MTC News: 2000

Improved Opportunities for Students

There have always been programs at the Missouri DOT and with many consulting firms to hire UM-C students for summer intern positions. However, as a result of the transportation focus that the Midwest Transportation Consortium brings to the university, UM-C has been able to place several students into very exciting and cutting-edge transportation engineering assignments. Two graduate students will be working in ITS in support of the new Transportation Management Center (TMC) in St. Louis. A senior engineering student is working for FHWA in support of a technology demonstration project. He will be traveling throughout the 10 state Midwest region driving a specially equipped research van.

The MTC has also created more opportunities for students to attend important conferences.

This year, for the first time, MoDOT paid the registration for five students to attend the Missouri Highway Engineers Conference at Lake of the Ozarks.The University provided funds to cover the lodging expenses for these students, plus for seven other students.

The MTC also helped support travel by 14 ISU students and ten UM-C students to the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. in January 2000. The students were given the opportunity to tour the FHWA's Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center as well. Two University of Northern Iowa geography students attended the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) Annual Conference.

Contact: Charles Nemmers, University of Missouri-Columbia
Phone: 573-882-0071, email: nemmersc@missouri-edu

David Plazak, Iowa State University
Phone: 515-294-8103,   email: dplazak@iastate.edu

Tim Strauss, University of Northern Iowa
Phone: 319-273-7103, email: tim.strauss@uni.edu