Portland State University (PSU) is a member of PacTrans, the Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium. Pactrans, the Regional University Transportation Center (UTC) for Federal Region 10, is a consortium of transportation professionals and educators from six colleges and universities located around the Pacific Northwest. In addition to PSU, other university partners are Northwest Indian College (NWIC), Portland State University (PSU), the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA), University of Idaho (UI), University of Washington (UW), and Washington State University (WSU).

Learn more - visit the PacTrans website.

Grant Funding for PSU Researchers

Each year, PacTrans provides PSU with $150,000 to fund “small research projects.” Those projects must be selected using a competitive, peer-review process. The Year 3 RFP describes the process for PSU researchers to submit proposals for these funds. PSU plans to award no more than three projects. Therefore, individual project requests should range from $30,000 to $70,000. 

KEY DATES

  • Abstracts due: May 6, 2025, 11:59 pm.
  • Proposals due: June 3, 2025 11:59 pm.
  • Project selection and award documents: August/September 2025
  • Projects begin: September/October 2025
  • Projects end: August 2027

DOCUMENTS

To submit an abstract and proposal, log into PPMS.

Current PSU PacTrans Projects

Improving Accuracy and Precision of Pedestrian Volume Estimates Using Advanced Machine Learning Approaches

  • Principal Investigator: Sirisha Kothuri Co-Investigator: Banafsheh Rekabdar

Automated Detection, Tracking, and Safety Analysis of Pedestrians and Cyclists Using YOLOv9

  • Principal Investigator: Banafsheh Rekabdar Co-Investigators: Sirisha Kothuri , Nathan McNeil

Human Centricity through AI - Innovating Public Engagement for Transportation Projects with Large Language Models

  • Principal Investigator: Antonie Jetter, Portland State University

E-bike Incentives Programs Study

  • Principal Investigator: John MacArthur, Portland State University

Working Towards Operationalizing Equity into the Research Process

Principal Investigator: Aaron Golub, Portland State University

Understanding Human-centered AI through Data Integration and Analytics

  • Principal Investigator: David Yang

Mobility and Accessibility Resilience of Transportation Infrastructures

  • Principal Investigator: David Yang

Examining the Geotechnical Earthquake Hazard to Transportation Assets in Oregon and Washington: Characterizing Earthquake-Induced Deformations of Silt Soils

  • Principal Investigator: Diane Moug