Go! Exploring the World of Transportation
Transportation of Tomorrow: The next generation of engineers
Pranamesh Chakraborty is a graduate student in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at Iowa State University (ISU). He is a graduate research assistant at the Institute for Transportation (InTrans) in Ames, Iowa, and applies his gifts as a budding engineer to work on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), applying big data and deep learning techniques.
As a graduate student earning his PhD, Pranamesh is a part of our next generation of engineers equipped with new ideas, technology, and challenges. I sat down with Pranamesh to ask him all about transportation engineering: Where it is, where it’s headed, and how big data and deep learning will shape the future of transportation.
Transportation of Tomorrow: Navigating big data
You hear the term “big data” tossed around a lot, but what does it really mean? And what does the collection and application of data mean for the transportation world?
Odds are, you’ve benefited from data collection yourself. If you’ve ever used smartphone applications like Google Maps or WAZE, not only are you using an app built from user data, but you’re also contributing to the dataset.
With growing privacy concerns and benefits surrounding data collection, how does one navigate the world of data and transportation? What kind of information is being collected, and what should we keep in mind for the future?
I spoke with Christopher Day—an assistant professor at Iowa State University (ISU) in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering, and a researcher at ISU’s Institute for Transportation (InTrans)—to get an expert opinion.
Groundbreaking: Electrically conductive concrete
Imagine a world where fresh snowfall didn’t compromise the ability to drive or bike on roadways. With electrically conductive concrete—concrete that could be heated with an electrical current to melt away snow and ice as it precipitates—that could one day be a reality.
Using this technology, also known as heated pavement, on roadways and sidewalks is still a hope for the future. That said, this technology does exist, and it’s being tested at the Des Moines International Airport. If heated pavement technology continues to move forward, it could truly be a groundbreaking innovation for transportation of the future.