Leadership Change at DOT Support Center

With the retirement of Dennis Jacobson, Kurt Johnson will take over direction of the DOT Support Center.

Johnson has been at the UGPTI since 2003 and brings more than 23 years of highway industry experience to his new position.

His work at the UGPTI focuses on asset preservation and management. Before coming to NDSU, Johnson was project manager of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in Washington, D.C. for 10 years. Before that he spent five years as vice president of a consulting company that specializes in pavement engineering. Immediately after earning his B.S. in construction management from NDSU, he spent nine years as a senior engineer with the North Dakota DOT.

Jacobson "retired" in June to half-time work with the UGPTI. The rest of his time is devoted to the North Dakota National Guard where he was recently named assistant Adjutant General. Many of the units under his direction focus on construction, transportation, infrastructure support and engineering. His civilian and military duties intersect in an effort to establish a joint military logistics training program at NDSU.

Jacobson joined the UGPTI in 2000 after more than 28 years with the North Dakota DOT. He joined the DOT in 1972 immediately after earning his B.S. degree in civil engineering from NDSU. He retired as East Region Engineer in charge of all construction and maintenance in eastern North Dakota.

In 2001 he earned two masters degrees: one in civil engineering from NDSU and one in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College. He's continuing to work on his Ph.D. dissertation. His research focuses on using microsensors in asphalt pavement to measure chemical changes over time. The sensors will be mixed into the asphalt at the plant and monitored wirelessly.

Technology Links Students and Instructors in Transit Class

A dozen students from five states were enrolled spring semester in the "Introduction to Public Transportation Course" offered by NDSU and coordinated by an instructor in yet another state. Interactive video technology was the key to the course's success.

"The television technology worked very well every week," noted Jim Miller, a retired faculty member from Pennsylvania State University who is now an affiliated faculty with SURTC. "It never let us down."

The course is offered on the NDSU campus and is linked to universities and departments of transportation in North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming via the TEL8 system, a telecommunications link serving that region and designed to enhance transportation research, education and technology transfer.

The course was coordinated by SURTC. "The TEL8 system and interactive video technology give us access to national-level expertise," says SURTC director Jill Hough. "Students and professionals across the region are able to share their common challenges and benefit from each others' unique perspectives and experiences."

The course featured lectures by Barbara Sisson, associate administrator for research, demonstration and innovation in the Federal Transit Administration, and Bill Millar, chief executive officer of the American Public Transportation Institute.

In addition, students in the class presented a major research project to the class. Topics included:

• Light rail projects in Salt Lake and Minneapolis,
• Smart growth,
• Applications of intelligent transportation systems,
• Mass transit pricing,
• Mass transit for riders with disabilities,
• Coordination among mass transit agencies.

Hough and Miller say the class will be offered during the spring semester of 2005.