URIs_MOMENTUM_Research_and_Innovation_Magazine_Spring_2024_M

“HIGH-DENSITY CITIES SPEND 10 PERCENT OF THEIR CAPITAL BUDGET ANNUALLY JUST

MAINTAINING SIDEWALKS.”

CHAN YOUNG KOH ‘24 Ph.D. Candidate Research Assistant Computer Science

- CHAN YOUNG KOH

CHAN YOUNG KOH MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

Chan Young Koh is working to engineer safer sidewalks by developing a mobile technology platform that fuses multi-sensor and machine learning algorithms to create a disability-aware sidewalk routing service and automate sidewalk surveys for better maintenance. “High-density cities spend 10 percent of their capital budget annually just maintaining sidewalks,” says Koh, a Ph.D. student in computer science. And yet, pedestrian mortality rates have only increased in recent years. His technology, he says, will help to locate and analyze sidewalk distress, provide safe routing to pedestrians, and prioritize maintenance in a much more cost-effective, timely manner. “Multiple towns can deploy the solution mounted on a robot and should be able to do what 10 people should be doing,” he says. Koh says, as he develops the technology it could have oceanic uses as well, for example, improving biodiversity by mounting it on underwater vehicles to identify clusters of sea urchins destroying kelp forests.

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