The fundamental problem to be addressed in the proposed scope of work offered by the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is to provide guidance to NJDOT to tame the "visual chaos" associated with nighttime work zones in New Jersey.

In the last few years, there has been a push toward utilizing new fare payment technologies in the transit industry, particularly mobile ticketing systems in which passengers purchase tickets directly on smartphones. Numerous transit agencies in the United States have launched mobile ticketing applications, beginning with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA)’s commuter rail program in the fall of 2012.

Skew of the supports in steel I-girder bridges cause undesirable torsional effects, increased cross-frame forces, and generally increase the difficulty of designing and constructing a bridge. The girders experience differential deflections due to the skew supports, and the undesirable effects arise when the girders are linked transversely. Before the placement of the deck, the main method of linking the girders transversely is through the use of cross-frames.

In the past few years there have been an increasing number of high-impact events that involved both a natural disaster and man-made hazardous materials; we will call these events “nahaz” events. Our purpose is to develop models and algorithms for safe transportation and equitable supply of commodities like gasoline in the aftermath of a disaster, and to provide insights on disaster recovery planning in the face of disruptions.

In transportation planning, the activity-based model system is considered as the next-generation demand foresting model and requires the input of trip modes and purposes of individuals. GPSbased travel surveys can avoid many problems in traditional paper and phone surveys and are becoming increasingly popular in major cities worldwide. In the past few years, Dr. Gong has developed a computing system consisting of a smartphone app that transmits GPS data to an Amazon cloud server where GIS algorithms detect travel modes and trip purposes of individuals.

The pedestrian evacuation problem is highly stochastic due to the extreme uncertainty associ- ated with the failures caused by natural and man-made disasters. Thus, adopting a predetermined evacuation plan may be inadequate. On the other hand, it is difficult to design evacuation plans to address every possible scenario of failure. The availability of real-time information about the pedestrian network becomes vital for timely deployment of effective and case-specific evacuation strategies.

The evolution in computing, communication and vehicular technologies have resulted in connected and autonomous vehicles. Due to its potential of significantly reducing highway crashes, fatality rates and improving quality of life, the autonomous vehicles are viewed as the next revolution in the transportation system by both private sector and public agencies.

Increased awareness in this decade on the significance of developing sustainable materials for construction has renewed the interest in exploring Alkali Activated Concrete (AAC), a concrete that contains no cement but only industrial by-products such as fly ash and slag, as a low energy alternative to the conventional concrete. Preliminary studies to evaluate the potential of alkali activated slag/fly ash as a sustainable alternative to Portland cement concrete is quite promising. Strength comparable to Portland cement concrete has been obtained in AAC under laboratory conditions.

Freight flows are a physical manifestation of the manufacturing and consumption activities that are pillars of modern life. For that reason, transportation policy should ensure that freight is moved as efficiently as possible, as hampering the flow of cargo is bound to have a negative effect on the economy. At the same time, it is important to minimize the negative impacts produced by freight traffic such as congestion, pollution, noise, infrastructure damage, and deterioration of quality of life.

There has been much interest in recent years in alternative forms of transportation that are more sustainable than technology based on the internal combustion engine. Newly developed technologies, such as Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) and Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV), promise to greatly reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. But BEVs have a limited driving range before they must be recharged, which makes them less attractive to the buying public.