Photo: Steve Wood, UAB Marketing and CommunicationsThree open house events on Fridays in April will give UAB faculty and student researchers to explore the capabilities of the university’s new Multi-Disciplinary Driving Simulator Lab, housed in the 916 Building at 916 19th St. South. The open houses will be held from 1–4 p.m. April 11, 18 and 25; parking is available on-site during the events.
The centerpiece of the Multi-Disciplinary Driving Simulator Lab is an actual Honda Pilot SUV that participants can drive through simulated scenarios just like a real car. Hydraulic controls move the vehicle during sessions to smoothly deliver the illusion of acceleration and braking. In addition to the full-size simulator, the lab will be installing several desktop-based driving simulators as well.
“We want people from any part of campus to come out and see what the simulators can do and then develop their own ideas on how they could be used in research or clinical applications.” — Jeffrey Holmes, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator of the UAB Multi-Disciplinary Driving Simulation Lab and dean of the School of Engineering
In November 2024, the Multi-Disciplinary Driving Simulator Lab received a three-year funding commitment from the UAB Strategic Investment Fund. It will have full-time staff to handle the details of programming simulations, notes Jeffrey Holmes, M.D., Ph.D., dean of the School of Engineering, who is principal investigator for the Strategic Investment Fund grant.
Faculty from schools across campus have already expressed interest in using the simulator for studies on driving safety and driving behavior, as well as for clinical applications, Holmes says. These include tests of devices to improve driver alertness, realistic driving exams to gauge a patient’s readiness to return to the road after a head injury and as a testing ground for new road configurations to encourage safer driving behavior.
The goal of the open houses is to gather even more ideas from the UAB community and to spark new collaborations, Holmes says. “We want people from any part of campus to come out and see what the simulators can do and then develop their own ideas on how they could be used in research or clinical applications,” he explained. Strategic Investment Fund support will allow the Multi-Disciplinary Driving Simulator Lab to offer pilot “grants” of time on the simulator, allowing investigators to try out a new idea or gather preliminary data. Successful projects can then seek external grant funding support.
In addition to the Strategic Investment Fund grant, the Multi-Disciplinary Driving Simulator Lab also has funding commitments from the schools of Engineering and Health Professions, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Heersink School of Medicine, Holmes says.