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Steven E. Underwood, Ph.D., Director, Transportation and Information Systems Planning; Director, Connected Vehicle Proving Center; Center for Automotive Research
Dr. Steven Underwood is the Director of the Transportation and Information System Planning Group (TISP) at the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) that focuses on innovative transportation systems with emphasis on the road transportation infrastructure, the infrastructure - vehicle interaction, and the information exchange between the two. Drawing on extensive experience working with public agencies, automotive companies, automotive suppliers, telecommunications companies, and information service providers, Dr. Underwood has a history of experience in designing, developing, and evaluating integrated transportation and information systems. He is currently the Program Director for the Connected Vehicle Proving Center (CVPC) that is receiving support from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the Michigan Department of Transportation, manufacturers and suppliers in the automotive industry, as well as partners from the consumer electronics and telecommunications industry.
Dr Underwood is also co author the Michigan Department of Transportation’s Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) strategic plan and Principal Investigator for a continuing planning contract for MDOT’s VII initiatives. MDOT and CAR have initiated a long-term research partnership with a focus on developing a stronger relationship between the public agencies responsible for transportation infrastructure and the automotive industry. The intent is to develop a coalition to guide and support research that takes a more integrated systems approach that promotes efficient and safe mobility as a foundation for economic development in the State of Michigan. His most current activity involves Vehicle-Infrastructure Integration (VII) where vehicles will telecommunicate and exchange information through public and private servers at roadside “hotspots”. This information will support vehicle remote diagnostics, monitoring “probe” vehicles, and communicating traffic information to drivers.
Prior to joining CAR, Dr. Underwood was an Assistant Research Scientist and Associate Director of the Research Center of Excellence (RCE) in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) at the University of Michigan. His primary research activities included analyzing transportation policy, evaluating ITS deployments, developing and running road transportation simulations, assessing traveler behavior and impacts, and developing group policy and decision support systems. He also served as an Adjunct Professor, teaching in the areas of conflict resolution and traffic modeling.
Dr. Underwood led the evaluation of three national operational field tests of advanced transportation systems: the FAST-TRAC integrated route guidance adaptive traffic control system, the DIRECT motorist information system, and the SMART transit scheduling and dispatch system. Dr. Underwood also organized the winning Intelligent Vehicle-Highway System (IVHS) National Architecture team, which included the University of Michigan, Siemens, IBM, Loral, and Lockheed-Martin, that developed and implemented the ITS national architecture for the U.S. Department of Transportation. Dr. Underwood led the team that evaluated the national ITS architecture involving a comprehensive review of the performance, costs, benefits, and deployment risks associated with the architecture. Dr. Underwood received the Peccei Fellowship from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria for his work on the assessment of large-scale systems. IIASA was the birthplace of the European initiative on Road Transport Informatics (RTI) and the sponsoring organization for the 1986 Delphi survey on RTI in Europe. Following up on the IIASA research, Dr. Underwood directed a Delphi study on IVHS in North America.
Dr. Underwood has also designed a number of collaborative training and planning exercises and simulations, including products for Visteon (a major automotive supplier spun off from Ford Motor Company),
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