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U.S. DOT Volpe National Transportation Systems Center
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
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U.S. Department of Transportation, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology |
October 31, 2017 |
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Find out how Volpe experts
in safety management, engineering, operations, human factors, and environmental
and energy technologies help the Federal Aviation Administration design,
develop, and deploy the aviation system of the future. Read the new brochure. |
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Honoring the career of U.S.
DOT Volpe Center Director Emeritus Dr. Richard R. (“Dick”) John, who will
retire from public service in November following a federal career that spanned
five decades. Read the full story.
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Earlier
this year, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of
Noise Control Engineering, the Federal Aviation Administration, and NASA
convened a workshop on aviation noise that included leaders from government,
academia, and aviation industry groups. Experts at the workshop agreed
that without sharp investment increases in aircraft technology, America’s role
as a global aviation leader is at risk. Read the full story.
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Aviation
is a particular focus of Volpe’s work across modes, with recent work in global
positioning system resilience, energy and the environment, navigation and
surveillance, aviation safety, and much more. Check out these recent
aviation-related reports highlighting a wide range of Volpe’s aviation
expertise. Check out our recent reports.
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With
automation appearing more and more across daily life—including in air and
ground travel—tasks we think of as belonging to humans may soon be taken over
by computers, and there could be consequences that haven’t yet
been imagined, said Amy Pritchett, professor and head of the Department of
Aerospace Engineering at Pennsylvania State University, who recently spoke as part of Volpe's new speaker series. Watch video highlights and read the full story.
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Jeffrey
Schnapp kicked off Volpe’s new speaker series, The Ongoing Transformation of the Global Transportation System,
with his human-centric vision for the autonomous vehicle revolution. Watch video highlights and read the full story.
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With the support of the U.S. DOT SBIR program, the Federal Highway Administration, and the National Park Service, Intelligent Automation Inc. developed, tested, and deployed a tool that takes advantage of existing infrastructures to seamlessly monitor traffic information and ensures timely data collection and reporting. Read the full story.
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The
more connected things are, the more hackable they become. So far, connectivity
is outpacing cybersafety, according to Joshua Corman, chief security officer at
PTC and a speaker in Volpe’s series The Ongoing Transformation of
the Transportation System. Watch video highlights and read the full story.
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Matthias
Winkenbach of MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics discusses solutions
to delivering goods and services to dense urban centers, and the complex
dynamism of cities that impacts urban last-mile distribution. Read the full story.
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Volpe Experts in the Field
Volpe staff engaged in the following noteworthy activities in September and October:
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Aviation Safety: Ted
Papadopoulos, on
behalf of the U.S. Air Force (USAF), served as a U.S. government witness and
participated in system acceptance tests and flight certifications at six Polish
Armed Forces airports throughout Poland. Volpe conducts this work in support of
USAF Foreign Military Sales.
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Connected
and Automated Driving: Dr. Scott Smith and Eli Machek represented
U.S. DOT at the first European Commission-sponsored event on connected and
automated driving. Dr. Smith was the U.S. speaker in an impact assessment
session and Machek co-chaired the automation in road transportation meeting.
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Connected
and Automated Driving: Tom Schaffnit represented DOT at the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) meetings in Sapporo,
Japan. 3GPP is developing wireless specifications for future generations of
radio communication. Schaffnit researched new wireless capabilities and
technologies related to connected vehicles—vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-everything—emerging
in 3GPP requirements and specifications.
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Data Protection: Jordan
Multer, an
engineering psychologist, was recommended to the National Academies of Sciences
(NAS) to serve as an expert on evidentiary protection issues for transit agency
information. Multer participated in the NAS ad hoc committee and evaluated these
issues along with members of the private sector, academia, and government
organizations.
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Disaster Response: Terry Sheehan was activated to the Texas
State Emergency Operations Center in Austin to support preparations and
response to Hurricane Harvey. Throughout the deployment, Sheehan provided critical
transportation situational awareness to the DOT Crisis Management Center;
regional, state, and federal organizations; voluntary organizations; and the
private sector.
Sheehan was
also deployed to Puerto Rico to support Hurricane Maria response efforts. He
coordinated with the Puerto Rico DOT’s Emergency Management Agency, Federal
Emergency Management Agency, and the U.S. Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency
Management Agency to obtain permits and waivers to pre-stage heavy equipment,
mobile housing, and crews.
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Multimodal Mobility: Alex Oberg presented at a geographical information system transit
conference in Washington, D.C. Oberg presented on the geospatial components of
a project in which Volpe is exploring opportunities for applying General
Transit Feed Specification digital transit schedule data to estimate transit
ridership and multimodal performance measures.
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Pedestrian Safety: Dr. Alex
Epstein participated in the North American Commercial Vehicle Show
in Atlanta, Georgia. As part of Volpe’s support for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s sponsorship of a
study of lateral protective devices for trucks, Dr. Epstein presented
preliminary findings and opportunities to collaborate with industry partners on
vulnerable road user safety side guards.
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Rail Innovation: Yim Tang and
Dr. Hailing Yu
attended the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association
(AREMA) 2017 Annual Conference. The annual
conference provides railway industry members and stakeholders an opportunity to
share railroad knowledge and technical expertise and exchange ideas. Dr. Yu gave
the presentation “Causes and Prevention of Splitting/Bursting Failure of Concrete
Crossties: A Computational Study” at the conference.
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Rail Safety: Dr. Scott Gabree presented to the Operation Lifesaver National Advisory Council
at its semi-annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Operation Lifesaver’s
National Office creates programs and materials to deliver rail safety messages
to the public. Dr. Gabree provided an overview of what is known about rail
suicide and how rail safety messages may impact rail suicide rates. The goal of
this presentation was to identify a messaging strategy that effectively
addresses rail suicide and traditional rail safety, such as trespass and
crossing safety.
Dr.
Gabree also presented and assisted in facilitating a discussion session at a
suicide prevention symposium in Chicago, Illinois. Dr. Gabree
presented research about the media’s role in preventing suicide and helped
facilitate a discussion to develop a short-term action plan to address rail
suicide in the greater Chicago area.
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Rail Safety: Patricia Llana and
Karina Jacobsen inspected
and evaluated the fabrication and assembly of crashworthy components and their
retrofit to an Electro-Motive Diesel F40 locomotive. The objective of the
program is to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the crashworthy
components in full-scale dynamic tests.
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Rail Safety: Bill Baron upgraded an in-pavement
lighting system at a Farmrail grade crossing, which changed the flash sequence
of the lights before they turned a steady red. This upgrade is part of a study
to measure how effective in-pavement lights are in reducing the number of
drivers who violate active ungated grade crossing warning systems.
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 Energy and Environment – Noise
Freight
Highway Safety
Motor Carrier Safety
Rail – Cost Accounting
Railroad Safety
Transportation Planning
Transportation Safety
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
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