The Cooperative Mobility for Competitive Megaregions (CM2) consortium held its annual Summer Forum earlier this month online via Zoom. The Summer Forum provides a unique opportunity for UTC researchers from different institutions to share ongoing research efforts and program updates with CM2 partners and industry stakeholders, as well as discuss the future of the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) funded Tier 1 University Transportation Center (UTC). Read below for forum highlights or access the online videos! Day 1 & Day 2.
Researchers from all of CM2’s partner institutions – the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), TSU, and Louisiana State University (LSU) – attended as did members of both the Executive Committee and the Advisory Committee, CM2 Support Partner representatives, and guest speakers from the transportation industry.
The Forum was divided into three days. Day One was our Speaker Forum and began with opening remarks from CM2 Director Dr. Ming Zhang and Louisiana State University Professor of Engineering, Dr. Brian Wolshon. The keynote and plenary addresses were delivered by Dr. Karl Kim and Dr. John Renne, respectively, followed by an author round table to discuss the topic, Resilient Transportation, Policy, Planning, and Management in Megaregions. Day 1 guest speaker presentations included:
- “COVID-19 and Transportation: Advancing Multi-scalar, Multi-disciplinary Understanding and Resilience” by Dr. Karl Kim (Executive Director, National Disaster Preparedness Training Center & Professor, of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Hawaii)
- “Virtual Reality as a Tool for Transportation Planners to Engage the Public on Sea Level Rise” by Dr. John Renne (Director, Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions & Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Florida Atlantic University)
- “Traveler Behavior Changes During Transportation Disruptions” by Dr. Pamela Murray-Tuite (Vice Chair, Transportation Research Board’s Committee on Disaster Response, Emergency Evacuations, and Business Continuity, Clemson University)
- “Resilience, Automation, and Connected and Automated Vehicles” by Dr. Anurag Pande (Professor, Civil Engineering & Faculty Director for Community-based Learning at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo)
- “Resilience of National Highway Transportation System and Control Policy under the Outbreak of COVID-19 in China” by Dr. Zhao Zhang (Assistant Professor, School of Transportation Science and Engineering, Beihang University)
We ended the day with an all-member discussion moderated by Dr. John Renne.
Day Two was the Academic Forum portion of the event, which began with a Consortium overview presentation during which each partner institution provided brief overviews of their current CM2-related research projects, workshops, and teaching efforts. Consortium speakers included:
- Ming Zhang, UT Austin (SOA)
- Lisa Loftus-Otway, UT Austin (CTR)
- Carol Lewis, TSU
- Brian Wolshon, LSU
- Erick Guerra, UPenn
After the Consortium overview presentation, we then heard from individual Principal Investigators (PIs) and research teams on current research projects being conducted across the Consortium. Following the poster presentations, attendees participated in table discussions about potential research collaborations and strategies to publicize research findings. The quality of research conducted across the consortium was widely lauded by the forum guests.
The Academic Forum ended with an award ceremony in which attendees voted on projects which best represented the following four research categories: Best Equity Project, Best Inter-Disciplinary Project, Best Tech Transfer Project, and Best Teaching Project. Congratulations to our project poster award winners, who are listed below:
- Best Equity Project – Dr. Lewis, Dr. Goodwin & Lydia Ndagire: “Examining Medical, Health and Transportation Equity in Rural Areas of the Texas Megaregion”
- Best Inter-Disciplinary Project: Dr. Wolshon, Mohammad Shapouri, and James D. Fuller: “Disruptive Events in Megaregion Emergency Evacuation“
- Best Tech Transfer Project – Dr. Lewis, Dr. Goodwin & Lydia Ndagire: “Workshop: Stakeholder Response Reviewing Equity Rubric Showing Purpose And Need For Rural And Low-density Communities Near Megaregions“
- Best Teaching Project – Dr. Zhang and Yang Li: “Vehicle Usage Across Generations at Megaregion Level“
To see all of our online posters, please visit our external site.
If you would like to learn more about these or other projects, please see our Research Projects page.
The third and final day of the Summer Forum consisted of an invitation-only Business Meeting to discuss the future of CM2 as well as review project proposals for Year-6 funding.
While project selections and budgets are still being finalized, they will be added to our Research Projects page as soon as selections are official. In the meantime, to get the latest updates about the projects and research of the CM2 consortium, please subscribe to the CM2 newsletter, follow us on Twitter (@CM2_UTC), or connect with us on LinkedIn.
