MTC News: Year Four (2003) Progress Report
Post-Graduate Contributions
After graduation, students find placement in a broad range of transportation roles serving local, state, and federal jurisdictions, private industry, and as faculty at academic institutions. The following accounts represent the experiences of several former students and the entities that have benefited from the MTC’s involvement:
Vanessa Amado-Gonzolez:
“I’m currently a Ph.D. candidate in civil engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia working on my dissertation proposal. I will be taking my comprehensive examination in the fall of 2003, the EIT examination in October, and defending my dissertation in the winter semester of 2004. The MTC has been a great help from the beginning. Coming from a small island in the Caribbean (Puerto Rico), I didn’t know much about all of the people who are willing to help grad students accomplish their degrees. The first opportunity was to go to the 2000 TRB Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. It was great; I met wonderful people from all around the US and different countries. I also had the opportunity to participate in the student conference held in Ames. I remember being so nervous on the drive up from Columbia and practicing the presentation over and over in my head, but by the time I got there, everything was just fine. I met a bunch of wonderful grad students whom I’ve seen through the years in other conferences. I can’t thank the MTC enough for that.”
Dr. Mike Anderson:
“I am an assistant professor of civil engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, teaching courses on roadway design, traffic engineering, urban planning, and GIS and conducting research related to transportation modeling, GIS, and public transportation. The Midwest Transportation Consortium allowed me the opportunity to conduct research on a variety of projects and learn first-hand the role and responsibilities of being a professor.”
Patrick Earney:
“I am a Ph.D. candidate in civil engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia working as a teaching and research assistant, managing fellow graduate and undergraduate students on my research team, and preparing and teaching the materials science laboratory each year. While pursuing my master’s degree, I conducted research for the Missouri Department of Transportation, investigating possible causes and solutions for cracking that occurs in the end regions of Missouri pre-stressed concrete I-girders. My present research is to investigate durability and time-dependant behavior of high performance concrete made with combinations of silica fume and fly ash as partial replacement for cement.”
Karen Giese:
“I am an engineering associate for Kittelson & Associates in Portland, Oregon, where I work on a variety of projects for both private and public clients. I provide development services including traffic impact studies, site plan review, planning, engineering, and design services for private developer clients. I have also been working with public agencies in Oregon, Florida, Maryland, and the Washington, D.C. area studying transit services and recommending bus preferential treatments, most notably transit signal priority. During my studies at ISU and with the MTC, I was exposed to a wide range of experts in our field. The funding that the MTC provided allowed me to travel to TRB several times, giving me greater exposure to the field of transportation and a solid understanding of our industry from both the research and practical perspectives.”
Dr. Chris Monsere:
“I am a highway safety engineer for the Oregon Department of Transportation. I coordinate the statewide safety management system, conduct technical evaluations of highway safety improvements, and provide technical advice to field engineers on safety effects of designs. I am also an adjunct faculty at Portland State University, F-SHRP panel member for the safety focus area, and TRB task force member for the Highway Safety Manual. You don’t always realize what a great program ISU and CTRE have developed until you leave. The contacts, skills, and friends I made at ISU have definitely helped advance my career in transportation.”
Eric Padget:
“I am a transportation planning consultant with URS in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I work on a multitude of transportation projects, from national level transit and transportation investment projects (including the alternatives analysis, environmental documentation, and financial and implementation strategies) to regional and local transportation and transit plans and traffic studies. The MTC provided me with insight on the different facets of transportation and allowed me the opportunity to find my niche in a very broad field, by providing me opportunities to meet professionals from the different sectors of the industry, see real-life project development and the strategies that make projects work, and understanding the day-to-day aspects of what the transportation industry expects out of its professionals.”
David Preissig:
“I am a project engineer with Hampton, Lenzini and Renwick, Inc., a civil engineering consulting firm in Elgin, Illinois. I manage the design of multimodal transportation infrastructure development projects, ranging in scope from concept to construction, and serve all levels of government agencies and private sector clients. The MTC provided experiences that propelled my career, including exposure to professional transportation managers, planners, and designers who discussed state-of-the-art solutions to public and private sector problems in all modes of transportation.”
Jerry Roche:
“I am a transportation safety engineer for the Iowa Division of the Federal Highway Administration in Ames, Iowa. In short, I try to reduce fatalities and injuries on the roadways in the state of Iowa. My duties include administering the Highway Safety Improvement Program, reviewing project designs, ensuring safe and efficient work zones, handling MUTCD questions and experimentation requests, and working with local and state agencies with a common interest in traffic safety. The MTC exposed me to the field of transportation and to traffic safety in particular. I had the opportunity to work with many agencies on safety projects, which opened doors for me when I completed my master’s degree. Without these experiences, I would not have been qualified for the position I hold today. Thanks, MTC!”
Jerry Shadewald:
“I am a transportation planning engineer for HNTB Corporation in Kansas City, Missouri. My work is quite varied, especially considering the size of the company that I work for. I’ve been involved in several activities, ranging from major MIS/EIS documents to small traffic impact studies, with a variety of projects in between. However, I’ve become a company resource for travel demand modeling and traffic micro simulation, two skills developed while part of the MTC. By providing opportunities for direct involvement in research projects, the MTC allowed me to dig deeper into the travel demand modeling aspects of transportation engineering. This detailed knowledge has put me at the forefront of modeling both company-wide and nationally.”
David Veneziano:
“Currently, I am a graduate research assistant at CTRE. I am developing a tool for the statewide collection of intersection safety data and investigating statistical methods to analyze the data for safety deficiencies and possible mitigation measures for the Iowa DOT. The MTC was invaluable in exposing me to the many disciplines within the transportation field through activities such as the spring seminar series, as well as providing the opportunity to attend conferences to see firsthand state-of-the-art transportation research.”
Dr. David White:
“I am presently an assistant professor in the Geotechnical and Materials Engineering Division of the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at Iowa State University. My research interests are in the area of transportation, more specifically geotechnical applications relating to roadways and related structures (embankments, bridge piers, etc.). Winning the paper award provided me the opportunity to attend TRB and meet the secretary of transportation.”
