IUCRC Phase I University of North Texas: Center for Electric, Connected and Autonomous Technologies for Mobility (eCAT)

University Of North Texas, Denton TX

Investigators

Abstract

While autonomous vehicle companies focus on manufacturing driverless cars, electrification and connectivity technologies can upgrade the industry by allowing vehicles to communicate with the driving circumstance to achieve better safety with less emission. A key obstacle to the development of the electric, connected and autonomous vehicle system is the shortage of synergy research from needed domains. The proposed Center for Electric, Connected and Autonomous Technologies for Mobility (eCAT) will concentrate on interdisciplinary research, aiming to accelerate the transformation of mobility methods from conventional vehicles to electric, connected and autonomous vehicles by creating innovative electric, connected and autonomous technologies. The Center not only serves as an apparatus of academic researchers collaborating with industry on important problems, but also provides industry partners opportunities to access advanced synergic research produced from a diverse group of researchers. The University of North Texas (UNT) Site will particularly focus on developing novel perception algorithms and system architecture to support connected autonomous vehicles. The UNT Site will leverage the Connected Autonomous Vehicular System Lab, the Vehicle and Edge Computing Lab, and the Center for Integrated Intelligent Mobility Systems, as well as the long-running relationships with industry to bring significant contributions to the Center. The Center will advance the science and technologies of electric, connected and autonomous vehicles, and accelerate both knowledge and intellectual property transfer between academia and industry through collaborative partnerships. This will allow for the rapid transformation of the state-of-the-art mobility technologies from research labs to industry. Education and workforce development efforts will be devoted to (1) curriculum design for the BS/MS programs, (2) summer camp development for K-12 students, (3) broadening participation in computing and engineering. Research results will be disseminated through our annual conference, publications, and the development of open-source projects. Data obtained from this project will include experimental, computational, text-based, and/or curricular data. All data products will be retained for a minimum of three years after conclusion of the award or three years after public release (publication), whichever is later. The Sites of the Center will have password-protected shared network drives to facilitate data sharing within the teams, with collaborators, and indeed anyone in the community with an interest in the NSF-funded data. A landing page for navigation to archived data will be created at http://ecat.center. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.