ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL?
GW's Loudoun-Dulles Campus to Unveil Driving Simulator Laboratory at Campus's
10-Year Birthday Party
December 3 

 ASHBURN, VA -- The George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science's Center for Intelligent Systems Research (CISR), a partnership with the Federal Highway Administration, will open its Driving Simulator Laboratory at GW's Loudoun-Dulles campus on December 3.

 The Driving Simulator Laboratory will be unveiled at the 10^th Anniversary Celebration of the GW at Loudoun-Dulles campus. Media tours of the new research lab will be conducted beginning at 10 a.m. on Monday, December 3. 

Using an actual vehicle donated by General Motors Corporation, the driving simulator will be used to conduct research with the primary goal of avoiding crashes and collisions on the road.  Several on-going and planned research projects will take advantage of this simulator for modeling various human performances in driving.  The lab allows for experiments on how such outside stimuli as drowsiness or road distractions affect a driver, and then uses this information to develop warning systems for potential hazards that might lead to crashes.

  "Graduate education students with a concentration in transportation safety have the opportunity to learn hands-on in this interactive laboratory," said Professor Azim Eskandarian. CISR director. " It prepares them to undertake similar job responsibilities in industry when they graduate."

 CISR was chartered to advance the science of intelligent systems and foster its engineering applications in pattern recognition, controls, model development, complex interactive networks, and networks optimization. A major focus of the research is on safety in Intelligent Transportation Systems. CISR uses the fundamental intelligent systems methods to solve a variety of highway safety, vehicle control, rail transportation, and networks problems.

            For more information on the Driving Simulator Laboratory, visit www.CISR.gwu.edu.  For more information on GW at Loudoun-Dulles, visit www.gwvirginia.gwu.edu.

Media interested in attending the lab opening should contact Maureen Fleming at (202) 994-1423, fleming@gwu.edu.

-- GW --

©2002 The George Washington University Office of University Relations, Washington, D.C.
Contact gwnews@gwu.edu with questions and comments.