Smart Mobility LabPenn State Civil & Environmental Engineering

News

Grants, awards, media coverage, visits, and lab milestones.

2026

  • Sep 2026

    Lab paper on safety-critical scenario generation presented at ECCV 2026

    “CCFM: Collision-Constrained Flow Matching for Safety-Critical Scenario Generation” appeared at the European Conference on Computer Vision in Malmö, Sweden.

  • Jul 2026

    Town & Gown features “Happy Valley’s Driverless Future”

    Cover of the July 2026 Town&Gown issue, Happy Valley’s Driverless Future, with lab members beside the automated vehicle
    Lab members beside the automated vehicle

    Town & Gown, July 2026

  • 2026

    IEEE ITS Magazine profiles the Smart Mobility Lab

    The lab is featured in the “ITS Research Lab” column of IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine 18(2).

    IEEE ITS Magazine

  • 2026

    Zirui Wu receives the Harry G. Miller Fellowship in Engineering

2025

  • Oct 2025

    Penn State and Royal Truck bring LiDAR SLAM to leader-follower truck automation

    Yuxin Ding and Chenxi Chen working on a laptop in the driver’s seat of the lab’s automated vehicle

    A LiDAR-based SLAM algorithm developed with Royal Truck, under Pennsylvania DCED’s Manufacturing PA Innovation Program, strengthens the leader-follower cooperative driving automation system. Pictured: Yuxin Ding and Chenxi Chen.

    Manufacturing PA Innovation Program

  • Oct 2025

    Streetlight EV charging research draws national and international coverage

    An electric car charging from a streetlight-mounted charger on a town street
    A streetlight pole with an EV charger mounted on it

    Our study of turning city streetlights into low-cost EV chargers was covered by Penn State News, Tech Briefs, Yahoo, MSN, Asianet, Newsbreak, ifeng, and Sina.

    Penn State NewsTech BriefsYahooMSNAsianet NewsNewsbreak凤凰网新浪

  • Jan 2025

    Dr. Hu discusses EVs in cold weather on FOX43 (WPMT)

    FOX43: Pros and cons of driving an EV in frigid temperatures

    Video: FOX43 (WPMT)

    FOX43

2024

  • Nov 2024

    $2.5M DOE award to train emergency responders on zero-emission trucks

    The U.S. Department of Energy selected our project for immersive, interactive training of emergency responders who work with medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles.

    DOE announcement

  • Aug 2024

    “A Note from Neeli”: Penn State steering the future of autonomous vehicles

    President Bendapudi with student researchers beside the automated vehicle
    Visitors seated on the Penn State trolley during the test track visit
    Lab members and LTI staff in front of the Penn State trolley

    Penn State Student Researchers Demo Self-Driving Vehicle with President Neeli Bendapudi

    Video: Penn State

    Penn State News

  • Jun 2024

    President Neeli Bendapudi rides in our autonomous vehicle at the LTI test track

    Lab members and President Bendapudi at the open rear of the automated vehicle
    President Bendapudi talking with students at the test track

    We hosted President Bendapudi and her executive team at the Larson Transportation Institute test track for a self-driving demo led by our students.

    Penn State Student Researchers Demo Self-Driving Vehicle with President Neeli Bendapudi

    Video: Penn State

    Penn State Research Q&ALTI postVideo

  • Apr 2024

    Qing Tang to join Old Dominion University as a tenure-track assistant professor

  • Apr 2024

    Workshop on infrastructure support for AV deployment at IEEE IV 2024

    We organized “Infrastructure Support and Impact in Autonomous Vehicle Deployment” at the IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, Jeju Island, South Korea, June 2024.

  • Feb 2024

    Penn State ITE student chapter visits the lab

    College of Engineering InstagramLinkedIn

2023

  • Aug 2023

    Welcome Yuxin Ding, new Ph.D. student

  • Jul 2023

    Qing Tang defends her dissertation and joins Georgia Tech as a postdoctoral researcher

  • Mar 2023

    USDOT SMART grant funds ATMA for Work Zone Safety

    We are working with five state DOTs (Colorado, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and California) to deploy ATMA across diverse operating environments.

2022

  • Nov 2022

    AstaZero and Chalmers University of Technology visit Penn State and the LTI test track

  • Nov 2022

    Qing Tang receives the Mark E. and Claire L. Alpert Graduate Fellowship

  • Nov 2022

    Visitors from CRCOG and CATA tour the LTI test track

  • Oct 2022

    Staff from Congressman Glenn Thompson’s office ride in our autonomous vehicle

  • Sep 2022

    Pennsylvania Senator Wayne Langerholc Jr. rides in our autonomous vehicle

    Autonomous vehicle demo with real-time LiDAR and camera data

    Video

  • Jun 2022

    Qing Tang receives the Leo P. Russell Graduate Fellowship

  • Jun 2022

    TRB webinar “Saving Lives with Autonomous Truck Mounted Attenuator Systems” draws nearly 300 attendees

    Organized by Dr. Hu and co-sponsored by TRB committees AKR10 and ACP30.

    Event pageSlidesRecording

  • Apr 2022

    Yang (Chris) Song wins first place in the poster competition at the Global Symposium on Connected and Automated Vehicles and Infrastructure

  • Feb 2022

    Our full-size autonomous vehicle arrives at Penn State

  • Jan 2022

    Dr. Hu named Research Coordinator of TRB Committee AKR10

2021

  • Nov 2021

    TRB features our work on autonomous vehicles for infrastructure maintenance

    Figure of the autonomous truck mounted attenuator system: a lead truck and a driverless follow truck, with views from the field

    LinkedIn

  • Oct 2021

    KCUR covers our streetlight charging research

    An electric vehicle charger in a small-town parking lot

    KCUR

  • Oct 2021

    Missouri Business Alert covers our EV research

    Missouri Business Alert

  • Aug 2021

    The Smart Mobility Lab moves to Penn State

    Founding members at Penn State: XB Hu, Qing Tang, Chris Song, and Chenxi Chen.

  • Apr 2021

    Renewable Energy Magazine covers our transportation electrification research

    Renewable Energy Magazine

2019

  • May 2019

    Students use a driving simulator to test roadway design before construction

    Two students in a driving simulator cab driving a simulated roadway projected ahead

    CE News

  • Apr 2019

    Missouri S&T joins the national UTC on infrastructure durability (TriDurLE); Dr. Hu is a Co-PI