2016 IEEE Transportation Technologies Award

We are pleased to announce that Professor Petros Ioannou will be awarded during IEEE ITSC2016 the 2016 IEEE Transportation Technologies Award for contributions to the design, analysis, and implementation of adaptive cruise-control systems. The award is sponsored by the IEEE Industry Applications, Industrial Electronics, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Microwave Theory and Techniques, Power Electronics, Power Energy, and IEEE Vehicular Technology Societies

Petros Ioannou
For contributions to the design, analysis, and implementation of adaptive cruise-control systems

The pioneering innovations of Petros Ioannou have been instrumental in making adaptive cruise control (ACC) a practical reality and spurring its commercial adoption by the automotive industry. Using forward-looking sensors such as radar, ACC systems automatically adjust a vehicle’s speed to maintain a safe driving distance based on vehicles ahead of it. Unique to Ioannou’s work was implementing a time-headway approach to vehicle spacing instead of the popular belief of using vehicle-to-vehicle communications. By avoiding the complications of vehicle-to-vehicle communications, manufacturers such as Ford were able to bring ACC technology to market quickly. Ioannou’s ACC systems also provide smoother acceleration and speed response, which have demonstrated positive effects on traffic flow, fuel economy, and the environment.

An IEEE Fellow, Ioannou is a professor with the University of Southern California, Director of the Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies and Associate Director of Research of the University Transportation Center METRANs, Los Angeles, CA, USA.