Attending the TRB meeting as students gave participants an opportunity to accelerate their development as transportation professionals. Conference sessions and workshops offered a multitude of learning and networking events. Civil & Environmental Engineering graduate student Katie Bell said, “There were so many things going on [at the conference], you could be somewhere from dawn to dusk... it was a really great experience.” 

 

Graduate student Pam Johnson organized the happy hour event, arriving early to make introductions, distribute name tags and help people mingle. Approximately 25 people attended the event, most of them PSU students. There were also representatives there from Kittelson & Associates, Lancaster Engineering, the Portland Bureau of Transportation and Washington County.

 

The gathering allowed students and conference participants to share ideas and research, along with their TRB stories. Graduate student Nick Foster and PSU Transportation Certificate alum Max Scheideman of Lancaster Engineering enjoyed the opportunity to chat and catch up on research developments in the local transportation community.

Not all of the PSU students who came to the happy hour were participants in this year’s TRB conference. Some of them, like MURP student Mandia Gonzales, just came to soak up the knowledge and network with fellow transportation students. Those who did attend TRB, like graduate students Adam Moore and Kristina Currans, came to the happy hour to see each other’s research, enjoy some microbrews, and share stories about their adventures in D.C.