Newsletter
Fall 2023
Summer High School Transportation Institute Highlights
The 2023 Summer High School Transportation Institute at NC A&T, a longstanding chapter of the National Summer Transportation Institute Program (NSTI), ran successfully from July 9th to the 23rd of July. The program’s shortened time frame allowed for a more immersive residential program in which students lived, ate, and socialized on campus as part of the College of Business and Economics’ (COBE) nascent efforts to bring the Aggie Experience to participants of its workforce development programs. The 2023 program also boasted an increased number of participants: thanks to funding from the Center for Advanced Transportation Mobility (CATM) and the Office of the Dean at COBE, four additional students were recruited in addition to the sixteen funded through the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT).
Thanks to the residential nature of the program, the Transportation Institute was able to deliver its flagship workforce development program to students from Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and of course, North Carolina. The diverse group of participants comprised equal male and female students who were high achieving, demonstrated excellent character references, an interest in transportation, and were rising juniors or seniors.
The program’s high academic standards exist to support a program that will propel students into degrees and careers that are STEM- and transportation-focused. The program’s schedule prioritized classroom engagement and academic advancement. Students work in groups to complete a small-scale, undergraduate research style pilot project, participate in eight lectures with faculty and industry professionals covering the various sub-disciplines within transportation, and engage in a variety of other academic and professional development activities.
In addition to the classroom curriculum, participants visited Washington, DC to tour Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority facilities, Smithsonian Air and Space Museums, and participate in team building scavenger hunts. They also visited Wilmington, NC to tour Battleship! NC, UNC-Wilmington, the NC Maritime Museum, and participate in other team-building activities. Local engagement activities included a tour of the Greensboro Transit Authority; the Publix distribution center in McLeansville, NC; drone piloting with NCDOT Unmanned Aircraft Systems; and discovery flights in single-engine aircraft at the Smith Reynolds Airport.
The program would be impossible without the significant help of our partners. The 2023 program was delivered in collaboration with NC A&T Libraries, the Burlington-Graham Metropolitan Planning Organization, NC A&T’s ACCESS Lab and TECHLAV, Aggie Toastmasters, NCDOT’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems division, the Greensboro Transit Authority, the North Carolina Maritime Museum, the NCDOT Engineering Coordination and Safety Branch, NC A&T Career Services, Experian, Piedmont Triad International Airport’s Transportation Safety Administration, Publix Super Markets, NC A&T’s Office of Admissions, the Exceptional Males in Business Program, the S.I.S.T.E.R.S. Program, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, NC A&T Division of Student Affairs, NC A&T College of Engineering, the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics, and UNC Wilmington.
The Summer High School Transportation Institute expects to begin accepting applications for the 2024 program in April of next year. Check back soon for updates if you’re interested in applying, and feel free to share the word!
CR2C2 Center Funded Announcement
The Transportation Institute will be joining NC A&T’s efforts in the upcoming Center for Regional and Rural Connected Communities (CR2C2). The 5-year, $15 million grant was awarded as the Region 4 University Transportation Center by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Southeastern region comprises North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Harnessing research capabilities of NC A&T, Clemson University, Florida Atlantic University, University of Alabama, University of Georgia, University of Kentucky and University of Tennessee, Knoxville, CR2C2 will be lead by Ali Karimoddini, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering, and Maranda McBride, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management in the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics. The Center will spearhead integrated research, education, workforce development, and technology transfer around connected and coordinated multimodal technology. Along with Drs. Karimoddini and McBride, the A&T research team includes:
- Abdullah Eroglu, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Venktesh Pandey, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
- Hyoshin Park, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Computational Science and Engineering
- Hieu T. Nguyen, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Laquanda Leaven Johnson, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management
- Rongfang “Rachel” Liu, Ph.D., Transportation Institute director and endowed professor in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department
- Hossein Sarafzadeh, Ph.D., Center of Excellence in Cybersecurity Research, Education and Outreach director, from the College of Science and Technology.
“With the transportation research capabilities and infrastructure at A&T and its partnering institutes, CR2C2 is well positioned to investigate the needs of geographically distributed, isolated and aging populations in rural areas, which is critical for extending their economic integration into the national economy and stimulating job growth,” said Liu.
Stay tuned for more updates about CR2C2.
Research Spotlight: Habeeb Mohammed at the 11th Annual Black Doctoral Network Conference
Habeeb is a doctoral candidate in Industrial Engineering at NC A&T. Read his reflection on the 11th Annual Black Doctoral Network Conference below.
"I presented my research project titled “Railway Injury Prediction Using Discriminant Analysis and Ensemble Learning Approach.” The goal of this research is to predict the severity of injuries that occur on rail tracks as well as the most likely victims. Discriminant analysis and ensemble learning are applied in predicting the severity class of any injury occurrence. Features that are key to the prediction are also identified. The findings of this research can be used by railroad authorities and safety agencies to investigate and prevent the occurrence of injuries and fatalities on rail tracks. I interacted with several attendees and received valuable feedback and recommendations for a future project.
"I would like to thank my advisors Dr. Steven Jiang and Dr. Rachel Liu for their continuous guidance and support throughout my research journey. I would also like to thank the Black Doctoral Network for giving me the platform to present my work to the general public."
Thanks for representing Aggie Nation and the Transportation Institute with your research, Habeeb!
NCDOT Rail Research Project
The Transportation Institute’s research team is continuing their efforts on NCDOT Research Project 2023-017 “Modeling the Effects of Rail Noise Propagation on Pedestrians in North Carolina Railroad Environments.” The project, which began in August of 2022, answers an urgent call by North Carolina rail safety advocates to understand why unimpaired pedestrians who mistakenly use rail rights-of-way as a transit route become involved in rail strike incidents after failing to see or hear oncoming trains, despite the warning blasts by the locomotives. These strikes account for significant losses of life in the sphere of North Carolina railways and require immediate attention.
The Transportation Institute team is working to reduce and prevent these unnecessary injuries and deaths through a two-fold research effort. First, the team conducted a wide-reaching survey of public perceptions of rail safety in order to better understand how laypersons are interacting and conceiving of the rail environment. This data is the first of its kind and will be essential in designing effective future interventions for safety, prevention, and education around rail issues in the U.S. Second, the team is collecting field data at various sites in North Carolina. Researchers will set up audio recorders at selected wayside points to collect rail noise and emergency warning device levels. This data will be processed and modeled to include a plethora of complicating factors such as time of year, weather, humidity, and wind direction. The resulting models may shed significant light on how the behavior of sound in rail environments is involved in rail strike incidents nationwide.
USDOT Thriving Communities Project
NC A&T researchers and the Transportation Institute join WSP USA, Inc., on the USDOT-funded Thriving Communities grant. The project will also include partners Accelerator for America and Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners. The project group, one of four funded projects, titles their effort “Complete Transit-Oriented Neighborhoods” and received $5,050,000.00 to conduct the work of strengthening local partnerships to co-design and advancing infrastructure projects that address critical social, economic, environmental, and mobility needs.
Fourteen communities will be supported over the life of the two-year grant with community-based organizations and disadvantaged business enterprise partners. Each community will receive technical assistance and increased community engagement capabilities through tailored outreach efforts. The team will prioritize a “do + teach + grow = empower” model to bolster technical skillsets, grant management skillsets, and long-term equitable development capacity while providing turn-key tools, playbooks, and financial models.
Of the 311 eligible community applicants, USDOT selected 64 to partner with the four capacity-building teams. Besides Complete Transit-Oriented Neighborhoods, the other “Communities of Practice” are Main Streets, Complete Neighborhoods, and Networked Communities. NC A&T and the rest of the capacity-building team will begin engaging with their 14 communities by the end of the year. The list of communities includes City of Tempe, AZ; Anaheim Transportation Network, CA; Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments, CT; Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization, FL; City of Brockton, MA; Baltimore City Planning Department, MD; Hinds County, MS; City of Charlotte, NC; Metropolitan Area Planning Agency, NE; City of Albuquerque, NM; City of Glens Falls, NY; City of Cleveland, OH; VIA Metropolitan Transit Agency, TX; Pierce County Public Transportation Agency, WA.
Archive
Summer High School Transportation Institute Highlights
The 2023 Summer High School Transportation Institute at NC A&T, a longstanding chapter of the National Summer Transportation Institute Program (NSTI), ran successfully from July 9th to the 23rd of July. The program’s shortened time frame allowed for a more immersive residential program in which students lived, ate, and socialized on campus as part of the College of Business and Economics’ (COBE) nascent efforts to bring the Aggie Experience to participants of its workforce development programs. The 2023 program also boasted an increased number of participants: thanks to funding from the Center for Advanced Transportation Mobility (CATM) and the Office of the Dean at COBE, four additional students were recruited in addition to the sixteen funded through the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT).
Thanks to the residential nature of the program, the Transportation Institute was able to deliver its flagship workforce development program to students from Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New York, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and of course, North Carolina. The diverse group of participants comprised equal male and female students who were high achieving, demonstrated excellent character references, an interest in transportation, and were rising juniors or seniors.
The program’s high academic standards exist to support a program that will propel students into degrees and careers that are STEM- and transportation-focused. The program’s schedule prioritized classroom engagement and academic advancement. Students work in groups to complete a small-scale, undergraduate research style pilot project, participate in 8 lectures with faculty and industry professionals covering the various sub-disciplines within transportation, and engage in a variety of other academic and professional development activities.
In addition to the classroom curriculum, participants visited Washington, DC to tour Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority facilities, Smithsonian Air and Space Museums, and participate in team building scavenger hunts. They also visited Wilmington, NC to tour Battleship! NC, UNC-Wilmington, the NC Maritime Museum, and participate in other team-building activities. Local engagement activities included a tour of the Greensboro Transit Authority; the Publix distribution center in McLeansville, NC; drone piloting with NCDOT Unmanned Aircraft Systems; and discovery flights in single-engine aircraft at the Smith Reynolds Airport.
The program would be impossible without the significant help of our partners. The 2023 program was delivered in collaboration with NC A&T Libraries, the Burlington-Graham Metropolitan Planning Organization, NC A&T’s ACCESS Lab and TECHLAV, Aggie Toastmasters, NCDOT’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems division, the Greensboro Transit Authority, the North Carolina Maritime Museum, the NCDOT Engineering Coordination and Safety Branch, NC A&T Career Services, Experian, Piedmont Triad International Airport’s Transportation Safety Administration, Publix Super Markets, NC A&T’s Office of Admissions, the Exceptional Males in Business Program, the S.I.S.T.E.R.S. Program, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, NC A&T Division of Student Affairs, NC A&T College of Engineering, the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics, and UNC Wilmington.
The Summer High School Transportation Institute expects to begin accepting applications for the 2024 program in April of next year. Check back soon for updates if you’re interested in applying, and feel free to share the word!
CR2C2 Center Funded Announcement
The Transportation Institute will be joining NC A&T’s efforts in the upcoming Center for Regional and Rural Connected Communities (CR2C2). The 5-year, $15 million grant was awarded as the Region 4 University Transportation Center by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Southeastern region comprises North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Puerto Rico, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Harnessing research capabilities of NC A&T, Clemson University, Florida Atlantic University, University of Alabama, University of Georgia, University of Kentucky and University of Tennessee, Knoxville, CR2C2 will be lead by Ali Karimoddini, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering, and Maranda McBride, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management in the Willie A. Deese College of Business and Economics. The Center will spearhead integrated research, education, workforce development, and technology transfer around connected and coordinated multimodal technology. Along with Drs. Karimoddini and McBride, the A&T research team includes:
- Abdullah Eroglu, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Venktesh Pandey, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
- Hyoshin Park, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Computational Science and Engineering
- Hieu T. Nguyen, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Laquanda Leaven Johnson, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management
- Rongfang “Rachel” Liu, Ph.D., Transportation Institute director and endowed professor in the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management Department
- Hossein Sarafzadeh, Ph.D., Center of Excellence in Cybersecurity Research, Education and Outreach director, from the College of Science and Technology.
“With the transportation research capabilities and infrastructure at A&T and its partnering institutes, CR2C2 is well positioned to investigate the needs of geographically distributed, isolated and aging populations in rural areas, which is critical for extending their economic integration into the national economy and stimulating job growth,” said Liu.
Stay tuned for more updates about CR2C2.
Research Spotlight: Habeeb Mohammed at the 11th Annual Black Doctoral Network Conference
Habeeb is a doctoral candidate in Industrial Engineering at NC A&T. Read his reflection on the 11th Annual Black Doctoral Network Conference below.
"I presented my research project titled “Railway Injury Prediction Using Discriminant Analysis and Ensemble Learning Approach.” The goal of this research is to predict the severity of injuries that occur on rail tracks as well as the most likely victims. Discriminant analysis and ensemble learning are applied in predicting the severity class of any injury occurrence. Features that are key to the prediction are also identified. The findings of this research can be used by railroad authorities and safety agencies to investigate and prevent the occurrence of injuries and fatalities on rail tracks. I interacted with several attendees and received valuable feedback and recommendations for a future project.
"I would like to thank my advisors Dr. Steven Jiang and Dr. Rachel Liu for their continuous guidance and support throughout my research journey. I would also like to thank the Black Doctoral Network for giving me the platform to present my work to the general public."
Thanks for representing Aggie Nation and the Transportation Institute with your research, Habeeb!
NCDOT Rail Research Project
The Transportation Institute’s research team is continuing their efforts on NCDOT Research Project 2023-017 “Modeling the Effects of Rail Noise Propagation on Pedestrians in North Carolina Railroad Environments.” The project, which began in August of 2022, answers an urgent call by North Carolina rail safety advocates to understand why unimpaired pedestrians who mistakenly use rail rights-of-way as a transit route become involved in rail strike incidents after failing to see or hear oncoming trains, despite the warning blasts by the locomotives. These strikes account for significant losses of life in the sphere of North Carolina railways and require immediate attention.
The Transportation Institute team is working to reduce and prevent these unnecessary injuries and deaths through a two-fold research effort. First, the team conducted a wide-reaching survey of public perceptions of rail safety in order to better understand how laypersons are interacting and conceiving of the rail environment. This data is the first of its kind and will be essential in designing effective future interventions for safety, prevention, and education around rail issues in the U.S. Second, the team is collecting field data at various sites in North Carolina. Researchers will set up audio recorders at selected wayside points to collect rail noise and emergency warning device levels. This data will be processed and modeled to include a plethora of complicating factors such as time of year, weather, humidity, and wind direction. The resulting models may shed significant light on how the behavior of sound in rail environments is involved in rail strike incidents nationwide.
USDOT Thriving Communities Project
NC A&T researchers and the Transportation Institute join WSP USA, Inc., on the USDOT-funded Thriving Communities grant. The project will also include partners Accelerator for America and Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners. The project group, one of four funded projects, titles their effort “Complete Transit-Oriented Neighborhoods” and received $5,050,000.00 to conduct the work of strengthening local partnerships to co-design and advancing infrastructure projects that address critical social, economic, environmental, and mobility needs.
Fourteen communities will be supported over the life of the two-year grant with community-based organizations and disadvantaged business enterprise partners. Each community will receive technical assistance and increased community engagement capabilities through tailored outreach efforts. The team will prioritize a “do + teach + grow = empower” model to bolster technical skillsets, grant management skillsets, and long-term equitable development capacity while providing turn-key tools, playbooks, and financial models.
Of the 311 eligible community applicants, USDOT selected 64 to partner with the four capacity-building teams. Besides Complete Transit-Oriented Neighborhoods, the other “Communities of Practice” are Main Streets, Complete Neighborhoods, and Networked Communities. NC A&T and the rest of the capacity-building team will begin engaging with their 14 communities by the end of the year. The list of communities includes City of Tempe, AZ; Anaheim Transportation Network, CA; Lower Connecticut River Valley Council of Governments, CT; Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization, FL; City of Brockton, MA; Baltimore City Planning Department, MD; Hinds County, MS; City of Charlotte, NC; Metropolitan Area Planning Agency, NE; City of Albuquerque, NM; City of Glens Falls, NY; City of Cleveland, OH; VIA Metropolitan Transit Agency, TX; Pierce County Public Transportation Agency, WA.
