VTTI joined more than 100 companies, organizations and government agencies at the 2015 Lifesavers National Conference on Highway Safety Priorities in Chicago, IL. Exhibitors presented their latest products, services, programs and/or publications in highway safety. Lifesavers is the largest gathering of highway safety professionals in the United States and is dedicated to reducing the tragic toll of deaths and injuries on our nation’s roadways.

CVI-UTC researchers provided information about naturalistic driving studies and CVI research at the VTTI booth, including a bicycle prototype outfitted with data collection equipment from the CVI-UTC project Bicycle Naturalistic Data Collection. VTTI pioneered the naturalistic diving study (NDS) method, which uses an unobtrusive suite of multiple cameras, radars, accelerometers, and GPS to help identify the greatest risks transportation users face in the real-world environment. To date, more than 25 NDSs have been conducted by VTTI using more than 4,000 instrumented vehicles. The institute now houses nearly 90 percent of continuous naturalistic driving data in the world. VTTI NDSs help researchers, the private sector, and governmental agencies assess crash causal and contributing factors in an effort to develop effective crash countermeasures. VTTI naturalistic data currently comprise nearly 1,500 crashes/minor collisions and 10,000 near-crashes.

The CVI-UTC participated in the 2015 Government/Industry Meeting hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) in Washington, DC. Connected vehicle/infrastructure research being conducted by the CVI-UTC was presented at a sponsored booth during this forum which provided an opportunity for technical authorities from government, industry, and academia to address important issues influencing future decision-making within the industry.  Presentation topics covered many aspects of the automotive industry, including Commercial Vehicle Safety research presented in the Field Study of Heavy Vehicle Collision Avoidance Technologies by Dr. Greg Fitch, et al. of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Understanding how technology, regulations and legislation affects the design of light and heavy duty vehicles in terms of safety, environment, and energy conservation is essential to vehicle development.

Additional research and presentation topics from the 2015 SAE Government/Industry Meeting can be found at: http://www.nhtsa.gov/Research/Public+Meetings/SAE+2015+Government+Industry+Meeting

Congratulations to Connected Vehicle/Infrastructure University Transportation Institute (CVI-UTC) research associate Reginald Viray, who received the 2014 Outstanding Student of the Year Award for his work in connected and automated vehicle research.

Each year at the annual winter meeting of the USDOT Transportation Research Board, the Department honors the most outstanding student from each participating University Transportation Center (UTC) for his/her achievements and promise for future contributions to the transportation field. Students of the year are selected based on their accomplishments in such areas as technical merit and research, academic performance, professionalism, and leadership.