ECE
Dr. Kunwar RajendraKunwar Rajendra
Adjunct Professor
Michigan State University
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
2120 Engineering Building, East Lansing, MI 48824

Office: 2308G Engineering Building
Phone: 517-353-9562
Fax: 517-353-1980
Email: rajendr2@msu.edu
Homepage: http://www.egr.msu.edu/~rajendr2/
Honors
 Current Activities
 Professional Initiatives
 Biography
 Publications
Honors
  • Licensed Professional Engineer in Michigan
  • Fellow: American Society of Civil Engineers
  • Fellow: Institution of Transportation Engineers
  • ITS Michigan President's Award
  • ITE and FHWA National Scholarship Award - facilitated participation in the ITS World Congress in Yokohama, Japan.
  • Michigan State Police Director's Award
  • Community Leaders of America Award
  • ITE National Recognition for Outstanding ITS Project (The Detroit Project)
  • ITE Outstanding Service on Committee Award
Current Activities
 Funded Research: Evaluation of Economic Impact of Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) Program in the State of Michigan.

Teaching: Graduate Course on Intelligent Transportation and Infrastructure Systems
 Professional
 Initiatives
  1. Initiated a unique public-private partnership business model for Advanced Traveler Information System in southeast Michigan.
  2. Successfully initiated and secured approval from the Federal Highway Administration for the nation's first ITS design-build deployment program in southeast Michigan, which also became the nation's largest ITS program. It was awarded the ITE Certificate of Honor in 1998.
  3. Successfully initiated the inclusion of value engineering in the contract for the first time.
  4. Successfully initiated the inclusion of a local roadway in the interstate highways right of way, an extremely rare occurrence.
  5. Successfully initiated the effort to lead the way for founding the ITS Michigan Organization.
Biography
 Education:
Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering, Michigan State University
M.S. in Civil Engineering, Michigan State University
B.S. in Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India

Areas of Expertise and Interest:
Intelligent Transportation Systems, including Advanced Transportation Systems (ATMS), Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS), Commercial Vehicles Operations (CVO), Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII), Systems Analysis, Operations, International Border Crossing Systems, Homeland Security systems, International issues in Transportation including safety, tele-communications and congestion; Training and Education; Economic analysis of intelligent systems and advanced technologies.

Professional Experience:
Dr. Kunwar Rajendra is nationally recognized in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), in particular, transportation engineering and planning in general. Currently, he is an adjunct professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Michigan State University. He has been teaching graduate courses in the College of Engineering at MSU since 1980, including the most recent course on Intelligent Transportation and Infrastructure Systems in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has been actively pursuing research efforts to establish stronger contacts between the automobile industry and MSU.

From 1992-2002, Dr. Rajendra was the Engineer of Transportation Systems at the Michigan Department of Transportation. Accomplishments included all state wide planning, design, deployment, operation and maintenance of ITS; public-private partnership initiatives with the automobile industries, and taking pro-active roles in Advanced Transportation Systems (ATMS), Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS), Commercial Vehicle Operations (CVO), Advanced Vehicle Control Systems (AVCS), and Advanced Public Transportation Systems (APTS). He was program director in Detroit Michigan, for planning, design, construction, testing and evaluation of the first and the largest design-build Intelligent Transportation infrastructure in the world. He was co-chair of the International Border Crossing Steering Committee between Michigan, New York, and Ontario, to explore, deploy and test use of advanced technologies to improve efficiency and safety in crossing borders between the US and Canada.

Dr. Rajendra was an integral part of the MSU High Energy Physics Research team for experiments studying the structure of the atom at the Fermi National Laboratory, Batavia, Illinois.

During 1991-1992, Dr. Rajendra was the Metro Detroit District Traffic and Safety Engineer. Between 1974 and 1988, he was the Director of Transportation Planning, Lansing, Michigan.

Dr. Rajendra's transportation experience has included ten years of international civil engineering construction and project management work of major bridges and highways in some of the most difficult areas of India.

Dr. Rajendra has taught at Michigan State University, graduate and undergraduate classes in Civil Engineering on a variety of subjects.

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Publications
 Technical:
Rajendra, K., et al., "Development of a Regional Traveler Information System in South-East Michigan," proceedings of the ITS America annual meeting, Detroit, Michigan, May, 1998.

Rajendra, K., et al., "Michigan: The Nation's Largest ITS Deployment, and the Most Innovative Tool," proceedings of ITS America annual meeting, Houston, Texas, 1996.

Rajendra, K., "Update on the Michigan DIRECT Operational Field Test," Pacific Rim Transtech Conference, Seattle, Washington, July 30-August 2, 1995.

Rajendra, K., et al., "Metro Detroit's Incident Management Program - Applying ITS Technology," ITE Journal, April 1995.

Rajendra, K., et al., "Bringing Smart Streets to Metropolitan Detroit," Planning and Zoning News Magazine, May 1994.

Rajendra, K., "IVHS Strategy in Michigan," proceedings of ITS America annual meeting, Washington D.C., April 1993.

Rajendra, K., et al., "Coordination of Special Transportation Services for the Elderly, Handicapped and Low Income," High Speed Ground Transportation Journal, Durham, North Carolina, Vol. 11, No. 3, 1977.

Rajendra, K., et al., "Coordination and Integration of Special Transportation Services for the Transportation Disadvantaged," Transportation Research Record, 660, pp. 30, 1977.

Rajendra, K., et al., "Coordination of Special Transportation Services for the Elderly, Handicapped and the Low Income Populations," paper presented at the 56th annual meeting from the Intermodal State, Engineering News Record, September 25, 1995.

Rajendra, K., "A U.S./Canada International Border Crossing," proceedings of the Auto Industry Action Group meeting, Detroit, Michigan, September 21, 1995.

Invited Papers:
Rajendra, K., "Using Technology to Improve International Border Crossings," proceedings of Autotech Conference, Auto Industry Action Group, Detroit, Michigan, August 30-September 1, 1994.

Rajendra, K., et al., "Coordination of Special Transportation Services for the Elderly, Handicapped and Low Income," High Speed Ground Transportation Journal, Durham, North Carolina, Vol. 11, No. 3, 1977.

Book Chapter:
Rajendra, K., et al., Chapter in the book, Advanced Technology for Road Transport, The Michigan Initiative, Artech House, 1994.

Presentations:
Dr. Kunwar Rajendra has made more than 70 presentations at professional forums, such as Transportation Research Board (TRB), Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Federal, State and Regional agencies. He has also given numerous radio, television and newspaper interviews with private industry groups, academic organizations, as well as national and international organizations.

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