Rugged ITS:
Matt Pollard, Leadsun, Inc.
Tuesday
April 14, 2026
10:00 am - 11:00 am ET
April 14, 2026
10:00 am - 11:00 am ET
Credits LU | Elective TBD
Introductory
Rural and remote areas in countries like Australia and the United States have vast land areas, diverse environments, extreme weather conditions and highly dispersed populations that can be more disadvantaged than urbanized populations. Crashes in remote locations tend to be more severe because of delays before help arrives due to large distances and low passing traffic volumes. Remote regions like these present unique challenges in supporting situational awareness and effective network, incident and disaster management.
Learning Objectives
- Participants will learn why the traditional centralized grid model is a poor fit for remote areas
- Learn how decentralization directly address situational awareness and safety in rural and remote regions
- Cost has always been the big barrier to deploying ITS in remote areas— participants will learn about cost-effective solar solutions
- Centralized systems struggle to survive in extreme conditions in remote regions; one weak link can take down the entire system.
Speaker
Matt Pollard
CEO
Leadsun, Inc.
Matt Pollard is a recognized leader in solar street lighting innovation and the CEO of Leadsun's Australian and USA's operations. Under his leadership, Leadsun has helped redefine public space lighting by combining solar panels, LED lights, lithium batteries, and SMART wireless controls into a seamless and professional-grade solar lighting system.
In 2021, Matt was honored with the top award for Public and Street Lighting at Lighting Council Australia’s National Awards for Excellence in Lighting, acknowledging his pioneering role in advancing sustainable lighting solutions.
Starting from humble beginnings convincing early Australian councils to embrace solar lighting for public spaces instead of traditional electric lighting, Matt’s vision and persistence have since powered the deployment of nearly 500,000 systems globally. Today, he is leading the rapid adoption of SMART solar lighting across U.S. municipalities and residential developments.
At LEDucation 2026, Matt will share how next-generation solar lighting is reshaping America’s public infrastructure-delivering smarter, greener, and more resilient communities.