As of October 1, 2016, the SWUTC concluded its 28 years of operation and is no longer an active center of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. The archived SWUTC website remains available here.

2015 SWUTC Robert Herman Award for Most Outstanding Student

Kristie Chin Selected to Receive 2015 Robert Herman Award –

Kristie_Chin_webKristie Chin is a visionary leader in transportation with experience in performance management, strategic planning, and public policy. She is pursuing a M.S./Ph.D. in Transportation Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin as a graduate research assistant to Dr. C. Michael Walton. Her research with the Texas Technology Task Force is focused on developing a Strategic Technology Business Plan (STBP) for the Texas Department of Transportation. Based upon close collaboration with public agencies, industry thought leaders, and research institutions, the STBP identifies key strategies for deploying emerging technologies in an effort to improve safety, mobility, and economic competitiveness. In her thesis, Communicating Value to Stakeholders: A Customer-Oriented KPI System for State DOTs, Ms. Chin develops a framework for aligning state DOT goals with external stakeholder priorities. In addition, Ms. Chin is actively involved in professional development activities. Recently, she represented UT Austin at the 2015 Eno Future Leaders Development Conference. As former president of the Institute of Transportation Engineers student chapter, she served as a leader of the organization by growing a passionate officer team, galvanizing members, and spearheading the inaugural TexITE Student Leadership Summit. Her work experience includes positions at the City of South Bend, David M. Schwarz Architects, DLZ, and Gilbane. Ms. Chin graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Master of Architecture and from Brown University with a Sc.B./A.B. in Civil Engineering and Architectural Studies. Applying her interdisciplinary knowledge, Ms. Chin excels in technical and creative tasks to generate innovative and sustainable solutions.  Because of her demonstrated outstanding academic, leadership and research accomplishments, Ms. Chin was selected to represent the SWUTC as the 2015 Student of the Year.

This award, presented yearly by the SWUTC, comes with a $1,000 cash award.

 

2015 SWUTC Naomi Ledé Outstanding Masters Student Award

Megan Hoklas Selected to Receive 2015 Naomi Ledé Outstanding Masters Student Award –

Megan_Hoklas_webMegan’s passion for transportation engineering began while she was studying abroad in Vienna, Austria. Riding the U-bahn was her first encounter with a rapid transit system; experiencing its efficiency firsthand ignited a fire in her to learn more about transportation systems and people’s travel behavior patterns.

While completing her bachelors at the University of Texas at Austin, Megan participated in the Undergraduate Summer Internship in Transportation program where she assisted a graduate student with their Transportation Research Board paper. This resulted in her being named co-author on An Empirical Investigation into the Time-Use and Activity Patterns of Dual-Earner Couples With and Without Young Children. Thereafter, she became an undergraduate research assistant under Dr. Chandra Bhat working on various Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) projects, which continued into her master’s program at UT Austin.

Megan wrote her master’s thesis on An Integrated Latent Construct Modeling Framework for Predicting Physical Activity Engagement and Health Outcomes, which focused on the connection between public health and human activity-travel patterns. Beyond academics, Megan was an officer in the Institute of Transportation Engineering UT Chapter, a part of the winning 2014 National Grand Championship Traffic Bowl team, and a grader for undergraduate transportation classes at UT.

She graduated in December 2014 with her Masters and is now a traffic engineer-in-training at HDR, Inc in Austin, Texas. It is her ultimate goal to create an efficient transportation system in Texas that will positively impact the community and those riding it, the same way the U-bahn impacted hers.

This award is presented annually by the SWUTC and comes with a $1,000 cash award.

2015 SWUTC William Harris Award for Outstanding PhD Student

Lacy Brown Selected to Receive 2015 William Harris Award –

Lacy_Brown_small_webLacy received her Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Idaho in 2006 and moved to Denver, Colorado to work as a transportation engineer for a small consulting firm. After gaining a few years of practical experience, Lacy decided to return to graduate school and attended Oregon State University, where she received her Master’s degree in 2012. In the fall of 2012, Lacy was awarded the Dwight D. Eisenhower Graduate Transportation Fellowship which allowed her to make the cross-country move and pursue her doctoral degree at Texas A&M University. Lacy’s research has focused on access management and transportation safety, and she has been involved in several national research projects, including the development of the TRB Access Management Manual. As part of her dissertation, Lacy developed a new method for evaluating corridor access management. Her work has been published in multiple journals and she has also presented her research at many local, regional, and national conferences. During her graduate studies, Lacy has been an active member of ITE and is also a young member of the TRB Access Management Committee. Lacy will be receiving her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M in December. She is currently working as a transportation engineer at DKS Associates in Oregon, where she is also a registered Professional Engineer.

This award is presented annually by the SWUTC and comes with a $1,000 cash award.

TAMU Undergraduate Transportation Scholars Program Completes 25th Session

2015 Participants and Mentors

2015 Transportation Scholars Program Participants (L-R) Dr. David Bierling (Mentor), Michelle Anderson (Participant), Katherine Foreman (Participant), and Dr. Brad Brimley (Mentor)

The SWUTC sponsored Undergraduate Transportation Scholars Program (UTSP) at Texas A&M University concluded it’s twenty-fifth successful year in August. This annual summer program, directed by Dr. Gene Hawkins, recruits upper-level undergraduate students from diverse academic backgrounds into a 10-week program designed to provide each student with a research/work experience that will help them get a head start on their careers. The individual students are paired with a mentor while in the program, who assist the student in developing a research proposal, conducting a small transportation engineering research project, presenting findings to peers, and preparing a paper in journal format. While in the program, students make field trips to various transportation agencies and attend professional meetings such as the summer meeting of TexITE. At the end of the term, students make presentations on their research and produce a paper for publication.

On July 31st, the two students sponsored this summer by the UTSP made their final research presentations to a room of transportation professionals at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s State Headquarters and Research Building on the TAMU campus.  Katherine Foreman from University of Louisiana at Lafayette (Dr. Brad Brimley, mentor) presented her research on Behavioral Differences between Familiar and Unfamiliar Drivers.  And Michelle Anderson from the University of Alabama Huntsville (Dr. David Bierling, mentor) presented her research on Traffic Safety Issues and Commercial Motor Vehicle Crashes:  A Case Study in the Eagle Ford Shale.

These papers will be published in the Compendium of Student Papers and made available in the publications section of this website.

2014 SWUTC Robert Herman Award for Most Outstanding Student

Brad Brimley Selected to Receive 2014 Robert Herman Award –

BrimleyAwardPresentation-web

Brad Brimley

Brad has been affiliated with the Southwest Region University Transportation Center since 2010 when he was selected to participate in the summer Undergraduate Transportation Scholar’s Program at Texas A&M University. A program designed to attract top students from across the country to research and education opportunities in transportation engineering at TAMU. Brad, who received his BS and Masters from Brigham Young University, chose TAMU to pursue his PhD studies. During his time at TAMU, and as a member of the SWUTC Transportation Scholars Program, Brad has shown that he is an outstanding student and a thoughtful and insightful researcher with extraordinary skills. He has taken the leadership role in conducting research for the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, developing rigorous research methods and pertinent results while authoring and presenting numerous papers related to traffic operations, human factors and transportation economics topics. Brad has also won many awards such as receiving an Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship, scholarships from the Houston Section of ITE, national ITE and ITS Texas, and selected to participate in the 2013 ENO Leadership Development Conference. Brad’s dissertation is titled Visual Attention and Driver Performance on Horizontal Curves. Brad has strong interest in becoming a transportation professor where he hopes his activities as a faculty member will influence both students and practitioners alike.  He is currently a post-doc Associate Transportation Researcher in the Traffic Operations Division at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. Because of his demonstrated outstanding academic, leadership and research accomplishments, Brad was selected to represent the SWUTC as the 2014 Student of the Year.

This award, presented yearly by the SWUTC, comes with a $1,000 cash award.

2014 SWUTC Naomi Ledé Outstanding Masters Student Award

Lucien Bruno Selected to Receive 2014 Naomi Ledé Outstanding Masters Student Award –

Lucien Bruno2

Lucien Bruno

With a bachelor from Tulane University, Lucien pursued on his Masters at the University of New Orleans in Urban and Regional Planning. While at UNO, Lucien participated in the SWUTC research program assisting with issues related to transportation and land use policy. During the summer of 2013, Lucien served as an intern in Indore, India with EMBARQ India working on the implementation of the city’s first bus rapid transit project. This position resulted in the publication of “Indore iBus BRT Corridor Safety Audit” and “The iBus Story: Implementing Bus Rapid Transit in Indore.” Both publications were written for EMBARQ India to implement policies towards the adoption of this new high-profile transit system in India. Lucien has an impressive multicultural background for being a US native citizen. He has lived and studied abroad and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. While at UNO, Lucien maintained a 4.0 GPA and is an Eisenhower Transportation Fellow. Lucien wrote his master’s thesis on Contested Road Space: Public Narrative and Bus Rapid Transit in Indore, India. He graduated in May 2014 with his Masters and is now a full time transportation planner with a leading consulting firm based in Seattle Washington.

This award is presented annually by the SWUTC and comes with a $1,000 cash award.

2014 SWUTC William Harris Award for Outstanding PhD Student

Meredith Cebelak Selected to Receive 2014 William Harris Award –

MeredithCebelak-web

Meredith Cebelak

After receiving her BS in Civil Engineering at the University of Florida in 2001, Meredith worked for 10 years in the private sector on issues related to intelligent transportation systems and traffic engineering.  She decided to continue her education at the University of Texas at Austin obtaining her Masters in 2013 and is now pursuing her PhD with an anticipate graduation in 2015. During this time, Meredith has been supported by the SWUTC with scholarships through UT-Austin Advanced Institute. Her Master’s Thesis employed data from FourSquare and other smartphone check-in applications to help understand travel frequency behavior. This innovative work was recently recognized at the ENO Conference in Washington DC. She has also been nationally recognized as a Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation fellow as well as an ENO fellow. She has presented work in the location based social networking travel demand modeling arena at multiple Transportation Research Board conferences as well as at the ITS Europe 2014 conference. While pursuing her academic studies, she has been engaged in several highly visible and demanding research studies supported by TxDOT. She also currently serves as President of the UT student chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. For these accomplishments coupled with her excellent communication skills and her intellectual ability to develop insights in complex issues, Meredith was selected to receive the outstanding SWUTC PhD student award.

This award is presented annually by the SWUTC and comes with a $1,000 cash award.

TAMU Undergraduate Scholars Program Completes 24th Successful Year

2014-TSP-Program-Web

2014 Transportation Scholars Program Participants. (L-R) David Florence, Kaitlynn Simmons, Gene Hawkins (Program Director), Nicole Kelly and Sam Jordan

The SWUTC sponsored Undergraduate Transportation Scholars Program (UTSP) at Texas A&M University concluded it’s twenty-fourth successful year in August. This annual summer program, directed by Dr. Gene Hawkins, recruits upper-level undergraduate students from diverse academic backgrounds into a 10-week program designed to provide each student with a research/work experience that will help them get a head start on their careers. The individual students are paired with a mentor while in the program, who assist the student in developing a research proposal, conducting a small transportation engineering research project, presenting findings to peers, and preparing a paper in journal format. While in the program, students make field trips to various transportation agencies and attend professional meetings such as the summer meeting of TexITE. At the end of the term, students make presentations on their research and produce a paper for publication.

On August 4th, the four students sponsored this summer by the UTSP made their final research presentations to a room of transportation professionals at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s State Headquarters and Research Building on the TAMU campus.  Kaitlynn Simmons from Texas A&M University (Mr. Brad Brimley and Dr. Paul Carlson, mentors) presented her research on Benefit-Cost Analysis of Horizontal Curve Treatments.  David Florence from Texas A&M University (Ms. Lisa Larsen and Dr. Mark Burris, mentors) presented his research on Using Psychology to Understand Managed Lane Usage.  Nichole Kelly from Texas A&M University (Dr. David Bierling, mentor) presented her research Rapid Rehabilitation of Energy Impacts Roads.  And Sam Jordon from Memphis State University (Dr. Maryam Sakhaei Far, mentor) presented his research Rutting Resistance in Asphalt Binder.

These papers will be published in the Compendium of Student Papers and made available in the publications section of this website.

Alumni Profile: Alison Conway

Alison Conway

Alison Conway

Name: Alison Conway

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

Currently Residing: New York, NY

Current job: Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering at the City College of New York and Associate Director for New Initiatives at the Region 2 University Transportation Research Center (UTRC).

Affiliation with SWUTC:  SWUTC Advanced Institute scholarship recipient and researcher on SWUTC research efforts.

Supervisor at UT:  Dr. C. Michael Walton

Graduated from UT: 2009

Hobbies outside of work: Traveling, bicycling, random recreational sports, photography, recently started to learn to play the Irish fiddle (poorly).

 


What is it like to teach transportation engineering at the college level?

At CCNY, I teach undergraduate and graduate level courses in transportation planning and transportation systems engineering. I especially like teaching the introductory courses because often undergraduate students have no idea what “transportation engineers” do; I am usually the first professor to try to convince them to concentrate in the field. The best thing about being a professor is having the opportunity to work with great students and seeing them move on to future success. I was very fortunate to have undergraduate professors who allowed me to get involved in research, so I am very happy when I have the opportunity to involve interested students in my projects. One of my first undergraduate research assistants, Diniece Peters, just finished her Master’s at UT. The other things that I like best about the research aspects of my job are having the opportunity to work on unique projects and being able to interact with and collaborate with others from around the country and around the world examining the same problems in very different contexts.


What is one of the most interesting areas of discussion in your specific field of expertise today?

One emerging area I have been excited to study lately has been how to address new challenges for goods movement in bicycle-friendly cities. In recent years, transportation planning and urban design have become very focused on encouraging bicycle and pedestrian travel in urban areas (including New York) through installation of bicycle and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, implementation of bicycle friendly policies, and introduction of bike-share programs. These efforts have generally been successful in their intended purpose – shifting commuters to bikes; however, they have also inadvertently created many new challenges for the trucks needed to support the cities’ economies and livelihoods. When roads are designed with a primary focus on bicyclists, the resulting infrastructure is often unfriendly to trucks, with reduced curb access, difficult-to-maneuver turns, and increased potential for accidents with non-motorized travelers. The most interesting thing about this area of conflict is that the more successful communities are in becoming dense and non-motorized travel dependent, the more dependent they will also become on fast and reliable goods movement to nearby businesses and directly to residences (for example, delivery of groceries purchased online). As a freight researcher who also likes to bike, I’d like to contribute to identifying solutions that will allow these modes to coexist harmoniously. Fortunately, I have convinced some fellow SWUTC UT-Advanced Institute alums – Nick Lownes (University of Connecticut) and Jeff Lamondia (Auburn University) – to work with me in this area.


What did you get out of your time at the University of Texas at Austin and the Center for Transportation Research (CTR)? How did your time here prepare you for your career?

While working on my degrees, I had to the opportunity to work on a number of complex projects with a really diverse group of experts and other students. I worked on proposals and projects with my advisor, as well as with CTR researchers with expertise in economics, policy, and law, and I was able to learn a tremendous amount from them. I was also given the opportunity to generate some of my own proposals, which was invaluable experience when I had to so do as a faculty member. I also learned from Dr. Walton’s advice and example the importance of interacting with and getting involved in the professional community; this guidance has been critical in allowing me to build a professional network of mentors and colleagues.


What projects did you work on while you were at UT-Austin?

I spent six years at UT for my master’s and Ph.D. so I had the opportunity to work on a lot of interesting projects – mostly related to freight policy and ITS applications – with my advisor Dr. Mike Walton, and with great support from Vicki Simpson. My master’s thesis and the first two projects that I worked on focused on ITS applications for commercial vehicle size and weight enforcement and security. My dissertation research focused on road pricing for commercial vehicles. I also was able to work on some large team projects at CTR, including a study looking at the potential for heavier and longer-combination vehicles in Texas. On that project I had the opportunity to work with many researchers at CTR, including Rob Harrison and Jolanda Prozzi.


How did you become interested in transportation engineering?

It is hard to define exactly when I decided to become an engineer, but my mom would probably tell you it was in kindergarten when I managed to get both myself and my parents in trouble by going to blocks every day instead of rotating through all of the play stations. My family includes lots of mathematicians and scientists – my mom is a math professor, my dad is a dentist and former chemistry teacher, and my grandfather was a chemical engineer. In high school, I liked math, science, and art so I became interested in architecture and structural engineering. Like most civil engineers, I started college thinking I wanted to build bridges and buildings, but I changed my concentration to transportation after I was assigned a project focused on Intelligent Transportation Systems during my undergraduate technical writing class at the University of Delaware.


What advice do you have for students considering a career in transportation engineering?

Transportation engineering is a great field because there is almost never an easy answer to a transportation problem. Transportation engineers do use use math and physics and develop new technologies and materials to “solve” problems, but we also have to consider the diverse needs and uncertainties of different users and stakeholders as well as often conflicting and rapidly changing social, economic, and environmental goals. Transportation engineering is not a field for those who like simple answers, but rather for those looking to be constantly challenged to find new solutions to complex problems.

Rajesh Paleti Wins 2013 Milton Pikarsky Award

Rajesh Paleti

Rajesh Paleti

Rajesh Paleti, SWUTC doctoral graduate researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, was awarded the 2013 Milton Pikarsky Award for Outstanding PhD Dissertation in Science and Technology at the CUTC Annual Awards Banquet in January 2014.  Rajesh’s award winning dissertation “On Integrating Household Vehicle Ownership, Composition, and Evolution with Activity-Based Travel Models” looks at household vehicle ownership, and created a model to determine how vehicle fleets evolve over time.

SWUTC Graduate Researcher Wins 2013 C.V. Wootan Award

Christina Bernardo

Christina Bernardo

Christina Bernardo, SWUTC graduate researcher at the University of Texas at Austin under the supervision of Dr. Chandra Bhat, received the C.V. Wootan Award for Best MS Thesis in Planning and Policy at the CUTC Awards Banquet in January 2014.  Christina’s award-winning thesis “An Empirical Investigation into the Time-Use and Activity Patterns of Dual-Earner Couples With and Without Young Children” examined how work policies in the United States impact the daily routines of dual-earner families.

SWUTC Researchers Win TRB Award

Chandra Bhat

Dr. Chandra Bhat

SWUTC researchers part of team to be awarded the 2013 TRB Pike Johnson Award.  This award, given annually, is for an outstanding paper published in the field of transportation systems planning and administration. The winning paper, “Modeling of Household Vehicle Type Choice Accommodating Spatial Dependence Effects” was co-authored by Rajesh Paleti (SWUTC doctoral student researcher), Chandra R. Bhat (SWUTC key senior researcher), Ram Pendyala and Konstadinos Goulias from the University of Texas at Austin.

 

 

2013 SWUTC William Harris Award for Outstanding PhD Student

Justin M. Ericson Selected to Receive 2013 William Harris Award –

Justin Ericson

Justin Ericson

Justin is a doctoral student working in the Beck Visual Cognition Laboratory at Louisiana State University. Justin’s research interests are based in the areas of visual perception and attention. Specifically, his research has focused on studying how individuals can accurately identify, store, and track moving stimuli. Justin’s research with the UTC investigates how drivers detect information while performing a cognitively demanding car counting/lane changing task similar to moderate to heavy traffic conditions and identifies how participants may – or may not – react to the sudden onset of critical targets within the driver’s path. His research project has found that reactions are impaired for detecting unexpected objects that enter the roadway when increasing the number of target vehicles to track. Justin has been published in several peer-reviewed journals over the course of his career, and has served as an outstanding contributor to the center. Justin has fulfilled all of his graduate course requirements, demonstrating academic success in the classroom and was selected to instruct an undergraduate course this year. He has represented the center by giving demonstrations to guests and faculty in the driving lab at LSU while also traveling to various conferences to present his research findings.

Justin was selected to represent the SWUTC at the annual UTC Outstanding Student of the Year awards ceremony during TRB’s Annual Meeting in January, 2014.

This award is presented annually by the SWUTC and comes with a $1,000 cash award.

2013 SWUTC Robert Herman Award for Most Outstanding Student

Kai Yin Selected to Receive 2013 Robert Herman Award –

Kai Yin

Kai Yin

Kai Yin is a recent Ph.D. graduate from the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University – College Station. Coming from a background in information and computation sciences, he joined the transportation engineering program in fall 2008, and first obtained his MS degree in 2010. His MS thesis was on modeling information propagation through inter-vehicle communication, and won him the 2010 CUTC Pikarsky Memorial Award for an Outstanding MS Thesis. Kai conducted his Ph.D. thesis on modeling intersection signal control. Kai has also won a number of other competitive awards both at national and regional levels. For example, Kai was one of ten recipients of the TRB ACRP award sponsored by FAA given annually to graduate studies that address significant aviation issues. Kai is highly motivated for transportation research. He published eight journal papers including three in Transportation Research Part C plus a few under review or revision while being a student at Texas A&M University. His research was partially sponsored by Southwest Region University Transportation Center (SWUTC) through several projects, notably a special fund from SWUTC that allowed him to carry his TRB ACRP award project to its completion.

Kai Yin was advised by Dr. Bruce Wang.

This award, presented yearly by the SWUTC, comes with a $1,000 cash award.

2013 SWUTC Naomi Ledé Outstanding Masters Student Award

Christina Bernardo Selected to Receive 2013 Naomi Ledé Outstanding Masters Student Award –

Chrissy Bernardo

Christina Bernardo

Christina Bernardo joined the MS program at UT Austin in Fall 2011, after completing her BS degree at Northwestern University (NU). The recommendation letters from her professors at NU that accompanied her application for graduate study at UT were nothing short of glowing. Chrissy lived up to the expectations we had of her when she joined our program. She brought a very high degree of motivation and dedication to her academic pursuits, and combined this with a spirit of camaraderie toward her fellow students. The result is a graduate student who exhibited extraordinary academic/research and teamwork skills. In her MS research, Chrissy examined the time-use pattern (and resulting activity-travel implications) of adults in dual-earner households with and without children. A paper based on this work was presented at the 2013 TRB annual meeting and is under review for publication in Transportation Research Part B’s special issue on Time Use Analysis. She also has a book chapter on non-motorized travel in the forthcoming Handbook of Sustainable Travel. Chrissy also contributed to the community and assumed a leadership role during her graduate studies at UT. She served as the Vice President of the UT student chapter of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS).

After completing her master’s at UT, Christina has begun her career in transportation planning and demand modeling at Parsons Brinckerhoff in New York. She is currently working on a major update to the activity-based travel demand modeling system for the New York City region.

This award is presented annually by the SWUTC and comes with a $1,000 cash award.

SWUTC’s Lisa Larsen Receives ARTBA Award

Lisa Larsen

Lisa Larsen

SWUTC Graduate Assistant Researcher Lisa Larsen received the Future Industry Spotlight Award during the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) National Convention held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Sept. 8-10. Larsen works in TTI’s Transportation Planning group.

The Future Industry Spotlight Award recognizes a student who achieved “an outstanding academic record and demonstrated extraordinary leadership skills within and outside of the academic environment.” The award was part of ARTBA’s Women Leaders in Transportation Design and Construction Awards.

Larsen, who is pursuing her doctorate in transportation engineering, is no stranger to accolades. Among her honors, Larsen has received the 2012 Eisenhower Fellowship, the 2012 Houston Chapter Women’s Transportation Seminar Overly Graduate Scholarship, and the 2011 University Transportation Center for Mobility Student of the Year Award. She was also a recipient of the Keese-Wootan Fellowship Award and served as the president of the Texas A&M University Institute of Transportation Engineers Student Chapter in 2012.

“It was my first time at an ARTBA convention, so I really enjoyed the opportunity to interact with other transportation professionals,” Larsen says of her trip to Milwaukee. “I was honored to receive the Future Industry Spotlight Award.”

Larsen’s career goal is to become a university professor.

Student Highlight: Meredith Cebelak

Meredith Cebelak is a PhD student at the University of Texas in the SWUTC Advanced Institute program.  Here she discusses her Masters Thesis which uses social media check-in data for use in transportation models.

Students Present Design Ideas for Sedimentation and Erosion Control Lab

Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s Hydraulics, Sedimentation and Erosion Control Laboratory (HSECL) is a leading research, testing and educational facility in soil erosion and stormwater topical areas. The lab is continuously updating its expertise and services, and has lately moved into the new knowledge areas of low impact development (LID) techniques and green infrastructure. Demand for continuing education courses on stormwater management and LID subjects are high. However, currently available courses do not offer hands-on experiences or practical demonstrations. Therefore, an opportunity has been identified for the HSECL to fill this void and provide hands-on professional training, and high-impact learning experiences for students, regional municipalities, and other professions in the design and construction industries.

Student_PresentationsDuring the spring 2013 semester SWUTC sponsored graduate students in Texas A&M University’s Landscape Architecture Department while they developed alternative master plans for the redesign of the HSECL into a premier comprehensive educational facility. The plans were then presented for review and evaluation March 4th to a panel of faculty and research staff.

Group 1:  Clean-Collect-Convey
Ruisi Guo, Zhihuang Li, Yue Yao and Jingling Zhao

Group 2: TAMU Riverside Campus Design Project:  LID Education Program
Xiaotian Su, Yucheng Wang and Bitong Yang

Group 3: Grey to Green:  Teaching LID Through Contrast
David Danielson, Siaman Ning, Wonmin Sohn and Yixun Zhang

For more information on this effort, contact:  Ming-Han Li, Associate Professor, Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, (979) 845-7571

2012 SWUTC William Harris Award for Outstanding PhD Student

Daniel J. Fagnant Selected to Receive 2012 William Harris Award

2012 William Harris Award Winner Daniel Fagnant

Daniel Fagnant

Daniel Fagnant is a Ph.D. candidate in Transportation Engineering at UT Austin.  He obtained a B.S degree in Computer Engineering at Gonzaga University and his MS in Civil Engineering from UT.  After his undergraduate studies, Mr. Fagnant spent 5 years at the Alaska DOT’s Southeast Regional Traffic & Safety section where he helped run the Highway Safety Improvement Program, proposing, evaluating and designing numerous projects.  In addition to being the youngest team member to develop Alaska’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan, he has also received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship, and is an Eno Transportation Leadership Fellow. Mr. Fagnant’s research experience includes traffic and safety analysis and design, transportation project evaluation, autonomous vehicles, motorcycles, transportation policy and economics, and transportation networks and modeling.  The title of his dissertation is Anticipating Impacts of and Preparing Infrastructure for Autonomous Vehicles.

Mr. Fagnant was selected to represent the SWUTC at the annual UTC Outstanding Student of the Year awards ceremony during TRB’s Annual Meeting in January, 2013.

This award is presented annually by the SWUTC and comes with a $1,000 cash award.

 

2012 Naomi Ledé Oustanding Masters Student Award

Chelse L. Hoover Selected to Receive 2012 Naomi Ledé Outstanding Masters Student Award

2012 Naomi Lede Award Winner Chelse Hoover

Chelse Hoover

Ms. Chelse Hoover entered Texas Southern University in the fall of 2007 and graduated with a BS in Civil Engineering Technology, Cum Laude in the spring of 2011. Immediately after graduating, Ms. Hover was accepted into the Transportation Planning and Management graduate program at TSU where she is expected to graduate with her Masters degree in May 2013. As an incoming college freshman, Ms. Hoover was not exactly sure what major she wanted to pursue; but she knew whatever major she chose to study had to be in high demand and have the ability to afford her limitless opportunities. During her undergraduate career she received two internships; in which her most memorable internship was revising highway plans for KBR’s transportation department. That summer internship is what encouraged her to pursue the Transportation Studies program at TSU. She realized that the number of female transportation experts was scarce, thus she figured that her background in engineering and a masters degree in planning would set her apart from many of her peers. As she quickly approaches graduation, Ms. Hoover is currently working on her masters thesis, The Characteristics of VSP with Respect to Delay Time in the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria Area, and she is also looking for career opportunities pertaining to transportation planning and transit oriented development.

This award is presented annually by the SWUTC and comes with a $1,000 cash award.

 

2012 SWUTC Robert Herman Award for Most Outstanding Student

Jinpeng Lv Selected to Receive 2012 Robert Herman Award

2012 Robert Herman Award Winner Jinpeng Lv

Jinpeng Lv

Mr. Jinpeng Lv is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University – College Station and expects to graduate in December 2012. Previously he earned his Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University – Kingsville in 2008. Over the past six years, Mr. Lv has been working with Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) for six years and has participated in many research projects from county to national levels, such as Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC), Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), Southwest Region University Transportation Centers (SWUTC), and US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). His research interests include traffic operation, signal design, and air quality. In particular, Mr. Lv is developing his dissertation on Signal Timing Optimization to Improve Air Quality. His dissertation develops an optimization methodology for signal timing at intersections to reduce emissions based on MOVES, the latest emission model released by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). His study is expected to bridge the gap that the research on signal optimization at intersections lags behind the development of emissions models. A paper based on his dissertation won the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Student Paper Award in 2012. Moreover, he has published many papers on reputable journals, such as Transportation Research – Part D and the Journal of ITS. In addition, Mr. Lv is active in the ITE Student Chapter and has served as the corresponding secretary for one term. His work effectively enhanced the connections between students and experienced researchers and engineers.

Mr. Lv is supervised by Dr. Yunlong Zhang.

This award, presented yearly by the SWUTC, comes with a $1,000 cash award.

 

UT-Austin Celebrates Conclusion of Summer Program

University of Texas at Austin Undergraduate Summer Interns

University of Texas at Austin Undergraduate Summer Interns with SWUTC Director – Dock Burke

The SWUTC sponsored 2012 Undergraduate Summer Internship in Transportation (USIT) program at the University of Texas in Austin concluded it’s 11-week summer program on August 9th with the student final presentations and  farewell reception.  This demanding and rewarding program conducted each summer, under the guidance of Dr. Chandra Bhat,  provides students with a unique insight into transportation engineering education and a possible career in the field.  During the summer, students gain firsthand experience in conducting transportation studies and actively participate in transportation research with graduate students under the supervision of Transportation faculty.  The 10 students participating this year (and their university of origin) were:  Aliz Logman – Washington State University, Kimberly Selph – Washington State University, Jared Fusilier – McNeese State University, Bailey Harden – University of Alabama, Jay Chmilewski – University of Maryland, Melissa Archer – Arizona State University, Garrett Fullerton – University of South Carolina, Megan Hoklas – University of Texas-Austin, Cody Stone – University of Florida, David Kan – University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

This program, and the similar program at Texas A&M University, has been highly successful for twenty-two years in cultivating a new generation of transportation professionals.  Evidenced by the fact that about half of the summer interns apply back for transportation graduate studies to the UT and TAMU programs.

SWUTC Graduate Student Wins William P. Eno Research Paper

Daniel Fagnant

Daniel Fagnant

Daniel Fagnant, SWUTC Advanced Institute doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin, was selected as author of the second annual William P. Eno Research Paper, by the Eno Center for Transportation.

Each spring, the Eno Leadership Development Conference brings a select group of the top graduate students in transportation and related disciplines to the Nation’s Capital for an introduction to how transportation policy and programs are formed. During their week in Washington, D.C., the “Eno Fellows” meet with leaders from key transportation constituencies, including the U.S. Department of Transportation and its modal administrations, congressional committees, industry associations, and numerous advocacy groups. The Eno Fellows are also invited to submit abstracts for the William P. Eno Research Paper, a competitive paper competition. The goal of the paper is to expose a student to the complex nature of transportation policymaking while contributing to Eno’s growing knowledge base.

The abstract, “Implications, Barriers and Policy Recommendations for Autonomous Vehicles”, was co-authored with his advisor and SWUTC researcher, Dr. Kara Kockelman. It was chosen from among competing proposals and is slated for publication in winter 2013, and will be presented in summer 2013 in Washington, D.C.

Fagnant received his BS from Gonzaga University in Spring 2002, and his MS in Transportation from The University of Texas at Austin in August 2011.

TAMU Undergraduates Present Findings

2012 Undergraduate Transportation Scholars

2012 UTSP Participants
(L-R) Brooke Ullman, Amelia Celoza, Gene Hawkins, Kayla Weimert, Melisa Finley

The SWUTC sponsored Undergraduate Transportation Scholars Program (UTSP) at Texas A&M University concluded it’s twenty-second successful year in July.  This annual summer program, directed by Dr. Gene Hawkins, recruits upper-level undergraduate students from diverse academic backgrounds into a 10-week program designed to provide each student with a research/work experience that will help them get a head start on their careers.  The individual students are paired with a mentor while in the program, who assist the student in developing a research proposal, conducting a small transportation engineering research project, presenting findings to peers, and preparing a paper in journal format.  While in the program, students make field trips to various transportation agencies and attend professional meetings such as the summer meeting of TexITE.   At the end of the term, students make presentations on their research and produce a paper for publication.

On July 27th, the two students sponsored this summer by the UTSP made their final research presentations to a room of transportation professionals at the Texas Transportation Institute State Highway Research Building on the TAMU campus.  Amelia Celonz from Arizona State University (Ms. Brooke Ullman, mentor) presented her research Analysis of Factors Influencing Run-off Road Crashes on Horizontal Curves.  And Kayla Weimert from Norwich University (Ms. Melisa Finley, mentor) presented her work on the Impact of Nighttime Work Zone Lighting on Motorists’ Detection of Objects.

These papers will be published in the Compendium of Student Papers and made available in the publications section of this website.

Carey Blackmar Barr Receives 2012 Wootan Award

Carey Blackmar Barr

Carey Blackmar Barr

SWUTC Advanced Institute student at the University of Texas at Austin, Mrs. Carey Blackmar Barr, was the 2012 recipient of the Wootan Award for Outstanding M.S. Thesis in Policy and Planning presented at the Council of University Transportation Centers Awards Banquet in Washington D.C. on January 21st.  This award is given annually for the best M.S. thesis in the field of policy and planning in transportation studies.  Mrs. Barr’s thesis is titled Comparing Transit Accessibility Measures:  A Case Study of Access to Heathcare Facilities.

Mrs. Barr is supervised by Dr. Chandra Bhat.

2011 Naomi Ledé Oustanding Masters Student Award

Shain Eversley Selected to Receive 2011 Naomi Ledé Outstanding Masters Student Award

2011 Lede Award Winner - Shain Eversley

Shain Eversley

Mr. Shain Eversley, SWUTC graduate researcher and masters student at Texas Southern University was selected to receive this award for his outstanding academic and research achievements.  His research contributions include a leadership role in the SWUTC project Transit Agency Strategies that Encourage Mixed Uses Around Stations.  And a  TSU National Transportation Security Center for Excellence (NTSCOE-P) research effort where he assessed gaps in reporting of hazardous materials incidents.  The results of his NTSOE-P research were presented Spring 2011 at the Transportation Research Forum in Long Beach, California.  Also as part of this research, he contributed as a team member to the training of a select group of METRO bus operators in the event of a terrorist threat.  He conducted interviews of selected US transit agencies to establish the baseline for current training.  This past summer, he was selected for the prestigious Eno Leadership Development Conference where he spent a week enhancing his knowledge about the workings of the transportation arena, particularly in Washington, D.C.

Since Mr. Eversley entered the TSU masters program, he has maintained a stellar GPA.  During classroom discussions, he is insightful and engaged.  He approaches each assignment with thoroughness and depth.

Mr. Eversley obtained his Bachelor of Science form Tuskegee University in Business Management.  After graduating with honors in 2004, he was employed with the Union Pacific Railroad for four years, then took a position with Prestige Logistics prior to entering the TSU masters program.

This award is presented annually by the SWUTC and comes with a $1,000 cash award.

 

2011 SWUTC Robert Herman Award for Most Outstanding Student

Rajesh Paleti Selected to Receive 2011 Robert Herman Award

2011 Herman Award Winner - Rajesh Paleti

Rajesh Paleti

Mr. Rajesh Paleti, Ph.D. student from the University of Texas at Austin, was selected to receive this award for his very high degree of motivation and dedication to his academic pursuits, combined with his spirit of camaraderie toward his fellow students.  Mr. Paleti has taken a leadership role on several research projects, including an activity-based modeling project and a vehicle ownership/type modeling project.  He is one of those rare and unique students who rises to every challenge, shows great excitement and enthusiasm in learning and contributing to transportation science, and has a mind set well suited for analytic scientific inquiry.  In his PhD work, Mr. Paleti is focusing on developing a comprehensive vehicle fleet composition and evolution framework that accommodates all of the dimensions characterizing vehicle fleet/usage decisions and vehicle transactions (i.e., fleet evolution) over time.  This research effort uses a unique data set that allows inclusion of several policy variables and vehicle characteristics that are not available in the market currently.  Mr. Paleti is using cutting-edge econometric and statistical methods in his research, some of which are new contributions to the econometric field and not just to the transportation field.  This is evident in the fact that he already has eight refereed papers published or forthcoming in some of the top international journals, and has eight papers being considered for publication.  He clearly is a dynamic and creative individual who is at the forefront of important methodological developments, as well as critical policy issues facing the profession.

This award, presented yearly by the SWUTC, comes with a $1,000 cash award.

Mr. Paleti’s major professor at the University of Texas at Austin is Dr. Chandra Bhat.

2011 SWUTC William Harris Award for Outstanding PhD Student

Benjamin Sperry Selected to Receive 2012 William Harris Award

2011 Harris Award Winner - Ben Sperry

Ben Sperry

Mr. Ben Sperry is a SWUTC Graduate Researcher in the Multimodal Freight Transportation Division of the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) at Texas A&M University.  He is currently a Doctoral degree candidate in the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering, and expects to graduate with a Ph.D. in civil engineering in May 2012.  He earned his Master’s degree in civil engineering from Texas A&M in 2008.  A native of Springfield, Illinois, he received his Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Evansville (Indiana) in 2006.  He is active in the Texas A&M University Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Student Chapter and has received numerous awards and recognition for his academic endeavors.  Mr. Sperry’s research focuses on understanding how existing passenger rail lines contribute to mobility and economic development in intercity corridors, primarily through the collection and analysis of passenger survey data.  The title of his dissertation is Development of Improved Traveler Survey Methods for High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Planning.

Mr. Sperry was selected to represent the SWUTC at the annual UTC Outstanding Student of the Year awards ceremony during TRB’s Annual Meeting in January, 2011 in recognition of his all-round exemplary performance in academics, research quality and productivity, and leadership activities.

This award is presented annually by the SWUTC and comes with a $1,000 cash award.

 

Zhang and SWUTC Graduate Student Co-Authors Receive Best Paper Award

Zhanmin Zhang

Zhanmin Zhang

A paper co-authored by SWUTC key researcher Dr. Zhanmin Zhang, and two of his SWUTC supported transportation graduate students, Epigmenio Gonzalez and Wenxing Liu, was selected to receive the Best Paper Award by the 8th International Conference on Managing Pavements Assets (ICMPA). An award plaque for their paper based on their SWUTC research work  “A Methodological Framework for Minimizing the Budget Fluctuations on Highway Maintenance Programs” was presented at the 8th ICMPA held in Santiago, Chile in November 2011.

The ICMPA is designed to focus on issues associated with fulfilling the social, economic, and environmental responsibilities for sustainable, well managed, better roads. The 8th ICMPA was attended by nearly 400 delegates of academia, practitioners, and government officials representing countries from all five continents.