Smart Cities

NSF awards graduate fellowship to Francisco for work helping people understand their energy use and act more sustainably

Ph.D. student Abby Francisco, who has received a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship. (Photo: Jess Hunt-Ralston)

If we tell people how they’re using energy, can we encourage them to conserve and change their behavior? That question drives School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. student Abby Francisco, who has just learned the National Science Foundation is supporting her work through a graduate research fellowship.

Friday, April 20, 2018

Coogan wins CAREER grant to build mathematical foundation for modeling and predicting traffic flow

Cars speed along the Interstate 75/Interstate 85 Downtown Connector in Atlanta. (Photo: Rob Felt)

Samuel Coogan says we have an unprecedented opportunity in the coming years to reshape how we operate our transportation systems. With the support of the National Science Foundation, he's going to take advantage.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

National group honors research using lasers and AI to automatically assess health of highway pavement and catalog road signs

Georgia Tech and Georgia Department of Transportation researchers have earned an award for their work to automatically detect cracks, ruts and other pavement issues on the state's highways. Their system uses lasers and artificial intelligence to also detect and catalog roadside signs. This image shows an automatically detected pavement rut modeled in 3-D. (Image: James Tsai)

A leading, standards-setting transportation organization has named a project by Georgia Tech and Georgia Department of Transportation researchers one of the year’s most valuable. And the work could save time and money for DOTs around the country.

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Energy, emissions and a smarter North Ave: Hunter, Guensler crunch data from new smart corridor to improve traffic, safety

Associate Professor Michael Hunter stands along North Avenue, the City of Atlanta's new "smart corridor." Along with the city, the Georgia Department of Transportation and other partners, Hunter will help cut the ribbon for the corridor Sept. 14. (Photo: Chris Moore)

The City of Atlanta will officially cut the ribbon on the North Avenue “smart corridor” Sept. 14, unveiling what city officials call the most-connected corridor in the state and a living laboratory for traffic management. It’s a partnership between the city, Georgia Department of Transportation, Georgia Tech and others.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Smart Cities: Innovative approaches combining engineering, technology and the social sciences are boosting the urban IQ

Smart Cities graphic with a rendering of the city of Atlanta.

Georgia Tech has been intensifying its smart cities initiative, including membership in the national MetroLab Network and the launch of a new faculty council with members from more than a dozen university units. Tech has long been working in the, but the now the Institute is organizing all the research that’s happening to have a bigger impact.

Friday, July 21, 2017

LISTEN: I-85 collapse provides Tien a test case of infrastructure interdependence

Assistant Professor Iris Tien, center, with WABE-FM's Jim Burress and Rose Scott after their conversation about Atlanta's infrastructure on the station's daily program Closer Look. (Photo Courtesy: WABE)

For a researcher who studies the ways society’s infrastructure systems are interconnected and interdependent, the Interstate 85 collapse this spring in Atlanta had a silver lining. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Assistant Professor Iris Tien told Atlanta public radio station WABE that shutting down one of the city’s main thoroughfares presented a rare opportunity — despite the disruption to businesses and the extra travel time for residents.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Hunter tells GPB many more questions remain about self-driving cars

Screenshot of GPB web page featuring the March 16 segment on self-driving cars that included Michael Hunter.

Appearing on the GPB public radio program On Second Thought March 16, transportation research Michael Hunter said the jury remains out on whether autonomous vehicles will make our roads safer. Hunter said such questions are the focus of inquiry as cities and states move closer to allowing the driverless cars on their roadways.

Friday, March 17, 2017

Sustainability, emissions, travel behavior among challenges researchers will tackle in 6 new University Transportation Centers

U.S. Department of Transportation map showing all of the newly funded University Transportation Centers and the affiliated universities.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Dec. 5 it would invest $300 million in new research through University Transportation Centers, including half a dozen where the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering will play a significant role.

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Dealing with uncertainty: New NSF project will create more accurate, faster interval-based approach to assessing structures for damage

Yang Wang and students in his research group install sensors on a bridge in Bartow County, Georgia, in July 2016. Wang, Francesco Fedele and Rafi Muhanna in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering will use data from instruments like these to feed a new interval-based optimization approach to assess structural systems and detect damage. (Photo Courtesy: Yang Wang)

The National Science Foundation has funded a new collaboration between three School of Civil and Environmental Engineering researchers that could make finding damage in bridges or buildings easier and help reduce life-threatening failures. If successful, the team will be able to produce more reliable predictions about how structures behave, and their algorithm will be able to do the predictions much more quickly than current practice for structural damage and deterioration assessments.

Friday, November 4, 2016

Failing infrastructure: We can’t fix it all, so Chloe Johansen’s research will help us prioritize

Ph.D. student Chloe Johansen meets with her TI:GER program group in October 2016 to talk about their project. (Photo: Joshua Stewart)

Chloe Johansen, a School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. student, is working on an idea with Assistant Professor Iris Tien they think will make a difference in improving America's crumbling infrastructure. It's work with so much potential that Johansen is working with other Georgia Tech and Emory University graduate students to commercialize her research.

Thursday, October 20, 2016
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Map of School of Civil and Environmental Engineering

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Mason Building, 790 Atlantic Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332-0355
Phone: 404-894-2201
Fax: 404-894-2278