National Institute for Transportation and Communities

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Oregon Tech has linked up with Lost River Jr./Sr. High School to build bridges – both metaphorical and actual – between the two schools. Since March 17, the Oregon Tech Student Chapter of ASCE-AGC have been working with the Lost River STEM Club to design and build a bridge on the Oregon Tech trail up to the “O” near the solar power array on campus.OTBridge2017

“You wouldn’t think a couple seventh graders would be much help to make a big old bridge,” said Dustyn Verley, 13, “but it makes us pretty proud, I’d say.” Dystyn said that after helping pour concrete into wood forms on Friday, May...

TREC’s NITC program has made $500,000 available for grants to eligible researchers through its 2017 general research request for proposals. The RFP is the first since the NITC program expanded to include the University of Arizona and University of Texas at Arlington.

All proposals must contribute to the NITC theme, improving mobility of people and goods to build strong communities, and focus on transportation. They must also show strong potential to move transportation research into practice, inform other researchers, shape national and international conversations on transportation research, and respond to the needs of practitioners and policymakers.

Projects are capped at $100,000, and we encourage PIs to propose smaller projects. Priority is given to projects that are collaborative, multi-disciplinary, multi-campus and support the development of untenured tenure-track transportation faculty.

Key Dates

•     Abstracts due: April 14, 2017
•     Proposal due: May 15, 2017
•     Peer reviews: June 2017
•     Project Selection, Awards, and Task Orders: July-August 2017
•     Projects begin: Sept 2017

Eligibility

Only eligible faculty members and research faculty from Portland State University, University of Oregon, Oregon Institute of Technology, University of Utah, University of...

Two students from the Oregon Institute of Technology have been awarded 2015 WTS Portland Chapter Scholarships.

Miranda Barrus and Danit Hubbell were named as the recipients of these highly competitive scholarships, open to applications from students in universities throughout Oregon and Washington.

Barrus, a co-terminal graduate student expecting to graduate (BS/MS) Civil Engineering in June 2016, won the 2015 WTS Portland Gail Achterman Leadership Graduate Scholarship. Barrus was the recipient of a different WTS scholarship last year.

Hubbell is a senior undergraduate, expecting to graduate (BS) Civil Engineering in March 2016. She is the winnter of the 2015 WTS Portland Sharon D. Banks Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship. Hubbell also recently received a 2015 Oregon Tech Douglas P. Daniels/Coral Sales Company Scholarship.

Both Barrus and Hubbell have a keen interest in transportation engineering. They have each completed multiple transportation-related internships through CECOP and are active members of Oregon Tech's Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Student Chapter. Hubbell is the 2015-16 Chapter President, while Barrus is the Vice-President and Field Trip Coordinator.

Founded in 1977, Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS) is an international...

Seven Oregon Tech students attended a sustainable pavement conference in Portland thanks to NITC program funding. The 2015 Asphalt Sustainability Conference West highlighted innovations in technologies and practices.

Danit Hubbell, Oregon Tech’s ITE student chapter president, said she and the other students who made the trip last month are all transportation focused, though they have varying degrees of interest in asphalt. The conference featured a good mix of topics, she said.

The term “sustainability” can vary based on context, and that was reflected in the conference sessions, Hubbell said. “One presenter talked about it as the asphalt itself and the materials it’s made out of. For others, it was the transportation and the longevity.

“I think it encompasses both of those,” she said.

Asphalt paving has come a long way in the last few years, Hubbell said, with sustainability driving much of the changes. Oregon Tech has stayed on top of those innovations, she said, as all civil engineering students must complete a infrastructure sustainability course.

The conference seemed to draw more transportation practitioners than students, Hubbell said, which was part of its appeal. The Oregon Tech students relished the opportunity to browse the exhibitors’ tables and talk with professionals from various organizations.

Hubbell, who graduates next March, already has a job lined up. She’ll join Kiewit Infrastructure...