UH Mānoa team awarded for creating an AI system that detects, prevents car crashes

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa earned a $750,000 award last month from the U.S. Department of Transportation, securing its position as a leader in transportation safety innovation.

A team of student innovators, led by Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering Professor Guohui Zhang, entered the Department of Transportation’s Intersection Safety Challenge and developed an artificial intelligence system that uses multiple types of sensors to detect and prevent potential crashes at intersections.

The Intersection Safety Challenge is a multi-stage prize competition that encourages teams to develop and test intersection safety systems that utilize emerging technologies to mitigate unsafe conditions with vehicles and road users at roadway intersections.

Zhang’s team was among four winners to receive the maximum prize amount after they presented a system that utilizes sensor fusion to combine data from multiple sources, which include:

• LiDAR – measures distances using laser pulses 
• RGB cameras – standard color camera
• thermal cameras – detect heat signatures
• traffic signal data – cameras and motion detectors on traffic lights

The sensor fusion creates highly accurate 3D tracking while using open vocabulary detection (the ability to identify new objects) to predict potential collision paths, ultimately supporting the Department of Transportation’s goal of eliminating roadway deaths and serious injuries.

“This award highlights the University of Hawaiʻi’s commitment to advancing transportation safety through cutting-edge innovation,” Zhang said. “By leading this groundbreaking work, UH and the state of Hawaiʻi are not only shaping the future of safer intersections, but also positioning themselves at the forefront of national efforts to save lives and protect communities.”

This design is efficient and optimizes how the sensors work together to run on less expensive hardware while maintaining accuracy across different conditions. It would be feasible to scale the technology to intersections across the country.

This latest award builds on the team’s previous success in an earlier stage of the challenge, where UH received $100,000 for an initial concept paper. The earlier phase attracted 120 submissions with only 15 teams advancing.

The Department of Transportation may advance the project to another potential stage, which would focus on developing and testing prototype systems in real-world conditions.

“This recognition is really a demonstration of Hawaiʻi’s aggressive efforts to reduce traffic incidents on our roads,” said College of Engineering Dean Brennon Morioka. “The relationship between the Department of Transportation and the College of Engineering has really lifted Hawaiʻi on the national scale and shows how partnerships like these can help save lives.”

“We greatly appreciate all the strong partnerships with NEC Corporation of America to jointly work together to receive this highly competitive award,” Zhang added. “We are especially grateful for the support and leadership of Edwin Sniffen and Robin Shishido from Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation as well as Brennon Morioka from the University of Hawaiʻi College of Engineering, whose guidance and contributions were invaluable.”