Session Moderators

Moderator(s): 
Kristin White, Federal Highway Administration 

Rachel James, Federal Highway Administration

Daniela Bremmer, Washington State Department of Transportation

Ashley Nylen, U.S. Department of Transportation, Highly Automated Systems Safety Center of Excellence

Session Organizers

Organizers:
Rachel James (FHWA)
Daniela Bremmer (Washington DOT)
Ashley Nylen (USDOT/HASS)
Kristin White (FHWA)

TRB Sponsoring Committees and Partners

Session Description and Agenda

Description

Scaling innovation is not a technology problem: it is a collaboration and lack of understanding of the government process and funding problem.

The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law created an unprecedented opportunity to compete for federal discretionary grants to fund innovative solutions. However, 90 percent of federal highway assistance is distributed to the states by formula, leaving a significant opportunity for scaling innovation untouched. This workshop will bring together federal staff, infrastructure owners and operators (IOOs), and the private sector for a candid conversation with the goal to identify opportunities to collaboratively leverage federal funds to scale innovation.

Agenda

1:00–1:10pm - Welcome & Introduction | Why are we hosting this session and what are the goals?
• Welcome from USDOT/FHWA Leadership | Kristin White (FHWA)
• Session Overview | Daniela Bremmer (Washington DOT), Rachel James (FHWA), and Ashley Nylen (USDOT/HASS COE)

1:10–3:00pm Part 1: Strategic Visions, Transportation Planning, & Federal Aid, OH MY! | Interactive ‘unpanel’ with federal staff, public agencies, and private companies to discuss different federal programs to fund technology. Topics will include:
• (A) “Technology without a purpose is a toy.” | Discussion on integrating technology into agencies’ strategic visions, goals, and objectives
• (B) Project Delivery Cycle Overview | Why integrating technology into the planning process is critically important
• (C) Fed Aid Crash Course | What funding is available for technology and innovation deployment

Part 1 Panelists:
Daniela Bremmer, Washington DOT
Brandi Bush, Texas DOT
Brian Cronin, ITSJPO
Elise Feldpausch, Michigan DOT (Invited)
John Hibbard, Georgia DOT
Mubassira Khan, USDOT/HASS COE
Blaine Leonard, Utah DOT
Ashley Nylen, USDOT/HASS COE
Karla Petty, FHWA
Heather Pickering-Hilgers, Colorado DOT
Karen Scurry, FHWA
Sarah Searcy, North Carolina DOT (Invited)
Tricia Sergeson, FHWA

3:00–3:30pm ARTS BREAK

3:30–4:20pm Part 2: You want to do WHAT? | Finding money to scale and deploy innovation – Conversation circle with FHWA, IOOs, and private sector about how they worked collaboratively to integrate technology into existing state and local plans and used the federal planning process to get funding to deploy, build, integrate, and maintain automation technology projects:
• AZ Perspective: Karla Petty (FHWA), Marisa Walker (Arizona Commerce Authority), and David Lucas (Maricopa Country DOT)
• CA Perspective: Monica Gourdine (FHWA), Mario Orso (Caltrans), and Maria Rodriguez-Molina (SANDAG)
• PA Perspective: Gunnar Rhone (PennDOT), Bill Houpt (FHWA), Karen Scurry (FHWA)

4:20–4:55pm Part 3: Where do we go from here? How can we hold ourselves accountable to taking action to help deploy and scale automation/innovation?
Interactive activity with attendees to identify how we can better support wide scale technology deployment. Audience will be split into groups by background to identify opportunities and barriers for their group:
• Opportunities are 3–5 action items that are within my group’s circle of influence that could help support scaling of automation/innovation/technology
• Barriers are 3–5 actions that are outside of my group’s circle of influence (but within the circle of influence of another group) that if completed would enable me to better support scaling of automation/innovation/technology
Report back to group to assign milestones to organizations for action.

4:55–5:00pm – Part 4: Closing Remarks/Adjournment

Session Objectives

• Identify the challenges associated with using federal grants and formula funds to scale innovation.
• Share success stories and lessons learned from a cross section of early adopters and deployers.
• Receive and share feedback from the community on funding and implementation barriers for scaling technology and innovation.
• Identify opportunities to better support wide scale technology deployment in the future.