Tolliver Appointed Associate Director

Denver Tolliver has been promoted to associate director of the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute at North Dakota State University, effective July 1, according to UGPTI director Gene Griffin.

As associate director, Tolliver will coordinate efforts of the nine existing programs within the Transportation Institute and assist in planning and development of programs. He will also be responsible for representing the institute internally at NDSU in the absence of the director and will assist the director in planning and development of future programs.

Tolliver oversees the new doctoral program in transportation and logistics, serves as director of the four-state Mountain-Plains Consortium and is a senior research fellow with UGPTI. He is also an adjunct professor in civil and construction engineering.

Prior to coming to NDSU in 1980 he was a research assistant at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute Center for Environmental Studies and a rail planner with the North Dakota Department of Transportation. He received a bachelor of arts degree at Morehead State University in Kentucky and masters and doctoral degrees at VPI.

He is a past president of the Agriculture and Rural Transportation Chapter of the Transportation Research Forum, served on national research committees, and wrote verified statements on railroad freight transportation presented to the Interstate Commerce Commission or Surface Transportation Board. He has been a consultant to the transportation departments of Washington, Idaho, Nebraska and Virginia, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Grain Transportation Agency of Canada, Canadian National Railroad and private companies.

Tolliver has written many journal articles and reports on transportation topics and the book, "Highway Impact Assessment Techniques: A Guide for Transportation Managers and Planners."

Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Transportation Planning Model

The Advanced Traffic Analysis Center updated the metropolitan travel demand and forecasting model with the Fargo-Moorhead Council of Governments (FM-COG). The updated model reflects the recent development areas in the Fargo, West Fargo, Moorhead and Dilworth areas and the corresponding transportation network, using 2000 as the base year.

ATAC completed the model calibration and has begun working with FM-COG on forecasting future demand levels.

The model was used this summer to conduct an analysis of traffic impact due to the Main Avenue construction project.

Md. Ahsan Habib Joins ATAC

Md. Ahsan Habib joined the Advanced Traffic Analysis Center Sept. 15 and will work in the areas of Intelligent Transportation Systems architecture, systems engineering, and enhancing tranportation analysis software.

While working with ATAC as a graduate research assistant, Habib developed two interfaces to enhance the CORSIM traffic simulation model to allow multiple runs of the model and automate output extraction.

In addition, Habib trained in advanced GIS applications in ArchGIS, which will allow ATAC to support the development of automated routing systems in North Dakota.

Habib has extensive programming experience in various platforms and languages including Visual Basic, VBA, C/C++/C#, JAVA, ASP, XML/ XSL, HTML, JavaScript, NUnit/JUnit Testing, JSP, Servlet, UNIX/Linux, and Windows 95-2000/XP.

Habib will complete his master of science degree in computer science at North Dakota State University this fall.