 These early field devices used engine data from either an on-board diagnostics (OBD) port, or directly from an engine sensor array.The first unit was developed for, and sold to - Dr. H. Christopher Frey of North Carolina State University (NCSU) for the first on-road testing project, which was sponsored by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.David W. Miller, who co-founded CATI, first coined the phrase "Portable Emissions Measurement System" and "PEMS" when working on a 2000 New York City Metropolitan Transportation Agency bus project with Dr. Thomas Lanni of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, as a short-hand description of the new device.