Johnson Joins DOTSC

Kurt D. Johnson routed through Washington, D.C., and a decade with AASHTO, to his role as associate research fellow with the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute. Born, raised and educated in North Dakota, Johnson enjoyed his term with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials where he guided multiple multi-million dollar software efforts and offered technical expertise.

Projects with AASHTO included serving as technical expert for the United States Department of Transportation and the National Academy of Sciences on several major national projects. He also directed the Transportation Safety Information Management System and managed the development of the BRIDGIT Bridge Management System, the HWYCON expert system software for concrete, the SDMS software project for survey data management, the PONTIS Bridge Management System, the Virtis bridge load rating system, the Opis bridge analysis system and the SUPERPave software product for asphalt mix design.

Now he's home, working at his alma mater doing research projects contracted with the North Dakota Department of Transportation. He has several focus areas including lending technical support to the task group charged with increasing the load carrying capacity of the highway system by 20% by 2008. Second, he provides technical support for improving the ride quality of North Dakota highways 10% by 2008. Third, he provides technical support for the task group charged with developing maintenance service levels on the state highway system and fourth, he is part of a team developing a pavement preservation system for the NDDOT.

He also brings expertise to UGPTI for the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission. His experience in rehabilitation design, pavement evaluation and management systems for airports can be a payoff for the state's airports. Because UGPTI can do this work, dollars may stay in the state - and as an extra bonus, NDSU engineering students can train to work in the aeronautic aspects of transportation.

Johnson has always wanted to return to his North Dakota roots and give something back. Working with graduate students is exciting for him because he can share his experience gained outside the state and help them be able to stay in the area, too. He hopes students from the program will keep their technical knowledge in the state.

Manohar Joins DOTSC

The Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute's commitment to education and students paid off again. Radha Manohar, who began working for UGPTI as a graduate student in April 2002, has become a full-time research assistant for the North Dakota Department of Transportation Support Center, DOTSC.

Manohar provides support for research projects requiring computer programming or statistical analysis. She is the primary contact for utilization of pavement management software for projects with the state, and for future contracts with cities and counties. Her expertise is involved in the development of pavement preservation software.

She is part of preparing a proposal for a runway management software system for the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission.

Her credentials span an array of software applications. After earning her bachelor of science in mathematics from the University of Madras and her first master of science in mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology, both in Chennai, India, she developed, built and maintained applications in COBOL for Tata Consultancy Services, Chennai, India. Much of her work supported Boeing Co., Seattle, Wash., and the United Service Automobile Association in Texas.

Moving to Oman, she was in Oracle development, primarily for MEDICOM, a comprehensive, modular and integrated hospital information system. Many hospitals adopted the program including the American hospital in Dubai. At the time, MEDICOM was implemented in the 3,000-bed Chris Hani Bargwanath Hospital in South Africa, the world's largest hospital. This project was in association with IBM South Africa.

Working on her second master's degree at North Dakota State University, Manohar is focusing on computer science. She chose NDSU as the university that had everything she sought in advancing her education.

Her thesis is on the problem of developing, analyzing and testing a new approach to database process synchronization.

Manohar's initial work with UGPTI was in applications for road load, gravity models. Specifically, she developed software involving the Bridge formula, converting truck axle weights and configurations to allowable truck load limits. The software also calculates equivalent single axle load factors for the given configurations. Other software was for the gravity model that forecast trip distribution for the horizon year based on the trip distribution specified for the base year.

Intelligent transportation is an innovative field in which she is vitally interested. She plans to be part of future applications that will integrate the Internet, intranets and extranets in the design, construction and operation of transportation facilities.

In addition to her other accomplishments, Manohar is on her way to certification as an Oracle certified professional having successfully completed Develop PL/SQL Program units and Introduction to Oracle: SQL and PL/SQL.