MPC Site Visit at NDSU

Each year, the MPC director, Denver Tolliver and the U.S. DOT liaison, Mr. William Evans, visit each of the four university campuses to assess the status and progress of MPC programs. This year, the NDSU site visit was conducted on November 20. During the visit, Mr. Evans was given a tour of the DOT Support Center and the ATAC facilities in Hastings Hall. The visit included presentations by UGPTI research faculty and a scheduled luncheon with the Transportation & Logistics doctoral students. Mr. Evans talked with the 6 doctoral candidates, collectively and individually. He was impressed with the backgrounds, capabilities, and diversity of the students. The six doctoral candidates are Junwook Chi, Alan Dybing, Heather Gibb, Weijung Huang, Sang Moon, and Napoleon Tiapo.

Ayman Smadi, NDSU's MPC Coordinator said "The MPC site visits provide a great opportunity for NDSU faculty and students to share their research findings and learn about regional and national transportation issues."

Junwook Chi Joins UGPTI

When Junwook Chi came to the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute this summer he immediately began work on his research interests in intermodal transportation and transportation economics.

An associate research fellow, Chi came to North Dakota State University with an honorable mention from the CAES Masters Awards program for his master's thesis: Economic Costs and Optimal Control Strategies for Four Production Limiting Cattle Diseases. During his graduate work he used various economic analyses to research his thesis.

He works with UGPTI researchers Mark Berwick and John Bitzan on the North Dakota Strategic Freight Analysis project as well as other research efforts.

Chi has completed a number of papers related to dairy cattle and economics, and has participated in seminars on those topics. While working on his master's degree he was a research assistant at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. He was a teaching assistant at Konkuk University in Korea during his undergraduate studies. Chi continues his studies at NDSU where he is working on his Ph.D.

A native of South Korea, he is fluent in Japanese, studying at the University of Tokyo, Japan.