2024 Excellence in Highway Safety Data Award
The FIU team emerged as first-place and second-place winners of the prestigious Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) student paper competition. The HSIS award is hosted by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). The award aims to encourage university students to use HSIS data to investigate a topic that advances highway safety and write a technical paper about it.
Dr. Priyanka Alluri, Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, supervised the FIU team. The team members were Francisca Kasubi, Harsha Gattupalli, Odilo Mdimi, Hellen Shita, Enock Mwambeleko, and H.M. Nayem, with Francisca and Harsha as leading authors for the first and second-place papers respectively. The first-place winning paper was titled “Deciphering Seasonal Weather Impacts on Crash Severity: A Machine Learning Approach.” The research paper aimed to understand the impacts of weather and season on the severity of injury to roadway crashes using HSIS data from Minnesota. The second-place paper, titled “Analyzing Head-On Crashes on Rural Two-Lane Roads,” used HSIS data from North Carolina to understand the influence of different roadway characteristics on injury severity. Both papers used statistical and machine-learning analysis to perform the data analysis.
2024 Sandbox Competition
The FIU team emerged as the winner in the Sandbox Competition hosted by the Institute of Transportation Engineers. The 2024 Sandbox competition required teams to develop mitigation and adaptation plans in the face of climate change. Four scenarios were provided: coastal flooding, wildfire, winter storm, and extreme heat. Participating teams had to pick only two scenarios and write a 10-page technical report on the solutions. Under the student and industry categories, two teams were selected as finalists to present at the ITE annual meeting.
Dr. Priyanka Alluri, Associate Professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, supervised the FIU team. The 2024 Sandbox team members were Harsha Gattupalli, Hellen Shita, and Odilo Mdimi. The team presented adaptation, and mitigation plans to address the coastal flooding threat in Bay City, Michigan. As a mitigation response plan aiming to lessen flooding impacts, the team proposed a Smart Flood Detection system that could be integrated into the available miDrive application used in Michigan. The system detects the average time to flooding for different roadways, giving motorists alternatives for evacuation. As an adaptation plan, the FIU team proposed using permeable roadways and land use planning controls to reduce exposure to future flooding effects. We are glad to have emerged as winners under the student category.
2024 Transportation Technology Tournament (TTT)
We are proud to announce that our team from FIU was a finalist in the highly competitive 2024 Transportation Technology Tournament (TTT), hosted by the National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) and the U.S. Department of Transportation. In this competition, students work directly with public agencies to solve real-world transportation problems using Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) and Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) solutions. This year, over 80 students participated nationwide, and four teams were selected as finalists to present their work at the ITE Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, focusing on innovative solutions to enhance transportation safety.
The FIU team was supervised by Dr. Mohammed Hadi, Professor in the Dept. of CEE, FIU. The team members were Md Mahmud Hasan Mamun, Wattana Laosinwattana, Nattakarn Surangsrirout, Yasmine Al Moghrabi, Mariam De Celis, and Jasmine Hadi (FAU). We presented a project addressing the real-world issue of the Henry E. Kinney Tunnel construction in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This construction has significantly impacted travel times and increased crashes. In collaboration with FDOT District 4, the FIU team proposed a solution using ITS to develop a Digital Twin for Connected, Safe, and Reliable Travel in an Urban Network, explicitly targeting the challenges posed by work zones and special events. Our innovative approach and dedication to safety earned us a spot as a finalist in this prestigious competition.
