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Advancing Smart Logistics will use smart logistics and design thinking to engage port managers, community leaders, and private sector partners to develop a regional, urban-to-rural waterborne commerce system and inclusive labor market.
It will also identify equitable strategies through our Workforce Education Exchange for reskilling and upskilling individuals whose career paths are disrupted by automation, while also ensuring that new and incumbent workers in local and sub-regional economies can attain long-term participation in new and existing industry clusters.
It will serve as a convener to braid together all modes of transportation into one comprehensive application for funding of a new Regional Innovation Engine serving the nation from its Illinois hub base and through its diverse and well-positioned spokes.
Advancing Smart Logistics (ASL) will focus on three core activities:
- Automation of logistics for truck middle-mile and last-mile freight systems
- Autonomous drones and electric vehicle deployment
- Inland waterway freight delivery systems
Advancing Smart Logistics is coordinated by the Illinois Innovation Network (IIN), with Governors State University as the lead academic institution. Key partners across the state include Northern Illinois University, Western Illinois, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, University of Illinois Chicago, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Eastern Illinois University, community and city colleges, private corporations and non-profit organizations.