U-M doctoral student with ties to Mcity wins award for young transportation engineers
Zachary Jerome, a Ph.D. candidate advised by Mcity Director Henry Liu, received the 2024 Daniel B. Fambro Student Paper Award from the Institute of Transportation Engineers
Zachary Jerome, a Ph.D. candidate in the Next-Generation Transportation Systems (NGTS) program in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Michigan, has received the Daniel B. Fambro Student Paper Award. The award, named in memory of a professor at Texas A&M University, recognizes and highlights young and talented transportation engineers on a global scale.
Zachary’s award-winning paper, titled “Determining Minimum Change Intervals from Vehicle Trajectory Data,” focuses on optimizing signalized traffic intersections in Birmingham, Michigan. This research was done in collaboration with Mcity Director Henry Liu, who is also director of the Center for Connected and Automated Transportation (CCAT). CCAT is the U.S. Department of Transportation Region 5 University Transportation Center housed at the U-M Transportation Research Institute. Zachary received his award during the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Annual Meeting which was held last month in Philadelphia.
“I am passionate about translating research into applications for real-world impact. My vision is to provide solutions for intersection management across the world that are scalable, sustainable, and efficient”
Zachary Jerome, Ph.D. candidate in Next Generation Transportation Systems, Civil & Environmental Engineering Department, University of Michigan, in an interview with ITE
The study analyzed vehicle trajectories across 34 intersections in the city which led to the discovery that more than one third had inadequate change intervals. Most cities time their traffic signals using costly sensors that can detect when a vehicle moves through an intersection, or send a traffic engineer to count vehicles during rush hour. Insights from Jerome’s analysis led to a pilot program that resulted in a 20% to 30% decrease in the number of stops at the 34 intersections.
Now, Jerome is partnering with the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC) to expand the deployment thanks to a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation Strengthening Mobility and Revolutionizing Transportation (SMART) program. His work has been covered extensively, including stories from the Associated Press and in the Wall Street Journal.
Zachary is a member of Michigan Traffic Laboratory (MTL), led by Liu, which supports graduate students and visiting scholars as they conduct research centered around cooperative driving automation, automated driving system testing and evaluation, next-generation traffic control systems, and more.
Additionally, from 2022-2023, Zachary served as the President of the Michigan Transportation Student Organization (MiTSO) which is a Student Chapter of ITE at the U_M. MiTSO explores professional, academic, research, and mentorship opportunities in transportation engineering and planning. CCAT provides funding for MiTSO members to attend major transportation-related conferences such as the Transportation Research Board’s Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
About the Daniel B. Fambro Student Paper Award