Student Spotlight | National Institute for Transportation and Communities

Celebrating the 2020 NITC Students of the Year: Gabby Abou-Zeid, Aliza Whalen, and Erin Roark Murphy

Jan 04, 2021

The Outstanding Student of the Year award is presented during the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) banquet at each annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board, where the U.S. Department of Transportation honors an outstanding graduate student from each UTC. Gabby will be presented with the award for NITC at the virtual CUTC award ceremony and banquet on January 6, 2021. See past NITC Students of the Year.

Another honoree at this year's CUTC banquet is Hau Hagedorn, our associate director, who will receive the CUTC-ARTBA Award for Administrative Leadership.

2020 NITC Outstanding Student of the Year: Gabby Abou-Zeid, Portland State University

Gabby Abou-Zeid holds a B.S. in Sustainable Built Environments from the University of Arizona and is currently a second-year Civil Engineering MSc student with transportation emphasis at PSU. Working in Dr. Kelly Clifton’s Sustainable Urban Planning and Engineering Research Lab (SUPERLab), her interdisciplinary research examines multimodal travel behavior, urban freight, and intersections between transportation and land use. In 2018, she participated in...

Image: Left - Crosswalk with blue lines to illustrate the concept of ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems); Right- Hanna Hutcheson with a ponytail and a blue shirt. Text reads: NITC student spotlight, Hanna Hutcheson, University of Utah.

Student Spotlight: Hanna Hutcheson, University of Utah

Nov 30, 2020

Photo by metamorworks/iStock

Hanna Hutcheson is a second-year Masters of City and Metropolitan Planning student at the University of Utah. Her specialization is in Transportation and SMART Growth, and she is passionate about increasing accessibility to transit, designing cities to be more pedestrian and cyclist friendly, and improving environmental conditions through planning. Hanna also works as a graduate teaching assistant, and in the summer of 2020 she completed an internship with the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center.

Tell us about yourself?

Hi! I’m originally from Eugene, OR, but I got my undergraduate degree in geography from BYU and have been living on and off in Utah ever since. I’m in my second year of the MCMP program at the University of Utah, focusing on SMART growth and transportation; my passion lies specifically with transit and, to a lesser degree, active transportation and complete streets. Outside of school, I’m a big fan of reading, Netflix, ‘80s music, and embroidery.

What (or who) has influenced your career path in transportation?

I have to give a shout-out to Ted Knowlton, the deputy director of the SLC region’s MPO, for really sparking my interest in...

Left: A Google streetview image of the University of Texas at Arlington, near the School of Social Work. Right: Sarah Robinson, wearing blue and pink shirt. Text: NITC Student Spotlight, Sarah Robinson, University of Texas at Arlington.

Student Spotlight: Sarah Robinson, University of Texas at Arlington

Nov 02, 2020

Image from Google Streetview

Sarah Robinson is a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Arlington in Arlington, Texas and a NITC dissertation fellow. Her research primarily focuses on service provision and utilization by survivors of intimate partner violence. Sarah's NITC dissertation will explore the transportation challenges of survivors in intimate partner violence shelters. She is particularly interested in how the built environment (i.e. the structure, location, design of service agencies and transportation networks) impacts survivors’ abilities to access services and survivors’ outcomes, such as future experiences of violence and overall health and well-being.

NITC Researcher Profile | ResearchGate Profile

Tell us about yourself?

My name is Sarah Robinson and I am a current...

Student Spotlight: John Larson-Friend, University of Oregon

Oct 02, 2020

John Larson-Friend is in his second year in the Masters of Community and Regional Planning program at the University of Oregon. He discovered transportation planning during his undergraduate degree in International Studies at Portland State University, and has been hooked ever since. He is very interested in how transportation will continue to evolve over the next decades, and desires to play a role in that change. Currently, John is the Planning Intern for the City of Cottage Grove, the 2020-2021 LiveMove Speaker Series Coordinator, a student researcher working with UO faculty Marc Schlossberg and Rebecca Lewis on a new edition of the Rethinking Streets book series, and recently began a research position with Anne Brown researching Equity in Shared Mobility.

Tell us about yourself?

I grew up in Forest Grove, Oregon, but had the opportunity to live in the Midwest and Southern California before I ultimately returned to Oregon. Similarly, my journey to transportation planning has been long and winding. I have worked in the film industry...

Student Spotlight: Frank Boateng Appiah, Portland State University

Sep 02, 2020

Frank Boateng Appiah is a graduate student and research assistant in civil engineering at Portland State University, working with Chris Monsere and Sirisha Kothuri on best practices for the installation of Rapid Rectangular Flash Beacons with or without Median Refuge. He graduated from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology with Bsc. Civil Engineering in 2013. Frank is interested in how transportation improves life by increasing productivity, efficiency and other aspects of mobility.

LinkedIn | Instagram

Tell us about yourself?

I come from a small town in Ghana called Adamsu but spent most of my formative years in Accra, the capital city. Living in Accra, a city where road transport has been the primary mode for several decades, I came to appreciate how a disintegrated transportation system affects a nation’s economic growth and therefore requires effective and efficient planning and design to increase productivity. This informed my decision to read civil engineering during my 4-year undergraduate study at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and technology. At Tech I was much involved in student groups such as CESA (Civil Engineering Students Association), where I held some...

Right: Kayla deHoop in a black shirt posing in front of a brick wall. Left: Rural highway in Oregon. Text: NITC student spotlight, Kayla deHoop, Oregon Tech.

Student Spotlight: Kayla deHoop, Oregon Institute of Technology

Aug 03, 2020

Photo by ChrisBoswell, iStock

Kayla deHoop recently completed her bachelors degree in Civil Engineering at Oregon Tech and is currently a masters student. Her graduate project will focus on the safety impacts of raising the speed limit on rural two-lane highways in Eastern Oregon. During her time at OIT, she has been actively involved in many of the engineering student clubs on campus including the American Society of Civil Engineers-Associated General Contractors (ASCE-AGC), Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and Tau Beta Pi. Kayla has also had the opportunity to hold several internships in the transportation field including working with ODOT and WSDOT as a field intern on highway reconstruction and paving jobs and Kiewit Infrastructure Engineering as a roadway design intern.

Tell us about yourself?

I grew up in Klamath Falls, Oregon on a dairy farm and didn't really consider engineering until my senior year of high school. I took a personality and placement test and several times civil engineering came up as the top career for me, so that is what I pursued and I am so glad I did! At Oregon Tech I have become very involved with many student clubs including ASCE-AGC, ITE, and Tau Beta Pi, often taking on a leadership...

A bus coming up to a bus stop with a pedestrian nearby

Introducing the Newest NITC Dissertation Fellows Researching Transit and Transportation Access

Jul 08, 2020

The National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) is proud to introduce our four Summer 2020 Dissertation Fellows, together awarded $60,000 in total funding. Read about their projects below, or learn how to apply for funding through the NITC Dissertation Fellowship Grant.

Travis Glick, Portland State University

Glick_Headshot.jpg

Travis Glick is a PhD student, graduate teaching and research assistant in civil & environmental engineering at Portland State University. He served for two years as president of Students in Transportation Engineering and Planning (STEP), Portland State University's transportation student group. Travis is a NITC scholar and three-time Eisenhower fellow, and his ongoing research examines dwell times, bus-bike conflicts, and transit modeling. Travis's doctoral work tackles a new class of problem that... Read more

Student Spotlight: Robert Hibberd, University of Arizona

Jul 07, 2020

Robert Hibberd is a Ph.D. student and Graduate Research Assistant in the University of Arizona's College of Architecture, Planning & Landscape Architecture. His research emphasis is on urban and transportation planning, demographics, Smart Growth and New Urbanism, housing affordability issues, and sustainable development. He has worked on multiple NITC projects including LRT/BRT/SCT/CRT Development Outcomes FINAL PHASE and Updating and Expanding LRT/BRT/SCT/CRT Data and Analysis with his advisor, Dr. Arthur C. Nelson. He is a 2020 NITC dissertation fellow.

LinkedIn | Twitter | NITC Researcher Profile

Tell us about yourself?

Robert E. Hibberd grew up in Syracuse, Utah, north of Salt Lake City. He received a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Utah, and a Master’s degree in Historical Resources Management,...

Jake Gallaher, alongside a photo of a bike lane at an intersection in Salt Lake City, Utah. Text reads, "Student Spotlight: Jake Gallaher, University of Utah."

Student Spotlight: Jake Gallaher, University of Utah

Jun 04, 2020

Photo by Google Streetview

Jake Gallaher is a graduate assistant at the University of Utah's College of Architecture and Planning. He is a leader in Point B, the University of Utah's transportation student group, and his work with that group focuses on improving bicycle safety. Jake earned his B.S. in civil engineering from Ohio Northern University in 2019. In 2018 he served as an engineering intern at SDS Mechanical & Automation.

Tell us about yourself?

I am entering my second year in the Master of City and Metropolitan Planning program at the University of Utah. I’m originally from Ashville, Ohio and I received my B.S. in civil engineering from Ohio Northern University in 2019. Shortly after, I picked up from Ohio and moved to Salt Lake City where I’ve been enjoying hiking around in the Wasatch Mountains and exploring a new city outside of my studies.

What (or who) has influenced your career path in transportation?

Ever since I was a little kid, I could be found studying, or drawing maps. The transportation system as a whole has always been a curiosity of mine and ultimately...

Student Spotlight: Md Mintu Miah, University of Texas at Arlington

May 04, 2020

Md Mintu Miah is a Ph.D. student and research assistant in transportation engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is interested in data mining and machine learning in the field of transportation engineering. He obtained his MS in transportation engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and BS in civil engineering from Bangladesh.

Tell us about yourself?

Md Mintu Miah was born in 1989 in a small village of Bangladesh. He obtained his Bachelor Degree on Civil Engineering from Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology (RUET), Bangladesh in 2012. In the year 2014, he joined as a full-time lecturer in the same department and worked until 2017. Later, he obtained his Master's degree in Transportation Engineering from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA (2018). Currently, he is working as a Ph.D. student and Graduate Research Assistant of Transportation Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington, USA under the supervision of Professor Stephen P. Mattingly.

What (or who) has influenced your career path in transportation?

The destitute transportation system of my own country and ample research opportunity in the U.S. have jointly influenced me to study in the field of Transportation Engineering. Initially, I was encouraged by my family, colleagues; later, this dream came...

2020 NITC Outstanding Student of the Year: Gabby Abou-Zeid, Portland State University

Travis Glick, Portland State University

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