Embedding Technology in Transportation Courses

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Embedding Technology in Transportation
Courses Symposium on Active Student Engagement
in Civil and Transportation Engineering
Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA July
24-26, 2016
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Overview

• Introduction
• Sensor technology in vehicles today
• Sensors helping in navigation and providing
  safety
• Intelligent/smart vehicles and transportation
  system
• Current state of civil engineering curriculum
• Initiatives taken at Louisiana Tech University

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Introduction

• Modern day vehicles are a lot safer and far more
  comfortable than they were couple of decades ago
• Computing power and speed of onboard processors
  is at all time high
• Transportation infrastructure is seeing
  increasing use of technology
• Traffic management is getting smart and going to
  be critical
• Self-driving cars will soon be among us

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Sensor technology in vehicles today

• Engine operation sensors
• Safety
• Navigation
• Comfort

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Sensor technology in vehicles today

• Recently a great number of companies have focused
  on Automatic Vehicle Guidance.
• Why?
• Optimization of use of transportation
  infrastructure
• Improvement of mobility
• Minimization of risks, travel time, and energy
  consumption

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Sensor technology in vehicles today
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Sensor technology in vehicles today
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Self-driving Vehicles
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1 RadarHigh-end cars already bristle with radar,
which can track nearby objects for
accident-prevention 2 Lane-keepingWindshield-mo
unted cameras recognize lane markings by spotting
the contrast between the road surface and the
boundary lines. 3 LIDARRooftop Light Detection
and Ranging system, which uses 64 lasers,
spinning at upwards of 900 rpm, to generate a
point cloud that gives the car a 360-degree
view. 4 Infrared CameraProvides two headlamps
to beam invisible, nonreflective infrared light
onto the road ahead. A windshield-mounted camera
detects the IR signature and shows the
illuminated image (with hazards highlighted) on
the dashboard display.
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5 Stereo VisionTwo windshield-mounted cameras
to build a real-time 3-D image of the road ahead,
spotting potential hazards like pedestrians and
predicting where they are headed. 6 GPS/Inertial
MeasurementA self-driver has to know where its
going - GPS technology 7 Wheel
Encoder Wheel-mounted sensors measure the
velocity of the car as it maneuvers through
traffic.
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Sensor technology in vehicles today
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Current State of Civil Engineering Undergraduate
Curriculum

• Total number of credit hours required for degree
  has gone down
• Core-courses covering areas of materials,
  mechanics, structures, environment,
  water-resources, geo-tech, transportation and
  traffic need to be taught for fundamental
  understanding - less flexibility for additional
  courses - electives

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Current State of Civil Engineering Undergraduate
Curriculum

• Students are constantly getting exposed with
  multimedia in classes and labs but their
  experience could be made better with
  technology-rich hands-on projects
• Not enough emphasis on programming and
  integration of technology in courses

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Civil/Transportation engineers for future need to
be educated today

• Students should be introduced to fundamentals of
  programming and sensor technology as early as
  possible freshmen year? Freshmen Engineering
  Series at Tech?
• Should be provided with suitable resources and
  training
• Must be provided with open-ended challenges for
  them to solve using their newly gained knowledge
  and skills

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Civil/Transportation engineers for future need to
be educated today

• Integration of technology in upper level classes
  and labs
• Ability of using fundamental knowledge of civil
  engineering and complimenting it with programming
  and the latest technology

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Non-Traditional Technology in Undergraduate
Civil/Traffic/Transportation Engineering Courses

• Robotic total stations
• GPS/GIS
• Traffic counting camera
• Radar speed guns
• Various sensors for temperature, humidity, stress
  and other similar physical parameters

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Thank You!