Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Secretary Ananth Prasad visits FIU's Lehman Center
Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Secretary Ananth Prasad paid a visit to the Florida International University College of Engineering and Computing on Wednesday, August 10, 2011. He was accompanied by Gus Pego, FDOT District 6 Secretary, Debora Rivera, Director of District 6 Transportation Operations, and Harold Desdunes, Director of District 6 Transportation Development. During his visit he received a tour of the Integrated Intelligent Transportation Systems (IITS) Laboratory and the Titan America Structures and Construction Testing Laboratory. He also met faculty and students of the Lehman Center for Transportation Research (LCTR) and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Introducing the large student group at the Lehman Center, Patricio Alvarez, a doctoral student at the Lehman Center, who has joined the Center from Chile, spoke of the diversity of the group each being from a different part of the world and yet united in addressing transportation issues in their research projects. Dr. Hadi presented the real-time communication capability of IITS lab for sharing video and information with traffic management centers. The laboratory utilizes information collected from different sources for research and development in support of ITS planning and operations for “normal” conditions and special events including incidents, major emergencies, and evacuations. He also discussed planned initiatives at his lab from Connected Vehicles technologies to Transportation Demand Management and Decision Support Systems. Dr. Azizinamini presented some of FIU capabilities in Accelerated Bridge Construction (ABC) and Highways for Life.
Integrated Intelligent Transportation Systems (IITS) Laboratory
The Lehman Center for Transportation Research (LCTR) at Florida International University (FIU) was established in 1993 in honor of Congressman Bill Lehman and his tireless efforts to make South Florida a better place. Located in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, LCTR is committed to conducting research and training to improve transportation mobility and safety, and educating a multidisciplinary workforce to plan, manage, and implement transportation systems. LCTR is the only transportation center of its kind in South Florida — home to about a third of Florida’s 18 million population. Since its inception, LCTR has conducted numerous research projects in the areas of public transportation, GIS, transportation demand modeling, land use planning, intelligent transportation systems, transportation safety, traffic simulation, and transportation databases. The faculty at the Center help develop planning tools for safe, congestion free, and cost effective multimodal transportation systems.