Center for Freight & Logistics Efficiency with Electrified & Automated Trucking
A NSF-sponsored Industry-University Cooperative Research Center
Current Funded Projects
Comprehensive Mobility Report for the Trucking & Transit Sector
This project aims to develop a strategic, data-driven report that assesses the current mobility landscape in the trucking and transit sectors. The focus is on identifying bottlenecks, opportunities, and challenges in these sectors to enhance operational efficiency, reduce emissions, and improve overall service reliability. The report will address industry concerns such as congestion, rising fuel costs, and the need for innovative, sustainable technologies. Additionally, it will consider societal issues, including air pollution, public health, and infrastructure degradation. The project will also provide actionable recommendations and propose technology-driven solutions like electrification and autonomous vehicle integration to ensure future scalability.
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PI: Sabya Mishra
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Timeline: January 1, 2025 - December 31, 2025
Electrifying School Bus Fleets: A Data-Driven Transition Plan
The transition to electric vehicles (EVs) presents an urgent opportunity to reduce pollution and improve air quality, particularly in environments where young people are most vulnerable, such as schools. Diesel-powered school buses contribute significantly to emissions, negatively impacting both student health and the surrounding environment. This project aims to overcome the challenges associated with the high costs of EV adoption, limited charging infrastructure, and the complexities of integrating electric vehicles into existing fleet operations. The proposed project will develop a comprehensive, phased transition plan, making use of advanced data-driven methodologies to achieve operational and cost-efficiency for a local school district's bus fleet electrification project. Additionally, this project’s goal is to understand the business case for commercial truck fleet electrification including the opportunities, barriers, and strategies. This study will help us understand both the major barriers to electrified truck investments as well as the potential opportunities for deploying them in supply chains. Key study deliverables will be a CEAT managerial report on investing in and transforming supply chains using electric trucks as well as an “Electrified Trucking” Industry index.
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PIs: Hasan Ali, Mark Frohlich
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Timeline: January 1, 2025 - December 31, 2025
Transverse Homopolar AC Machine Prototyping & Testing
The goal of this project is to build and test a protype of a novel class of electric machines called a Transverse Homopolar AC Machine. This machine has a robust rotor due to the absence of permanent magnets, which are instead located on the stator and, as both conductors and permanent magnets are located on the stator, it can be cooled directly, facilitating the use of dysprosium free magnets, lowering the machine’s cost. Presently a detailed design code has been developed and validated using commercial 3D FEA codes. A 10 kW prototype with a constant power speed range of 2,000 to 10,000 rpm has been designed, and will utilize innovative additive manufacturing techniques to construct the frame and metal laser 3D printing of the magnets.
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PIs: Scott Sudoff, Jing Zhang
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Timeline: January 1, 2025 - December 31, 2025