Bethany Koetje, M.S. ’08, digitizes a crash test dummy at GW’s National Crash Analysis Center.

$19 Million Grant Enables GW’s National Crash Analysis Center to Continue Improving Safety of Nation’s Roads

Reducing fatalities and injuries on the nation’s roadways has been the mission of GW’s National Crash Analysis Center (NCAC) for the past 17 years. The center’s efforts to improve vehicle and roadside safety were recognized with a five-year $19 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration.

The grant will fund the NCAC’s research and development of advanced crash analysis technologies and marks 15 years of collaboration with the Federal Highway Administration. Chartered in 1992 as part of GW’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, the NCAC is a collaborative effort among GW, the Federal Highway Administration, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“GW’s important relationships with two of our federal partners, the Federal Highway Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, result in critical research to help save lives and make improvements in safety standards,” says GW President Steven Knapp. “Collaborations like this one are not new to GW. This expansive work includes contributions from academia, the federal government, and the automobile industry.”

“The School of Engineering and Applied Science takes great pride in the contributions that our faculty has made to transportation safety through the National Crash Analysis Center,” says School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean David S. Dolling. “This recent grant from the Federal Highway Administration reflects the confidence that our partners have in our ability to continue producing state-of-the-art crash analyses and other life-saving research.”

The NCAC’s 40-member staff conducts vehicle safety and biomechanics research, highway safety and infrastructure research, and simulation and advanced computing research at GW’s Virginia Campus, and runs full-scale crash testing and composite and material tests at the Federal Outdoor Impact Laboratory in McLean, Va. The center also houses the National Crash Analysis Center Library, the largest and most comprehensive source of crash test data and vehicle safety reports in the nation.

“The capabilities, expertise, and resources housed within the center are not duplicated elsewhere in the world at this level,” says NCAC Director Cing-Dao “Steve” Kan, associate research professor of engineering and applied science. “For example, we have vehicle computer models that allow us to take a vehicle completely apart and rebuild it part by part. Once completed, these models can be used for different impact applications and are available on our Web site for researchers and the government to download. No one else develops these types of models.”

Using the grant funding, the center’s researchers will work toward several objectives, including conducting advanced crash research to assist researchers and engineers in resolving transportation safety and security issues; applying advanced research methods and techniques for the development and evaluation of vehicles, road features, hardware, and infrastructure protection systems to improve safety and security; advancing crash analysis methods and computer simulation and modeling technologies; and conducting full-scale crash and component vehicle impact testing to produce data to improve highway and vehicle safety and physical security.

“The NCAC is also examining the impact of hybrid and electrical cars on road safety.” says Dr. Kan. “In doing so, we provide data that help both government craft appropriate legislation and the automotive industry produce better and safer vehicles.”

“One of our key assets as a research organization is that we can help the government and industry work together to address the technical issues of new innovations and technologies,” he says. “This is just one of the many unique features of our center.”

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