Research
The twenty-first century is an urban living century.
It is predicted that by 2050 about 64% of the developing world and 86% of the developed world will be urbanized. Almost everyone will inevitably be affected. Urbanization brings both unprecedented challenges and wonderful opportunities.
New technologies are making urbanization easy to manage as they create platforms and systems that make everyday life easier.
The Internet of everything and Internet of people are making it easier to manage and provide urban services through smart real-time data-driven management of urban systems. Urban communities can take advantage of smart technologies that are utilizing the rapidly growing real time urban generated data to improve the quality of life of the citizens for the betterment of society. Chattanooga is a growing mid-sized city with a proud tradition of public-private partnerships that drive innovation and sustainable economic growth and development.
OUR AREAS OF RESEARCH
AI
Our AI research focuses on building intelligent, resilient systems for urban and transportation environments. We develop advanced AI models that operate at the edge, coordinate through agentic and multi-agent frameworks, and learn from rich, multi-modal sensor data. By combining generative and decision-support AI with robust sensor fusion, we enable real-time perception, prediction, and autonomous coordination in complex infrastructure systems. We also explore quantum and quantum-inspired AI approaches to accelerate learning, optimization, and large-scale system analysis—pushing the boundaries of what cities can achieve.
Edge AI — Agentic AI — Generative AI — Sensor Fusion — Quantum AI
CV & V2X
Our research in Connected Vehicles (CV) with Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) Communication technologies explores the transformative potential of connected and cooperative intelligent transportation systems. We investigate advanced protocols that enable real-time data exchange for enhanced safety and traffic efficiency.
Digital Twin
We are building a city-scale digital twin that brings traffic, mobility, and infrastructure to life in real time. This dynamic virtual mirror lets cities run powerful “what-if” scenarios using real-world data to anticipate congestion, test solutions, and make smarter planning and operational decisions across urban and rural networks.
Autonomy & Control Systems
We design systems that help autonomous vehicles operate safely in complex, real-world conditions. Our work enables vehicles to plan movements, make decisions, and adapt in real time using sensor data, supporting reliable and scalable deployment of autonomous vehicles.
Electrification
We advance electric mobility using AI-driven tools to plan and operate EV charging infrastructure. Our work aligns driver demand with smart-grid capacity and real-time charger availability, helping ensure reliable, accessible charging when and where it’s needed.
Digital Infrastructure
We build the backbone that powers Chattanooga’s smart-city ecosystem—real-time, resilient pipelines that ingest billions of data points each day from cameras, lidars, RSUs, thermal sensors, and edge devices. The result: a living, self-aware digital foundation built for intelligent transportation and next-generation urban research.
Advanced Sensing & Perception
Advancing smart mobility by fusing multimodal sensing with AI-driven perception for complex roadway environments, integrating camera/LiDAR/radar and V2X/infrastructure data with robust, uncertainty-aware methods to enable reliable detection, tracking, and safety-critical situational awareness.