Colin FroschColin Frosch, a graduate of Notre Dame in 2011,  recently won an award at the second annual WVU Innovation Awards Ceremony. Frosch is improving WVU’s downtown campus through a traffic study of Grumbein’s Island pedestrian crossing in front of the Mountainlair. He has coordinated approximately 40 student volunteers to collect traffic and pedestrian data, which he used to simulate alternatives. After studying these, he looked to a more innovative solution — shared space. Shared space joins pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicular traffic, and allots each mode equal opportunity. This design eliminates traffic signals, crosswalks, and curbs in exchange for user awareness. Users become more aware of their surroundings, interact with other users, and create an efficient use of the space.