ATPIO and TRG are jointly hosting a webinar on “Current Trends and Future Prospects for Transportation Systems” on March 31st at 11:00 am CDT (9:30 pm IST).
The webinar will present an overview of the current trends facing the transportation sector in both the developing and the developed countries, how the rapid changes in technology are going to transform the ways we transport people and goods and what needs to be done to meet these challenges. The focus of the discussion will be on surface transportation.
The presenter for the webinar is Dr. Kumares C. Sinha, Edgar B. and Hedwig E. Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering at Purdue University.
USTDA’s South–Southeast Asia Regional Team receive the India Smart Grid Forum’s President Award for Promotion of Smart Grids in India
The U.S. Trade and Development Agency was awarded the India Smart Grid Forum’s President Award for Promotion of Smart Grids in India, in recognition of work to advance India’s grid modernization efforts.
The President Award is presented to an India Smart Grid Forum (ISGF) member that has made the best contribution towards the growth of smart grids in India. Since 2004, USTDA has sponsored ten smart grid activities addressing topics such as distributed energy resources (DER), the viability of solar powered microgrids for two rural villages, and utilizing automated demand side management solutions to manage peak demand. On these activities, USTDA partnered with both public and private sector utilities, as well as U.S. companies, to pilot innovative solutions tailored to India’s unique electricity needs.
The award was presented during India Smart Grid Week in New Delhi. At the inaugural session, USTDA’s Regional Director, Henry Steingass, spoke on the importance of involving the regulator in smart grid development. Mr. Steingass noted, “What is needed is a greater philosophy on how regulatory decisions can be made, taking into account benefits that customers may see in terms of more reliable power and the electric services, what they are able to bring.”
ISGF, which bestowed the award and organized India Smart Grid Week, is a public-private partnership initiative under India’s Ministry of Power. (Visit USTDA for more)
Dr. Chandra Bhat recently received the Lifetime Achievement in Transportation Research and Education Award (Academic) from the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC). This award is given to “individuals who have had a long history of significant and outstanding contribution to university transportation education and research resulting in a lasting contribution to transportation.” He received the award at the CUTC Banquet in Washington DC on January 7, 2017. CUTC is a national umbrella organization of university transportation centers in the U.S. For more information:
ATPIO member and former president, Ram Pendyala, is leading a new USDOT-sponsored University Transportation Center (UTC) that aims to improve the mobility of people and goods through innovation in the planning and modeling of future enhancements to the nation’s transportation systems. Pendyala is a professor of transportation systems in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University (ASU), which has been named the lead institution for the new UTC that will focus on improving regional travel demand forecasting models and methods. The center’s work will be part of a larger DOT program to develop new systems and technologies that provide better surface transportation mobility and accessibility across the country.
The new center, called the Center for Teaching Old Models New Tricks — or TOMNET for short — puts Ram Pendyala in charge of a consortium that includes researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, and the University of South Florida. It’s one of 20 Tier 1 centers recently awarded to universities around the country — selected from more than 200 proposals — and the first and only one to be led by an Arizona university since the inception of the University Transportation Centers program two decades ago. The new awards provide each of the Tier 1 centers $7 million over five years.
TOMNET’s mission is to significantly improve data models and analytical tools that are used to plan transportation infrastructure, operate multimodal systems and optimize travelers’ movements in complex networks. The inspiration for the TOMNET center is drawn from the decades of complementary research and experience of Pendyala and Georgia Tech Professor Patricia Mokhtarian, the center’s research director. While Pendyala brings deep expertise in the refinement of regional travel demand forecasting models, Mokhtarian has similar proficiency in the design and analysis of attitudinal surveys. They have long felt the need to combine the strengths of their individual expertise for the improvement of regional planning, forecasting and policymaking.
Ram Pendyala is a professor of transportation systems in, and Associate Director of, the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Arizona. He is also a Senior Sustainability Scientist, closely affiliated with the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability, and a Barrett Honors Faculty affiliated with Barrett, The Honors College. Dr. Pendyala served on the faculty at Arizona State University during 2006-2014 and rejoined the institution effective August 2016. Dr. Pendyala served as the Frederick R. Dickerson Chair Professor of Transportation Systems in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology from August 2014 to July 2016. Prior to 2006, Dr. Pendyala served on the faculty of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida for 12 years. He is an expert in multimodal transportation systems modeling, activity-based travel behavior analysis, and land use and activity-travel demand forecasting. He has served in a number of professional leadership positions, including: President of the Association of Transportation Professionals of Indian Origin (2011); Chair of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Committee on Traveler Behavior and Values (2003-2009); Chair of the TRB Section on Travel Analysis Methods (2009-2015); Chair of the TRB Planning and Environment Group (2015-2018); Chair of the International Association for Travel Behaviour Research (2010-2012); and Associate Editor of Transportation Research Part D. He has his PhD and Master’s degrees from the University of California at Davis, and his undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras.
