Division Spotlight: Research, Innovation and System Information

Caltrans’ central think tank takes on some of the department’s biggest challenges

Welcome to the third story in a Mile Marker series, where we take you behind the scenes of a specific Caltrans program. This issue shines a spotlight on the Division of Research, Innovation and System Information (DRISI).

Did you know that Caltrans contains a think tank for cutting-edge solutions? That is what DRISI is – Caltrans’ version of IBM Research. The division puts research and development (R&D) at the heart of Caltrans’ innovation process, tackling some of the department’s toughest challenges.

DRISI (colloquially pronounced dry-ess-eye) consists of nine offices statewide, all coordinated by the Executive Office in Sacramento. Its team of approximately 160 full-time employees is dedicated to enhancing California’s transportation system. DRISI leverages its skills, knowledge and resources to deliver top-tier research and innovative solutions to its customers.

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Here’s an inside look at some of the programs within DRISI’s portfolio:

Research: DRISI has more than 196 active projects funded by approximately $25 million annually. In addition, the division funds four major research support centers that conduct focused research on specific topic areas. These research support centers are the University of California Pavement Research Center, the Advanced Highway Maintenance Construction Technology Center, the UC Berkeley Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology Center, and the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center.

Research implementation: DRISI recently unveiled a research implementation webpage that offers a roadmap for applying for implementation seed money for successful research projects. This platform simplifies the process, helping Caltrans employees turn ideas into reality.

Innovation hub: DRISI acts as the innovation hub for the department and manages the Innovation Station, which is an intradepartmental platform that serves as a crowdsourcing tool. It provides a place to engage employees at all levels of the organization in community brainstorming activities. It is one component of a process to get from good ideas to implemented solutions. There are currently seven active campaigns and 83 innovation ideas in our portfolio. 

Director’s Innovation Awards: Launched this past spring, these awards celebrate exceptional innovations by Caltrans employees. The initiative drew more than 10,000 visits and hundreds of votes on its webpage. Winners received cash prizes ranging from $300 to $500.

Caltrans Vendor Day: This new program connects vendors and potential contractors with Caltrans leaders to address key problem statements. The inaugural Vendor Day included more than 300 participants and resulted in nearly 100 responses from more than 40 vendors.

Data Governance Initiative: DRISI leads Caltrans’ data governance through the Enterprise Data and Geospatial Governance program (CTDATA). CTDATA works to position Caltrans staff to maximize the value of our data assets by making them findable, accessible, usable and high-quality. CTDATA also works to ensure staff are data-literate, knowing how to work with and understand data for analysis and informed decision making.

Geospatial Information System (GIS): DRISI manages Caltrans’ GIS data library, publishing real-time information on the state of California’s open data portal. This includes data on highways, bridges, railroads, aviation and boundaries. The online portal provides information in tabular format for data that changes near real time, including lanes closures, roadside weather, chain controls, changeable message signs, closed-circuit TV and travel time.

Safety database development: In collaboration with Information Technology, DRISI is developing a state-of-the-art safety database through the Transportation System Network Replacement (TSNR) project. Set for completion in June 2025, this project is expected to revolutionize transportation system management.

Crash analysis: DRISI uses location coding and sequence of event coding processes to identify crash prone areas for safety investigation. The division completed location and sequence of event coding for 153,340 crashes on the State Highway System that occurred during 2023. The ongoing crash coding supports Caltrans’ safety-first goal by providing up to date and more accurate crash information allowing Caltrans the ability to use data for publications, mapping, safety analysis, safety investigations and safety projects.

Generative AI implementation: Following Governor’s Executive Order N-12-23, DRISI is building a comprehensive artificial-intelligence (AI) resource repository to guide Caltrans staff on current and future AI applications. Visit our page to get the latest Caltrans AI updates.

National engagement (NE) research: DRISI spearheads Caltrans’ national and regional transportation research, collaborating with federal agencies, other state DOTs, and academic institutions. The DRISI NE effort focuses on national-and regional related transportation research, planning and technology transfer activities in a range of categories, including pavements, bridges, design, safety, administration, environment, security and maintenance. Being able to work collaboratively nationally, allows DRISI to get more out of a study by pooling funds, subject matter expertise and resources. Beyond its funding and administrative advantages, the variety of expertise and experience brought together can have a much broader impact. 

Intelligent Truck-Mounted Attenuator (ITMA) field trials: DRISI has been successfully conducting monitored field trials of ITMA system on California public roads, performing different maintenance operations including sweeping, paint striping and raised pavement marker operations. The ITMA system is composed of a leader vehicle (LV) and a follower vehicle (FV) in which the FV follows the path of the LV while maintaining a user-defined, safe distance. The goal of this project is to remove the Truck-Mounted Attenuator TMA operator from this vehicle, which can result in significant reductions in operator injuries for Caltrans due to public vehicles’ impacts with the TMA vehicles in highway work zones.

Environmental DNA (eDNA): DRISI developed an innovative approach known as environmental DNA (eDNA) that is less expensive, less invasive and offers higher detection probabilities than traditional monitoring approaches used to detect coho salmon, a federally and state listed species. This new approach has shown to reduce the amount of resources required to obtain construction permits. 

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To dive deeper into Caltrans’ Division of Research, Innovation and System Information, visit its website. There you will find the recently updated 2023 Accomplishments Report, showcasing the division’s top achievements aligned with Caltrans goals.

Source: Dara Wheeler, DRISI division chief