On September 26th, The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) announced approximately $63 million in grants to 33 University Transportation Centers (UTCs) to advance research and education programs that address critical transportation challenges facing our nation:
“University transportation centers are key to helping us address today’s transportation needs, from environmental sustainability to safety,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “The participating universities are a critical part of our national transportation strategy and to developing a professional workforce with the expertise and knowledge to tackle the challenges of the future.”
More than 142 applications were submitted to RITA, and the US DOT awarded five National UTCs (with awards of $2.8 million each), eight Regional UTCs (with awards of $2.59 million each), and twenty additional UTCs received awards of $1.4 million each. UCSB is a partner of a regional center with lead institution UC Berkeley; core members include UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles, UC Riverside, and UC Santa Barbara. Cal Poly Pomona is also an affiliate member. State and local funds are required to match the federal grants on a 1:1 basis, raising the total granted to $5.18 million per year. This center’s theme is University of California Center ON Economic Competitiveness in Transportation: UCCONECT.
At UCSB, the transportation program is based in the GeoTrans Laboratory and is administered by the campus’ Geography Department, which itself has a formal PhD emphasis in transportation. The program focuses on the application of Geographic Information Science within four specialty areas: (i) behavioral dynamics and large scale modeling and simulation; (ii) optimal facility location, logistics, and corridor planning; (iii) cartography and spatial modeling, using remote sensing and real-time data collection; and (iv) data models for remote sensing, Geographic Positioning Systems, and Geographic Information Systems. These four areas aim to advance integrated transportation-demographics-land use models to predict behavioral responses to policy initiatives, such as smart-growth planning. UCCONECT is, in essence, the continuation of another successful center with associate director Konstadinos Goulias. This grant will enhance and continue the already very successful transportation program, offering graduate student fellowships and faculty research grants.
Editor’s note: Many thanks to Kostas for providing this information, and kudos to him for all the hard work toward continuing as a UTC partner with Berkeley.
