This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
The objective of this workshop is to convene experts from government, non-profit, industry and academic organizations to explore various aspects of the potential afforded by ITS technologies as they relate to improvements in vehicular traffic, sustainability, and policy making. The expertise of the participants will cut across traffic and transportation systems, automotive engineering, energy systems, economics, consumer behavior and acceptance, and policy making.
Vehicular transportation is responsible for a significant fraction of the energy consumed in the world, second only to electricity generation. It is clear that as demand for personal mobility continues to increase in developing economies, the demand for energy will grow with it. The use of ITS technologies in a broad sense must therefore be coupled with a deep understanding of the energy implications of different modes of transportation and with the introduction of alternative energy supplies, other than petroleum-based fuels. In this context, the introduction of PHEVs is an example of the clear ntersection between energy and environmental issues with ITS, given that a successful transition to electricity as an alternative fuel will require significant capabilities for route prediction and planning in PHEVs. The impact of ITS technologies on energy consumption is clearly not limited to PHEVs. In addition to the technology aspects, the scale of the problem and its dependence on infrastructure makes it necessary to also consider consumer behavior, policy making, and economic aspects related to the introduction of these technologies. The integrative nature of all the above is extremely important and also imply the need for investigations of large, complex, connected dynamic systems that need to be considered as Cyber Physical Systems.
The workshop will provide an opportunity for interaction among experts at the intersection of several broad areas that are of strategic importance to the nation: complex systems, cyber-enabled discovery and innovation, dynamic systems and control, networked systems, energy systems, and others. The Broader Impact of this workshop will consist of taking a first step towards establishing a research agenda capable of leading to transformational changes in the transportation system
