News from CTS

Center for Transportation Studies at UVA and VDOT Launch New Essentials of Engineering Excellence Training Program

Nicknamed “E3,” Essentials of Engineering Excellence is tailored for the employees who design, construct and maintain the state’s roadways and bridges. Tipton said Garrett Moore, chief VDOT engineer since 2012, originated the program.

The Virginia Department of Transportation’s motto, “We keep Virginia moving,” is never far from Jeff Tipton’s mind.

"E3 provides a bridge between continuing education and our department’s graduate programs in a way that embraces the concept of lifelong learning. After all, this is what the Center for Transportation Studies is all about."

Beth O’Donnell, Deputy Director, Center for Transportation Studies

That’s the imperative behind the Essentials of Engineering Excellence Program, VDOT’s latest employee training and education partnership with the Center for Transportation Studies at the University of Virginia. The center, located at the School of Engineering and Applied Science, runs the Federal Highway Administration-designated Local Technical Assistance Program for the state. As the VA LTAP administrator, the center acts as part of VDOT’s professional development arm, annually serving more than 2,000 transportation workers statewide with training for every phase of road and highway building, maintenance and administration.

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IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society Recognizes ESE Professor’s Research

B. Brian Park, a professor in the Department of Engineering Systems and Environment, has received the 2014 George N. Saridis Best Transactions Paper Award for Outstanding Research for a paper in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. Park co-authored the work with former Ph.D. student Joyoung Lee, now an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Awards for years 2014-2017 were announced in the journal’s December 2020 issue.

Park and Lee’s paper, “Development and evaluation of a cooperative vehicle intersection control algorithm under the connected vehicles environment,” was published in the IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 81–90, Mar. 2012.

In 2015, the Board of Governors of IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society approved a proposal to name the Best Paper Award in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems as the George N. Saridis Best Transactions Paper Award. According to the announcement, 2014-2017 winners were named “after nearly five years of preparation and planning, and almost one year of hard and concentrated effort by the Award Committee.”

Read the full announcement here.

IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems is a journal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a premier publication for basic and applied research to expand knowledge on transportation. It focuses on the design, analysis and control of information technology as it is applied to transportation systems.

Park also is an affiliated faculty member of UVA Engineering’s Link Lab, an interdisciplinary center for cyber-physical research, and director of the Traffic Operations Laboratory.

Two Engineering Systems and Environment Students Named 2020 School of Engineering Outstanding Students

Students from the Department of Engineering Systems and Environment, Anna L. Cerf and Emily C. Chen, have won two of the four 2020 School of Engineering Outstanding Student Awards. The award is given to a student or students — typically graduating fourth-years — who have demonstrated outstanding academic performance, leadership and service. It is one of UVA Engineering’s highest student honors.