David Hurwitz<\/a>, associate professor of transportation engineering and the Eric H.I. and Janice Hoffman Faculty Scholar in Civil and Construction Engineering, who runs the driving and bicycling simulator on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\nHurwitz encouraged Chand to design his own research thesis project using the simulator, where virtual environments can be built to re-create particular intersections or neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI ended up looking at door-zone collisions, when a car door opens right in front of a bike,\u201d Chand said. \u201cWe were looking at how cyclists react in different scenarios. At what point do they choose to come to a complete stop before the open door? When do they choose to depart the bicycle lane and go into the motor vehicle lane or onto the sidewalk?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the lab, test subjects pedal through simulated environments while their position and speed are recorded, an eye tracker captures eye movement, and a galvanic skin response sensor measures sweat gland activity and heart rate. These tools, along with survey data taken before and after the simulation, help researchers get into the mind of a bicyclist and study their decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis research was the first of its kind,\u201d Hurwitz said. \u201cIt recently resulted in a peer-reviewed conference paper for the 2019 Road Safety and Simulation International Conference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chand\u2019s work was also recognized by the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals with a best poster award during its 2019 conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t realize until I began this research the human factors involved or the psychological side of transportation,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was really cool to learn about. It was a nice twist on civil engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chand\u2019s research interests led him to get involved with active transportation policy at the state level. Since 2016, he has served on the Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee, an eight-member committee appointed by Gov. Kate Brown that acts as a liaison between the public and the Oregon Department of Transportation. The committee meets six times a year in locations across the state to support the implementation of the Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt took a while for me to understand how to use my engineering background in that space and how to communicate it,\u201d Chand said. \u201cI got a lot of help from other people on the committee. They told me when I was not making sense. A lot of it is learning how to get the technical details across in a nontechnical way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Chand found his footing, his work with the committee also progressed; he\u2019s currently in charge of OBPAC\u2019s emerging trends and technologies focus area, including new developments in autonomous vehicle technology and policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCadell has demonstrated significant leadership in the active transportation domain through his membership on the committee,\u201d Hurwitz said. \u201cThis is an exceedingly rare contribution for an early career transportation professional.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chand is also active on campus as president of Oregon State\u2019s student chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. In 2019, he was part of the chapter\u2019s team in an international transportation safety competition jointly sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The team cleared the first round of judging on its design proposal and was awarded a stipend to build a prototype.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur idea was a system that uses sensors, either embedded in your vehicle or just on your phone, to detect when you\u2019ve been in a collision,\u201d Chand said. \u201cAnd then you use the information to predict the injuries sustained in that collision and send it to emergency responders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oregon State\u2019s team was one of three selected to represent North America at the final stage, held in the Netherlands. After a \u201cShark Tank\u201d-style pitch to agency officials and judges from several continents, the team placed fifth overall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was really cool to see all the bicycle infrastructure there,\u201d Chand said. \u201cYou can tell that country is heavily influenced by civil engineers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With graduation swiftly approaching, Chand is processing data and finishing his master\u2019s thesis. He\u2019s focused on the use of network-level models of controlled and autonomous vehicles based on the driving simulator results. After graduation, he\u2019ll make the move to Tacoma, Washington, where he\u2019s lined up a job with Fehr and Peers, a midsize transportation consulting company known for its work with active transportation. As one of three engineers, he\u2019ll help open the company\u2019s newest location in the Pacific Northwest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Originally published by School of Civil and Construction Engineering<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Meriden Vitale<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nPhoto by Johanna Carson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nPublished Date: Thursday, April 16, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nhttps:\/\/cce.oregonstate.edu\/feature\/advocating-active-transportation\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cadell Chand likes to de-stress on his bike ride home. It\u2019s something the civil engineering master\u2019s student appreciates about living in Corvallis. \u201cA lot of the bike paths are through parks, so there\u2019s some scenery,\u201d he said. \u201cI usually take the Midge Cramer path, with the covered bridge. There\u2019s always alpacas out there. It\u2019s just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9506,"featured_media":7438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1205,1306],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-student"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9506"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5052"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7933,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5052\/revisions\/7933"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/honorslink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}