Widener students prototype bumper-mounted radar to detect potholes with Manufacturing PA support

John Suarez, a faculty member in Widener University’s Department of Electrical Engineering, said Widener students are developing a prototype aftermarket radar system intended to detect potholes ahead of vehicles with the support of the Manufacturing PA Innovation Program and technical advice from Dorman Products in Colmar, Pennsylvania.

The project aims to mount a radar detector on a car bumper to “monitor the roadway ahead and to alert drivers ahead of time if they’re about to hit a pothole,” Suarez said. He described the work as a hands-on complement to classroom learning that lets students “see realistically basically the outcomes of their efforts, and they can produce things.”

The initiative grew from Manufacturing PA’s Innovation Program, which Suarez credited with opening “a lot of doors” for students and allowing them to take prototype concepts toward product development. Suarez said Dorman Products has given the team guidance on what to consider for product development and commercialization, noting, “We’re engineers, engineering students, and we’re always thinking about the tech. We’re not thinking about necessarily how to sell something, and they’ve been very good with giving us advice and pointers on what we should do in our research.”

Suarez emphasized the educational value of producing tangible prototypes: “It’s rewarding for them personally, and they can see and reinforce what they’re learning in the classroom,” he said. He added that he was “impressed” with the resources available through the state program and said the team is “very grateful for the support.”

The project is described in the meeting as being at the prototype stage; a commercial timeline, scope for vehicle testing, the number of students involved, and sources or amounts of funding beyond the Manufacturing PA Innovation Program were not specified.

Next steps described in the discussion focus on continuing technical development and leaning on industry partners for product-development advice. No formal votes, procurement actions, grant awards, or regulatory approvals were reported during the remarks.