Bulls Walk and Bike Week Kickoff at USF

It was a great experience to participate in the kickoff of Bulls Walk and Bike Week at USF yesterday! Over 100 students took the WalkWise quiz, received safety information, or walked away safely with a WalkWise reflective backpack. Special thanks to the CUTR staff and USF President Judy Genshaft!

Beginning New Role as Director of Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR)

I am honored, proud, and excited to begin my new role as the Director of the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. CUTR has a long history of being a national leader in public transportation and multimodal transportation research, education and technology transfer and I look forward to being a part of CUTR's next chapter! I truly appreciate the warm welcome! http://www.usf.edu/engineering/documents/08182016-robert-bertini.pdf

Cal Poly SLO and University of South Florida Students at ITE International Meeting in Anaheim 2016

Farewell Cal Poly

 

Institute of Transportation Engineers Western District Annual Meeting, Aubuquerque, New Mexico

It was a great pleasure to participate in the Institute of Transportation Engineers Western District Annual Meeting, Aubuquerque, New Mexico, July 10-13, 2016. I presented "Are We Ready? State and Local Agency Preparations for Connected and Automated Vehicles." The Cal Poly San Luis Obispo ITE chapter made a great showing at the District 6 Annual Meeting. Six students gave technical presentations, plus the team won the district traffic bowl (they will compete in the national traffic bowl in August in Anaheim), were designated as student chapter of the year, received the conference chapter award, Ryan Caldera was recognized for the Kell Competition RFP, Monica and Simon received a Mitey Race award, student awards were given to Ashley Kim and Kevin Carstens, and the student chapter received the website award! Wow what a great group - my congratulations to all!

First IEEE ITS Society Board of Governors Meeting, Gothenburg Sweden

I participated in my first Board of Governors (BOG) Meeting for the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society (ITSS) in Gothenburg Sweden on June 19, 2016. Originally inspired to pursue greater activity in the IEEE ITSS by my friend Dan Dailey, it was particularly sad that he had passed away earlier this year. We tried to pay homage to him and I continue to be amazed at how much he contributed to the society. I learned a lot about the society and its operations during this meeting and look forward to participating in the BOG! I also attended the 2016 Intelligent Vehicles Symposium which was a great event, with a number of fascinating demos held at the Astazero test site in Boras, Sweden. There was also some time to explore Gothenburg by boat and bike, it's a beautiful and historic city.

International Symposium on Improving Highway Performance (ISEHP) Berlin June 2016

I was very pleased to participate in the International Symposium on Improving Highway Performance (ISEHP) in Berlin, Germany, June 14-16, 2016. In addition to providing a Welcome Address at the Plenary Session, I also presented three papers: Preparing a Roadmap for Connected Vehicle/Cooperative Systems Deployment Scenarios: Case Study of the State of Oregon, USA (with co-authors Haizhong Wang, Tony Knudson and Kevin Carstens); Developing a Multimodal Transportation System Simulation Manual: Impacts on Future Transportation Performance (with co-authors Brandon Nevers, George List and Mehdi Mashayekhi); and Evaluation of Driver Compliance to Displayed Variable Advisory Speed Limit Systems: Comparison between Germany and the U.S. (with co-authors Gary Riggins, Williams Ackaah and Martin Margreiter). Williams Ackaah also presented me with his nearly finished Ph.D. dissertation for my review (I am one of his committee members) and was able to enjoy dinner with great friends Klaus Bogenberger and Alex Skabardonis. Berlin is a great city--I also enjoyed a recital by pianist Yuja Wang at the Berlin Philharmonie, and saw a controversial version of Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio at the Berlin Opera.

Cal Poly Commencement 2016

It was my pleasure to "hood" six master of science graduates yesterday June 11, 2016: Kaylinn Pell, Krista Purser, Bobby Sidhu, Alex Chambers, Edward Tang and Simon Qin. I have thoroughly enjoyed working (and biking) with you all, learned a lot from you and I know that you're going to continue to accomplish great things as you move forward. More significantly I am proud of all of you as people and admire your determination and humanity. I hope we'll stay in touch--see you in Albuquerque in a month for the ITE District 6 meeting! I also was honored to attend the MCRP graduation ceremony, and I am grateful to all of the dual master's degree students for contributing so much to my courses and to the sense of community within the transportation program at Cal Poly. My experience was greatly heightened through my interaction with the two cohorts of dual degree students and I also know you will all continue to do great work as you move forward. Thank you all!

Celebrating 100 Years of Bands at Cal Poly

115 Cal Poly band alumni helped celebrate the 100th anniversary of Cal Poly bands. What an honor to play in the beautiful Performing Arts Center, with Joey Sabol and 4 Cal Poly ITE students! Fond memories and exciting music!

 

Great Los Osos/Morro Bay Bike Ride

Transportation students had a great ride to Los Osos and Morro Bay on Saturday June 4, 2016. Thanks to all!

Alex Chambers Thesis Defense

As part of "Transportation Presentation Week," Alex Chambers successfully defended his master's thesis, "Benefits of Advanced Traffic Management Solutions: Before and After Crash Analysis for Deployment of a Variable Advisory Speed Limit System," on May 25, 2016. Along with committee members Dr. Anurag Pande and Dr. Kimberley Mastako we congratulate Alex on his great work and congratulate him on his graduation from Cal Poly SLO!

Caltrans Experts Speak to ITS Class

We were  very pleased to welcome Greg Larson and Brian Simi from the California Department of Transportation to the CE 423 Intelligent Transportation Systems class on May 25, 2016. We had a discussion about the Caltrans mission, Caltrans research priorities/activities, transportation systems management and operations (TSMO), as well as advances in connected and automated vehicles. Greg and Brian also discussed career opportunities within state government. It was a great and highly interactive discussion for which we are very grateful!

Bobby Sidhu Master's Thesis Defense

As part of "Transportation Presentation Week," Bobby Sidhu successfully defended his master's thesis, "Exploring Data-Driven Models of Transit Travel Time and Delay," on May 25, 2016. Along with committee members Dr. Anurag Pande and Dr. Kimberley Mastako we congratulate Bobby on this important occasion.

Krista Purser Master's Thesis Defense

As part of "Transportation Presentation Week," Krista Purser successfully defended her master's thesis, "Exploring Travel Time Reliability Using Bluetooth Data Collection," on May 23, 2016. Along with committee members Dr. Anurag Pande and Dr. Kimberley Mastako we congratulate Krista on her excellent work and her commitment to transportation engineering at Cal Poly SLO!

Martin Margreiter Visits from Technical University Munich

We have been extremely happy to welcome Dipl.-Ing. Martin Margreiter from the Technical University of Munich for a two month visit to Cal Poly! Martin is working on his Ph.D. and was an active member of our transportation group during his stay. He delivered three guest lectures to transportation engineering courses, including CE 423 Intelligent Transportation Systems, CE 527 Sustainable Mobility and CE 529 Modeling and Simulation. He also presented at a Special Seminar on Tuesday May 24, 2016, discussing Transportation Research at TUM, Germany. We hope to continue the excellent relationship we have between Cal Poly and TUM! Thank you Martin for your visit and safe travels!