PATH Researchers, Staff Stack Up Awards

May 11, 2018

Congratulations to California Partners for Advance Transportation Technology (PATH), whose team members have been  stacking up awards!

PATH’s Connected Corridors Program Manager Joe Butler was recently awarded the UC Achievement Award for his sustained leadership and commitment to Connected Corridors, which he has been Program Manager for since its inception in 2011 and has ensured continued funding totaling over $25M dollars for UC research and development and an additional $25M in test facility improvements. His latest proposal should ensure completion of the effort with a requested funding level of $6M through 2019.

The Connected Corridors Program has been a significant national contributor to leading edge knowledge in the area of integrated transportation corridor management of vehicles and systems including novel modeling techniques, data science, project planning and systems engineering, as well as organizational change management.

While managing this group, Joe has demonstrated incredible leadership and commitment to ensure the successful completion of this program, and to ensure that the identified corridor for which the work occurs will become a legacy laboratory that will inspire UC research efforts for years to come. 

“Joe’s greatest attribute has been his ability to lead and maintain excitement in a team comprised of faculty, students, professional staff and consultants and our sponsoring partners through a long lasting and vitally important research and development program,” says PATH Co-Director Tom West.

He added the commitment, dedication, and leadership necessary to keep so many people engaged and excited about a highly complicated project of this magnitude and duration cannot be underestimated. Joe exhibits, on a daily basis, the necessary attributes including strong and motivational communication, seasoned technical leadership, and a passion for UC excellence.

In addition, his contributions to traffic operations have also helped position UC Berkeley in a leadership position within the state, especially in the Senate and Assembly transportation committees. Recognizing UC Berkeley’s leadership in traffic operations, in particular thanks to Joe’s leadership, the State has on repeated occasions asked faculty and staff to present and testify in various venues and contributed to the recent success of UC with AB1/SB1, with funds for UC named specifically.

PATH Administrative Assistant Erin Adrian earned a UC Berkeley Staff Appreciation and Recognition (STAR) Award for her above expectation work on two major projects in the past year: a research conference on the future of Connected and Automated vehicles that rivaled those provided by professional organizations and the relocation of an expensive flight simulator between two different buildings on campus, which involved several Berkeley departments, contractors, some construction along with the disassembly and re-assembly of the simulator  —under a tight schedule that required months of planning and coordination and allowed existing projects that were using the simulator to continue and new projects to begin.

“Erin's performance exceeded my expectations, because, in parallel to executing these projects Erin was learning Berkeley systems and how Berkeley works,” says PATH Chief Operations Officer Bob Meade, who nominated her for the award.

PATH Research Engineer Steven Shladover recently was presented with the SAE International’s SAE Electronics Intelligent Transportation Systems Award.

Established in 1996, this award recognizes the profound impact that Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) will have on mobility in the 21st century. This award distinguishes an individual or team whose outstanding long-term accomplishments are judged to have significantly advanced the state-of-the-art of ITS through innovative technology achievements and/or significant industry leadership.

Researchers Shiyan Yang, Shladover, Xiao-Yun Lu, Hani Ramezani, Aravind Kailas, and Osman Altan on earning the has been awarded the Transportation Research Board Truck and Bus Safety Committee (ANB70) Deborah Freund Paper Award for 2018 for their paper A First Investigation of Truck Drivers’ Preferences and Behaviors Using a Prototype Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control System. The paper was chosen amongst all those submitted to committee in 2018. It explores driving preferences and behaviors of truck drivers when following in a group in “CACC mode,” an area that remains largely unexplored.