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U.S. Department of Transportation |
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology |
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Small businesses in America are engines of creativity and
employment opportunities, but it can sometimes be difficult for small
businesses to turn their innovations into reality.
That’s why U.S. DOT’s highly competitive Small Business
Innovation Research (SBIR) program awards contracts to small businesses to
pursue research and development to find solutions to our nation’s biggest
transportation challenges. The SBIR program has opened its latest solicitation period
and will accept proposals through
December 21, 2016.
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To create major new technologies like self-driving cars,
rather than focusing on an end result or product, it’s much more effective to
focus on creating prototypes—“very much a Silicon Valley approach,” said J.
Christian Gerdes, U.S. DOT’s first chief innovation officer, who spoke as part
of Volpe’s Future of Transportation
series.
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Each year, Volpe takes part in the aviation industry’s
conversation by attending the Air Traffic Control Association’s (ATCA) annual
conference—including this year’s ATCA 2016, where our staff shared our work in
aviation with hundreds of government and industry partners, and learned from
other experts in the field. Read the full story.
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Automated vehicles are coming sooner than you might think,
according to two leading thinkers in transportation. Volpe recently hosted
Robin Chase and Anthony Townsend for a special joint panel on vehicle
automation and urban mobility, moderated by Austin Brown of the White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy.
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When
disasters hit, the U.S. Department of Transportation deploys Volpe’s Terry
Sheehan to coordinate massive transportation responsibilities that come with
massive emergency response efforts. Earlier this month, Sheehan was deployed to
North Carolina to coordinate evacuations after Hurricane Matthew. Read the full story.
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The biggest revolutions over the past two centuries in urban
environments have happened where technologies meet city life, said Sidewalk
Labs Chairman and CEO Daniel Doctoroff, who spoke recently at Volpe. Now, he
believes, we are on the verge of the fourth technological revolution in cities.
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Volpe
staff recently came together for Volpe Day, an internal forum that gives staff
the opportunity to showcase the diversity of Volpe’s technology portfolio,
share their own work and ideas with their colleagues, and engage in creative
problem solving. Read the full story.
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The
Department of Homeland Security and Volpe hosted a three-day conference in
October showcasing federal automotive cybersecurity programs and open-source
cybersecurity research tools. Stay tuned for Volpe’s November newsletter, where
we’ll highlight stories on key panels from the conference and other important
work in cybersecurity and safety. Read more.
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Fifteen
Pathways internship positions—for engineers, analysts, economists, computer
scientists, and more—will be posted this week on our student
opportunities page. The internships will post on USAJobs on Tuesday, November 1.
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Volpe
Staff at U.S. and International Events
Volpe staff
were featured at the following events in October:
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Gina Solman presented
the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) toolkit at the 2016 Association
of Metropolitan Planning Organizations Annual Meeting in Fort Worth, Texas, from October 26 to 28. Volpe is developing a series of tools to assist FHWA
stakeholders with the quantification of emission benefits. At the same
conference, Scott Smith (among others) led the workshop “Preparing for
Automated Vehicles.”
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Kristin Lewis and Peter Herzig helped
plan the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative General Meeting in Washington, D.C., from
October 25 to 27. The meeting focused on alternative jet fuel deployment
activities and challenges. Dr. Lewis and
Herzig serve on CAFFI’s Administrative Leadership Team.
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Olivia Gillham presented an overview of the National Consumer Complaint Database
at FMCSA’s Household Goods Technical Advisory meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, from October 25 to 27. Gillham showed the system, introduced new complaint types,
and described future capabilities of the Activity Center for Enforcement.
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Anita Kim and Jonathan Koopmann participated in a discussion about electric and
autonomous driving in the U.S. and
the Netherlands. The meeting was held at the Dutch embassy in Washington, D.C., from October 24 to 25. U.S. DOT participants from FHWA, NHTSA, OST, and Volpe
discussed U.S. activities, learned about Dutch activities, and engaged in a
dialog about planned development.
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Kevin Harnett and Brendan Harris
convened a three-day Automotive
Cybersecurity Showcase at Volpe from October 18 to 20. The event brought together
more than 100 key national and international stakeholders and technologists
from the government/private industry cybersecurity research community,
automotive industry, research laboratories, and academia.
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Christopher Roof was an invited panel speaker and discussed perspectives on the Aviation
Environmental Design Tool at the American
Association of Airport Executives/Airport Council International – North America
Airport Noise Conference from October 16 to 20 in San Diego, California.
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Eric Boeker attended
a European Civil Aviation Conference meeting from October 12 to 13 in Copenhagen,
Denmark. Boeker discussed the Aviation
Environmental Design Tool results for an aircraft noise modeling test case, which will be included in two
international aircraft noise modeling documents.
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Aviation
Climate Change
Safety
Transportation
Planning
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