GM GIVES TECH $250,000 FOR `SMART' ROAD STUDIES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 21, 1992                   TAG: 9202210303
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
GM GIVES TECH $250,000 FOR `SMART' ROAD STUDIES
The General Motors Foundation will give Virginia Tech $250,000 over the next five years for students to study "smart" highway systems.
The Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems, or IVHS, involves fiber optics, radar technology and computer electronics - on-board, as well as in and along the highway - to warn drivers of adverse weather and traffic conditions.
The state Board of Transportation approved the "smart" road project Thursday. It will be in the university's back yard, connecting Blacksburg to Interstate 81 closer to Roanoke.
"We want to produce a generation of students who are intelligent about this technology and who want to work with this technology," said Wayne Clough, dean of Tech's College of Engineering.
Construction won't start for another two or three years at the earliest. But beginning later this year, when the automaker's first $50,000 installment is due, graduate students will be designing the IVHS technology for the road.
"They'd have to look at the placement of the signs,' Clough said. "If there were special message boards, how closely spaced would they have to be? Or how far apart?"
Students will perform field tests to address, among other things, requirements for personal communication systems.
GM, coming off a tough economic year, has funded few programs at the university level in recent months, Clough said. "We feel extremely lucky," he said.
Part of the grant money will be used to provide opportunities for minority engineering students working with "smart" roads. About 4 percent of the engineering students are black. Tech hopes to double that figure in the next four years.
The link will be the first intelligent highway built from the ground up and will involve a combination of traffic management systems, driver information systems and commercial vehicle operations.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB