Currently, asphalt mixtures are design using volumetric concepts to determine optimum asphalt content levels with no means of verifying mixture performance prior to field production and placement. A new design methodology called Balanced Mixture Design (BMD) promotes the use of evaluating and design asphalt mixture using rutting and fatigue cracking methods and criteria to achieve an optimum asphalt content that will result in an asphalt mixture performing well in rutting and fatigue cracking scenarios – thereby “balancing” the asphalt mixture performance.  MORE about Performance Evaluation of Asphalt Mixtures Statewide

The highway transportation plays a very significant role in the nationwide economy and society development, including in UTRC2 area. For the routine traffic management and future planning of the highway infrastructure and other transport systems associated with it, a reliable traffic monitoring system is highly needed along the highways. Inductive loop is the most widely used method for the real-time traffic information nowadays. However, the cost-effective, convenient and reliable power supply needed for the traffic monitoring system is still a big challenge.  MORE about On-Road Energy Harvesting for Traffic Monitoring

Project Description

Traditional paper and phone travel surveys are expensive, time consuming, and have problems of missing trips, illogical trip sequences, and imprecise travel time. GPS-based travel surveys can avoid many of these problems and are becoming increasingly popular in major cities worldwide. However, there is GPS signal loss or degradation in high-density cities such as NYC where urban canyon effects are significant, underground subway and commuter rail travels are extensive, GPS cold/warm start problems are obvious, and mixed land use is common.  MORE about Incorporating Mobile Technology into the GPS/Web-GIS Method for Travel Survey and Research