The U.S. Department of Transportation recently selected four teams to advance to the finals of its Advanced Research Projects Agency-Infrastructure or ARPA-I Ideas and Innovation Challenge.
[Above photo by AASHTO]
The USDOT noted in a statement that its ARPA-I Ideas Challenge is a two-stage competition for innovators from across the private and public sectors; an initiative designed to spur a portfolio of “breakthrough” transportation technologies.
During Stage 1 of the contest,15 semi-finalists were selected from a pool of 448 contestants in December 2025. In Stage 2 – which wrapped up in late May – the USDOT chose four finalists from that group of 15 semi-finalists.
The final stage of this contest will be held on June 24 at USDOT headquarters, where the “final four” will display their innovative ideas and compete for a share of $700,000 worth of prizes.
The final four teams and their respective innovations are:
- NavSentinel, a resilient and “unspoofable” GNSS receiver, developed by Illinois-based company TruNav, LLC.
- Agentic AI, an artificial intelligence or AI-based program for adaptive and resilient middle-mile freight operations developed by Lacy Greening from Arizona.
- PRISM, an AI-powered platform for real-time intelligence in shared mobility developed by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
- Biologically Innovative Operations for Building Universal Infrastructure or “BIO-BUILDS” developed by Ohio-based ARCTOS Technology Solutions, LLC.
