"Connected and Autonomous Vehicles 101" Education for  Small Towns and Satellite Cities in the Tampa-Sarasota-Cape Coral Corridor

  Thursday, August 29, 2019

                     8:30 am - 4:30 pm

                       Rooms 116/117

    Center for Innovation and Technology (CIT)

         Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park

      State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota

                 7131 Professional Pkwy. E.

                     Sarasota, FL 34240

With its growing high-tech economy, the corridor between Tampa and Lee County is quickly becoming one of the nation's leading innovation centers for Self-Driving Vehicles. 

Join your municipal colleagues and both national and local experts at a full-day "Connected and Autonomous Vehicle 101" seminar at the Center for Innovation Technology (CIT) at SCF's Lakewood Ranch to explore the key aspects of the Autonomous Vehicle Economy and the infrastructure and policy changes that satellite cities, small towns and rural communities in South Central Florida will need to consider in order to take advantage of coming electrification and self-driving technologies.

Robert Bertini is the Director of the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. His primary research interests are in sustainable transportation solutions, traffic flow theory informed by empirical and experimental measurements, intelligent transportation systems (ITS), multimodal transportation "big data" for improving performance measurement, planning and operations, and proactive traffic management and operations. Dr. Bertini is currently the chair of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Operations Section (AHB00), overseeing 13 committees and one task force. He serves as a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society. He earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, an M.S. in Civil Engineering from San Jose State University, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Bertini is a licensed professional engineer in the states of California and Oregon. 

Dale Neef, the host of the CAV 101 Education Seminar, is an author and strategic technology consultant who advises organizations and communities on "Smart Cities" and autonomous vehicle infrastructure, municipal broadband, and other digital economy issues. A specialist in transportation and supply chain technologies, Dale has been a technical consultant for the Asian Development Bank, has worked for IBM and Computer Sciences Corporation, and was a fellow at Ernst & Young’s Center for Business Innovation. A veteran facilitator, he has conducted executive planning workshops with corporate and municipal teams in more than sixty organizations worldwide, and has taught at a variety of institutions, including Cornell University and at the International School of Management in Paris. A frequent contributor to journals, and a regular speaker at technology conferences, Dale earned his masters and his doctorate from Cambridge University, was a research fellow at Harvard, and has written or edited eight books on the economics of knowledge and data management and the role of technology in economic development and society. He is a member of the American Planning Association and the International City/County Management Association.

Don Scott, AICP, serves as the Executive Director of the Lee County Metropolitan Planning Organization and has over 29 years of transportation planning experience. His previous experience includes working for the Florida Department of Transportation in Fort Myers and Tampa, PBS&J in Fort Myers and for Collier County Transportation. Don is a graduate from the University of Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering.

Kelda Senior is the business development manager for the Florida Turnpike’s SunTrax Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) Test Facility. In this role, Kelda establishes and manages business relationships with future SunTrax customers and partners, while overseeing the facility’s outreach and public relation initiatives. For the past 10 years, Kelda has served as a public relations and community outreach specialist in local, state and federal government, with an emphasis on the transportation sector since 2012. Kelda holds a B.A. in journalism and a master of public administration – both from the University of Central Florida.