New England Center Researchers Awarded IEEE Best Paper CTL AgeLab student Ji Hyun (MIT PhD '08) and co-authors Zhi-Hong Mao, Louis Tijerina, Tom Pilutti, Joseph F. Coughlin and Eric Feron won the IEEE Systems, Man & Cybernetics Society (SMCS) Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions Paper Award for their article, "Detection of driver fatigue caused by sleep deprivation."
While conducting her doctoral work at MIT’s Center for Transportation & Lositics, lead author Dr. Hyun was sponsored by the New England University Transportation Center and Ford Motor Company through the Ford-MIT Alliance.
The research addressed novel methods of detecting fatigue behind the wheel and understanding its impact on driver performance. It provided reliable indications of driver drowsiness based on the characteristics of driver-vehicle interaction. The experiments demonstrated that sleep deprivation had a greater effect on rule-based than on skill-based cognitive functions. When drivers were sleep-deprived, their reactions to unexpected disturbances were hindered.
The paper’s findings are based upon simulation and laboratory work conducted at both MIT and at Ford Motor Company Research & Development in Dearborn, Michigan. New England Center Director and co-author Joseph Coughlin noted, “The award is an honor to the authors and a tribute to the partnership between the USDOT-sponsored University Transportation Centers Program, university researchers and Ford. Without these flexible public funds to leverage opportunities with industry collaborations between universities, industry and government would be few. The University Transportation Center's Program provides the basis of a public-private partnership to conduct research and build a foundation for transportation innovations tomorrow.
The Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions Paper Award recognizes the authors of the best paper published annually in the IEEE Transactions on SMC, as determined by originality, technical merit, potential impact to the SMCS Field of Interest, and presentation quality. The awards ceremony will be part of the SMC 2010 Conference in Istanbul, Turkey held October 10.
Dr. Ji Hyun is a National Research Council Fellow working with the Human Systems Integration Laboratory, Operations Research Department at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. Zhi-Hong Mao is Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. Louis Tijerina and Tom Pilutti are with Ford Motor’s Research Laboratory in Dearborn, Michigan. Joseph Coughlin leads the New England University Transportation Center and AgeLab within MIT’s Center for Transportation & Logistics. Eric Feron is Dutton-Ducoffe Professor of Aerospace Software Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
View or download the paper on DSpace@MIT.