About

MoSAIC is under the leadership of Faculty Director Joshua Junshan Zhang, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Executive Director Mollie Cohen D’Agostino, who is based in the Institute of Transportation Studies and the Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy. This leadership represents a pairing of experts in both technology and policy that will enable the MoSAIC help steer the revolutionary changes now occurring in transportation to benefit the most people. We have set up a new lab in West Village, which houses a number of GPU servers and hardware including steering wheels and a chassis, enabling research on both connected and automated vehicle hardware and software. Since 2022, MoSAIC has hired 7 Ph.D. students in Engineering and 1 political science Ph.D, 1 student in Law, and 2 postdoctoral scholars. Leveraging the computing facility, we are building a hardware-in-the-loop simulator platform for autonomous driving.  

MoSAIC’s mission is to leverage a window of opportunity to strategically advance vehicle autonomy as a key method to enable safer, more sustainable, and more inclusive mobility options.

In view of the recent advances in AV technology, it is time to rethink century-old mindsets of vehicle ownership and use. The Center will seek to answer core questions including: How can AV safety be ensured? Should CAVs replace today’s privately owned vehicles or be deployed by companies as shared mobility services? How can the mobility accessibility gap of historically marginalized populations be reduced to meet the goal of realizing large societal benefits.

MoSAIC Research Areas

• Mobility Automation Science Establishing AI foundations that can enable safe AV operation, in mixed and cooperative autonomy; build understanding of machine/human decision-making interactions
• Mobility Systems Science Improve understandings of purchase and use behavior for AV and shared mobility—to inform policy and planning;
• Mobility and Sustainability Determine best policies and strategies to reduce energy and environmental impacts;
• Mobility and Equity Determine best policies and strategies to enhance equity, in collaboration with community partners;
• Integrative Testing Conduct real-world demonstrations and testing to enhance behavior, energy, environmental, and equity understandings