Dr Yu. and research team plan projects to help transform Cleveland to a “modern Smart City” with shorter commute times, reduced crime rates, secure electric power grid

CLEVELAND (November 15, 2022)—Hongkai Yu, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at Cleveland State University, will lead a new National Science Foundation (NSF) Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant that will support the acquisition and implementation of new computing equipment for a wide range of Smart City research.

The $434,431 grant is titled, “Acquisition of a GPU-based High Performance Computing Instrumentation for Smart City Research at Cleveland State University.” Co-Principal Investigators on the award include Sathish Kumar, Ph.D., Wenbing Zhao, Ph.D., Zicheng Chi, Ph.D., and Mehdi Rahmati, Ph.D.—all of whom are EECS faculty at CSU.

NSF’s MRI program catalyzes new knowledge and discoveries by empowering scientists and engineers with state-of-the-art research instrumentation, in turn promoting the development of a diverse workforce and facilitating academic/private sector partnerships.

Dr. Yu’s project will establish a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)-based high performance computer cluster to facilitate and promote Smart City research. While a wide range of uses for this new computing resource are possible, the researchers plan to pursue specific projects that will help transform Cleveland to a modern smart city with shorter commute times, reduced crime rates, and a highly robust and secure electric power grid.

The researchers also intend to develop new computer vision methods to recognize and evaluate fine-grained activities of athletes to improve training and evaluation of players, leading to Cleveland’s professional sports teams contending for more championships.

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About Cleveland State University

Founded in 1964, Cleveland State University is a public research institution that provides a dynamic setting for Engaged Learning. With nearly 16,000 students, eight colleges and more than 175 academic programs, CSU was again chosen for 2022 as one of America’s best universities by U.S. News & World Report, including the #1 university in Ohio for social mobility. Find more information at www.csuohio.edu.