CASR Faculty Bios
Dr. Jonathan (Jon) Hankey
Dr. Hankey is the Director of the Center for Automotive Safety Research, as well as the Associate Director of VTTI. He has over 15 years experience in areas of human factors relating to driver behavior. Dr. Hankey has conducted extensive transportation research on public roads, on VTTI's Smart Road test track, and in driving simulators. He has made numerous contributions to driver safety.
His research interests are in the area of naturalistic driving, advanced collision avoidance systems, driving impairment, driver assistive systems, and drivers' use of in–vehicle systems. He has served as a principle investigator and co–principle investigator both in the public sector (e.g., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Academy of Science, and Federal Highway Administration) and the private sector (several major automotive companies and OnStar.)
Dr. Hankey is the Co–PI for the National Surface Transportation Safety Center for Excellence (NSTSCE), also serves as a subject matter expert with a focus on improving surface transportation safety through developing and testing transportation devices and techniques that enhance driver performance. He is currently the associate PI on the SHRP 2 Naturalistic Driving Study planning effort.
He has authored or co–authored over 60 scientific articles and technical reports. His professional memberships include the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the Society of Automotive Engineers. Contact: JHankey@vtti.vt.edu, (540) 231-1512
Dr. Jonathan (Jon) F. Antin
Dr. Antin is interested in the naturalistic driving research paradigm as a tool to study crash causation and as a means to learn about day–to–day driving behaviors, particularly as applied to the study of senior mobility. He directs VTTI's Older Driver Research Program which includes an ongoing year–long naturalistic observation of 20 older drivers. He has also taken a leadership role in the planning phase of several key aspects of the SHRP 2 Naturalistic Driving Study including: sample design, driver assessments, cost modeling, and the overall management plan. Antin is serving in the role of Project Manager for the oversight and integration aspects of the SHRP 2 Naturalistic Driving Study.
Dr. Antin conducted his graduate work in the Vehicle Analysis and Simulation Laboratory at Virginia Tech. He later joined the Industrial Engineering faculty at North Carolina State University where he continued his research interests in automotive safety. He served for five years as the technical lead of the Usability Engineering Center of Excellence for the Integrated Workforce Solutions Organization at AT&T. In addition, he has also performed research at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas and the Naval Air Test Center at Patuxent River, Maryland.
Dr. Antin is the author of more than 25 publications including transportation–related journal articles, conference papers, technical reports, and book chapters. He is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (Surface Transportation Technical Group and the Transportation Research Board. Contact: JAntin@vtti.vt.edu, (540) 231-1579
Dr. Shane McLaughlin
Dr. McLaughlin works in VTTI's Center for Automotive Safety Research where he conducts research on driving safety and advanced vehicle systems. He divides his time between work for various automotive manufacturers and work in the public sector. His projects currently include crash and near–crash analyses, active safety systems development and testing, motorcycle related research, and data integration and mining.
Prior to joining VTTI, Dr. McLaughlin was with Ford Motor Company and Visteon Automotive Corporation working on automotive safety, vehicle programs and in human factors and ergonomics. He was the lead human factors engineer for Lincoln car programs and was responsible for driver–centered design of interfaces including adaptive cruise control, multimedia, navigation systems, and collision warning systems. Contact: SMcLaughlin@vtti.vt.edu, (540) 231-1077
Dr. Robert (Eddy) Llaneras
Dr. Llaneras joined VTTI in 2004 as a research scientist, and has more than 20 years of practical experience in the areas of human factors, transportation safety, driver performance, intelligent transportation systems, and vehicle–highway automation. He has substantial experience in performing driver/vehicle system evaluations using lab, test track, and on–road methods, and has worked closely with major automotive equipment manufacturers and suppliers to solve performance problems related to the use of driver support and convenience systems including collision avoidance (lane departure, forward collision warning, backing warning) and advanced driver convenience and support systems (navigation, adaptive cruise control, etc.)
He is co–author of a chapter in the Handbook of Human Factors (2nd Edition) and has contributed to the development of international and domestic standards relating to advanced vehicle and roadway warning, and control and man–machine systems through the International Standards Organization (ISO) as well as through the Society of Automotive Engineers. He serves on the Transportation Research Board's Task Force on Vehicle Highway Automation, the Society of Automotive Engineer's Safety and Human Factors Committee and was appointed by the National Research Council to serve on the IDEA program selection panel for Safety. Contact: ELlaneras@vtti.vt.edu, (540) 231-1524
Dr. Suzanne (Suzie) E. Lee
Dr. Lee is a research scientist for the Center for Automotive Safety Research at VTTI, where she conducts transportation research focusing on the areas of human factors and safety in driving. Dr. Lee's areas of expertise include the design and implementation of on–road research studies, focus groups, statistical analysis, crash database analysis, and Institutional Review Board (IRB) issues.
Recent projects in which Dr. Lee has served as a principal investigator, co–PI, or has played a critical role include teen driving research conducted for the National Institutes of Health and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, naturalistic driving research conducted for the National Academy of Sciences, and road noise research conducted for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Other projects include intersection collision avoidance (prevention of intersection violations via in–vehicle warnings), enhanced rear lighting and signaling (improved rear lighting on passenger vehicles to prevent rear end crashes), the Ford Motor Company University Research Program (development of guidelines for in–vehicle information presentation: text vs. speech), roadway operations equipment lighting (development of guidelines for selection and application of warning lights to improve the conspicuity and recognizability of roadway–operations equipment used for construction, maintenance, utility work, and other similar activities) and signage (billboards and road signs.)
Dr. Lee has authored or co–authored over 50 articles and technical reports, is currently a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the TRB Committee on User Information Systems, and the TRB Human Factors Workshops Committee. She has served as co–chair or member of ten graduate student committees. She served as one of four academic members of an expert panel selected to revise the Model Minimum Uniform Crash Criteria (MMUCC – a document that states use to decide which data elements to collect on police accident reports). For the past seven years she has served as VTTI's internal reviewer for all human subjects protocols submitted to Virginia Tech's IRB. Contact: SLee@vtti.vt.edu, (540) 231-1511
Dr. Sheila (Charlie) Garness Klauer
Dr. Klauer has been working in transportation human factors since 1997, initially at the Battelle Human Factors Transportation Center (Seattle, WA) and then at VTTI. Her primary research interests include driver distraction and fatigue issues.
Currently, she is very involved in teen driving research. She is currently the project manager for the Naturalistic Teenage Driving Study, a study investigating the driving behaviors of newly–licensed teen drivers during their first 18 months of driving. She will also be involved in the upcoming Driver Coach study. The focus of the Driver Coach study will be to evaluate the benefits of providing feedback when teens engage in risky driving behaviors (e.g. hard braking, speeding, alcohol use, and looking away from the forward roadway for extended periods of time.)
Dr. Klauer was previously the project manager for the 100–Car Naturalistic Driving Study and has led several data analysis projects using the 100–Car database. Since coming to VTTI, she has been heavily involved in naturalistic driving studies starting with two truck driving studies, local/short haul and sleeper berth studies.
Dr. Klauer has authored or co–authored over 30 journal or technical reports, is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and a member of the TRB Young Driver Safety Subcommittee. She has also testified before state legislative transportation subcommittees as an expert on driver distraction and appeared on several national media news programs. Contact: CKlauer@vtti.vt.edu, (540) 231-1564
Dr. Miguel A. Perez
Dr. Perez is a senior research associate in the Center for Automotive Safety Research at VTTI. His research interests and experience include driver distraction, human modeling, collision avoidance systems, infotainment systems, and driver performance in test track and naturalistic environments. He has most recently been involved in projects related to the Advanced Crash Avoidance Technologies (ACAT), SHRP 2, National Surface Transportation Safety Center for Excellence (NSTSCE), and Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance System (CICAS) programs in addition to various proprietary research efforts.
Dr. Perez holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering, Human Factors option, from Virginia Tech and is a Certified Professional Ergonomist. Contact: MPerez@vtti.vt.edu, (540) 231-1537
Dr. Linda Angell
Dr. Angell is a research scientist working in Michigan for VTTI to support projects in that region. She joined VTTI upon retiring from General Motors (GM) in 2008 after more than 27 years concentrating in human factors and safety. At GM, she was a Technical Fellow in the Safety Center, working within the Crash Avoidance System Development Group. Her work has spanned research and teaching in an academic context, applied research, product design, and engineering support.
She was formally trained as an experimental/cognitive psychologist, and has been involved in research for 30 years, 27 of them focused on driver performance research and user interface development (including 7 years of direct product development and 15 years of supervisory and leadership responsibility). In 1998, Dr. Angell received the GM Chairman's Honors Award, and in 2008 was the winner of the A.R. Lauer Safety Award from the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. She has contributed to the development of industry guidelines through the Alliance of Automotive Manufacturers, and is active on the Safety and Human Factors Committee of SAE (the Society of Automotive Engineers.)
Her specialties lie in the areas of human attention and cognition, visual behavior, and object–and–event detection, specifically as related to advanced technologies being introduced to the vehicle. Recent research has focused on driver workload assessment and driver distraction, and on how drivers scan for, attend, and respond to objects and events while they drive or back–up. Application of this work to future crash–avoidance systems is a continuing focus. Contact: Langell@vtti.vt.edu
Dr. Feng Guo
Dr. Guo is an assistant professor in the department of statistics and has a joint appointment at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Dr. Guo has extensive experience in statistics and transportation research. He has played a major role in a number of study designs and analyses for naturalistic driving data as well as accident databases. His major research interests include traffic safety study, epidemiology study, freight and truck modeling, categorical data analysis, Bayesian statistical models, and spatial statistics.Contact: fguo@vtti.vt.edu, (540) 231-1083
Dr. Zachary (Zac) Doerzaph
Dr. Doerzaph is a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Automotive Safety Research at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. His primary role is the management of research projects emphasizing human factors of intelligent transportation systems. Dr. Doerzaph focuses his efforts on the design, development, and evaluation of collision avoidance and driver behavior monitoring systems. Dr. Doerzaph recently served as the Co–Principal investigator on the $18 million dollar, 4–year, Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance System for Violations (CICAS–V) project. During the CICAS–V project, Dr. Doerzaph led the effort to develop the threat assessment algorithms and integrate the CICAS–V into a working prototype for testing and evaluation. Dr. Doerzaph is knowledgeable in system integration and has considerable training and hands–on experience with vehicle design, data acquisition, and research methods. Combining his understanding of the technical aspects of transportation with his knowledge of human factors makes Dr. Doerzaph particularly well suited for vehicle system design, integration, and evaluation. Contact: ZDoerzaph@vtti.vt.edu, (540) 231-1046
M. Lucas Neurauter
Mr. Neurauter is a research associate for the Center for Automotive Safety Research at VTTI. Mr. Neurauter assists in the development, organization, and implementation of transportation–related research projects. In addition, he is responsible for gathering and analyzing Human Factors related data and is involved in the reporting of given results as part of project deliverables in both written and oral formats. His research interests include evaluation of active safety and driver assistance systems, usability analysis, and distracted driving.
Mr. Neurauter completed his M.S. in 2004 in Industrial & Systems Engineering, Human Factors option, with a focus in transportation research from Virginia Tech where he did his research on curve-warning devices. Contact: LNeurauter@vtti.vt.edu, (540) 231-1522
Jeremy Sudweeks
Mr. Sudweeks is a statistician at VTTI. Mr. Sudweeks has worked as a consultant in the Center for Statistical Consulting at Virginia Tech and in the Center for Statistical Consulting and Collaborative Research at Brigham Young University. As a statistical consultant, Mr. Sudweeks provided statistical and programming support for faculty and graduate students involved in research endeavors spanning a range of academic disciplines. He is familiar with a number of statistical computing and relational database management software packages.
In addition to consulting functions, Mr. Sudweeks has been involved with the instruction of a variety of introductory statistics courses. His duties and responsibilities ranged from conducting weekly laboratory sessions to serving as the primary instructor for a statistics course. Mr. Sudweeks is currently a member of the American Statistical Association and the American Society for Quality. Contact: JSudweeks@vtti.vt.edu, (540) 231-1030