News – Page 3 – Georgia Transportation Institute

APPROVED FALL 2018 RTAG RNS SUBMITTALS

The Georgia Department of Transportation has released the list of projects selected from the Fall 2018 RTAG submittals. Congratulations to the selected projects! Thanks to everyone who submitted a Research Needs Statement (RNS). The research community was highly engaged, with approximately 73 submitted needs statements. GDOT research staff is currently contacting the project PIs and setting up the next steps in the process.

The opening of the Fall 2019 RTAG RNS call will be announced later this year. Announcements will be distributed through the GTI mailing list and GTI website.

Please feel free to contact David Jared (djared@dot.ga.gov) if you have any questions regarding the project selection process or Michael Hunter (michael.hunter@ce.gatech.edu) if you have any questions regarding GTI.

	Project Title (Abbreviated)	Research Team
1	Improved Disaster Management through Automated Damage Assessment Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)	Ga. Southern
2	Phase II Long-Term Bridge Asset Valuation and Performance Forecasting Using Element-Based Inspection Data	UGA
3	Sustainable Waste Management through the Beneficial Use of Dredge Materials in Partnership with the City of Savannah	Ga. Southern
4	Phase II: Investigation and Guidelines for Best Practices of Mass Concrete Construction Management	Ga. Tech
5	Phase 2: Enhancement and Restoration Interventions for Bird-Long Island Shoreline Alternatives: Design and Modeling for Stewardship	UGA
6	LRFD Procedure for Driven Piles with Pre-Drilling on Rock	Ga. Southern
7	Investigation and Guideline for Drilled Shaft Excavation Inspections	KSU
8	GDOT360: A 360 Immersive Virtual Platform to Visualize Current and Future GDOT Projects	Ga. Tech/Univ. of Florida
9	Entrusted Engineer-in-Charge: A New Critical Position in the Design-Build Team to Enhance the State of Practice in Engineering Design Decision-Making in the Innovative Project Delivery Environment	Ga. Tech
10	Flash Tracking Implementation Guidelines Complementing Existing Design Build Manual	Ga. Tech/Va. Tech
11	Safety and Illumination of Rural and Suburban Roundabouts (Phase II)	Ga. Tech/Ga. Southern
12	Cognitive Attention and Traffic Crashes: A Study of Countermeasures in Two Intersections and One Roadway Section	Ga. Southern/Purdue
13	Coordinated Anti-Congestion Control Algorithms for Diverging Diamond Interchanges	Ga. Tech/Mercer
14	Evaluation of Guardrail Performance in High-Risk Accident Zones on Georgia Roadways and Identification of Alternative Barriers	Ga. Tech

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE SELECTED PROJECTS FROM THE FALL 2016 RTAG SUBMITTALS

The Georgia Department of Transportation has released the list of projects selected from the fall 2016 RTAG submittals. Congratulations to the selected projects. Thanks to everyone who submitted a Research Needs Statement (RNS). GDOT research staff is currently contacting the project PIs and setting up the next steps in the process.

Please watch this site for announcements regarding the fall 2017 RTAG RNS call. Announcements will also be distributed through the GTI mailing list.

SELECTED PROJECTS

Project Title	Research Team
Prestressed Concrete Bridge Girders Repaired by Epoxy Injection (Ph. II)	Ga. Tech
Developing Modules for Condition Evaluation of Continuously Reinforced Concrete Pavement	UGA
Post-Construction Restoration of Right-of-Way in Tidally Influenced Areas	UGA
Productive Reuse of Savannah River Dredge Material	Ga. Tech
Improving Herbicide Resistance Management	UGA
Optimizing Design of GDOT Post Construction Stormwater BMPs	Ga. Tech
Training Modules for Rapid Deployment and Continuous Operation of MEPDG Guide	UGA/ARA (subc.)
Extended Field Testing and Enhancement of a Portable Pedestrian and Cyclist Detection System	GTRI
Quantifying the Impact of Cover Deficiencies on Bridge Deck Service Life	Ga. Tech
Detection Technology Testbed in I-475: Technology Feasibility Study (Ph. II)	Ga. Tech
Development of the Road COnstRuction Database (ReCORD) System	UGA/Sav. State
GDOT Small Business Program Implementation and Impact Evaluation	Ga. Tech/Ga. State
Communicating Quality Expectations for Environmental Service Contracts (Ph. II)	Ga. Tech
Public Transit Funding Needs for Counties Trending Urban in Georgia	Ga. Tech
Economic Impact of Bicycling in Georgia	Ga. Tech
HFST’s Long-term Performance in Georgia under Different Roadway Conditions	Ga. Tech
Using Recycled Tire Chips in Concrete Barrier Walls and Other Applications (Ph. II)	UGA

GT’S ASHURI WINS DESIGN-BUILD TEACHING LEADERSHIP AWARD

The Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) has named Georgia Tech Associate Professor Baabak Ashuri as one of its top leaders in 2015, for his role in educating students about design-build processes.

Ashuri received a Distinguished Design-Build Leadership Award from the Institute on November 18. The awards are given to recognize lawmakers, practicioners, and teachers “who have demonstrated leadership in the advancement of effective design-build practices and in the promotion of design-build as a project delivery method of choice”, according to a DBIA news release.

“Design-build spreads only through legislators authorizing it, professors teaching it, students learning it, practicioners mastering it, and owners choosing it.”, said Lisa Washington, executive director and CEO of DBIA. “All of these award winners have spent a great part of their career advocating for not just design built, but for Design-Build Done Right^TM, and we are grateful for their tireless work.”

Ashuri received the award for integrating design-build practices into his curriculum and for working with the Georgia Department of Transportation to boost the agency’s use of design-build, design-build-finance, and public-private partnerships, the Institute said.

Ashuri is an Associate Professor in both the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the School of Building Construction at Georgia Tech.

Story courtesy of CEE@GT, November 19, 2015.

GTI ASSOCIATES RECEIVE CEE@GT AWARDS

On November 23, Dr. Michael P. Hunter, GTI Director and Georgia Tech Associate Professor and researcher, Marjorie Jorgenson, an administrative professional who works with GTI, and Dr. Patricia Mokhtarian, Professor and Group Coordinator of the Transportation Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech, were among several individuals who received awards at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s annual awards reception.

Dr. Hunter received the Research Program Development Award, Ms. Jorgenson received the Administrative Excellence Award, and Dr. Mokhtarian received the Sustained Research Award.

GDOT HOSTS 2015 RESEARCH EXPO

On September 22, the Georgia Department of Transportation, the Georgia Transportation Institute, and NCTSPM hosted the third annual Research Expo, showcasing GDOT-funded research at Georgia universities.

Almost 75 posters were presented by researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Kennesaw State University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the University of Georgia at the gathering at GDOT’s One Georgia Center headquarters.Of these projects and their posters, a number were GTI and NCTSPM-affiliated, and those included posters like “Evaluation of the Cost Effectiveness of Illumination as a Safety Treatment at Rural Intersections”, “Micro-Dynamics Of Business Location And Growth And Its Effects On The Transportation Network And Congestion In Georgia And The Southeast Region”, and “High Occupancy Toll Lane Decision Making: Income Effects on Atlanta’s I-85 Express Lanes”.

For the full list of posters presented at the Expo, please click here, and for the gallery of posters from 2013-2015, please click here.

GT’S AMOANING-YANKSON AWARDED 2015 AAUW FELLOWSHIP

Recently, Georgia Tech’s Stephanie Amoaning-Yankson was awarded a 2015 American Association of University Women (AAUW) doctoral fellowship.

The AAUW has a long and distinguished history of advancing educational and professional opportunities for women in the United States and around the globe.The International Fellowship program has been in existence since 1917. The program provides support for one year of graduate study in the United States to women who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Recipients are selected for academic achievement and demonstrated commitment to women and girls. Recipients return to their home countries to become leaders in business, government, academia, community activism, the arts, and sciences.

Stephanie is a third year Ph.D. student originally from Ghana. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. She then participated in the Ghana National Service Scheme where she worked for a year as a volunteer teaching assistant for the Transportation Engineering course at KNUST. In the fall of 2012, Stephanie came to Atlanta to pursue graduate studies at Georgia Tech focusing her research on incorporating resiliency considerations in transportation system management. Stephanie currently serves as the President of the American Society of Highway Engineers (ASHE) at Georgia Tech, as well as, the treasurer of the Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS@GT).

GT’S SHAW AND SUTTNER WIN 2015 NSF FELLOWSHIPS

Last week was a good one for first-year Ph.D. students Atiyya Shaw and Brittany Suttner.

The pair of School of Civil and Environmental Engineering students learned they’d won graduate research fellowships from the National Science Foundation, some of the most coveted funding for graduate students.

Now they can stretch their research in new directions or into risky areas of inquiry thanks to the fellowship’s three years of support.

“This fellowship will help me to take this project in new directions and to explore more of the high-risk/high-reward questions that can often be difficult to secure funding for,” said Suttner, who is developing ways to assess water quality and risk to public health by using the genetic markers of bacteria that usually indicate fecal contamination.

“There is a great need to improve water quality worldwide and the field of water quality monitoring [and] treatment can stand to improve dramatically with molecular and genetic applications, yet there has been little development in this area,” Suttner said.

“With an increasing human population on Earth, assessing water quality and the risk to human health becomes increasingly more important and an essential part of civil infrastructure and, hence, sustainability,” said Kostas Konstantinidis, an associate professor in the School and Suttner’s adviser.

“Brittany is a highly meticulous student with genuine curiosity about every aspect of her work. I expect her research will have a significant impact on water quality testing and human health.”

“By its nature, my research project is very open-ended, and this fellowship allows me the freedom to pursue various opportunities, without necessarily being tied to a sponsor’s [interests],” said Shaw, who hopes to marry that freedom with sponsor-driven research questions to better understand — and model — the visual search patterns of drivers and other users of transportation systems.

The idea is to improve roadway designs and how information is delivered to users. And her work could also help in the development of driver-less cars.

“I also hope to focus on the application of these findings in the development of sensitive autonomous vehicle vision and guidance technologies that excel in a roadway environment designed for human perception,” Shaw said.

“Atiyya is one of the most intelligent and motivated students I have had the privilege to work with,” said Michael Hunter, Shaw’s Ph.D. adviser. “The NSF fellowship is a recognition of her great potential and will offer her the freedom to aggressively pursue her research.”

The NSF fellowship program supports some of the best graduate students across the country to help build a pipeline of top scientists and engineers, according to the agency. Winners are students “who have demonstrated their potential for significant achievements in science and engineering.”

Story credit: Joshua Stewart, CEE News Release

GEORGIA TECH TEAM WINS GEORGIA ITE TRAFFIC BOWL

GTI is proud to announce that the Georgia Tech Institute of Transportation Engineers(ITE) team has won the Georgia ITE (GAITE) Traffic Bowl competition. The competition, which was held on March 13, culminated in a victory over the Southern Polytechnic State University for the team, consisting of Georgia Tech graduate students James Anderson, Abhilasha Saroj, and Atiyya Shaw.

Anderson, Saroj, and Shaw will now proceed to the Southern District (SDITE) Traffic Bowl Competiton in Biloxi, Mississippi, on April 19-22, 2015. This competition is also known as the William Temple Scholarship Challenge Traffic Bowl. In the competition, teams of three students from each Section compete in a Jeopardy-style challenge, with answers and questions based on traffic and transportation-related topics.

A team from Georgia Tech previously won the SDITE competition in 2010, going on to represent Georgia Tech, GAITE, and the SDITE in Vancouver, British Columbia.

GT’S ALICE GROSSMAN SELECTED FOR 2015 ENO FELLOWSHIP

Recently, the Eno Center for Transportation announced its selections for fellows for the 2015 Future Leaders Development Conference. Among those chosen for this honor is Georgia Tech third year doctoral student Alice Grossman.

Grossman, who will participate in the conference in Washington, D.C, with the other fellows this summer, said that “the conference will be an excellent opportunity to learn more about transportation policymaking from the source, by meeting and hearing from leaders in politics, industry, advocacy groups, and think tanks,” noting that the conference “will provide invaluable insight for [her] dissertation research and play a role in what career path [she] choose[s].”

Her career path has already been distinguished. In previous years, she has been selected for a number of awards, including a 2014 Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship, as well as working with Georgia Tech Professor Randall Guensler on her doctoral research.

This research involves studying how metropolitan planning organizations adjust their priorities and performance measures in light of changing federal transportation policy, assessing how external factors and historical practices shape current performance standards.

Past fellows from among Georgia Tech’s transportation engineering students include Jamie Fischer in 2014, Margaret-Avis Akofio-Sowah in 2013, and Josie Kressner in 2012.

CREATIVE LOAFING: WILL SYNCED SIGNALS IMPROVE ATLANTA TRAFFIC?

Voters in the City of Atlanta will decide in a few weeks on a $250 million bond referendum that includes, among other things, millions to sync the traffic signals across the city.

The idea is to improve flow in areas like Midtown and Downtown, where drivers can be stopped at almost every light now.

Creative Loafing’s Max Blau asked the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Michael Hunter how syncing works.

Michael Hunter, an associate professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, tells CL that traffic signal syncing can improve quality of life for residents through reducing travel times, stops, and delays. But he says it’s important to consider all modes of transportation — be it driving a car, riding a streetcar, pedaling on a bike, or walking on foot — in the process. That particularly includes letting lights stay green long enough for pedestrians to cross streets and coordinating signals in a way that discourages speeding.

In addition, Hunter says that major transportation projects such as traffic signal synchronization often lack enough cash in their budgets to keep the road investments in working shape. He says more local government officials, including those in Atlanta, given the proposed $250 million infrastructure investment, should only build what they can afford to maintain.

“If you’re going to pay for the infrastructure, you need to have a way to maintain it,” he says. “Construction isn’t the big challenge. The overlooked part is maintaining it.”

Read the full article on the Creative Loafing site.

(Teaser image courtesy of Ian Britton via FreeFoto.com.)

Story courtesy of Josh Stewart, CEE News Release.