ITS-Irvine benefits from collaborations both within UCI and with partner institutions across the United States.
UC ITS: The Multicampus
Research Unit
ITS-Irvine is an Organized Research Unit (ORU) on the University of California, Irvine (UCI) campus, with its Director reporting directly to the Vice Chancellor for Research. Additionally, it is part of the University of California (UC) Multicampus Research Unit (MRU) of the same name, which has branches at the Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, and Los Angeles campuses, that together collaborate as the University of California Institute of Transportation Studies (UC ITS).
University Transportation Centers
The Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center (UTC) is the Region 9 UTC funded under the US Department of Transportation’s University Transportation Centers Program. Established in 2016, the Pacific Southwest Region UTC (PSR) is led by the University of Southern California and includes nine partners:
CARMEN+ (Center for Automated Vehicle Research with Multimodal AssurEd Navigation), is a US Department of Transportation (USDOT) University Transportation Center (UTC), led by The Ohio State University, with a consortium comprising University of California, Irvine; University of Texas at Austin; and North Carolina A&T. The CARMEN+ UTC’s world-renowned experts in PNT, automotive and transportation, will study PNT risks to HAVs, offer concrete solutions, and make recommendations for future standards and guidelines for cyber-resilient PNT systems. The CARMEN+ UTC assembled a comprehensive advisory board composed of advisors and collaborators from industry, academia and government, including local, state and federal DOTs.
Affiliated Laboratories and Programs
The Advanced Power and Energy Program (APEP) at the University of California, Irvine addresses the development and deployment of efficient, environmentally sensitive, sustainable power generation and energy conversion worldwide. At the heart of this endeavor is the creation of new knowledge brought about through fundamental and applied research, and the sharing of this knowledge through education and outreach. Industry is actively engaged and vital to this effort.
Freight Mobility Living Laboratory (FML2) is an open innovation ecosystem for exploring field deployment of innovative technologies for freight data collection
Historical Programs and Affiliated Centers
UCCONNECT
UCCONNECT was the USDOT Region 9 University Transportation Center from 2013 to 2017, involving a consortium of five UC campuses (Berkeley, Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside and Santa Barbara) and its affiliate, Cal Poly, Pomona. The center supported research aligned with the broad theme of promoting economic competitiveness by enhancing multi-modal transport for California and the region.
UCTC
The University of California Transportation Center (UCTC) was the USDOT Region 9 University Transportation Center from 1988 to 2016. The consortium evolved over its 28 years of existence, but ultimately included UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Riverside, and UC Santa Barbara along with affiliate members CSU Pomona, CSU Sacramento, CSU San Bernardino, and CSU at San Luis Obispo. The center’s mission was broad, focusing on the three themes of environmental sustainability, economic competitiveness, and livability—and, importantly, the connections between them.
California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology (PATH) and the California Center for Innovative Transportation (CCIT)
California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology (PATH), is a research and development program of the University of California, Berkeley, conducting fundamental research in Intelligent Transportation Systems research since its founding in 1986. In collaboration with the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), administered by the university’s Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS), PATH is a multi-disciplinary program with staff, faculty, and students from universities worldwide and cooperative projects with private industry, state and local agencies, and nonprofit institutions. In 2003, the California Center for Innovative Transportation (CCIT) spun off from PATH to become an independent program before re-merging in 2011.
Caltrans ATMS Testbed
The Advanced Traffic Management Systems (ATMS) Testbed was a research program funded by Caltrans from 1992 to 2012 that conducted foundational research to design, test, and implement a prototype ATMS system in Irvine. Its goals were to 1) accelerate deployment through advanced technology research; 2) demonstrate the readiness of advanced systems; and 3) implement and evaluate operations of an integrated multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency transportation operations system.