Alice Grossman, Atiyya Shaw, Prabha (Popa) Pratyaksa, Aaron Greenwood, Randall Guensler, Yanzhi (Ann) Xu

Use of Mobile Technologies in Attracting K-12 to Transportation

TRB Education and Training Committee Webinar, July 1, 2015

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Objectives for use of Technology in K-12 outreach

Identify and explain topics in transportation using familiar and new technologies

Collect data:– Traditional manual methods– New digital technologies

Analyze data:– Generate of analytical graphs, charts, and maps– Basic descriptive statistics (standard software)

Design and give a presentation that effectively communicates each step of the research process

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Centennial Place Academy Partners

86% African American, 5% Caucasian, 2% Asian, 3% Hispanic, 4% Multi-racial

Title 1 School (71% free/reduced lunch programs) Draws student population from the Centennial Place

neighborhood and surrounding communities, including two shelters

1st Atlanta Public Schoolsystem charter school conversion

Emphasis onproject-based learning

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Women and Minorities in Engineering

Encourage young women and minorities to consider engineering from a young age

Charts from nsf.gov NOTE: Data not available for 1999 SOURCE: Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science in Engineering

Science and Engineering Degrees Earned by Underrepresented Minorities

Low Participation Fields for Women

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Technologies Employed

Projects include the use of new Georgia Tech smart phones and tablet applications for data collection

Students analyze data using standard software to familiarizes students with computational methods

Researchers analyze the same data, developing more complex models software, and share outputs with students to enhance their understand of benefits of using advanced computational methods

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Tablet Software

Traffic counting app screen shot

Sidewalk Sentry app records sidewalk video, GPS, and

vibration data

Sidewalk Sentry Android App (Akanser et al., 2015)- records video, accelerometer readings, gyroscope data, and GPS position

Vehicle Counting Android App- point and touch system to count vehicles on video

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Commute Warrior Software

The Commute Warrior Android app collects second-by-second position and speed data and the electronic travel diary allows users to input trip purpose and other data through the app interface or web page (Akanser et al., 2015)

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Accessibility of Research Technology to Future Work Force

Research topics encompass aspects of everyday life Students experience field data collection

– Familiar tools (smartphones, tablets, computers) Data visualization (creating and interpreting charts) Develop engineering skill sets:

– Research design– Organization and planning– Field data collection and teamwork– Critical thinking and mathematics– Oral and written communication

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Outreach Program Framework

One two-hour long session in May, 2014 with the entire 5th grade class (82 students)– Overview presentation– Spilt into three groups for module activities

Mode choice – computer modelingTravel diaries – smart phone appsAccessibility – tablet app and smart levels

– Full group summary and discussion session Two full-day sessions in October 2014 with 19

returning students (now in 6th grade)

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A few examples….

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Short Module:Paper vs. Electronic Travel Diaries

Students completed paper diaries from memory

Compared paper diary with Smartphone automatic GPS data collection survey features

Discussions revealed students’ interest in use of technology, ease, and higher resolution of data in Commute Warrior

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Full Day Module: Pedestrian Accessibility

This module brought students to three different locations in their school environment to measure aspects of pedestrian accessibility

Module objectives:– Experience how people with

limited mobility use pedestrian facilities

– Learn how to use tape measuressmart levels, and tablet appsto collect data

– Analyze and present data

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Full Day Module: Traffic Engineering

Objectives: Introduce field of traffic

engineering and its significance in daily life

First-hand experience in performing traffic counts

Introduce common vehicle count data collection techniques

Direct comparison of manual vs. digital methods

Engage with hands-on activities using tablets and computer-based traffic simulation

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Traffic Engineering Presentations

Each small group created and executed a PowerPoint presentation with the participation of every student

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Conclusions

Exposure– Engaged women and minorities in STEM– Multiple aspects of the transportation discipline – Research uses with familiar technology

Application of mobile technologies– Developed in on-going Georgia Tech research– Used in all stages of research process (data

collection, analysis, communicating results) Materials are transferable

– http://transportation.ce.gatech.edu

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Thank You

We would like to acknowledge the research team members working on Vehicle counting, Sidewalk Sentry, Sidewalk Scout, and Commute Warrior

Our gratitude also goes to the GT student chapters of ITE and WTS and to our generous project funders at the Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development, and Education Center (STRIDE) and Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT)

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Questions?

transportation.ce.gatech.edu/education

“Wheelchairs and Supershoes”

The Commute Warrior travel diary smart phone application for Androids is available on the Google Play Store.

A supplementary sidewalk data collection application, Sidewalk Scout is available for both Android and iPhone smartphones in the Google Play Store and Apple Store

Alice Grossman

agrossman3@gatech.edu