Michigan State University has officially been selected as a featured mobility testing asset by the state of Michigan’s Office of Future Mobility and Electrification, or OFME. Being included as a state-featured testing asset validates the university’s continued efforts to drive the future of mobility and the critical role it plays in proving out mobility innovation and developments.

Additionally, this establishes the university as a supported testing asset for startups receiving grants through the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform, which provides funding opportunities to innovators in addition to access to testing resources to support product and service deployments and evaluations. This eligibility better positions MSU Mobility for future funding through industry projects and cooperations, in turn increasing the hands-on experiential learning opportunities for MSU students.

“We’re thrilled to be recognized by the State of Michigan for advancing technology deployments in the state, accelerating experiential learning opportunities to students across our many MSU colleges, and granting industry partners access to our robust, dynamic, world-class testing and validation ecosystem,” said Judd Herzer, director of MSU Mobility. “Our testing environment offers a streamlined approval process for real-world validation capabilities and tailor-made controlled deployments in all four seasons of Michigan weather making MSU a one-of-a-kind location for developing new mobility technologies.”

"Michigan State University's addition to the list of featured mobility testing assets is a testament to the university's leadership in advancing innovative transportation technologies," said Justine Johnson, Michigan chief mobility officer. "MSU's expertise in research, testing and tech validation is a critical component to building a future where mobility is safer, more sustainable and more efficient. The collaboration between Michigan's world-class institutions and industry leaders is helping us lead the nation in shaping the next generation of mobility solutions."

A look at MSU’s testing expertise and real-world testing grounds

MSU Mobility has an active, connected, four-season campus unrivaled in size and diverse mobility environments, making it the ideal, real-world ecosystem to test, validate and explore emerging solutions for “first mile/last mile” transportation, electrification, automated and connected mobility systems and infrastructures, and beyond.

Spanning 5,200 acres, the campus includes urban, suburban, industrial and rural (agricultural and off-road) zones. Additionally, because MSU operates its own infrastructure and its own police department, both real-world validation and controlled environment testing is possible. The university also has its own independently managed energy grid.

MSU’s campus features:

• 8.1 square miles of contiguous urban, suburban, industrial and rural zones
• 60 lane miles of roads
• 120 miles of pedestrian walkways
• 20 miles of bike lanes
• 40 programmable traffic signals, some of which are connected through telematics
• 26,000 parking spaces
• 30,000 vehicles on the campus daily
• A solar carport array that covers 5,000 parking spaces and produces 15 million kilowatt-hours of green energy annually

Additionally, this year MSU’s campus will be equipped with state-of-the-art cellular vehicle-to-everything, or C-V2X, roadside units to support connected and automated vehicle operations and research.

A streamlined, multidisciplinary approach

Beyond being equipped with a dynamic campus footprint and advanced infrastructure, MSU brings a multidisciplinary approach with six of its colleges actively supporting and collaborating on mobility-related projects. Colleges involved in mobility initiatives include Agriculture and Natural Resources; Business; Communication Arts and Sciences; Engineering; Law; and Social Science, drastically expanding the number of topics that MSU can support. This gives current and prospective industry partners much broader access to faculty who excel in a number of services beyond engineering, including legal challenges, societal consideration, public policy concerns, workforce development issues and more.

MSU also offers external partners the advantage of a streamlined, one-stop shop process for getting mobility technologies tested and deployed on campus. Prospective partners simply work through the MSU Mobility office, which is dedicated to fostering connections and collaborations with industry partners, including coordinating multidisciplinary projects across the contributing colleges.