Overview
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) conducts research on cooperative driving automation (CDA) with the goal of advancing transportation systems management and operations (TSMO) strategies. The CARMA program, a network of open source software and support services focused on enhancing digital infrastructure, enables development, testing, and evaluation of emerging CDA capabilities. This webinar will provide an overview of the Transit Signal Priority (TSP) Concept of Operations (ConOps), how the CARMA ecosystem can contribute to developing and improving TSP use case scenarios, and the functional needs for developing and deploying TSP applications in CDA environments.
Target Audience
- Transportation agencies & Infrastructure Owner Operators
- University researchers
- Developers and deployers of CDA technology
Learning Objectives
Participants will hear from CARMA engineers and developers, and have the opportunity to provide feedback, about progress, challenges, and next steps in the ConOps development process for TSP in a CDA environment.
Moderator
- Nicole Paladeau (FHWA Contractor, Leidos)
Presenters
- Amir Ghiasi, Co-Principal Investigator (FHWA Contractor, Leidos)
- Larry Head, Professor of Systems and Industrial Engineering (University of Arizona)
- Sujith Racha, Project Manager (FHWA Contractor, Leidos)
- Govind Vadakpat, Government Task Manager (FHWA)
Presenter Bios
Govind Vadakpat (Ph.D., P.E., PTOE), Government Task Manager (FHWA): Govind Vadakpat is a Highway Research Engineer with the Office of Operations R&D at the Federal Highway Administration. Govind is currently managing several projects in the area of Cooperative Automation. Most recently, Govind served as the Agreement Officer’s Representative for the connected vehicle pilot deployment project in Tampa. Govind has more than 20 years of experience in research and deployment experience in developing solutions to improve highway traffic operations. Govind holds a Doctorate in Civil Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University and a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He holds a Professional Engineers License in Virginia, Ohio and Maryland and Professional Traffic Operations Engineer certification.
Larry Head (Ph.D.), Professor of Systems and Industrial Engineering (University of Arizona): Larry Head is a Professor of Systems and Industrial Engineering and Director of the Craig M. Berge Engineering Design Program at the University of Arizona. He received his Ph.D. degree in Systems and Industrial Engineering from the University of Arizona in 1989. He has over 25 years of research and development experience in adaptive traffic signal control, signal priority, traffic management, and connected and autonomous vehicle systems. From January 2020-July 2020 Dr. Head served as the Interim Vice Provost for Online Learning at the University of Arizona. From March 2018 to July 2019 Dr. Head served as the Interim Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Arizona. Dr. Head served as chair of the National Academies Transportation Research Board’s Traffic Signal Systems Committee (AHB25) from 2006-2012 and is currently a member of the TRB Intelligent Transportation Systems Committee.
Amir Ghiasi, Co-Principal Investigator (FHWA Contractor, Leidos): Dr. Ghiasi has over 7 years of experience in the field of transportation engineering. His main focus is on connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs), cooperative automations, intelligent transportation systems, traffic operations, traffic flow theory, and transportation modeling and simulation. Dr. Ghiasi is conducting several research projects at the Federal Highway Administration Saxton Transportation Operations Laboratory, Tuner Fairbank Highway Research Center. He is currently a Principal Investigator for two CAV research projects that aim to enable cooperative driving automation (CDA) to interact with infrastructure to enhance infrastructure efficiency and ultimately improve transportation system safety and efficiency and reduce traffic congestion. Additionally, he has extensive experience in traffic modeling and simulation, calibration and validation.
Sujith Racha, Project Manager (FHWA Contractor, Leidos): Mr. Racha has over 17 years of experience in transportation research, planning, engineering design, analysis, documentation, and project management. He is experienced in managing and performing traffic and corridor studies, traffic analyses and simulations, connected and automated vehicle (CAV) studies, safety and operation studies, and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)/Active Traffic Management System (ATMS) projects. Mr. Racha is working as the ITS Manager, managing several research projects at the Federal Highway Administration Saxton Transportation Operations Laboratory (FHWA STOL), Turner Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC) including the Cooperative Automotive Research for Mobility Applications (CARMA) Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) project.