Vanderbilt-led consortium receives more than $8 million in federal funding to improve multimodal transit operations in Tennessee

Abhishek Dubey, associate professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering at Vanderbilt University, is leading a consortium comprised of several different universities and regional transit agencies that has received more than $8 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to accelerate artificial intelligence-driven multimodal transit operations across Tennessee.

The funding is part of more than $96.5 million in grants issued by DOT’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to 16 states for 20 projects under the Advanced Transportation Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) program. The grants are intended to fund technology-based and multimodal solutions that aim to improve travel on highway and transit systems nationwide, including in disadvantaged communities that have lacked investment and resources.

In Tennessee, the funding will be used for the PATH-TN project, which stands for Partnership for AI-driven Multimodal Transportation Services Integration in Tennessee Cities. Targeting the state’s four largest cities – Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville – the project aims to address declining ridership, rising operational costs, labor shortages, limited coverage, infrequent service, and a lack of options for captive riders.

To address these issues, proposed solutions include: implementing AI to integrate various modes of transportation, including fixed-route buses, microtransit, and park-and-ride facilities; developing standardized data formats and interfaces for collecting, processing, and analyzing data to optimize transit operations; using real-time data to adapt microtransit zones, reassign vehicle resources, and enable dynamic route planning; and creating a repository for sharing anonymized data to promote transparency and facilitate research.

“The PATH-TN proposal presents a comprehensive plan to leverage AI and data-driven approaches to improve the efficiency, accessibility, and sustainability of public transportation in Tennessee,” Dubey said. “By focusing on integration, standardization, and user-centric design, the project aims to make public transit a more attractive and competitive mode of transportation, ultimately benefiting communities across the state.”

The consortium includes Tennessee transit agencies CARTA (Chattanooga), KAT (Knoxville), MATA (Memphis) and Nashville WeGO, as well as academic partners: University of Memphis, UT-Knoxville, UT-Chattanooga, and Pennsylvania State University.

“Congratulations to Abhishek and his team. His research in AI and resilient systems will help Vanderbilt work with state and city leaders to implement transit solutions for Tennessee,” said Padma Raghavan, Vanderbilt’s vice provost for research and innovation and chief research officer. “This federal support will help us build a safer, more efficient transit infrastructure that not only serves local needs but also sets a national model.”

Krish Roy, the Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of the School of Engineering and University Distinguished Professor, said the work that Vanderbilt has been doing in recent years to improve transit operations across the state reflects the university’s mission to make a meaningful and transformational societal impact, both locally and globally.

“This latest grant helps transition our world-class research on smart mobility from the lab, and limited testing environments, to real-world situations,” Roy said. “The ultimate goal here is to improve how cities in Tennessee serve their communities—and this grant moves that closer to reality.”

Earlier this year, Dubey was recognized for leading research that used AI to help improve operations of Nashville’s public transportation network, as well as the efficiency of public transportation in Chattanooga for individuals with special needs. The Nashville research won “Best Paper” at the 15th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems (ICCPS), and the Chattanooga research was presented in a paper at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI)

Dubey also directs the SCOPE lab (Smart and resilient Computing for Physical Environment) and the SmartTransit group at the Institute for Software Integrated Systems at Vanderbilt, where he is senior research scientist. Last year, he received a NSF CAREER Award to design online decision procedures for societal-scale cyber-physical systems such as traffic networks, emergency response systems and power grids that are the critical infrastructure of communities.