Greater research ties between vehicle manufacturers and UAH will result from a regional Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) for vehicle manufacturing that has received a National Science Foundation grant to support its planning. UAH is partnering with Auburn University and Tennessee Technological University are using the grant to plan the creation of the Southern Alliance for Advanced Vehicle (SAAV) Manufacturing Center. The center will have sites at each campus, and the trio of universities is already in discussions with Clemson University, Louisiana State University and the University of Alabama about possible future expansion. "A vehicle is anything that transports people or products from one location to another," said Dr. Phillip Farrington, UAH's principal investigator and a professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering and Engineering Management. "That would include automobiles, planes, trains, ships, submarines, spacecraft, missiles, unmanned aerial systems and helicopters."