Doctoral Studies Program Awards

January 1, 2008, Awards

Matching Vehicle and Fleet Capacities with Household Transportation Needs: Evaluating the Potential to Reduce Fuel Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Project Director: Gregory A. Keoleian, School of Natural Resources and Environment
PhD Student: Kevin M. Bolon, School of Natural Resources and Environment
Collaborating Faculty: Lidia Kostyniuk, UMTRI SBA; Katta G. Murty, Industrial and Operations Engineering
Budget: $209,965
Years: 2
The aim of this study is to investigate the potential to reduce GHG emissions and fuel consumption with strategies that more closely match the capacities of personal vehicles and household fleets with user needs. These capacity-matching strategies include the optimization of household fleet composition and utilization, as well as the facilitation of vehicle downsizing with product packages that provide access to larger vehicles for occasional use.

Application of IRT Models in Imputation of Missing Items Corresponding to Scale Variables
Project Director: Trivellore Raghunathan, School of Public Health
PhD Student: Jian Zhu, School of Public Health
Collaborating Faculty: Raymond Bingham, UMTRI SBA
Budget: $102,489
Years: 2
This research study focuses on improving the imputation of missing item responses that are used to create scales in transportation safety and injury prevention survey data.

January 1, 2007, Awards

Effects of Muscle Forces in the Lower Extremities on Injury to the Knee-Thigh-Hip Complex in Frontal Motor-Vehicle Crashes
Project Director: Lawrence Schneider, UMTRI BIO
PhD Student: Mark Chia-Yuan Chang, Mechanical Enineering
Collaborating Faculty: Noboru Kikuchi, Mechanical Engineering; Jonathan Rupp, UMTRI BIO
Budget: $130,470
Project Years: 2
The aim of this research is to address the discrepancy between the distribution of KTH injuries produced in the laboratory with cadavers and the distribution of KTH injuries in real-world frontal crashes.

Fault Tolerant Reconfigurable Control of Vehicle Safety Systems
Project Director: Timothy Gordon, UMTRI ERD
PhD Student: Sehyun Chang, Mechanical Engineering
Collaborating Faculty: Galip Ulsoy, Mechanical Engineering; Huei Peng, Mechanical Engineering
Budget: $125,381
Years: 2
The aim of this research is to develop a Fault Tolerant Reconfiguration Control (FTRC) methodology for vehicle safety systems, applicable to both light vehicles and heavy trucks.

Meta-Systems Modeling of Automotive Market Dynamics Created by Greenhouse Gas Policy Initiatives
Project Director: Steven Skerlos, Mechanical Engineering
PhD Student: W. Ross Morrow, Mechanical Engineering
Collaborating Faculty: Walter McManus, UMTRI AAD
Budget: $100,785
Years: 2
The aim of this research is to produce dynamic meta-systems analysis methods that facilitate policy analysis in the automotive sector.

September 1, 2006, Awards

Effects of Urban Form and Road Configuration on Automobile Driving
Project Director: Joe Grengs, Architecture & Urban Planning
PhD Student: Xiaoguang Wang, Architecture & Urban Planning
Collaborating Faculty: Lidia Kostyniuk, UMTRI SBA
Budget: $135,040
Years: 3
The aim of this study is to directly measure changes in travel behavior among drivers who experience distinctly different signals from land use and road design by building an innovative database.

Longitudinal Driver Decision-Control Model for the Development of Humanized CW/CA Algorithms
Project Director: Huei Peng, Mechanical Engineering
PhD Student: Hsin-Shang Yang, Mechanical Engineering
Collaborating Faculty: Timothy Gordon, UMTRI ERD; Dave Leblanc, UMTRI ERD
Budget: $123,380
Years: 2
The aim of this research is to develop an integrated decision-control model to represent the human driving process, based on the road-departure, crash-warning, field-operational-test (RDCW FOT) database. It will be used for the synthesis of a humanized active-safety system.

Queueing Network Modeling and Adaptive Support of Driver Performance and Workload
Project Director: Omer Tsimhoni, UMTRI HF
PhD Student: Changxu Wu, Industrial and Operations Engineering
Collaborating Faculty: Yili Liu, Industrial and Operations Engineering; Jun Zhang, Psychology
Budget: $114,992
Years: 2
The aim of this research is to develop a computational driver performance model which will cover the major aspects of driver performance and mental workload.