My name
is Michael Norton, and I am working on the OSCAR summer impact grant Turning
Ambiguous Traffic Scenarios Into Autonomous Vehicles’ Intelligence, which is an
interdisciplinary research project between computer science and psychology
undergraduates. The main goal of our project is to create an annotated dataset
of dash camera footage for objects, action, and lane classifiers to be used by
an autonomous vehicle. I first learned about the project last semester through
working with Professor Lee, a psychology professor who is heading the project
along with Professor Kan (physics) and Professor Lin (computer science). Professor
Lee is in the Human Factors department, which focuses on human interaction with
technology. I find this to be an important field, as our society’s current
explosion of technological innovation requires research on how to design that
technology to maximize human usability and minimize potential hazards or health
concerns.
In
this project, I spend most of my time reading research articles, writing our
research paper, and exchanging information and ideas with my co-researchers.
Overall, working on this project has been a personally enriching experience for
me. I found some of the computer science literature to be impenetrable at
first, but learned that persistence and collaboration with those more
knowledgeable is a great way to learn difficult new material. I specifically
learned a lot regarding datasets, computer vision, and neural networks. I have also gained greater insight into
autonomous vehicle technology, accident analysis techniques, and the overall
transportation infrastructure. This project has affirmed my beliefs in the
benefits of conducting research for the long term greater good of society.
