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April 2008
Career Expo, ITSO conference attract students
Shannon Tyree (at podium) moderated one of the sessions.
Speakers from the public and private sectors shared advice with students at the annual Transportation Career Expo, held March 13 in Minneapolis. Sessions covered three career tracks:
- Engineering and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) careers, moderated by Jim Grothaus and Linda Preisen of CTS, with panelists Amber Blanchard (Mn/DOT), Bob Moberg (City of Plymouth), and Jeff Lutz (SEH, Inc.)
- Transportation planning and policy careers, moderated by Shannon Tyree (WSB & Associates, and chair of the CTS Education and Outreach Council), with panelists Sam O’Connell (Dakota County) and Joe Barbeau (CTS)
- Transportation logistics careers, moderated by Judy Hartmann (Fairview Hospital), with panelists John Larsen (Target) and Meg Duncan (Koch Logistics)
CTS hosted the event in cooperation with the Minnesota Local Road Research Board, Minnesota LTAP, WTS Minnesota, the ITS Institute, and the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals.
The expo followed the fourth annual Interdisciplinary Transportation Student Organization (ITSO) Student Paper Conference. Papers covered topics such as route choice behavior after the I-35W bridge collapse, cell phone traffic data, and bicycle facilities.
Following the paper sessions, student scholarships and awards were presented by ITS Minnesota, WTS Minnesota, ITSO, and CTS.
The conference concluded with a luncheon sponsored by the North Central chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (NCITE). It featured a keynote discussion on speed management in Minnesota with panelists Sue Groth of Mn/DOT, Lt. Mark Peterson of the Minnesota State Patrol, and John Bloomfield of the Center for Human Factors Systems Research and Design at the University of Minnesota. Bloomfield and Kathleen Harder evaluated the effectiveness of the Minnesota Speed Management Program (MSMP), also known as Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic (HEAT), in reducing speeding and crashes on Minnesota highways (see www.cts.umn.edu/Research).