Prof. Amelia Regan from UC Irvine visits Cal Poly

We were very pleased to welcome Dr. Amelia Regan, Professor of Computer Science and Transportation Systems Engineering from UC Irvine to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo today! Amelia presented "Transformational Technologies on the Transportation Horizon" to students in CE 528 Transportation Economics and Analysis. I was honored that Amelia was my second visitor! We had a great presentation and discussion of ways that big data, communications and cloud computing will impact the future of various modes of transportation.

Alex Bigazzi Successfully Defends Dissertation

Congratulations to Alex Bigazzi who successfully defended his doctoral dissertation "Effects of the Urban Transportation System on Bicyclists Uptake of Traffic-Related Air Pollution," at Portland State University on October 1, 2014. I was pleased to have the opportunity to work with Dr. Bigazzi when he was an undergraduate and master's student and have enjoyed remaining on his dissertation committee and tracking his work these past few years. Prof. Miguel Figliozzi chaired the committee, and other committee members included Prof. James Pankow and Prof. Jennifer Dill. Alex's work is significant in that it relates bicyclists' "uptake" of pollutants as a function of the level of exertion, street/facility type and other variables. I hope that this leads to more research regarding the impacts of air pollution on travelers and on our communities. One interesting finding was related to spikes in VOCs near point source emitters.