This Smart and Connected Communities award supports research that will develop systematic deployment tools that smart and connected communities can use to achieve their sustainable travel goals in a quantifiable manner by leveraging advances in information, communication and sensor technologies.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project lies in its potential to revolutionize surveillance systems and promote public safety while protecting privacy. By leveraging recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the project aims to detect real-time public safety threats by only focusing on behaviors and utilizing the existing surveillance cameras. This innovation addresses the pressing challenges of rising criminal activities and public safety threats in public spaces and private businesses.

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) envisions integrating the skyscape into the transportation network and encompasses services such as delivery drones, on-demand shared mobility by Vertical-Take Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft for intra-city passenger trips, and, in the longer run, electric and autonomous VTOLs. This possible modal alternative provides a safe, reliable, and environmentally sound option to reduce surface-level congestion.

When a disaster strikes, communities often become isolated and citizens come together to help each other: people share resources, pass along information, and take on tasks that are outside of their usual domains. These activities have been reported in both academic literature and anecdotal documents. Some examples include: New Yorkers’ sharing private vehicles and boats during the 2005 MTA strike that crippled NYC transit services; and neighbors helping neighbors escape from flooding caused by 2016’s Hurricane Matthew using rafts improvised from inflatable mattresses in Rowland, NC.

Prescribed fires have long been used by ranchers and farmers in the Great Plains as a land management tool. They help farming and grazing by replenishing the soil, increasing forage production, and protecting prairies from invasive overgrowth. They are also used by rural and Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) communities to remove built-up fuels for reducing risks of wildfires. Despite the many benefits of prescribed fires, there are safety and environmental concerns for prescribed burn events.

Climate change exacerbates existing threats to the livelihoods and well-being of many Native American nations across the United States. Additionally, the effects of invasive species, mining, and development have been increasing on critical ecosystems that provide food, water, and cultural security for Indigenous Peoples. Working with tribal partners, this Smart and Connected Communities Integrative Research Grant (SCC-IRG) seeks to understand how enhanced data access, availability, and usability can strengthen community resilience.

Coastal communities face large challenges monitoring water quality in multiple places and frequently enough to identify water quality problems and to document improvements following investments in programs or infrastructure that improve water quality. Traditional water quality monitoring is conducted by periodic collection of physical water quality samples.

This Smart and Connected Communities - Integrative Research Grant (SCC-IRG) Track 1 project will develop and evaluate smart, community-supported solutions for improving efficiency and equity in public microtransit systems. Poor transit service in small cities and towns around the US severely challenges the everyday lives of their many disadvantaged residents.