Project: #488 Providing Opportunities for Technical Advancement in Transportation for Students, Technicans and Educators Progress Report - Reporting Period Ending: April 1, 2025 Principal Investigator: Richard Saxton Status: Overdue Project Start Date: July 1, 2024 End Date: June 30, 2025 Research Type: Applied Grant Type: Education - Workforce Development Grant Program: US DOT BIL, Safety21, 2023 - 2028 (4811) Grant Cycle: Safety21 : 24-25 Progress Report (Last Updated: March 20, 2026, 5:10 a.m.) % Project Completed to Date: None % Grant Award Expended: None % Match Expended & Document: None USDOT Requirements Accomplishments The goals of this project is to train all the transportation faculty with both electric and hybrid vehicles. The faculty is currently trained in hybrid and electric vehicle safety but they need some help with diagnosing and repair. The use of AC 3 phase motors, DC to DC converters, AC to DC inverters,plug in charging system technology are all new to the industry and faculty need training on all these systems and a look at how multiple manufacturers achieve these requirements. In this grant year we also partnered with Jitsik and Helen Loeb to build a heavy truck driver simulator to help students obtain a commercial drivers license. This is the only part of the second year grant project that had any movement toward completion. The JitSik team visited multiple times and developed sensors for the pedals and a turn table style steering wheel. We have has been stymied by the cost share issue. Impacts In the JitSik project using a real vehicle ensures that drivers experience the actual controls and layout they would use on the road. This is crucial for training, as it builds muscle memory and helps drivers become comfortable with the specific vehicle they will be driving. They provide Increased Engagement and Motivation: For drivers, especially novices, training with a real vehicle in a controlled environment can make the experience more engaging and motivating. The "realness" of the experience may help individuals take the training more seriously and focus better on improving their skills. This happened very early in the year two project with the anticipation of continued partnership but the work was topped in relation to their CCP partnership and I think it was continued through University of Penn. Since we could not resolve the cost share issues the faculty at CCP were not able to participate in training around EV or Hybrid vehicles. Other These are items developed of the JitSik project. Driving simulation is achieved through the use of a Meta Quest 3 Mixed Reality Headset. By sitting in an actual vehicle, students are mechanically immersed in the driving task. Through the use of the Mixed Reality simulation, they are visually immersed in the scenario at hand. Simulated driving is obtained through light non invasive instrumentation of the vehicle: miniature sensors mounted under the vehicle gas and brake pedals (ESP32 processor) The sensors communicate with the Headset through wifi or bluetooth wireless communication. Simulated driving is obtained through light non invasive instrumentation of the vehicle: an instrumented clip-on steering wheel. Outcomes New Partners None Issues Both projects needs still exist but until we have a solution to our cost share issues we are not moving forward. The ideas of our cost share which was proposed very early during the original conversation about this grant have since been denied this includes the use of donated equipment from vehicle manufacturers that we use for educator training and student labs, The college gets various donations from manufacturers this year included at least 5 vehicles from 3 manufacturers totaling over 200,000 dollars. But the manufacturers have not cooperated in signing any of the documentation the CMU wants for the cost share portion. This puts the college, that is under pressure with changes in funding structures that all education is seeing, into a situation that the grant could cost the college 100,000 a year if we use the entire budget and have no approved cost share method. CMU has been helpful in trying to explain the process but nothing in the way of solid examples of how other schools do this or other community colleges conquer this issue. Right now we are waiting hear about a budget adjustment that was submitted and the use of scholarships funds for our transportation students. We continued to work on solving the cost match issue but this was never resolved and we stopped using any grants funds because the college could not afford to meet the cost share obligation. The project were not viable with out a cost share plan in place.