NIST Automated Vehicles Team Visits Virginia Tech Transportation Institute to Discuss Collaborative Efforts

On February 28-29, 2024, the NIST Automated Vehicles team, representing multiple NIST laboratories, visited the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) site in Blacksburg, VA. The program for the two-day meeting included presentations, collaboration discussions, and tours of VTTI’s Smart Road testing facility, testbeds, and automated vehicle (AV) research. The event was organized by NIST’s Ed Griffor and VTTI’s Mac McCall, and included in-person participation by NIST AV program/project leads and team members, including Zeid Kootbally, Apostol Vassilev, David Wollman, Thomas Roth, Chunmei Liu, and Omar Aboul-Enein.

The NIST and VTTI teams provided summaries of their respective research activities and capabilities, covering key topics such as vehicle testing practices and safety procedures, Artificial Intelligence, perception systems, naturalistic driving studies, data/hardware systems, AV communications, co-simulation, and overall system interactions. After an extensive facilities tour, the teams had in-depth discussions on existing and potential collaborative research and opportunities for alignment of current and future goals.

Additional NIST participants included Wenqi Guo, Eugene Song, Mahima Arora, Ninad Harishchandrakar, Usman Fiaz, Hadhoum Hajjaj, Giray Oral, Munawar Hasan, Pavel Piliptchak, Colin Shaefer, and Thoshitha Gamage.