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May 2006

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CTS presents awards at annual meeting

Richard P. Braun Distinguished Service Award: Former CTS director Richard Braun presented the award named in his honor to Kathryn Swanson, a director in the Department of Public Safety. Praising her as a “champion of traffic safety,” Braun noted her key role in connecting university researchers with the DPS and her leadership in the state’s Toward Zero Deaths program. “The award,” Swanson said, “means the world to me...because research leads to innovation, which...drives us toward zero deaths.”

Ray L. Lappegaard Distinguished Service Award: CTS director Robert Johns presented the award to Jeff Hamiel, executive director of the Metropolitan Airports Commission. Hamiel, Johns said, is a respected leader and mentor to many. Hamiel said he “learned a whole new realm of research” when he joined the CTS Executive Committee. “It is an honor to be part of this whole program.”

William K. Smith Distinguished Service Award: Richard Murphy Jr., CEO of Murphy Warehouse Company, chaired the CTS Executive Committee for the past three years. “He has done a tremendous job for CTS,” Johns said of Murphy, who is also an adjunct U of M professor. Murphy said he was humbled by the award and looks forward to “many more years of service to the community and our industry.”

Distinguished Public Leadership Award: Mn/DOT deputy commissioner Doug Differt presented the award to Anne Beers, assistant commissioner of the Department of Public Safety and former State Patrol chief. Differt recognized her advocacy of safety initiatives such as the .08 blood alcohol content and primary seat-belt measures, and her support for equipping patrol cars with the latest technologies. Beers said her work with Minnesota Guidestar and the CTS Executive Committee helped her have “a bigger vision of how technology could be applied to create a safer environment.” She also declared a strong belief in research, especially in human behavior. “We need to change public perception of traffic safety if we’re going to make a difference,” she said.

Matthew J. Huber Award for Excellence in Transportation Research and Education: Cheri Marti, CTS associate director, presented the award to two students: Adam Zofka, a doctoral student advised by Mihai Marasteanu of the Department of Civil Engineering, and Harini Veeraraghaven, a doctoral candidate in computer science and engineering under Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos.

Marasteanu said he was very fortunate to have Zofka as a grad student since 2002. Zofka has worked on “very challenging” issues relating to asphalt characterization, he said, and has developed innovative testing methods.

Papanikolopoulos said Veeraraghaven’s work is “seminal, in the sense that it’s the basis for the detection system” that his research is developing. The scene-monitoring software has been deployed at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and is part of a project with the Department of Homeland Security. “Without this great student,” he said, “these things wouldn’t be possible.”

ITS Institute Student of the Year Award: Shawn Brovold received the ITS Institute’s 2005 Outstanding Student of the Year Award at the annual TRB meeting in Washington, D.C., in January, and was also recognized at the April ceremony. Max Donath, director of the ITS Institute, introduced Steve Simon of the Law School, Brovold’s advisor. Simon lauded Brovold, a mechanical engineering master’s student, as a “can-do” person and “an indication of what smart young American adults can do in our society.” Brovold’s research focuses on in-vehicle technology to correct unsafe teen driver behavior, including mechanisms to report dangerous behaviors to parents.