Graduate Students

Graduate students are an integral part of CU-IGRSS’s research, teaching, and outreach bringing a wide range of experience in the areas of road safety research and education including curriculum development, course delivery, instructor training, data collection and analysis from real-world environments (in-vehicle data recorders for on-track and naturalistic driving; subjective data including student assessments and observation reports), research in IT-based tools (3-D virtual world environments, social networks such as Facebook, driving simulators, computer gaming), and program assessment.

Graduate Students

James Nampushi, MS

James Nampushi, Ph.D. Graduate Student

CU-IGRSS Research Assistant and Student Ambassador 
PhD Student in Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management
College of Health, Education, and Human Development
Lehotsky Hall
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634-0931 USA
jnampus@clemson.edu

Mr. Nampushi is a PRTM student from the Massai Mara in Kenya. He is the first member from the Massai tribe to come to the United States to earn his PhD. He is interested in creating a sustainable balance between people, planet, and profit in his country. He is currently working with IGRSS to help create an intervention to address the epidemic of traffic fatalities that occur in Kenya each year.

Research Interests:

  • Road Safety
  • Sustainability
  • Leadership

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Julio Rodriguez, BS

Julio Rodriguez, BS

CU-IGRSS Research Assistant
PhD Student in Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences
261 Fluor Daniel Engineering Building
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634-0931 USA
julior@g.clemson.edu

Mr. Rodriguez, from El Salvador, is a research assistant, pursuing a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. He is currently working on data analysis for a number of IGRSS projects. He is also conducting research on “Run-Off-Road” events. This research involves exploring news ways to diminish the number of crashes related to run-off-road situations.

Research Interests:

  • Statistical Analysis
  • Research Design
  • Program Design

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Qimin Yao, MS

Qimin Yao, M.S. Graduate Student 

CU-IGRSS Research Assistant
MS Student in Human-Centered Computing
College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences

McAdams Hall
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634-7376 USA
qyao@clemson.edu

Mr. Yao, from China, is a research assistant, pursuing a master's degree in Human-Centered Computing and focuses on developing the Clemson Automotive Training Station (CATS). CATS is a virtual driving simulator based on the open source diving game VDrift. Mr. Yao also designs and implements experiments for testing drivers on this virtual driving simulator, he also handles the data collection and analysis of such tests.

Research Interests:

  • Automotive safety driving simulators
  • Testing and data analysis
  • Game development and computer vision

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Tyler Zellmer, BS

Tyler Zellmer, M.S. Graduate Student 

CU-IGRSS Research Assistant
MS Student in Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering, Computing and Applied Sciences
121 Fluor Daniel Engineering Building
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634-0931 USA
tzellme@clemson.edu

Mr. Zellmer is a research assistant pursuing a master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, with a concentration of dynamics and control systems.  He is currently working on a project that deals with the quantification of driver "ability." Being able to quantify how "good" a driver is has a wide range of benefits, including driver training and license testing.

Research Interests:

  • Vehicle performance in hazardous situations
  • Driver reaction time and obstacle avoidance
  • Increasing vehicle-driver performance

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