Two UT campuses latest to receive funding under TNGO
UT at Chattanooga and UT, Knoxville are partnering with DENSO, LG CNS, and NTT DATA.
The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) announced last week that two University of Tennessee (UT) campuses and their private sector partners will receive $500,000 each as part of the latest awards under the Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) initiative.
TNGO, which has received a total of $7.5 million in funding through the Tennessee General Assembly, serves as a tool to diversify the state’s economy by leveraging both public and private sector assets to attract mobility research and development (R&D) investment to Tennessee. The initiative serves as part of the state’s efforts to make Tennessee the #1 destination in the Southeast for automotive and mobility R&D investment.
- UT at Chattanooga (UTC) and DENSO are partnering to develop an advanced traffic safety system that uses artificial intelligence to make intersections smarter and safer while protecting individual privacy. The UTC-DENSO project focuses on two major goals: predicting the risk of collisions before they happen and detecting crashes immediately when they occur. By analyzing how vehicles and pedestrians move through intersections, the system can identify potential dangers in real time and alert drivers or city systems. This project will also deploy cutting-edge technology to assess accidents as they happen, helping emergency responders act more quickly and effectively. The UTC-LG CNS project focuses on using artificial intelligence (AI) and real-time sensor data. The system will detect when a person, especially a child, senior, or someone with a disability, is approaching a crosswalk and adjust traffic signals to give them more time to cross safely. Additionally, UTC and LG CNS are partnering to install a first-of-its-kind smart crosswalk system to improve pedestrian safety.
- UT, Knoxville (UTK), and NTT DATA are collaborating to create an AI-driven disaster management platform. The UTK-NTT DATA platform will serve as a centralized hub for business continuity, disaster preparedness, response, and recovery operations. The disaster management platform focuses on demonstrating core disaster management capabilities in the Nashville area as a case study. The platform will integrate real-time data from multiple sources, which will then be featured on an interactive web application
“Growing university and industry collaboration is a top priority across the UT System, and why we worked to advocate strongly for the creation of TNGO. We are grateful to the State and TNECD for recognizing the power of these partnerships,” said UT System President Randy Boyd. “Our recipients, UT Chattanooga and UT Knoxville, are partnering with global Tennessee brands to discover and create new technologies – underscoring our commitment to help make Tennessee the top state for research and development, engineering and innovation.”
The announcement marks the fifth and sixth of eight total recipients receiving grants through the second round of TNGO funding.
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