ATSSA Signal March/April 2020

The Signal | March/April 2020 31 Meetings & Conventions Three exhibitorswere chosen fromamong 20 participants to receive Innovation Awards in recognition of new products that contribute to the industry’s mission of advancing road - way safety and working Toward Zero Deaths. Judges fromDepartments of Transportation evaluated prod - ucts on the criteria of lifesaving qualities, degree of need, innovation, design, and eligibility under the Highway Safety Improvement Program. First Place Royal Innovative Solutions Coopersburg, Pa., Royalinnovativesolutions.com Product: Virtual Reality Training - interactive programs simu - late real-life scenarios like retrieving cones from the roadway with traffic passing at low to high speeds. Second Place Pi Variables Tustin, Calif., Pi-lit.com Product: AIMS - a small electronic device that attaches to any attenuator and, upon impact, sends a text message and email to predefined personnel. Third Place VER-MAC Quebec, Canada, VER-MAC.com Product: Smart Arrow Board/Work Zone Location Sensor System - designed to inform government agencies and the motoring public they are entering a work zone. Innovation Awards announced at Expo Traffic Control Device Challenge winners honored Innovation Award winners are, from left, Adam Selevan of Pi Variables, second place; Jessica Roy of Royal Innovative Solutions, first place; and representatives from third-place recipient VER-MAC Inc., Todd Foster and Ricky Stone. TCD Student Challenge winners were, from left, Cameron Bennett, Oregon State University, first place; Nusayba Megat-Johari, Michigan State University, second place; and Ellie Lee, University of Minnesota, third place. ATSSA, inpartnershipwith theNational Academy of Sciences’ Transportation Research Board (TRB), honored the winners of the Traffic Control Device Challenge (TCD Challenge), which was open to students from across the country in high school through graduate school. They were challenged to devise an innovative connected and/or autonomous traffic control solution to help improve work zone safety. First Place ($1,500) Team: Oregon State University—Cameron Bennett, Travis Larson, Dylan Horne, Joe Neils, and Amy Wyman Title: ”Connected Temporary Traffic Control Devices” Second Place ($1,000) Team: Michigan State University—Nusayba Megat-Johari, Meghna Chakraborty, Qiuqi Cai, and Hadis Nouri Title: “Active Connected Work Zone Variable Speed Limit Warning System” Third Place ($500) Team: University of Minnesota—Ellie Lee Title: “Crash Preventive Cell Phone Holder”