Chattanooga was awarded a $4.57 million federal grant Wednesday for an integrated, smart transportation management system for electric vehicles so drivers can find charging stations.
Mina Sartipi – director of the Center for Urban Informatics and Progress, one of the city’s partners in the project – said she was excited to learn about the grant, especially since matching funds from municipal and industry partners bring the total investment to $9.2 million.
“This is a three-year plan,” Sartipi, a graduate-level faculty member at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, said Wednesday in a phone interview. “This will make Chattanooga the largest urban test bed for smart transportation.”
Chattanooga’s system, dubbed the End-to-End Decision Support System for Integrated Smart Electric Grid and Transportation System Management, will accelerate the deployment of clean transportation, according to Sartipi and federal officials.