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Andrew Davis - The University of Tennessee

Degree Program: Bachelors of Science - Electrical Engineering
Project: Trusted Truck

Andrew Davis is a senior in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department at the University of Tennessee.  He is currently an undergraduate research assistant in the Machine Intelligence Lab where his work focuses on software design for intelligent transportation systems and reinforcement learning.  His areas of interest include machine learning and image processing.

Brad Mathis - Western Michigan University

Degree Program: Bachelor's of Science - Mechanical Engineering
Project: Heavy Truck Rollover Characterization

Brad is currently a senior at Western Michigan University. He is enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering program at WMU and will graduate in December 2010. He has been working on the Heavy Truck Rollover project for about a year and has gained some valuable insight to engineering applications and plans to continue to work with NTRCI for the remainder of his undergraduate studies.

Brian Silovich - Western Michigan University

Degree Program: Bachelors of Science - Mechanical Engineering
Project: Heavy Truck Rollover Characterization

Brian is currently a senior graduating in May 2010 with a major in Mechanical Engineering at Western Michigan University.  Along with his studies he is part of two student organizations on campus. The first organization is the Student Alumni Association where current WMU students network with past WMU graduates by hosting events to get the Alumni back on campus. The other organization is the WMU Formula Racing Team in which students design, fabricate and assemble an open wheel style race car and compete with other colleges worldwide. His senior design project is to design an efficient 3 wheeled electric vehicle for a high school team. For this project, Brian the TruckSim Coordinator in which he does computer simulations of tractor trailer combinations and analyzes their behavior to see if they match the models of other calculated versions.

Bryn Gwaltney - Western Michigan University

Degree Program: Bachelors of Science - Mechanical Engineering
Project: Heavy Truck Rollover Characterization

Bryn is a student at Western Michigan University majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He has been working with Dr. Mitchel Keil and Dr. Richard Hathaway for a year and a half now on the HTRC project. His job is to use Simulink to create models that simulate what different technologies would do to the truck. His plan is to continue to work on this project through my college career at WMU.

Catherine Bryant - The University of Tennessee

Degree Program: Masters of Science - Civil Engineering
Project: U11 - Wireless Roadside Inspection

Catherine received her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Spelman College and her Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has been a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). Her previous research experiences in transportation included the Design Flexibilities of Dense Urban Arterial Roads in the U.S, and her previous research experiences in chemistry have also been exceptionally extensive. She is currently at the University of Tennessee to pursue her Master's in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Transportation. Her current research involves the evaluation of the Wireless Roadside Inspection Project at the University of Tennesseences in transportation involved the design aspects of urban arterial roads.  

Christopher Sawyer - Western Michigan University

Degree Program: Bachelors of Science - Civil Engineering
Project: Heavy Truck Rollover Characterization

Christopher is a senior at Western Michigan University majoring in Civil Engineering.  He is the Co Captain on the Steel Bridge team for the American Society of Civil Engineers.   Steel Bridge team is an organization in which students are required to build a Steel Bridge according to competition standards.  The Bridge is then assembled and tested on site at competition.  For this project he is creating Finite Element models which will be then converted to Model Neutral files.   The files that are created will then be analyzed in ADAMS and compared to data collected through testing.

Cody Herring - Western Michigan University

Degree Program: Bachelor's of Science - Computer Engineering
Project: Heavy Truck Rollover Characterization

Cody is currently a sophomore at Western Michigan University majoring in Computer Engineering.  Cody has been working with CAViDS and Dr. Richard Hathaway since his first month at WMU, primarily in data acquisition and mechanical modeling.  He has participated in a senior design project to measure the Ackermann angle of a steering rig, created and configured a data acquisition system for the Formula SAE team at WMU. He assisted in TruckSim/Simulink modeling for active suspension models in Phase B of the HTRC Project.

Francisco Moraes Oliveira-Neto - The University of Tennessee

Degree Program: Ph.D - Civil Engineering
Project: License Plate Recognition (Phase A & B)

Moraes is from Brazil and is a graduate research assistant at The University of Tennessee (UT). He received his bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering in February 2002 and his master's degree in Transportation Engineering in October 2004, both in the Federal University of Ceara, sited in his hometown Fortaleza (Northeast of Brazil). His master thesis was about assessing bus priority strategies in urban traffic control centers. Between the years of 2002 and 2006, Moraes also worked as a Traffic Engineer in the Advanced Urban Traffic Control of Fortaleza (CTAFOR), working mainly in setting up the traffic signal times of Fortaleza's arterial network and calibrating and validating the real time control model (SCOOT - Split Cycle Offset Optimization Technique) in optimizing the time of 245 signals of Fortaleza city (more than 50% of the existing signals). He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with concentration in Transportation Engineering. During his time at UT, among other activities, he has been involved mainly in a project that involves applications of some data mining techniques to enhance the existing license plate recognition technologies for large-truck speed enforcement. After graduating, Moraes hopes to transfer knowledge to others by teaching or working with transportation modeling and system optimization. His favorite activities are: playing soccer (as a good Brazilian), reading, studying math, playing chess, and cycling.

Lawson Bordley - The University of Tennessee

Degree Program: Masters of Science - Civil Engineering
Project: Wireless Roadside Inspection

Lawson is currently a graduate student at The University of Tennessee-Knoxville pursuing a Master's Degree in Civil Engineering. He earned a Bachelor of Science in GeoScience from Middle Tennessee State University in 1996 and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering: Civil from The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) in 2009. While at UTC Lawson was active in the American Society of Civil Engineers serving as both student chapter President and Vice-President. Lawson has owned his own home repair and maintenance business since 1999 and is also a licensed aviation maintenance technician. His hobbies include bicycling and photography.

For this project Lawson will be acting as student leader and coordinator.  

Madeline McAuley - Western Michigan University

Degree Program: Masters of Science
Project: Heavy Truck Rollover Characterization

Madeline is currently a Graduate student at Western Michigan University in the Manufacturing Engineering Master of Science program.   She received a bachelor's degree in Engineering Design Technology in April 2009 and is currently the design leader of the Sunseeker solar car team. Madeline is president of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.  For this project she reverse engineered the Volvo truck and LBT trailer using the ATOS 3D digitizer.  Each component was precisely measured, modeled in 3D parametric CAD software, and placed into its respective assembly.  A full assembly of the truck and trailer was provided to WMU colleagues for simulation.  She will be implementing design improvements in CAD for further simulation and analysis.

Matthew Burr - The University of Tennessee

Degree Program: Bachelors of Science - Mechanical Engineering
Project: Wireless Roadside Inspection

Matthew is an undergraduate student at the University of Tennessee majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He holds an Associate's degree from Portland Community College. Matt has done some work in with design work on heavy machinery, medical equipment,  and telecommunications equipment. His most recent career was that of an airline captain.

Michael Nienhuis - Western Michigan University

Degree Program: Masters of Science - Mechanical Engineering
Project: Heavy Truck Rollover Characterization

Michael is currently a Graduate student at Western Michigan University majoring in Mechanical Engineering.  He is a recent graduate from Western Michigan University's undergraduate program with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.  Michael has been heavily involved for several years in the WMU chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) acting as the Engine Team Leader for Formula SAE in 2008-2009 and a general team member of both Formula SAE and Mini Baja from 2007-2010.  Both programs are student design competitions in which members design, build, and compete with an open wheel race car (Formula SAE) or off-road vehicle (Mini Baja).  For his senior design project, Michael helped in the design and simulate of a Gasoline Direct Injection fuel system for use on a Suzuki RMZ-450 engine which is hoped to be implemented into future WMU Formula SAE vehicles.

For the Heavy Truck Rollover Characterization project Michael will be working on the instrumentation of the test vehicle, on site testing, and post testing data processing and analysis.

Nikola Zisi - The University of Tennessee

Degree Program: Graduate - Civil Engineering
Project: U08: Enhanced Finite Element Analysis Crash Model of Tractor-Trailers: Website and Users Manual (Phase B)

Nikola is a graduate student in Civil Engineering at The University of Tennessee. He received his MS and BS degrees in Civil Engineering from the University "Sts. Cyril and Methodius" in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.

Rebekah Achtenberg - Western Michigan University

Degree Program: Bachelor of Science - Mechanical Engineering
Project: Heavy Truck Rollover Characterization

Rebekah is a senior at Western Michigan University majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Japanese.  For this project she is working on analysis of the axles.  Her senior design project is designing a test stand for fuel cells and testing a potential fuel cell membrane.

Samuel Mensch - Western Michigan University

Degree Program: Bachelor's of Science - Mechanical Engineering
Project: Heavy Truck Rollover Characterization

Samuel is currently a senior at Western Michigan University. He is enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering program at WMU and will graduate in December 2010. He has been working on the Heavy Truck Rollover project for about a year and has gained some valuable insight to engineering applications and will continue to work with NTRCI for the remainder of his undergraduate studies.

Vinodkumar Vijayan - Western Michigan University

Degree Program: Masters of Science - Engineering Management
Project: Heavy Truck Rollover Characterization

Vinod, is in the masters program in Engineering Management at WMU. He has his bachelors in Sandwich Mechanical Engineering (mechanical engineering with training in four manufacturing disciplines). Currently he is a research assistant at the department of Mechanical Engineering working on two projects under CAVIDS namely Heavy Truck Rollover Characterization and Ground Vehicle Reliability of a Hummer. He is working on developing the Finite Element Models of the various parts of the vehicles from the CAD models.  He assigns the material properties and establish the various types of connections between the parts resembling the actual physical model. Then, he runs a frequency analysis to check connections and if successful convert them into a format required by the simulation team. The software used is Altair Hyperworks and ABAQUS.