UMD hosts State Transportation Innovation Council (STIC) meeting

The Maryland Transportation Institute at the University of Maryland (UMD) hosted its first Maryland State Transportation Innovation Council (STIC) board meeting on Thursday (June 13). The event took place at UMD’s A. James Clark School of Engineering.

STIC is a Federal Highway Administration initiative that brings public and private transportation stakeholders together to facilitate research, innovation, and deployment of transportation techniques and technologies.

Partnering with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), STIC also provides funding opportunities for a variety of transportation-focused programs. Through each state’s STIC, stakeholders meet to consider sources of innovation and advance the technologies and processes that promise the greatest impact.

Last week’s meeting brought together not only federal, state and university stakeholders but also master’s and doctoral students from UMD and Morgan State University, who presented posters on transportation-related research projects.

“STIC is one of the most important avenues for fostering innovation in the transportation field, in part because it brings together representatives from the public and private sectors,” said Lei Zhang, Herbert Rabin Distinguished Professor and Director of the Maryland Transportation Institute (MTI). Founded in 2017, MTI is a hub for interdisciplinary transportation research from across the University of Maryland System.

“We’re particularly glad that students were able to participate in the meeting and present their research-in-progress,” Zhang said. “They represent a new generation of experts, researchers, and policymakers whose work will help shape the transportation field in years to come.”

The Maryland STIC meets semi-annually. The organization’s membership comprises representatives of the Federal Highway Administration, the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration, the Maryland Transportation Builders and Materials Association, the American Council of Engineering Companies/Maryland, the Maryland Quality Initiative, theMaryland Transportation Institute, the Morgan State University National Transportation Center, and the Baltimore City Department of Transportation.

Subject matter experts (SME) are regularly invited to deliver presentations and brief members on current and future developments.

Featured Presentations:

Samira Ahangari (Morgan State University)	A Machine Learning Distracted Driving Prediction Model
Snehanshu Banerjee (Morgan State University)	Speed Pattern Analysis Based on Units of Information in the Proximity of Dynamic Message Signs: A Driving Simulator Study
Yen-Hsiang Chen (UMD) Dr. Hyeonmi Kim (assistant research scientist, UMD)	An Intelligent Safety-Based Signal Design to Prevent Rear-End Collisions and Angled Crashes
Qinglian He (UMD)	Howard County Public School Transportation System Optimization
Weizi Li (UMD)	ADAPS: Autonomous Driving Via Principled Simulations
Riccardo Nali (UMD) Darshan Pandit (UMD)	Effecting CODES in a Big Data Setting
Amirezza Nickkar (Morgan State University)	Developing an Algorithm for the Optimal Flexible Automated Feeder Transit Network
Shuling Wu (UMD)	Perceptions of the Forthcoming Purple Line Light Rail in Prince George’s County
Chaoran Xu (UMD)	Recent Innovations in Roadside Infrastructures
Yunchao Ye (UMD)	Recent Innovations in Bridge Structures
Kunqi (Quincy) Zhang (UMD)	U.S. Major Transportation Projects Online Application
Jun Zhao (UMD)	IncenTrip: Personalized Multimodal Travel Demand Management