ByGeorge!

Sept. 5, 2003

Virginia Campus Has a New Place to Crash

Researchers in New 80,000 Square-Foot Building to Conduct Crash Tests, Other Safety Analysis

By Greg Licamele

GW’s National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC) will build a new home at the Virginia Campus in the form of a $14 million, 80,000 square-foot facility recently approved by the University’s Board of Trustees. The new building represents the the world’s first university-based transportation safety and research center with a sophisticated crash-test facility. The ceremonial ground breaking, scheduled for Sept. 10, will be part of the NCAC’s 10-year anniversary celebration.

Nabih E. Bedewi, professor of engineering and applied science and NCAC director, said this research facility, slated to open in 2005, will have two components — a two-story building housing the NCAC automotive crash test barrier, laboratories, and offices and a hangar-type portion where highway and infrastructure safety testing will be conducted indoors.

“If you go to a standard crash-test facility like the ones in Detroit that work for the car companies, they are set up for compliance work and not designed for research,” Bedewi said. “We thought we needed a research facility that allows us to run high-quality tests with a high level of instrumentation, but without the enormous costs.”

As part of GW’s strategic initiative for academic excellence, the University selected transportation safety and security as one of seven areas for additional resources devoted to partnerships, faculty and graduate assistants. The NCAC is part of GW’s comprehensive Transportation Research Institute, chartered in 1997, which also includes the Center for Intelligent Systems Research, as well as aviation and maritime research activities.

“The transportation initiative is also a major component in one of three focused areas of academic excellence in the School of Engineering and Applied Science,” said Dean Timothy W. Tong. “The decision to build the crash-test facility will undoubtedly propel our transportation program to new heights of accomplishments and recognition.”

First conceived in 1996, the NCAC facility will build upon existing partnerships with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), as well as automotive companies.

“This will be the crown jewel of the TRI and will stimulate interest and support from the intellectual community,” said John S. Wilson, executive dean of the Virginia Campus. “It will also be a magnet for key officials in industry and government, both of whom often seek an unbiased testing site and a consolidated base of expertise in the transportation field.”

Wilson said despite a struggling national economy and cutbacks in higher education, GW’s Board of Trustees sees the distinctively high value of this transportation enterprise and expects a positive return on this strategic investment.

“We are expanding, and that makes a statement about the power of our transportation research group,” Wilson said. “The timing could not be better for us to be a resource for industry, government and academia.”

Bedewi points out that in its first 10 years, NCAC generated $18 million in funding from government and industry. Currently, the center has $21 million in contracts to be expended in the next five years with more funds anticipated from the Department of Transportation and the automotive industry. In the past six months alone, NCAC has received more than $5 million from Ford Motor Co. and Hyundai-Kia.

Bedewi and his team have worked to bridge the gaps among FHWA, NHTSA and car companies as all parties work on different, yet related topics. Through objective crash test data, computer simulations and graduate student internships in government and industry, NCAC has evolved into a world-class center engaging in unbiased research.

“When we first started, the mission was to create a center that addresses issues important to both agencies,” Bedewi explained. “FHWA deals with highways and all devices along the roadways; NHTSA deals with the cars. The two agencies never really jointly looked at the problems from both perspectives, despite the fact that many crashes do involve the interaction of the cars and the road systems. So we came up with the term ‘solving the total safety problem.’ The biggest success has been the transformation of the center over the last 10 years to become a place that has a critical mass of experts in various fields in automotive and highway safety.”

In addition to new NCAC test facilities, its crash film library, high performance computing laboratory and vehicle modeling research will move into the new building.

 

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Related Links

GW's Common Wealth of Research

Rendering of New Facility

National Crash Analysis Center

Federal Highway Administration

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center


GW Home Page Sept. 5 ByGeorge!