Fall 2017 Commencement

I always enjoy commencement, and it was an honor to serve as a Marshall for the Fall 2017 USF Commencement! Congratulations to all of our graduates!

Visit to Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore

I had a wonderful visit to Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore on December 4, 2017. I met with faculty and students from the Energy Research Institute (ERI@N), Centre for Infrastructure Systems (CIS), NTU-LTA Transport Research Centre (TRC@NTU), Cyber Security Research Centre (CYSREN), School of Computer Science and Engineering and toured the new Centre of Excellence for Testing and Research of Autonomous Vehicles (CETRAN). Many great discussions of the impact of technological disruptions on the future of transportation and urban development. Many thanks for the opportunity and here’s to fruitful future collaboration between NTU and USF!

Joining the Board of the Florida Public Transportation Association (FPTA)

We were pleased to participate in the Florida Public Transportation Association (FPTA) Annual meeting in West Palm Beach. I was honored to participate in my first meeting as a member of the FPTA Board. Thank you to Lisa Bacot, FPTA Executive Director and all involved for a wonderful and productive conference!

Visit of Prof. Nikolas Geroliminis

CUTR and USF were honored to host visiting professor Nikolas Geroliminis during part of his sabbatical leave from EPFL in Switzerland! We're sorry to see you go, but we look forward to seeing you again soon in Tampa! Thank you for your visit! http://luts.epfl.ch/

TUM CREATE Meeting in Singapore

I was grateful for the opportunity to chair the Inaugural Scientific Advisory Board Meeting for the TUMCREATE project "Towards the Ultimate Public Transport System" in Singapore on November 30, 2017. TUMCREATE is a joint interdisciplinary research program between TEchnische Universitat Munchen (TUM) in Germany and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. Other board members include: Prof. Hideo Inoue, Kanagawa University, Japan; Prof. Reinhard Haas, University of Vienna, Austria; Prof. Julian Gardner, Warwick University, UK; and Prof. Alois Fercha, University of Linz, Austria.

Visit to University of Florida

I was happy to have the chance to present "Data-Driven Diagnosis of Freeway Bottlenecks Relying on Traffic Flow Fundamentals" at the University of Florida Gator ITE student chapter meeting on Tuesday November 28, 2017. It was a great discussion, and we all look forward to the upcoming ITE Student Leadership Summit (SLS) in Gainesville on Feb 9-11, 2018!

5th Annual UTC Conference for the Southeastern Region

I was pleased to participate in the 5th Annual UTC Conference for the Southeastern Region, held at the University of Florida on November 16-17, 2017. I presented, "Bringing Order to Chaos: The Growing Role of Variable Speed Limit & Proactive Traffic Management Solutions," provided a short introduction to CUTR and also moderated a session. It was a great event!

Student Shark Tank Session at Florida Automated Vehicles Summit

The Florida Automated Vehicles Summit was a great event--perhaps the best session was the Student Shark Tank, with one student from each of seven Florida universities, including FAU, FIU, FPU, UCF, UF, UNF and USF.
and Judges included Marcus Welz (Siemens), Jeff Varick (Brandmotion), Ken Spitz (FDOT) and Alison Pascale (Audi). See you next year!

NOCoE Workshop

On November 9, 2017, I participated in a fruitful forum sponsored by the National Operations Center of Excellence, focusing on identifying the "Core Considerations for a Pre-Employment Workforce Development Strategy." The future of Transportation Operations is an exciting field and we aim to attract more K-12 and university students to pursue this as a career! https://transportationops.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbA_ldN-cPo

Future of Public Transportation Event and Valedictory Lecture

I was pleased to host Joel Volinski's Valedictory Lecture and Future of Public Transportation Panel discussion on November 9, 2017. The presentation and video are available.

CTEDD Executive Committee

I participated in two days of very productive meetings with the staff and executive committee of the Center for Transportation, Equity, Decisions and Dollars (CTEDD) at the University of Texas Arlington! Special thanks to Dr. Shima Hamidi CTEDD director, staff Dr. David Weinreich, Ahoura Zandiatashbar and fellow executive committee members Anurag Pande, Teresa Adams, Anand Puppala, and Subhro Guhathakurta. We are excited about all of our center's activities in research, education and technology transfer!https://ctedd.uta.edu/ 

Engineering Day 2017

It was great fun to join CUTR students Kurt Lehmann and Richard Driscoll who led a vigorous "Who Wants to be a Transportation Millionaire" game with 150 high performing local high school students during today's Engineering Day! Hillsborough County Public Schools #gobulls #usfengineering #engineeringday Thanks go to Jodi Godfrey as well for all of the great preparations! The future is bright with such energetic future Bulls and transportation professionals!

ITS World Congress Montreal

I enjoyed presenting “Measuring the Benefits of ITS Using Big Data” on October 31, 2017 at the ITS World Congress in Montreal. Thanks to Glenn Geers of the Australian Road Research Board for organizing the great session. 

Visit to McGill University

It was a special treat to visit my former student Prof. Ahmed El-Geneidy at McGill University for the second time (last time was in 2010, too long ago!) I am so impressed with his work and his team and it was a joy to spend some time with them! Plus a brisk walk to the top of Mont Royal

!

Trang Luong Thesis Defense

Warm congratulations to Trang D. Luong who successfully defended her Master's thesis, "Comprehensive Exploratory Analysis of Truck Route Choice Diversity in Florida," on October 19, 2017! Trang received her B.S. in civil engineering at USF, is a 2016 recipient of the CUTR Georgia Brosch Memorial Transportation Scholarship and was the president of the USF ITE student chapter. Pictured with her major professor Dr. Abdul Pinjari, and committee members Dr. Pei-Sung Lin and Dr. Robert Bertini. Congratulations Trang!

CUTR Poster Competition Winners

Today CUTR program director Dr. Pei-Sung Lin and director Dr. Robert Bertini presented awards to CUTR Poster Competition winners Yu (Crystal) Wang (1st Place), Hualong Tang (2nd Place) and Amir Ghiasi (3rd Place). Cash awards come with the certificates. Congratulations to the winners and thank you to all fantastic students and judges who participated!

USF Homecoming Parade

It was great fun to march in the USF Homecoming Parade!

CUTR Transportation Achievement Awards

Congratulations to Yuan Wang (PhD) and Kurt Lehmann (MS), this year's winners of the Georgia Brosch Memorial Transportation Scholarship! Special thanks to Gary and Barbara Brosch who presented the award at our Annual Achievement Awards event on October 4, 2017!

Transportation Supersession

CUTR and USF ITE well represented at the Transportation Supersession!

Road Usage Charge Form, Salem, Oregon

I enjoyed the opportunity to speak on a panel addressing "Connected and Automated Vehicles: New Challenges" at the 2017 Road Usage Charge Forum in Salem, Oregon--with moderator Andrew Dick of ODOT, Jeffrey Tumlin of Nelson\Nygaard, and Noah Siegel of MSH Strategy (not pictured). Thanks to ODOT and the organizers for the opportunity!

NAMVBC Meeting

I enjoyed speaking on a panel discussing "Autonomous Vehicles Regulation and Deployment: Who Educates the Driver?" at the National Association of Motor Vehicle Boards and Commissions (NAMVBC) Annual Meeting in Arlington, Virginia. Joining me on the panel were: Andrew Koblenz, National Automobile Dealers Association; Dr. Bernard Soriano, California Department of Motor Vehicles; and Alex Epstein, National Safety Council. Excellent discussion and debate about the future of automation in our transportation system! See the NSC resource: https://mycardoeswhat.org/

Bulls Walk and Bike Week Kickoff

Thanks to all of our fantastic partners, students, faculty and staff who participated in the 6th Annual Bulls Walk and Bike Week Kickoff today! And to Ryan Wakefield for the great photos! Here's to a safe, healthy, and fun year of walking and cycling on campus and beyond! Special thanks to FDOT, USF Student Government, USF Police Department, and !P Tampa Innovation for their support.

22nd International Symposium on Transportation and Traffic Theory, Evanston, Illinois

It was great to participate in the 22nd ISTTT held at Northwestern University! I was pleased to moderate a workshop and see many great colleagues and friends. Special thanks to Prof. Hani Mahmassani and Prof. Karen Smilowitz for their hospitality!

First Annual Cal Poly Alumni Brunch

It was great to see many Cal Poly alums at our "First Annual" brunch with Bertini in San Francisco! Alumni included Jerry Tran, Edward Tang, Bobby Sidhu, Hadar Albo, Jose Palma, Andre Huff,
and Kevin Carstens. See you next year!

China Maglev in Shanghai

Fulfilled a longtime dream to ride the Maglev train in Shanghai. Maximum speed was 41 km/h! The technology exists!

COTA International Conference of Transportation Professionals, Shanghai, Ch

A special thank you to the Chinese Overseas Transportation Association (COTA) for the invitation to participate in their 17th COTA International Conference of Transportation Professionals (CICTP2017) from July 7-9, 2017, in Shanghai, China, hosted by Tongji University. I had the opportunity to speak in the opening session about the Future of Transportation and in another session about the developments in Connected and Automated Vehicle deployment. I also enjoyed participating in a great student session containing presentations in Traffic Flow Theory. I'm grateful to COTA and Tongji for their hospitality! I also had the chance to ride high speed rail from Beijing to Shanghai and take the Maglev (max speed 270 mph) to the Shanghai airport. Very inspiring!