Professor Larry Head Has Action-Packed Year

Larry Head is a man of many titles: professor of systems and industrial engineering, director of the UA Transportation Research Institute, member of the state's Self-Driving Vehicle Oversight Committee, and expert in connected and automated vehicles, to name just some.

His activities this year included:

• Heading up the REU program and working with nine SIE students on programming the UA's Cognitive and Autonomous Test driverless vehicle as part of the National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.
• Developing the connected-car technology being used in tests in Maricopa County.
• Collaborating with scholars at the Southwest Institute for Research on Women and the Arizona DOT to investigate ways to recruit, retain and promote women in the transportation workforce.
• Joining two other principal investigators exploring ways to fix I-10 traffic congestion and accidents.

Photo: Larry Head explains connected vehicle technology to bus riders before a demonstration in Anthem, Arizona. The data on the display monitor, based on UA-developed algorithms, alert the driver to hazards.