Yirong Zhou, a civil and environmental engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Utah, was recently awarded a scholarship from the Utah Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Winners of the $500 scholarships are selected based on outstanding scholarship, work experience, and activity within their student section of ITE.
This primer provides an overview of the rapidly evolving field of generative artificial intelligence, specifically focusing on large language models. The aim is to demystify the underlying theory and architecture of large language models, providing intuitive explanations for a broader audience.
Researchers at North Dakota State University are developing an innovative computer modeling technique that can serve as an efficient decision-making system to predict crash occurrence and severity, identify contributing factors to crashes, quantify their effects, and evaluate proposed countermeasures.
The objective of this research is to compare the level of public transportation services provided in North Dakota to those of surrounding states. The study focuses on North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska (excluding the Omaha metro area), and Minnesota (excluding the Twin Cities metro area).
The North Dakota Transportation Conference hosted by NDDOT and UGPTI has become the go-to conference for local road professionals from across the state who want to network and learn about the latest in road and bridge technology and policies.
When trains and traffic meet, the result is often catastrophic and fatal. UGPTI researcher Pan Lu is leading efforts to develop an innovative computer modeling technique that can serve as an efficient decision-making system to predict both crash occurrence and severity. Transportation agencies can use the technique to prioritize where and how to spend safety improvement dollars.
Join us on June 6 for a webinar on "The What and Why of Distracted Driving." The advancement of mobile devices has resulted in constant connectivity, but at the expense of traffic safety. The goal of this study was to understand the barriers preventing drivers from driving without manipulating their devices, and what they perceived would motivate them to stop driving distracted.
A switch to automated parking systems that assess on-street parking fees for the exact amount of time parked would be fairer for drivers and would help transportation planners manage traffic and parking demand better, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Denver.
Research at the University of Utah shows that introducing connected automated vehicles (CAVs) into traffic flow can elevate safety performance, especially on freeways. CAV adoption will likely reduce rear-end and lane-change crashes.
With the spring melt underway, local road agencies may need to undertake emergency projects such as road closures and detours due to flooding. In this brief video, Brad Wentz provides instructions for entering those projects into GRIT.
Research at the University of Utah resulted in protocol specifications for handling material and sample compaction to reduce variability in testing. The research also revealed areas for additional research to assure that results from the text correlate to improved highway performance.
Researchers at Colorado State University are learning more about the complex hydrology that contributes to stream flows in order to develop recommendations for building bridges that can better withstand the effects of erosion.
UGPTI researchers completed a walkability assessment of Langdon, ND, in 2022. They sought to bring all stakeholders together to identify the problems facing pedestrians in the community. A community is considered walkable if it is easy as well as safe for pedestrians to walk for recreation, exercise, and to school, stores, parks, the post office, etc.
Researchers at South Dakota State University developed a simple, straightforward benefits estimation methodology for evaluating the financial benefits of proposed access management treatments, including the design, spacing, operation, and locations of street connections, interchanges, driveways, and median openings.
University of Utah researchers developed and tested a computational modeling technique that can predict the local and global response of column-to-footing joints with recessed grouted spliced sleeves in seismically active areas.
DUI recidivism rates presented in this fact sheet are based on DUI convictions within the previous 10 calendar years: 2012–2021. Recidivism rates are defined as the percent of recidivist drivers who had two or more DUI convictions within the past 10 calendar years, among all drivers with at least one DUI conviction in 2021.
Researchers from the Mountain-Plains Consortium's eight collaborating universities presented papers and posters and participated in committee meetings at the January 8-12 meeting. They were among the more than 20,000 transportation administrators, practitioners, policy makers, and researchers who attended.
The Recommended Practices are designed to be used in a wide variety of small and medium-sized business settings. The Recommended Practices present a step-by-step approach to implementing a safety and health program, built around seven core elements that make up a successful program.
Researchers at the University of Utah found that road efficiency and safety was improved in snowy and icy conditions when variable speed limit signs used amber instead of white lettering on a black background.
University of Utah research will help the Utah Department of Transportation identify freeway bottleneck locations that are suitable for coordinated ramp metering control and evaluate both the safety and operational performances of the system. The work will also study the additional delay created to the ramps by ramp metering controls when a certain congestion level on the freeway mainline is expected to be achieved.
Kimberly Vachal and Yun Zhou The 24/7 Sobriety Program is an intervention strategy mandating that impaired driving offenders remain sober as a condition of bond or pre-trial release. The goal is to monitor the most at-risk offenders in North Dakota and require that these individuals remain sober in order to keep roadways safe from hazardous drivers.
Based on recommendation results from University of Wyoming research, engineers at the Wyoming Department of Transportation will be able to specify concrete that resists shrinking and cracking.
Researchers at the University of Wyoming have developed a set of engineering properties for most bedrock encountered by the Wyoming Department of Transportation as they construct transportation infrastructure elements such as bridges.
Researchers at the University of Wyoming surveyed groups from across the state that partner with the Wyoming Department of Transportation on road safety to learn about their needs with regard to the quality, timeliness, completeness, and format of data provided on crashes and roadway inventories.
Kimberly Vachal and Jaclyn Andersen This report represents a continuation of analysis concerned with the patterns and methods of distributing grains and oilseeds from North Dakota.
Carrie Tremblatt, a transportation professional and Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado Denver, has been named the 2022 Student of the Year for the Mountain-Plains Consortium. She will be honored with other award winners from across the country during an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., in January.
Ranjit Godavarthy and Jill Hough Shared-use mobility services such as ridesourcing, bikesharing, and carsharing have been introduced in a few rural communities and a fair number of small-urban communities. This study analyzed the the interest and adoption patterns for shared mobility and emerging vehicle technologies in rural and small-urban communities.
Chris Pantelides, MPC program director and researcher at the University of Utah, was recently elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers. ASCE fellows have made celebrated contributions and developed creative solutions that change lives around the world.
University of Utah researchers combined off-the-shelf video equipment with machine learning software to develop a system for monitoring operations and small general aviation airports that lack control towers and staff to do so.
Raj Bridgelall, associate professor of transportation and logistics, has been named a fellow by the National Academy of Inventors. He was among 169 distinguished academic inventors on this year's list of fellows, which was announced Dec. 8.
This information is for workers and employers for reducing the spread of seasonal flu in workplaces. It provides information on the basic precautions for all workplaces, including additional precautions for healthcare settings.
Jeremy Mattson, Taraneh Askarzadeh, and Zhila Dehdari Ebrahimi This study developed a level of traffic stress (LTS) map for Fargo-Moorhead and used crowdsourced bicycle use data from Strava to show relationships between the built environment and bicycle use.
Researchers at the University of Wyoming are developing new analysis methods that will improve the consistency and efficiency of driving piles in intermediate geomaterials, a transitional geomaterial between soil and hard rock, often found in the Rocky Mountain region.
Researchers at the University of Utah are studying automated data collection technologies that can be used to gather information on roadway assets such as traffic signs, bridges, pedestrian access ramps, and pavement.
Researchers at Colorado State University developed an integrated tool that provides a more accurate consideration of various adverse driving conditions, including those in work zones. The new tool will allow planners and emergency responders to develop work zones and traffic patterns that reduce the risk of accidents and enhance traffic flow even when driving conditions become adverse or hazardous.
Researchers at the University of Utah are developing bridge designs that dissipate seismic forces during earthquakes so that the bridges can remain operational. The bridge designs are compatible with accelerated bridge construction techniques, which reduce construction costs and traffic disruptions.
Researchers at the University of Wyoming are tracking eye movements to learn what captures the attention of workers on construction sites and how rapidly they perceive hazards. The research is the first step toward a new way of improving construction jobsite safety.
Kimberly Vachal, Yun Zhou, Shantanu Awasthi, and Andrew Kubas The 24/7 Sobriety Program is an intervention strategy mandating that impaired driving offenders remain sober as a condition of bond or pre-trial release. The goal is to monitor the most at-risk offenders in North Dakota and require that these individuals remain sober in order to keep roadways safe from hazardous drivers.
Researchers at the University of Wyoming are closely examining the characteristics of fatal and severe motorcycle accidents in Wyoming and Utah to identify methods and models that can be used to assess roadways to improve motorcycle safety.
Researchers at the University of Wyoming are developing and improving vehicle communication protocols and creating signal control programs to prepare for the integration of connected and autonomous vehicles into traffic.
North Dakota State University will head a consortium that includes South Dakota State University, Montana State University, and the University of Wyoming in providing transportation outreach and technical assistance to tribes across the Upper Great Plains and Intermountain West.
Researchers at South Dakota State University are developing a database to help pavement engineers select the best types and application rates of tack coats, the asphalt-based material applied between pavement layers to improve structural performance.
Researchers at the University of Utah are developing tests for asphalt that can predict their performance in the field so that optimum life of pavements can be attained, and maintenance investments can be minimized.
Researchers at the University of Utah are developing performance-related tests that will allow highway agencies to select asphalt mixtures for optimal performance thus significantly reducing maintenance costs.
Research at South Dakota State University will provide bridge engineers with design tools that will substantially reduce the cost of some bridge foundations and protect existing bridge foundations from the damaging effects of scour, the erosion of soil from around those foundations.
Researchers at Colorado State University developed new modeling techniques to assist in planning emergency medical services (EMS) response. The techniques help predict the resilience of the transportation network in terms of EMS response to help implement optimized post-disaster medical response plans, and also to identify the most cost-effective measures for preventing EMS response disruptions.
Researchers at Colorado State University used responses to written and oral interviews and questionnaires administered to bridge personnel in state DOTs to identify the reasons behind the gap between researchers and practitioners. The effort helped provide insights about how to facilitate research implementation and change in state DOTs and other transportation or government organizations.
Kimberly Vachal and Andrew Kubas The statewide driver traffic safety survey provides baseline metrics for the North Dakota Department of Transportation Safety Division and others to use in understanding perceptions and self-reported behaviors related to focus issues.
Researchers at South Dakota State University tested new precast column connection details that could potentially reduce the time it takes to construct bridge bents by a factor of three to four while meeting seismic requirements.
Join us on September 22 for a webinar with Dr. Rouzbeh Ghabchi, based on MPC project 575, Characterization of the Plant-Based Bio-Asphalt Binder and Bio-Additives.
Researchers at Colorado State University are developing ways to enhance models that aim to help improve planning, emergency response, and other critical decisions that rely on accurate travel time predictions.
Terry Traynor, retired executive director of the North Dakota Association of Counties will receive the Agrey Award. Jay Fisher, state representative and former director of the NDSU North Central Research Extension Center, will receive the Chairman’s Award. Robin Weisz, long-time state representative and member of the ND House Transportation Committee will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.
University of Wyoming researchers developed a new system for setting speed limits on roadways that are characterized by steep downgrades and curves. They used high-fidelity dynamic simulation modeling to assess lateral and roll stability of different vehicle types on various road surface conditions.
Researchers at South Dakota State University found that mixed media filtration using steel chips and steel slag can be used as an effective treatment tool to remove E.coli and phosphate from stormwater runoff. This filtration technology will improve stormwater management and protect natural water resources.
Researchers at Colorado State University are developing a method of inspecting infrastructure elements such as guardrails and bridges. The method is more objective than typical visual inspections and has the ability to store and track changes in condition over time.
Researchers at Colorado State University are exploring new ways to limit the damage to transportation infrastructure caused by the expansive soils that are common across the Mountain-Plains region.
Ron Hall, president of the Colorado-based Bubar & Hall Consulting, LLC, has an extensive background and expertise in tribal relations related to transportation infrastructure, cultural resource management, and workforce development and is recognized as a national expert in Native American transportation law and policy.
Research at the University of Wyoming will help transportation managers and policymakers decide on strategies for implementing appropriate alternative interchanges in consideration of growing traffic demands, safety, and limited budgets.
Researchers at the University of Colorado Denver developed an analytical model that can be used to improve repair technique designs for concrete suffering from a common reaction between aggregate and Portland cement that can damage and weaken concrete over time.
Congratulations to Prasanna Humagain, named Doctoral Researcher of the Year; Hossein Nasr Esfahani, named College of Engineering Outstanding Ph.D Scholar of the Year; and Sailesh Acharya, named the College of Engineering Graduate Poster winner.
This study aims to build a framework to assess the resilience performance of a typical traffic network in
terms of post-earthquake EMS by comprehensively capturing the interactions between building
infrastructures, injured people who may need EMS, disrupted traffic networks, limited EMS resources,
and specific hazards.
The current pandemic has affected the lives of all Americans. The primary objective of this research was to identify veterans affected by COVID-19 who live in rural areas and have mobility needs and to quantify the cost of transportation options for meeting these needs.
Researchers at Colorado State University found that urban roadway flooding can be reduced by diverting storm water from just 1% to 5% of directly connected impervious areas (i.e., streets, parking lots, rooftops) to bioretention areas, a part of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI).
UGPTI researcher Satpal Wadhwa and UGPTI graduate research assistant Zhila Dehdari Ebrahimi were recently honored as nominees for NDSU's Mary McCannel Gunkelman Award. Nominees are among those who make significant and unselfish contributions to creating a happy environment for the enjoyment of NDSU students.
Two UGPTI researchers were recently promoted to associate professor with tenure by NDSU. Raj Bridgelall and Ranjit Godavarthy were both promoted to associate professor in the Department of Transportation, Logistics, and Finance.
The next Western Region Commercial Vehicle Safety Summit will be November 29-30, 2022, in downtown Denver. The Summit is organized and hosted by UGPTI's Commercial Vehicle Safety Center and focuses on efforts to reduce distracted driving by commercial vehicle drivers and others operating around commercial vehicles, and to improve commercial vehicle safety in work zones.
