“Partnerships” | The driving force behind Chattanooga’s foothold in mobility innovation across the nation
The Chattanooga Connect conference, hosted by the UTC Research Institute, updated attendees on several projects, partnerships and potential opportunities in the mobility innovation sector.
Chattanooga may be the fourth-largest city in the state of Tennessee, but it has certainly established itself as a hub for transportation innovation in the Southeast and the nation.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) Center for Urban Informatics and Progress (CUIP) is leading research initiatives solving big issues in the movement of goods and people through AI, computational, and (recently) quantum solutions.
Additionally, The Company Lab (CO.LAB), which is one of Launch Tennessee’s entrepreneur center’s has doubled down on its focus to accelerate and incubate mobility start-ups in the Chattanooga ecosystem. See the recent story here.
The state of Tennessee, Team Tennessee, and its Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) initiative have allocated about $7 million to 15 projects across the state, several of which are located in Chattanooga.
And, to complement the puzzle, the City of Chattanooga has doubled down on its commitment to spend it through intentional collaborative projects.
The Chattanooga Connect conference on Tuesday spoke about each piece of the puzzle, how they fit together, and how to continue working toward defining the “bigger picture.”
Mobility Innovation – In Action
Dr. Mina Sartipi, the Founding Director of CUIP, said there are a lot of factors to consider when creating smart transportation grids. Not to the least of which is “behavioral economics,” a coin termed earlier in the day.
A team she leads at UTC is developing artificial intelligence software that records intersection data, pedestrian patterns, rush hour trends, and driver habits. The research started in a small corridor of UTC’s campus. And about six years ago now, it successfully expanded to a mile-and-a-quarter-long testbed in downtown Chattanooga.
Now, they’re in the process of expanding the research to a bigger test field.
“This is hard stuff. We want to tackle the problem of bus efficiency and safety,” Sartipi said, explaining how when buses get behind schedule, people may be late for work, and in turn have less trust in the city’s public transportation system.
“We could help the lights automatically turn green when the bus pulls up to the light, but then you also have to take into account the pedestrians at the walkway,” she continued. “These are real-world scenarios, and they can’t be examined independently from one another.”
The team at UTC is also including thermal cameras in the study to help with data collection.
These cameras will still uphold strict privacy standards, but will help researchers differentiate between various objects, such as cars, pedestrians, bicycles, wheelchairs, or other transportation devices.
The hope is that in the future, this data can be used to support the testing and eventual rollout of autonomous e-vehicles on the roadways.
A word on Chattanooga’s mobility movement
On a panel geared toward building a statewide ecosystem for transportation research and development, five strong business and community builders weighed in on how they see Chattanooga.
Randy Boyd, President of the UT System, said when he thinks of Chattanooga, he thinks of “innovation.” Rich Davies, the Sustainable Transportation Program Director at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, said he thinks of “willingness.” Jordan Moon with LG said he thinks of “partnerships.” And, Nathan Buttrey with the TN Office of Innovation said he thinks of “opportunity.” Peyton Winstead, the Director of Digital Solutions for DENSO, also joined the panel.
Innovation, willingness, partnerships, opportunity: those are some big words for the fourth-largest city in Tennessee. And, it really set the stage for the panelists to explain what all of those categories have in common: the people.
“I think we need to change the way we think about brand. Instead of asking what do we need to be better, let’s start asking what assets do we have?” Moon said, explaining that it’s the people in the community who make Chattanooga and greater East Tennessee so special.
The conference wrapped up with a panel on how quantum and supercomputing could impact the transportation grid, featuring the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm’s Chief Executive Officer, Brett Malone.
Looking ahead
On Wednesday, October 8, there will be demos for a couple of different innovative technologies. These demos will run simultaneously from 8:45 am to noon along the MLK corridor and at the Edney Innovation Center.
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