With Eye on Future, MSU Forms Mobility Advisory Council

More than 50 faculty members from seven colleges at Michigan State – including Social Science, Engineering, Communication Arts and Sciences and the Eli Broad College of Business – are collaborating and will be active with the new council.
Michigan State University forms the MSU Mobility Advisory Council to help guide the university’s vision for the future of mobility.

Experts from eight mobility-oriented organizations will serve on the council, positioning Michigan State to gain valuable insight and perspectives of future industry and societal needs and the types of research and projects the university could support.

“This council will have a big role in helping us identify new projects as well as prioritize our mobility-related research and academic offerings, which is a core focus at Michigan State University,” Satish Udpa, interim director of MSU Mobility and a University Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering, says in a news release.

Participating council members, in addition to Udpa, include:

• Dan Garrison, Office Managing Director for Detroit, Interactive Global Delivery Lead & co-lead, Accenture Quantum Computing Program for Accenture, and Clint Crook, Client Account Lead for Accenture.
• Paul Thomas, executive vice president-original equipment sales, Robert Bosch LLC
• Bethany Tabor, electric vehicle customer programs manager of PowerMIDrive and PowerMIFleet, and Jeff Myrom, director of Renewable Energy & Electric Vehicle Customer Products, CMS Energy
• Robert Hubbard, Americas NBC channel manager of Cisco’s Smart Communities & Energy Business
• Bill Frykman, director of City Solutions North America, Ford
• David Gorsich, chief scientist, and Denise Rizzo, senior research mechanical engineer, U.S. Army Ground Vehicle Systems Center
• Glenn Stevens Jr., executive director, MICHauto and vice president of Automotive & Mobility Initiatives for the Detroit Regional Chamber
• Frank Weith, director of Connected & Mobility Services and president of Ventic LLC, partly owned by Volkswagen Group of America

Michigan State is conducting a wide range of research projects to help further position Michigan as a mobility hub, with a concentration on first- and last-mile initiatives and technologies.

More than 50 faculty members from seven colleges at Michigan State – Social Science, Engineering, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Communication Arts and Sciences, Law, Natural Science and the Eli Broad College of Business – will be active with the new council.

Ultimately, the council will help MSU Mobility leaders determine which research projects should be expedited; opportunities to refocus existing projects; and new programs the university could undertake to best prepare the university and its surrounding communities for the future.

MSU Mobility seeks to transform the university’s 5,200-acre (2,100-ha) campus into a live, connected ecosystem to advance smart-vehicle technology and better understand the human element.

With a range of urban, suburban, industrial and rural zones, featuring nearly 60 lane miles (97 km) of roads, Michigan State’s controlled infrastructure and active campus make it ideal to test emerging technologies for new mobility solutions, the university says.

To learn more about mobility at Michigan State and the university’s ecosystem approach, visit mobility.msu.edu.

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