National Institute for Transportation and Communities

The National Institute for Transportation & Communities (NITC) research consortium, led by Portland State University, has awarded $1.035 million in total funding for ten research projects spanning five universities. This year we focused funding on micromobility, traffic, meeting the transportation needs of underserved populations and people with disabilities, and the intersection of transportation and housing.

Adrian Cottam, University of Arizona

Adrian Cottam is a second year masters student in civil engineering at the University of Arizona. He is a graduate research assistant in the Smart Transportation Lab working under NITC researcher Yao-Jan Wu, and is also an officer in the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) University of Arizona student chapter.

LinkedIn

Tell us about yourself?

My name is Adrian Cottam and I am 22 years old. I was born in Tucson, Arizona and have lived there almost my whole life. I was homeschooled for my entire schooling up through high school, which I graduated from at 16 years old. I received my associates degree from Pima Community College in 2016, and continued on to receive my bachelors of science from the University of Arizona in 2018. I am now finishing up my masters degree in Transportation Engineering in May 2019 at the University of Arizona, where I have already started on my Ph.D. When I’m not in the lab I like to go hiking and hang out with friends, or travel. I love to travel, and I have visited 6 other countries so far.

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

I have always been passionate about STEM...

The latest Small Starts Grant projects, selected by NITC's executive committee, will explore equitable access to mobility options, communicating the applied value of GPS data to agencies, and transportation resiliency in natural disasters.

This annual NITC funding program is a unique opportunity to tackle small-scale ($20,000 or less in scope) research projects. In contrast to our larger, annual flagship program ($30–150K), Small Starts enables us to include researchers who:

• Bring a diverse, interdisciplinary perspective and may not have considered applying a transportation lens to their work before.
• Offer a new voice in the field, whether they’re untenured faculty or a researcher who has not received a NITC grant before.
• Seek to kick-start a larger project by first tackling an exploratory study smaller in scope.

THE NEW PROJECTS

The new projects represent a mix of topics and disciplines across our partner campuses, aimed at supporting and advancing mobility with a focus on creating equitable transportation options. These projects total $60,000 in funding for this round.