UM-Dearborn partners with MDOT to research minority-owned and disadvantaged businesses

The University of Michigan - Dearborn is working with the Michigan Department of Transportation and two private companies to conduct research that could increase the number of contracts awarded to disadvantaged and minority-owned businesses.

UM-Dearborn's engineering school is also participating in the study of ways to promote such businesses. A $200,000 grant from MDOT is paying for the yearlong research headed by UM-Dearborn's Center for Innovation Research - or iLabs - along with the college's Connected Vehicle Proving Center.

"We will work with experts in the field to look at the ways MDOT is or could be promoting minority and disadvantaged programs," says Tim Davis, director of iLabs.

ASG Renaissance, a transportation engineering firm owned by Beth Ardisana, and Somat Engineering, founded by India native Ramji Patel, make up the private arm of the project.

Together they all will examine the public and private methods of contracting, determine best practices, zero in on successes, and put them in the form of an action plan that will help state transportation officials understand what changes would be need internally and externally to add more such contracts, Davis says.

Source: Tim Davis, director of iLabs - Center for Innovation Research, University of Michigan-Dearborn
Writer: Kim North Shine