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NU places two teams in six-team national safety technology design competition

by jmaloni

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Tue, Apr 21st 2015 06:00 pm

Two teams from Niagara University were among six student-teams nationwide chosen to participate in the North American regional competition of the Bi-Annual Student Safety Technology Design Competition.

In addition to the two students selected from Niagara, each of whom comprised their own "team," the other represented institutions were Stanford University, the University of North Texas and the University of Alaska.

Each team received $2,000 from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to help develop functional model of their winning ideas.

NU freshman Michael Crockett (Rochester) and sophomore Jonathan Sandonato (Niagara Falls,), pictured, both computer and information sciences majors, identified vehicle safety concerns and developed concepts for technologies to address those problems.

By applying embedded system technology and mobile application development, Crockett focused on distraction-free driving, which is a solution designed to eliminate cell phone use for the driver while positioned in the driver's seat.

Sandonato proposed a solution called Safe Driver, a user-friendly application that would allow the driver to use all of his senses to safely operate an automobile, but still grant him the freedom to use his smartphone.

The students from NU worked under the guidance of Dr. Yonghong Tong, assistant professor of CIS.

Winners of the regional competition advance to the 24th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles, which will take place in Gothenburg, Sweden, in June.

For more information on computer and information sciences programs at Niagara University, visit www.niagara.edu/cis.

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