ITS New Jersey 2023
ITS New Jersey 2023 is the Annual Meeting of the ITS of New Jersey. ITSNJ's primary interest and focus is promoting the accelerated deployment of Intelligent Transportation Systems and Services (ITS) in New Jersey.
Shaping the Future of Transportation: A Recap of the 2023 ITS NJ Annual Meeting
The 2023 ITS NJ Annual Meeting unfolded as a truly extraordinary event. It was a heartening experience to reconnect with friends and colleagues from the transportation industry, all coming together for this remarkable occasion. The planning committee deserves a resounding round of applause for orchestrating an event that left a lasting impact on all attendees.
Plenary Session: Meeting of Bright Minds
The plenary session was an undeniable highlight, featuring some of the brightest minds in the transportation industry including Rekor’s own President & COO, David Desharnais. The room was filled to capacity, leaving many standing in awe of the shared insights. David was joined onstage by esteemed panelists Laura Demeo Chace, President & CEO of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America; Sal Cowan, Senior Director of Transportation Mobility at the New Jersey Department of Transportation; Brendan Kaplan, Deputy CTO and Head of Innovation at NJ TRANSIT. Their contributions added depth and resonance to the conference, setting the bar high for the discussions that followed.
Advancing Transportation Through AI: A Glimpse into Vikash Srivastava's Presentation
One of the standout moments of the conference was Vikash Srivastava's presentation, titled "Advances in AI Crash Risk Mitigation: Supporting the Safe System approach." As the Senior Director of Global Data and Analytics at Rekor, Vikash Srivastava plays a pivotal role in driving Rekor's AI technology vision, data strategy, and research. His extensive background in developing distributed and real-time edge processing systems, including Machine Learning, AI technology, and Machine Vision, underscores his expertise.
In his presentation, Srivastava highlighted the era of smart roads, where our roadways have evolved to learn, communicate, and adapt. The volume of data collected from our roadways has grown exponentially, encompassing data from sensors, cameras, connected vehicles, mobile devices, and crowdsourced information. This wealth of data has surpassed what the human brain can analyze. However, thanks to artificial intelligence and machine learning, we can now process and interpret billions of real-time data points with geospatial analytics, AI detection, and predictive analytics.
AI in transportation continues to advance, supporting the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Safe System approach and the commitment to zero deaths on our roads. A notable development is the application of AI to mitigate crash risk. Traditionally, risk mitigation has been based on historical data, regardless of real-time conditions such as traffic, weather, time of day, and day of the week. With new AI models, risk can now be modeled based on multiple datasets representing real-time road conditions. This allows transportation agencies to deploy more targeted and relevant mitigation strategies, aligning with the Safe System approach's goal of anticipating human errors and designing and managing road infrastructure to minimize the risk of such errors.
A Resounding Success
In summary, the 2023 ITS NJ Annual Meeting not only celebrated excellence within the transportation industry but also served as a platform for insightful discussions and presentations, like Vikash Srivastava's, that are shaping the future of transportation. The event left attendees inspired, enlightened, and eager to contribute to a safer, greener, and smarter transportation future for all.
