The United States Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) announces a series of webinars for its Applications for the Environment: Real-time Information Synthesis (AERIS) program. The webinars will review foundational research activities that have been used as input by the AERIS program to develop transformative concepts that are focused on using connected vehicle technologies to benefit the environment. The webinars are free and open to the public, but interested attendees need to register in advance for each webinar.

The AERIS Fall/Winter Webinar Series is being offered by the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office (ITS JPO), which is part of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA). To learn more about the ITS JPO visit www.its.dot.gov.

Background

The transport sector accounts for approximately 28 percent of greenhouse gas in the U.S. Vehicles represent almost 80 percent of transport sector greenhouse gas. ITS can play a vital role in reducing vehicle miles traveled, improving vehicle efficiency, and reducing petroleum consumption—all of which can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The AERIS program was launched in 2010 and is currently sponsoring research and working with stakeholders to assess the ways in which real-time transportation system data could improve the operation of the surface transportation network. The AERIS program vision is to generate, capture, and analyze vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure data to create actionable information that allows surface transportation system users and operators to make “green” transportation choices. The program aims to leverage existing and future research, data sets, and technologies to develop, enhance, and model ITS applications that are proven to reduce the negative impacts of transportation on the environment. Another program goal is to explore how AERIS data sets may improve or validate assumptions of environmental and other models.

Webinar Details

AERIS Broad Agency Announcement Foundational Research: Webinar #3
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
1:00 p.m. EDT

The U.S. DOT selected seven research projects in response to a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) that will expand the ability of ITS applications to improve environmental performance. The objectives of the BAA projects were to: (1) foster innovative research on ITS applications that improve environmental performance; (2) promote capture and management of real-time data; and (3) support development and enhancement of evaluation techniques, performance measurement, and technologies. This is the last of three webinars on the BAA projects. Overviews of the BAA projects presented during this webinar are provided below:

• Developing and Evaluating Intelligent Eco-Drive Application (Virginia Tech) – This project built on previous research efforts to develop an algorithm for an eco-cruise control application. Various simulation tests were conducted to investigate how this application would operate within a transportation network, while interacting with other vehicles that are not equipped with such applications.
• Developing Eco-Signalized Intersection Algorithm (Virginia Tech) – This project developed and evaluated an innovative application for eco-signal control using traffic simulation tools. The system was modeled using traffic simulation software and tested for different roadway configurations (local streets and signalized arterials). 

Registration

Persons planning to participate in any of the public webinars should send their full name, organization, business e-mail address, and name of webinar(s) to Adam Hopps at ITS America at Ahopps@ITSA.org.

For any questions, please contact Adam Hopps at Ahopps@ITSA.org or (202) 680-0091.