The Digital Innovation Foundry (DIF) focuses on digital transformation and innovation projects involving students and faculty from across all of Temple’s schools.
Each project receives one or more scholarships or grants from the Persson-Barbour, Stewart Family, Bruce and Betsy Fadem, Niraj and Cara Patel, and Brassington endowments and fund. Two current projects include:
Lab-scale Testbed for Mixed Human-Autonomous Vehicle Traffic Research
Led by Dr. Philip Dames and students from Temple’s College of Engineering, the project developed a scaled robotic testbed for connected and automated vehicles (CAVs). The testbed can be used to study system-level flow characteristics of mixed human-CAV traffic, which, to date, has received very little attention compared to existing traffic flow or the safety of automated vehicles.
There are many simulation-based studies of traffic, however, there are few experimental results. This project bridges the divide by reducing the cost, effort, and risk. The project will enable the CAV community to (a) rapidly prototype and study levels of connectivity between CAVs and human-driven vehicles, and (b) evaluate coordinated CAVs algorithms to modulate traffic flows.
The DIF project laid the foundation for an NSF award, which is currently under review.
Employee Professional Development and Engagement
In today’s fast changing environment, the upskilling, development, and engagement of employees has become critical, especially when the economy is near full employment. Led by Munir Mandviwalla, Laurel Miller, and Manoj Chacko, the DIF team is working with Scholastic, Inc. to apply the PRO Community platform to develop and engage employees. To date, a pilot was successfully completed focused on reskilling and retention. A larger scale deployment is being planned.
The platform is now a Temple University spin-off company that applies a data driven, visible, and measurable approach to employee engagement and development.
The following students received scholarships:
Persson-Barbour Family Endowed Scholarship
- Thomas Norris, Fox School of Business
- Natalie Walker, College of Engineering
Bruce and Betsy Fadem Endowed Scholarship
- Nelson Chan, College of Engineering
Stewart Family Endowed Scholarship
- Alex Reichart-Anderson, Fox School of Business
Niraj and Cara Patel Endowed Scholarship
- Tom Painadath, College of Engineering
