UAB Wins National Awards To Conduct Innovative Research For Improving Highway Safety

By Katherine Shonesy

Alabama researchers are out to improve national statistics where more than 32,000 people are killed in car accidents each year and about 2 million people are injured, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Engineering aim to improve those tragic statistics. UAB made two proposals to the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) as part of a nationwide quest for ideas to improve highway safety. NCHRP’s Innovations Deserving Exploratory Analysis (IDEA) award is given annually for projects “with potential to advance the construction, safety, maintenance and management of highway systems.”

UAB Mechanical Engineering Professor Dean Sicking, Ph.D., and Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor Thomas Attard, Ph.D. submitted separate proposals for the IDEA award program. Their submissions were chosen from among nearly 50 proposals.“It is extraordinary that two of the three winners nationally could come from one school,” said School of Engineering Dean Iwan Alexander, Ph.D., “but given the experience and dedication of the faculty involved, it is not surprising. Every day, we see work in a variety of fields which generates knowledge that promises to change the world. These two professors are very deserving of the funding and attention that their contributions to highway safety will receive. We are proud of the work they do.”

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