From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Sat Jun 20 2009 - 16:01:39 EDT
Excerpt : "One of the lab's Ph.D. students, Yohannes Kesete, 27, came to
FIU from the northeastern African country of Eritrea in hopes of
learning how to improve road infrastructure in his homeland. He plans to
return to Eritrea after several years of engineering work in the U.S.
He's fascinated by the fact that whatever the traffic issue, there's
always a solution."
Associated Press
Miami university researchers take on rush hour
Last Update: 10:49 am
MIAMI (AP) -- The students sit at long desks, their eyes glued to big
screens showing traffic-choked highways. A simulator allows the students
to create a traffic accident and try to reduce the delay it causes.
Researchers at the Integrated Intelligent Transportation System
Laboratory at Florida International University are working to advance
traffic research, a field that has yielded technologies from optimally
timed stoplights to highway ramps that measure vehicle flow.
The lab debuted last month in collaboration with the Florida Department
of Transportation, as part of the Lehman Center for Transportation
Research at the College of Engineering.
Forty-five masters and doctoral students seeking degrees in
transportation engineering use the facility. Its director, Mohammed
Hadi, says South Florida, where congested roadways can spur bouts of
road rage, gives students ample opportunities to put research to test.
Cameras and motion detectors along the highway track traffic or vehicle
speeds and transmit the information to the DOT. Lab researchers can use
the information to see how many vehicles are being diverted or if
traffic is slowing.
When ramp signals were built along Interstate 95, students participated
in the research and went out to the field to see how the technology was
working. The lab is also used to promote the 511 system of call-in
traffic information. If the state Department of Transportation's systems
ever failed, the FIU lab could fill in.
One of the lab's Ph.D. students, Yohannes Kesete, 27, came to FIU from
the northeastern African country of Eritrea in hopes of learning how to
improve road infrastructure in his homeland. He plans to return to
Eritrea after several years of engineering work in the U.S. He's
fascinated by the fact that whatever the traffic issue, there's always a
solution.
"We can work as far as your imagination takes you," he said.
Another international student, 37-year-old Patricio Alvarez of Chile,
isn't sure where he'll put his degree to work, but that working on a
problem as universal as traffic makes his education valuable in many
places.
"Once you do this," he said, "you have choices."
John Augustine, deputy director of the Intelligent Transportation
Systems joint program office, a division of the U.S. Department of
Transportation, said researchers working in the field could develop
systems to allow vehicles to communicate wirelessly and that alert
traffic controllers to know, for example, when a car's windshield wipers
are activated.
Much of traffic research can be complicated mathematical theory. But
Hadi says when he presents findings at often jargon-filled engineering
seminars, the audience generally perks up. He doesn't have to worry
about people questioning the relevance of the research.
"Our field, fortunately, everybody knows it's important," he says. "All
the audience members are, 'Oh, I have that problem."'
http://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/state/story/Miami-university-researche
rs-take-on-rush-hour/tI1evXj7gUuBzExm8xPTvA.cspx
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