Vision
Concept
Illinois is well positioned to pioneer the cradle-to-market program of next-generation vehicle technologies and facilitate their full integration into our transportation system. The Illinois Center for Transportation leads the rapidly growing field of smart mobility by expanding the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s thriving research facility in Rantoul, Illinois.
The expansion includes the Illinois Autonomous and Connected Track, which will be a state-of-the-art, research-testing arena for the development, testing and commercialization of smart, autonomous and multimodal transportation. I-ACT will lay the foundation for long-term growth, reducing the equity gap for diverse communities and attracting more workers and businesses to Illinois. This endeavor requires partnerships and collaborations from academic institutions, government agencies, nonprofit organizations and key private industries.
The team is building upon the current diverse expertise, including, but not limited to:
Affiliated Research Centers
Building on strategic partnerships with ICT, the following centers serve as key collaborators and affiliates to enrich the research directives and goals of ICT and the I-ACT testing arena.
Chinese-American Railway Transportation Joint Research Center
CRRC Corporation Limited, of Beijing, China, has 46 wholly-owned & majority-owned subsidiaries and more than 180,000 employees. It is the world’s largest supplier of rail transportation equipment with the most complete product lines and leading technologies.
CRRC’s mission is to engage world-class faculty and researchers at Illinois and state-of-art technologies and practice at CRRC to promote basic and advanced research and development in railway transportation, with a specific focus on engineering technologies for high-speed railway, intercity and urban rail transportation and freight rail transportation in China and the United States.
Illinois Center
for Transportation
ICT, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s transportation research center founded in 2005, steers the development and implementation of cost-effective mobility technologies, improves safety and reliability, reduces congestion and minimizes environmental impacts while returning taxpayers’ dollars.
Building I-ACT will leverage Illinois’ current status as a connector hub for multimodal transit to position Illinois as a global leader for testing and commercializing autonomous systems, not only in freight but also in agriculture, aviation, urban and suburban settings. Visionary leadership and commitment to robust technology and its implementation will create new jobs, improve mobility and public safety, and introduce new technologies to Illinois and the global community.
Northwestern University Transportation Center
Northwestern University Transportation Center is a leading interdisciplinary education and research institution serving the industry, government and public.
Founded in 1954, NUTC makes substantive and enduring contributions to the movement of materials, people, energy and information. It aims to influence national and international transportation policy, management, operations and technological developments.