A generous donation of four autonomous vehicles valued at more than $500,000 will enable innovative learning and research opportunities for faculty and students throughout the Tickle College of Engineering.
A Gift for Research
“This gift is a recognition of all the great work we are doing at the university and TCE,” said said Lee Han, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). “You really can’t put a price tag on how valuable these vehicles will be for our students. To actually see these vehicles and the software inside on site and operating is very powerful and hopefully inspiring.”
Han’s expertise includes application of advanced technologies to transportation, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), transportation data and information systems, and emergency evacuation and management. During his tenure at UT, Han has established a Transportation Systems Laboratory that uses the latest computer hardware and software for transportation research.
Having four vehicles enables Han and his colleagues to study much more and collaborate on a several projects that will provide important feedback for transportation issues.
“In the future, we are going to have a huge system with auto driving vehicles. But for decades before that, we are going to have auto driving vehicles and human driving vehicles comingling,” Han said. “I want to have multiple units that may communicate and interact with each other so we can investigate some of the issues and novel operational scenarios.”
Han has been working with Kevin Heaslip, the director of the Center for Transportation Research (CTR), MABE Associate Professor Subhadeep Chakraborty, CEE Associate Professor Shuai Li, and CEE Department Head and Robert M. Condra Professor Chris Cox to devise multiple research projects with the vehicles, which arrived in March.
CTR hopes to use the vehicles to demonstrate sensor technology to middle school students in the fall of 2024. It will be part of a project to develop an Advanced Mobility Innovation Lab (AMIL) program to reach undeserved K-12 students in rural and urban core areas of the Southeast.
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey (865-974-0683, rpotkey@utk.edu)