REU Site: Interdisciplinary Research Experience in Behavioral Sciences of Transportation Issues

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This project is funded from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the SBE Directorate. The REU program has both scientific and societal benefits, and it integrates research and education. The goal of this REU Site on transportation in the behavioral sciences is to provide a diverse group of undergraduate researchers with training on research skills in various subfields of Psychology and Engineering that contribute to interdisciplinary transportation science. Students will be exposed to the interdisciplinary nature of transportation science and conduct research that has both theoretical and applied impact in various transportation areas. Students will learn a variety of behavioral science and engineering methods within human-in-the-loop simulation experiments, questionnaire-based behavioral research, and direct observation. Students will work closely with their faculty mentors on active research topics, such as automated driving systems, driver workload, distracted driving, pedestrian crossing behaviors and driver yielding responses, and pilot performance and trust in aircrafts. This project will help prepare students for higher education and careers in various transportation areas. The interdisciplinary transportation field enjoys theoretical developments in human perception and cognition, behavioral, engineering, public health and methodological areas to name a few, and is critical for reducing injuries and deaths resulting from motor vehicle crashes. This program will engage REU students in hands-on research activities in interdisciplinary transportation science in a 10-week summer program that will include research seminars, workshops, mentored research activities, and University sponsored poster session that are expected to shape the work into professional conference presentations and/or peer-reviewed publications. The program will offer training on research skills using driving and flight simulation, human performance modeling, eye tracking and field methods, among others. The REU program will also offer instructions in graduate school application and career development in transportation fields. The program will contribute to the development of researchers who advance transportation science with interdisciplinary, theory-driven, perspectives.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.