UFTI Director Receives Award

Dr. Lily Elefteriadou was recently honored as a lifetime fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. Dr. Elefteriadou is affiliated with the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. She is a professor of civil engineering and director of the UF Transportation Institute. Her research focuses on traffic flow theory, highway capacity analysis, traffic simulation, autonomous and connected vehicles, signal control optimization, freeway management, traffic data collection and analysis, and intelligent transportation systems.

Dr. Elefteriadou has developed several methods and analysis tools that have been published in the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM), the major traffic operations publication used by most highway transportation agencies in the U.S. and widely used and referenced internationally. She has led a series of research projects with funding from NSF and FDOT to develop algorithms for a smart intersection that would control autonomous vehicle trajectories to optimize movement. She has also published extensively and has been invited to present her work at many conferences and institutes worldwide.

New NSF-Funded Research Experience for Undergraduates Project Led by Dr. Sandip Ray

to Focus on Cybersecurity for Vehicles

AV simulator lab software in use.

Undergraduate transportation engineering students will soon have the opportunity for research with a focus on more secure, accessible, and sustainable transportation, thanks to a new grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF.)

Making vehicles secure from cyber-attacks; minimizing environmental impacts; and enabling people with disabilities to use this form of transportation are just some of the topics the students will seek novel solutions for, according to

Dr. Sandip Ray, who will oversee the project.

This 10-week opportunity is open to students enrolled in a 2-year or 4-year undergraduate program and must be U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or permanent residents of the United States. The application deadline is 2/28/2023

Laser Attack Blinds Autonomous Vehicles, Deleting Pedestrians and Confusing Cars

UF Ph.D. student, Bhupathiraju Sri Hrushikesh Varma observes testing results.

Self-driving cars, like the human drivers that preceded them, need to see what’s around them to avoid obstacles and drive safely. The most sophisticated autonomous vehicles typically use lidar, a spinning radar-type device that acts as the eyes of the car. Lidar provides constant information about the distance to objects so the car can decide what actions are safe to take. But these eyes, it turns out, can be tricked.

Please forward our newsletter to anyone who may be interested.

Upcoming STRIDE Webinars

How to Build Diversity + Enhance Inclusion within the Transportation Workforce

March 1, 2023 @ 12 p.m. ET For more information and to register

Data Fusion for Signalized Arterial Performance Measurement

March 8, 2023 @ 12 p.m. ET For more information and to register

Modeling of Freeway Work Zones to Support Project Management 

April 5, 2023 @ 12 p.m. ET For more information and to register

Innovative Intersection and Interchange Designs and Their Use Across the Southeast 

April 26, 2023 @ 12 p.m. ET For more information and to register

Barriers and Facilitators of People with Disabilities in Accepting and Adopting Autonomous Shared Mobility Services

May 3, 2023 @ 12 p.m. ET For more information and to register

UF alumni are eligible for 15% off. Submit your UF degree and registration to T2Training@ce.ufl.edu for review.

You can help power and move forward the Research, Education, Technology Transfer and K-12 efforts at the UFTI by making your tax-deductible contribution.

University of Florida Transportation Institute

319 Weil Hall | UFTI@eng.ufl.edu | 352.294.7762