• August 06, 2025

    USDOT SMART Team Honored as First-Ever Safe Systems Champion at 2025 Washington Traffic Safety Summit

    USDOT SMART Team, led by the Yakama Nation DNR Engineering Program, in partnership with AIWaysion, UW STARLab, and WSDOT, has been honored as the first-ever recipient of the Safe Systems Champion Award at the 2025 Washington Traffic Safety Summit, held July 15 – 17, 2025 at the Spokane Convention Center, Washington.

    The award, introduced this year by the Washington Traffic Safety Commission and Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), celebrates individuals and teams who demonstrate outstanding commitment to traffic safety through the Safe System Approach. The approach works by building and reinforcing multiple layers of protection to both prevent crashes from happening in the first place and minimize the harm caused to those involved when crashes do occur. USDOT SMART Team stood out for its innovative solutions, measurable impact, and strong engagement with communities to create safer roads.

    One of the team’s initiatives was highlighted at the summit: the Yakama Nation rural road safety project. Funded by a U.S. Department of Transportation SMART grant, the project deploys AI Waysion’s MUST sensor, an AI-powered sensing and alerting system, along US 97, a dangerous 16 mile long corridor in Yakima county. UW Starlab applies its expertise in intelligent sensing by creating an AI-powered virtual traffic management center (TMC) with digital twin and large language model (LLM) intelligence. Based on the project’s findings and historical safety data, the team collaborates with Yakama Nation to update their safety management plan based on the project’s findings and historical safety data.

    This project is a powerful example of how rural and tribal communities, often facing disproportionately high crash and fatality rates, can lead in traffic safety innovation

    “The Safe Systems Champion Award is about more than just technology, it’s about the people and communities who benefit from it,” said a spokesperson from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission. “USDOT SMART Team exemplifies how thoughtful, innovative, and inclusive approaches can prevent crashes and save lives.”

    USDOT SMART Team Members

    Yakama Nation DNR Engineering Program: Graysen Squeochs, Portia Shields, Brent Demko, Dwayne Valentine, Kaylee Jim, Karen Spencer

    UW Star Lab: Yinhai Wang, Muhammad Karim, Mehrdad Nasri, Ollie Wiesner, Yuang Zhang, Nutvara Jantarathaneewat (Research Volunteer)

    AI Waysion: Wei Sun, Brian Brooke, Luyang Gong, Hung-Min Hsu, George Ma

    WSDOT Headquarters: John Milton, Doug Brodin, Anne Freeman

    WSDOT South Central Region: Brian White, Robert Hale, Tina Nguyen