FAMU will serve as the lead university on a $10 million grant from the US Department of Transportation. The grant will be paid out of five years at $2 million per year.
FAMU is partnering with five university partners -- Florida State University, Cleveland State University, Suny Stony Brook University, the University of Washington, and Tallahassee Community College.
Researchers from the consortium will establish a new Tier One University Transportation Center (UTC) at FAMU to focus on the core issues and challenges faced by people living in rural communities. Specially, FAMU’s center will focus on addressing equitably some of the transpiration issues faced by first-generation college students from low-income rural households.
The goal is to help the next generation of Americans travel safer, faster, and at a reduced cost, and produce a diverse group of transportation researchers.
“FAMU students will have new and expanding opportunities through this new research center,” FAMU Vice President of Research Charles Weatherford, Ph.D., said. “The U.S. is at an inflection point in transportation—the application of increasingly effective AI to transportation will revolutionize the way all transportation operates including supply chain modalities. More minority engineers will get the necessary training to make a greater impact on this revolution by participating in the research and our nation’s workforce.”
Research projects through the center will expand access to transportation and improve safety in rural communities, especially for vulnerable populations. The center will grow the infrastructure needed to be more resilient in a natural disaster, an initiative that complements the Resilient Infrastructure & Disaster Response Center (RIDER), at the College.