Cody Ross
University of Houston Student Spends Summer at the Controls of a Driverless Car
College students across the country have rounded the halfway point of the fall 2014 semester and are settling in for the push to the finish. Thanks to a UA College of Engineering summer research program focused on driverless car technology, University of Houston junior Cody Ross had a head start this semester expanding his skill set.
As part of a National Science Foundation program, Ross and seven other college students, working on teams of two or three, spent 10 weeks helping advance the University of Arizona’s CAT vehicle, or cognitive and autonomous test vehicle.
The NSF program, Research Experiences for Undergraduates, or REU, provides opportunities for undergraduates to work on exciting projects with faculty mentors and graduate students at universities throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.
Ross, a mechanical engineering technology major, came into the 2014 University of Arizona REU program having no knowledge about autonomous vehicles.
“I literally knew very little about autonomy or cognitive radio, besides the general functions of autonomy in various machines,” said Ross, whose research involved using radio signal heat maps to better integrate wireless data systems with routing algorithms. “This was an awesome project, and it gave me more flexibility in what I want to do in the future because I acquired so many new skills.”
University of Arizona electrical and computer engineering professor Jonathan Sprinkle, a recent NSF Career Award winner who led the 2014 University of Arizona REU program, said the program was a good way to introduce students to research and graduate school.
LINKS
For more on the UA CAT vehicle program, visit http://catvehicle.arizona.edu/
To learn about the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, visit http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/
CONTACT
Associate professor Jonathan Sprinkle, University of Arizona College of Engineering
520.626.0737
sprinkle@ece.arizona.edu
