Enhancing Mobility Innovation at Ohio State and Beyond (Pt. 1)
Join the Center for Innovation Strategies and 99P Labs for this blog series about our annual student-driven Mobility Innovation Sprint!
How do you enhance mobility at a major research university like Ohio State, with over 60,000 students, and the vibrant, growing Columbus region surrounding it? These are questions The Ohio State University Center for Innovation Strategies has explored since 2019 through an annual student-driven Mobility Innovation Sprint, sponsored by Honda Research Institute USA (HRI-US) and 99P Labs.
The goal of the sprint is to empower undergraduate student teams to explore the design and deployment of a connected/integrated multi-modal campus and community transportation system that will move people and goods more quickly and with less energy than current transportation systems.
In this series, we will share the process and findings from the sprint conducted in fall 2022.
In workshops conducted over six weeks, multi-disciplinary teams of students were led through an innovation process by Center for Innovation Strategies staff, with a focus on creating sustainable and unique mobility concepts. The sprint concluded with final pitches presented to senior leadership from HRI-US, Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) and Rev1.
Undergraduate student teams focused on the following challenge hypothesis and tasks:
Public transportation is a vital component of every evolving metropolitan center in the world. Emerging technologies are impacting the operational efficiency, ecological impact, and customer experience like never before. The Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) is embracing these new technological platforms to improve their systems in the Columbus region. Under the sponsorship of Honda, the innovation sprint will identify best technology applications, evaluate start up ventures, and propose business use cases for COTA and Rev 1 Ventures to explore.
Tasks:
· Audit the landscape of technology, sustainability and customer experience within regionally based public transportation systems throughout the world
· Teams of three students will work to identify emerging technologies and best practices. Each team will take on a thematic area to explore for application in the Columbus region while proposing business uses and identifying startups who can accelerate the process.
The students shared their own mobility experiences on campus and the surrounding region. Students then conducted exploratory research on public transit systems, emerging technologies, mobility startups, and innovation in mobility and documented their findings and identified initial insights using Miro.
Based on this research, students identified five thematic areas within campus mobility to focus on and formed teams for each area: enhancing user experience, safety, digital interaction, scheduling, and big data and AI. Each student team then identified problems in each thematic area, explored customer needs, and ideated potential solutions over a 10-year timeline. Students then pitched their solutions to to senior leadership from HRI-US, COTA and Rev1. We are grateful for the guidance provided to student teams by innovation experts at HRI-US, Duane Detwiler; COTA, Jason Yanni, and Rev1, Andrea Browne O’Carroll.
View a video summary of the mobility innovation sprint:
Next post: University Community — Mobility Needs and Challenges
