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Experts from 麻豆村鈥檚聽 and 39 U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT)聽 (UTCs), both FAST Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded, led the inaugural聽, hosted at the U.S. DOT headquarters in Washington, D.C. Aug. 13-15.聽

Presented by U.S. DOT鈥檚 UTC program and chaired by聽, the director of Safety21, the event highlighted the transformative research by UTCs in the areas of mobility, safety, infrastructure, sustainability and cybersecurity. The conference proceedings will be documented in a summit report to be shared with the UTC research community, federal and congressional leaders, and other interested parties.聽聽

Over 500 attendees, including researchers, congressional staff, federal and state agency and department staff, as well as stakeholders from industry, nonprofit and community organizations, filled the West Atrium of the U.S. DOT鈥檚 headquarters in D.C.鈥檚 Navy Yard neighborhood.聽

鈥淭his inaugural Future of Transportation summit really is a pivotal moment for us at U.S. DOT,鈥澛� said聽, principal deputy assistant secretary for research and technology and chief science officer for the U.S. DOT, in his keynote address. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an opportunity to bring research, development, technology and true purpose together to really help redefine the boundaries of transportation,鈥�

Transportation innovations on display

In addition to three days of technical presentations by UTC researchers and transportation stakeholder panels with U.S. DOT modal administrators, nonprofit organizations and industry leaders, the summit also featured over 100 research posters and an afternoon of live multimodal demonstrations from nearly two dozen UTC research teams, including autonomous vehicles, drones and robots, work zone safety technology, flood monitoring, cybersecurity and innovative bridge materials.聽

A crowded room of attendees snapped photos as聽, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, demonstrated LocoMan, a dog-like robot that can be used to make landslide monitoring safer for humans.聽

Ava Jahan Biglari, a Ph.D candidate in聽 advised by聽, described her research on predictive maintenance and vehicle inspections, combining advanced technology with human expertise to manage large fleets of vehicles and prevent malfunctions.聽

Jahan Biglari and Tang also presented a poster at the summit, along with 麻豆村鈥檚 Sarah Fox and Nikolas Martelaro, Sean Qian and Stephen Smith.聽

Outside, Rajkumar, the George Westinghouse Professor in 麻豆村鈥檚聽, demonstrated with his team their connected and autonomous Cadillac CT6, which drove congressional staff and conference attendees around the U.S. DOT headquarters on New Jersey Avenue.聽

UTCs advance transportation research and technology

U.S. DOT invests in the future of transportation through its UTC program, funded by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The program awards $90 million in grants to 35 national, regional and 鈥淭ier 1鈥� UTCs to advance state-of-the-art transportation research and technology and develop the next generation of transportation professionals.聽

Established in 2023, Safety21 researches, develops and deploys cutting-edge technologies, policies and workforce and educational programs to address the challenges of integrating autonomous, connected, electric and shared vehicles with a vision of 鈥渟afety for all.鈥澛犅�

The goal of the UTC program is to advance U.S. technology and expertise in transportation through education, research and technology transfer and the creation and sharing of ideas, explained Rajkumar.聽

鈥淔or us to continue to be global leaders, we need to up our game,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e need to increase our investments. And we need to do what we do best: out-innovate the rest of the world. That, to me, is the core objective of this summit.鈥澛�

Photos courtesy of the U.S. Department of Transportation.聽