use of Big Data and Machine Learning”	Nov. 13, 2020
Dr. Anthony Patire, California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology (PATH), Unv. of California – Berkley	“A Peek Under the Hood” of the Connected Corridors ICM I-210 Pilot”	Dec. 15, 2020
Dr. Mashrur “Ronnie” Chowdhury, Clemson Unv.	“Roadway Safety Advancement through Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs)”	Jan. 4, 2021
Dr. Gurcan Comert, Benedict College	“Delivery of Contextual and Critical Skills Related to Connected and Autonomous Vehicles through Problem-based Learning in HBCU Classrooms and Research”	Jan. 21, 2021
Dr. Laurence R. Rilett, Unv. of Nebraska	“Estimating and Forecasting Transportation Metrics: Lessons Learned”	Feb. 12, 2021
Dr. Angshuman Guin, Georgia Institute of Technology	“Improving Incident Management and Traffic Operations with Machine Learning”	Feb. 19, 2021
Dr. Pamela Murray-Tuite, Clemson Unv.	“Sharing Self-Driving, Autonomous Vehicles for Evacuation”	March 5, 2021
Dr. Satish V. Ukkusuri, Purdue Unv.	“Does Mobility as a Service Systems Make Cities Smarter? – Evidence from Large Scale Trajectory Data”	March 12, 2021
Drs. William “Bill” Ferrell, Clemson Unv., and Nathan Huynh, Unv. of South Carolina	“Freight Logistics and Intermodal Network Design“	April 2, 2021
Dr. Mizanur “Mizan” Rahman, the Unv. of Alabama – Birmingham	“A Physics-based Longitudinal Control Model for Automated Vehicles in a Mixed Traffic Environment“	May 28, 2021
Dr. Bing Li, CU-ICAR	“Computer Vision and AI-Based Wayfinding for Blind or Visually Impaired Travelers“	June 4, 2021
Dr. Kweku Brown, The Citadel	“Assessing Potential of Bike Share Networks and Active Transportation to Improve Urban Mobility, Physical Activity and Public Health Outcomes in South Carolina”	June 18, 2021