Max Donath

Director, Roadway Safety Institute
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Minnesota
211 Mechanical Engineering Bldg.
111 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Phone: 612-625-2304
E-mail: donath@umn.edu

Donath's University of Minnesota web page

Max Donath is the director of the Roadway Safety Institute and a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Donath’s efforts have been directed towards keeping the driver in the loop, using sensing technologies, control systems, and improved human-machine interfaces to reduce driver error and thus prevent crashes before they happen.

The focus of his research can be grouped into four areas: (a) collision avoidance and active safety, (b) novel human interfaces for providing improved situation awareness to the driver and pedestrian, (c) reducing distraction, and (d) age-related risky driving behavior.

He has worked on high-accuracy vehicle position sensing, radar, and lidar sensing, as well as visual, tactile, and haptic sensing and perception—all related to driving. For example, he and a team of researchers developed a driving assist system for snowplow operators that allows them to clear the roads even under white-out conditions. Based on high-accuracy DGPS, a tactile seat, and a conformal HUD, snowplows with this technology have been operating in Alaska in Thompson Pass since 2004 without mishap. More recently this system has been adapted for bus drivers operating in narrow bus-only-shoulder lanes.

Donath received a B. Eng. in mechanical engineering from McGill University and went on to earn S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined the University of Minnesota in 1978.