Motor Transport Institute Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Competence Centre
Motor Transport Institute’s Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Competence Centre (CK:PAP) was established as part of the project ”Polish Road to Automation of Road Transport” – AV-PL-ROAD – implemented by the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Motor Transport Institute and Warsaw University of Technology the Faculty of Transport.
The Centre is an expert institution supporting the work of the government, mainly Ministry of Infrastructure, in the field of connected and autonomous vehicles by centralizing the competences and implementation processes in Poland, ensuring compliance with the regulations adopted at the EU level. It is a possibility of increasing the competitiveness of national economy in the automotive industry, increase innovation, avoid the trap of average development and the weakness of institutions.
Among the employees of the Centre are experts in the field of: road transport automation, intelligent transport systems (ITS), road safety, transport psychology, national and international vehicle type-approvals.
Motor Transport Institute’s employees have been actively supporting the activities of the Ministry of Infrastructure in the international arena for years, being also an important advisory and opinion-forming unit in the area of e.g. adapting national regulations to EU standards.
Experts take an active part, among others, in the work of the GRVA group, Working Party on Automated/Autonomous and Connected Vehicles and GRSG group, Working Party on General Safety Provisions, which is an auxiliary and advisory body to the World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP.29) – a working group of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). This group prepares proposals for changes in legal regulations or develops new requirements about general vehicle safety for WP.29.
CK:PAP experts also participate in the work of groups and associations focusing on the harmonized, efficient and safe implementation of automated transport:
- CCAM Partnership,
- GoE on LIAV (Group of Experts on drafting a new legal instrument on the use of automated vehicles in traffic),
- ITF (International Transport Forum).
Motor Transport Institute is also an institution that actively participates in public consultations at the stage of adopting regulations in the Polish legal order and actively conducts consultative activities on the main legal acts related to road traffic. The statutory activity of CK:PAP in this respect will therefore be a continuation of this work and achievements, while developing knowledge and competencies in the field of CAV.
Management
prof. Marcin Ślęzak, Ph.D., D.Sc.
Marcin Ślęzak – Head of CK:PAP, Director of the Motor Transport Institute
A graduate of the Faculty of Automotive and Construction Machinery Engineering at Warsaw University of Technology. In 2003, he obtained a PhD degree in technical sciences in the field of construction and operation of machines. In 2008, he completed postgraduate MBA studies at the Kozminski University. In 2014, he obtained a postdoctoral degree in technical sciences at the Poznań University of Technology. From 2021, a professor of engineering and technical sciences – appointed by the decision of the President of the Republic of Poland.
He has been professionally associated with the Motor Transport Institute since 1999. Since 2013, he has been managing the unit as a director.
Specialist in the field of internal combustion engines, vehicle diagnostics and environmental protection against pollution from the automotive industry. Expert in topics related to autonomous vehicles and electromobility. An expert in the field of road safety.
Manager and contractor of many international and national research projects. Promoter and reviewer of doctoral and postdoctoral dissertations.
Member of scientific societies, including: the Polish Scientific Society of Combustion Engines (board member), the Polish Road Safety Partnership (board member), the Polish Maintenance Society, the Committee on Transport Polish Academy of Sciences (chairman of the Section of Electromobility and Autonomous Transport).
Małgorzata Pełka, PhD, Eng.
Małgorzata Pełka – Deputy Manager of CK:PAP
Graduate of the Faculty of Transport at the Warsaw University of Technology. She serves as the Head of the Autonomous Vehicles Laboratory at the Motor Transport Institute and Deputy Head of the Center for Automated and Connected Vehicles. As a national expert participating in the work of the European Commission’s CCAM Platform, ITF, and GoE in LIAV, she is actively engaged in regulatory and standardization activities related to Connected & Automated Driving.
She has taken part in numerous national projects (funded by the National Centre for Research and Development – RID, GOSPOSTRATEG) as well as international projects (funded by the EU – Erasmus+, Horizon 2020), most of which focused on the use of driving simulators in research on infrastructure, Intelligent Transport Systems, driver behavior, and innovative driver training methods, including the proper use of advanced driver assistance systems..
She acts as Innovation Manager and Leader of the Driver Training pillar in the Trustonomy project, as well as Task Leader in the AV-PL-ROAD project: “Poland’s Road to Road Transport Automation.”
In 2018, she received the ITS LEADER Award for the best university diploma thesis in the field of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS).
Aleksandra Rodak, M.Sc. Eng.
Aleksandra Rodak – International Cooperation Coordinator
A graduate of the Faculty of Automotive and Construction Machinery Engineering at the Warsaw University of Technology, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Engineering and a master’s degree in Vehicle Mechatronics. Since 2019, she has been a member of the research team at the Motor Transport Institute. She is the Head of the Transport Psychology and Driving Simulators Laboratory and Deputy Head of the Transport Telematics Center.
She has participated in numerous national and international conferences. She represents the Institute, among others, in ECTRI – the oldest European association of research institutes dedicated to sustainable and multimodal mobility – as well as in the Polish Committee for Standardization (KT17).
She has contributed to and coordinated both national and international research projects and co-authored multiple project proposals aimed at gathering funding from the National Centre for Research and Development (e.g., Szybka Ścieżka, GOSPOSTRATEG) as well as from international sources (e.g., Horizon Europe, Horizon 2020, Small Grant Scheme, Fast Track to Innovation).
Currently, she is engaged in the DARTS project, which aims to develop a scenario database for testing automated vehicle perception systems. Within this project, she coordinates the task focused on designing and implementing a measurement station capable of recording 360-degree environmental data and vehicle-oriented data.
