If there ever was any doubt that earning a graduate degree in sustainable transportation at UC Davis is an “elevating” experience, those doubts were removed at the June 15 commencement ceremonies for our 2017 doctoral and master’s degree graduates.
ITS-Davis is the host of the interdisciplinary Transportation and Technology Policy (TTP) graduate group program, through which many of our graduates earn their degrees. We also welcome graduates from other departments at the university [Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), Ecology]who focus their studies on transportation.
Pictured in the more staid shot (before the celebrations broke out) are this year’s grads, with faculty. From the left:
Maria Brum – Ph.D., Ecology
Professor Michael Zhang – CEE/TTP faculty
Huajun Chai – Ph.D ., CEE
Professor Yueyue Fan- CEE/TTP faculty
Yudi Yang – Ph.D. , CEE (tall grad in back)
Yizhen Zhang – Ph.D., TTP (standing in front of Yudi)
Huijing Deng – Ph.D., TTP
Xiuli Zhang – M.S., TTP
Laura Cackette – M.S., TTP
Arthur Wu – M.S., TTP
Sarah Strand – M.S., TTP
Dominique Meroux – M.S .,TTP
Drew Heckathorn – M.S., TTP
Professor John Harvey – CEE/TTP faculty
Congratulations to all for your great achievement. We look forward to the transformations you’ll be bringing to the field of transportation in the coming years.
To learn more about how to take your career in transportation to new heights at UC Davis, go here.
In his quest for the solution for today’s environmental problems, Ted Buehler, M.S., Transportation Technology and Policy (TTP), 2008, turns to bicycles.
Buehler has been interested in environmental issues throughout his life. After getting his undergraduate degree in botany, Buehler became interested in regional planning at University of British Columbia (UBC), where he began his legacy of bicycle advocacy by starting the UBC Bike Co-op.
Drawn to Davis because of its prominence as a bicycling city, Buehler enrolled in the TTP program at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis), where he wrote his thesis on the history of bicycling in Davis and the decline of the university’s cycling habits in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Buehler’s 2007 thesis was presented to a Standing Room Only audience at the Varsity Theater in Davis and helped launch the bicycle advocacy group DavisBicycles (now known as Bike Davis). Continuing his activism, he has, since then, moved to Portland, Oregon where he has been a co-chair of the bicycle advocacy group, BikeLoudPDX.
“We’re a grassroots membership-driven advocacy organization and we do media output, we talk to government officials, we reach out to other people in the bicycle constituency and we set out tables and encourage people to send postcards,” Buehler said. “With my background in transportation planning, I try to draw out proposals for what should be done. I don’t like to tell people what to do, but sometimes people do need a push in the right direction.”
“Ted Buehler (right) at Oregon’s Active Transportation Summit with BikeLoudPDX co-chairs Emily Guise and Jessica Engelman (Photo credits: BikeLoudPDX)”
Buehler’s dedication to bicycle advocacy stems from his interest in trying to solve environmental issues. He believes that implementing biking policies and promoting bicycling can fix several environmental as well as social problems within communities.
“I’ve always seen bicycling as a unique silver bullet to environmental problems—especially transportation problems. There are a lot of cars in this world swallowing up fossil fuels and creating environmental instability,” Buehler said. “Bicycling is a good public health activity. It’s a very good social activity because it puts people face to face on the street. It gets rid of fossil fuel use and there are a lot of economic benefits to the biker. It cuts down noise pollution and air pollution. In the transportation world, some people study electric cars and some people study transit and all these things are fine. But one way we can cut all of these problems down is if we focus on bicycling.”
Buehler has found that bicyclists can face opposition and hurdles from the public when trying to enact bicycle-friendly policies. During his time with ITS-Davis, Buehler unearthed Davis’ long history of bicycle activism and social progress through interviews with older Davis residents who have lived in the college town for several decades. Despite that Davis is a small college town and its ideal geography for becoming a biking community, Buehler found that the citizens of Davis really had to rally together to turn it into the well-known biking town it is today.
“Bicycle advocates looked at Davis and thought their cities could never become like Davis, but that’s not a defensible theory. There are places that have the same geography as Davis, but those cities did not become places that had large numbers of people riding bikes,” Buehler said. “And so the real reason that Davis became a bicycle oriented city was because of the citizen advocates that lined up in the ‘50s and ‘60s and promoted bicycling and the university was behind them, enabling Davis to become a bicycling city.”
The sort of movement to push for bicycling that occurred in Davis is what inspires bicycle advocates in cities across the United States. Buehler wants to use this sort of inspiration to further push new bicycling policies as well as safer traffic policies in the city of Portland. Buehler hopes to change the public views on bicycle infrastructure and improve the image of cycling in the media. He is also involved in the movement to get Oregon to adopt a Vision-Zero Policy to significantly lower the state’s number of traffic fatalities. Buehler is also training his peers in BikeLoudPDX in transportation planning.
Buehler feels that both his research for his thesis as well as the instruction he got through TTP helped give him the skills he needed to pursue his passion for bicycle activism. He encourages students to take advantage of the resources that ITS-Davis provides and the environment of UC Davis in general.
“All of the faculty are very involved and very passionate about their research and are also very accessible. This was my third graduate program and the faculty was so much more available–something ITS-Davis students should really appreciate,” Buehler said. “I also encourage everyone to learn how to ride a bike when they go to Davis. There’s just a confluence of benefits from bicycling. And I might also add that bicycling is a lot of fun.”
Already known for excellence in transportation research and education, UC Davis now has its own WTS student chapter to help women network and advance their professional careers.
Founded in February by students in the ITS-Davis hosted Transportation Technology and Policy graduate program, the chapter’s formation was initiated by master’s student Sarah Strand with the goal of supporting young women interested in pursuing a career in transportation. After Sarah shared her vision, master’s classmate Albee Wei joined the cause to help other UC Davis transportation students create meaningful connections.
Founded as the Women’s Transportation Seminar 40 years ago, WTS is an international organization with chapters across the U.S. WTS is dedicated to building the future of transportation through the global advancement of women. WTS has more than 6,500 members, including both women and men, and offers professional networks, leadership skills, and educational opportunities to help women advance their careers.
“The driving mission behind WTS is to support women in the transportation industry because it is historically male dominated,” said Strand. “Currently 47% of the US workforce is comprised of women, yet only 13% of the transportation industry is. Women transportation professionals can expect to be paid less than 80 cents on the dollar for the same work completed by a man in the industry.”
WTS officers (from left to right) Eleni Jacobson, Erina Kitamura, Albee Wei, Sarah Strand, Farnaz Feizi (not pictured: Aditi Meshram)
The WTS UC Davis student chapter held its kick-off meeting in February soliciting feedback from interested members to help develop programs that directly respond to student needs and interests. Strand reported a great turnout with attendees spanning a broad spectrum of professional backgrounds, disciplines, and academic levels. Attendees expressed strong interest in career development and professional networking opportunities for transportation students, including resume-building workshops, mock interviews, project tours, and presentations from invited speakers.
WTS UC Davis is the fourteenth WTS student chapter founded nationwide and only the fourth in California—preceded by San Diego State University, Cal Poly Pomona, and UCLA. Both Strand and Wei were inspired to start the WTS student chapter after participating in WTS as professionals prior to attending UC Davis. Strand witnessed the formation of California’s first WTS student chapter while working as a regional transportation planner in San Diego three years ago.
“I worked with a couple of graduate students who founded the first student chapter in the state at SDSU and I saw what an excellent resource it was for young women and how fulfilling the experience was for my colleagues” said Strand, who became active with WTS in San Diego. “So two years ago—once I knew I’d attend graduate school at the Institute for Transportation Studies—I confirmed that there wasn’t a WTS student chapter or any similar organization on campus and made it a personal goal to bring this important resource to UC Davis before I graduated.“
Similarly, Wei shared that she first learned about WTS through colleagues while working for an engineering firm in Sacramento. “Many engineers and planners in my company are involved with the WTS Sacramento chapter and they have a great opportunity to get to know other transportation professionals, so I knew WTS was a great resource,” said Wei. “When Sarah said she wanted to start a WTS [student chapter] I was immediately onboard because I know members of our chapter will benefit from the professional and personal connections they form through WTS, both now and after they graduate.”
Strand recently participated in the inaugural WTS Sacramento Mentorship program and was awarded scholarships by the Sacramento chapter two years in a row. This academic year, she received the WTS Sacramento 2017 Leadership Legacy Scholarship and Wei was the honorary recipient of the Helene M. Overly Memorial Graduate Scholarship. In previous years, other UC Davis women transportation students have been similarly honored by WTS Sacramento.
In addition to developing new on campus resources for transportation students, Strand and Wei want to encourage greater student participation in WTS Sacramento and guide students to the many benefits and programs provided by their sister organization, including scholarships, mentorship programs, and networking opportunities. They also realized, however, that attending Sacramento chapter events can prove difficult for students who lack transportation or are unable to fit meetings into their academic schedules.
“As students here at UC Davis, we recognize some of the challenges to participating in Sacramento chapter events because they’re often held all over the region, so it’s limiting, especially if you don’t have a car,” said Strand. “And so we thought it would be valuable to have a resource here on campus that’s much more accessible to students at all levels.”
Both women hope that WTS at UC Davis will better connect students, faculty and researchers, and transportation professionals in the region. They believe the student chapter will help to advance young women in the transportation in the industry by reaching out to them early on in their careers.
“By joining WTS, students get an advantage that hopefully helps them to not only become leaders in the transportation industry, but also a lifelong WTS members,” said Strand. “Professionals who will continue to reach down to mentor other young women in transportation in the future.”
Both Strand and Wei emphasized that, despite the name, WTS at UC Davis does not restrict membership to women. In fact, they strongly encouraged men to get involved in the chapter. “Men who are sensitive to women in the workplace help make a better environment for everybody,” said Wei. “And employers who see potential in women will get more benefits because there’s a whole pool of talented women out there.”
Strand and Wei expressed appreciation to National Center for Sustainable Director, Professor Susan Handy, who will be acting as their faculty advisor, as well as to the WTS Sacramento chapter for providing financial support and helping to navigate the WTS chapter formation process.
“The WTS Sacramento Chapter has been our sister chapter throughout the entire process, championing us every step of the way and helping to make us successful,” said Strand.
The WTS UC Davis student chapter held their first official board meeting on March 3 and will hold back-to-back events in late-April:
• Career Exploration Panel on Friday, April 28 bringing transportation professionals to campus to share their career experiences with students.
• “Bike Social” inviting interested members on a Saturday, April 29 bike ride around Davis, followed by refreshments.
UC Davis Engineering Professor Deb Niemeier has been elected as a member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (NAE).
Professor Niemeier, who serves on the ITS-Davis faculty, was one of two UC Davis professors in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering to receive the honor—“among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer,” noted NAE in its announcement.
Professor Niemeier was recognized for her work “developing groundbreaking tools to characterize the impact of transportation emissions on air quality and environmental justice.” On faculty at UC Davis since 1994, her work combines studies of vehicle emissions, air quality, transportation modeling and the impacts of air pollution on communities. Niemeier is founding director of the Sustainable Design Academy at UC Davis and has served as editor-in-chief of Transportation Research, Part A and Sustainable Cities and Society.
The two UC Davis NAE honorees, Professor Niemeier and Professor Ross Boulanger, will be feted at a March 20 reception hosted by the UC Davis College of Engineering. They bring the total of current or retired UC Davis faculty who are members of NAE to 13.
“The academy’s induction of professors Boulanger and Niemeier shines a much deserved spotlight on their phenomenal work to make the world a better place,” said Interim Chancellor Ralph J. Hexter. “Their achievements exemplify the university’s public service commitment at its best, with discoveries that help us better understand and mitigate the effects of life-threatening earthquakes and air pollution in California and beyond.”
Niemeier and Boulanger were among 84 new members and 22 foreign members elected by NAE. Elected members will be formally inducted at NAE’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 8, 2017.
Four ITS-Davis graduate students have received prestigious awards to pursue their transportation research and studies in the current academic year.
Autumn Bernstein was awarded a Switzer Fellowship, Sarah Strand a Women in Transportation Seminar (WTS) scholarship, and Calvin Thigpen and Dillon Fitch-Polse were recipients of Eisenhower Fellowships for the second consecutive year.
Transportation Technology and Policy (TTP) master’s student, Autumn Bernstein received the Switzer Fellowship for her research on regional transportation agencies and their role in advancing California’s climate change and sustainability mandates. The one-year fellowship is offered by the Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation to highly talented students whose studies and career goals are directed towards environmental improvement.
Bernstein has a long history of involvement in environmental activism, as a grassroots organizer for 15 years as well as a policy advocate in several communities throughout California. Her research focuses on the interactions between state and local transportation agencies to achieve California’s groundbreaking climate change and sustainability mandates.
Autumn Bernstein
“California leads the nation with ambitious policies to make our transportation system more sustainable, but most transportation decisions are made locally,” said Bernstein. “I want to understand how we bridge the gap between state policy and local action, and I’m grateful to the Switzer Foundation for supporting that effort.”
TTP Master’s student Sarah Strand was awarded the Leadership Legacy Scholarship by WTS. This prestigious WTS scholarship is awarded to young women studying transportation who have demonstrated leadership skills and are committed to community service. As part of her commitment to leadership, Strand said that she plans to help establish the first WTS-UC Davis Student Chapter in the near future.
Sarah Strand (Left) and Yishu (Albee) Wei (Right)
“I’m deeply honored to receive the 2017 Leadership Legacy Scholarship and proud to announce that I am actively working with the WTS Sacramento Board and Dr. Susan Handy to initiate the first WTS Student Chapter at UC Davis and the fourth in the State,” said Strand. “The WTS-UCD Student Chapter will help strengthen and reinforce connections between transportation professionals in our region and valuable research being conducted at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, and will equally connect students to the excellent networks and resources provided by WTS, which I myself have benefited greatly from over the past year.”
Other winners of WTS scholarships were TTP master’s student Yishu (Albee) Wei and Civil and Environmental Engineering doctoral candidate Rosaria Berliner, who were honorary recipients of the Helene M. Overly Memorial Graduate Scholarship and the Leader Legacy Scholarship respectively.
For the second time, TTP doctoral candidates Calvin Thigpen and Dillon Fitch-Polse were awarded Eisenhower Fellowships, having both initially received the honor in the 2015-16 academic year. For 2016-17, Fitch-Polse received the full fellowship award of $35,500.
Each year, Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowships are awarded nationally to approximately 150-200 students pursuing degrees in transportation-related disciplines. With the help of the fellowship, both Thigpen and Fitch-Polse were able to present their research at the Transportation Research Board’s (TRB) 95th Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. in January.
Thigpen presented his dissertation research, which studies how young people are affected by “mobility capital,” determined by their own travel experiences. Thigpen has also had two of his papers published and received a National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) dissertation fellowship.
Calvin Thigpen
“I feel fortunate to receive an Eisenhower fellowship for a second time. It’s even more helpful this year, because I will be applying for postdoctoral and faculty positions over the next several months,” said Thigpen. “I have continued making progress on my dissertation, which I’m planning to submit by the end of next summer.”
Since receiving the Eisenhower award renewal, Fitch-Polse has bolstered and deepened the research of his dissertation, a study of how road environments influence bicyclists. He believes that his research’s use of both basic and applied sciences were its greatest strengths.
Dillion Fitch Polse
“I was ecstatic to learn that I was awarded the Eisenhower award this year. I always consider the Eisenhower award a long shot because of the national pool of students that apply, and when I received the largest available award I was astounded,” said Fitch-Polse. “I’m hopeful that my dissertation will help researchers understand how the road environment shapes bicycling behavior, but also help practitioners build more sustainable urban plans.”
Qian has a long history of research that dates back to his time with ITS-Davis, during which he was active at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis) and studied civil engineering under faculty adviser and resident UC Davis professor Michael Zhang. While at Davis, Qian started a research project that has since expanded into an ongoing project on dynamic parking systems. Following graduation, Qian pursued a master’s degree at Stanford University while working as a post-doctoral researcher in Stanford’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Professor Qian working with a student at Carnegie Mellon University.
“I went to Stanford and got my master’s degree in statistics because that was something I really wanted to pursue as part of my career, in terms of research,” Qian said. “A lot of the work I did at Stanford those two years consisted of some joint work with Stanford and UC Davis on transportation systems.”
Qian currently leads CMU’s Mobility Data Analytics Center, which conducts several projects that study transportation data gathered through several different agencies, such as city public works, state departments of transportation, and the Pennsylvania turnpike in order to create a platform that integrates this information for research. Qian is particularly interested in the way this data relates to how human society interacts with transportation systems.
“My primary research interest is in mobility data analytics and the two words I’m going to use to explain this are networks and data,” Qian said. “In the recent 5-10 years, there has been a lot more access to data. Part of my research is gathering data from different parts of transportation so we can look at data in a very holistic way and take a look at mobility transportation. In networks, I’m more interested in how the policy or pricing or infrastructure change is going to bring change to the entire network. For example, let’s say you’re decreasing the transit fare—how would that type of infrastructure or pricing or policy have a network impact on passenger flow or transportation flow in terms of spatial and temporal dimensions?”
Despite his primary background in civil engineering, Qian emphasizes that he is able to fully pursue his passions in transportation research due to his exposure to a wide breadth of disciplines. Qian explains that this access to an interdisciplinary researching skill set is what makes ITS-Davis a great research institution.
“When you try to learn about transportation you really get to learn a lot about the engineering, supply, and demand, but you also really have to have your hands on several disciplines to have a real understanding of transportation,” Qian said. “I not only experienced the engineering side, I also got a lot of experience with the data mining, sensing, economics theory, policy of transportation and that all together makes me unique and well-prepared to do research.”
Qian advises students to take advantage of ITS-Davis’ interdisciplinary nature and broaden their views of transportation. He emphasizes the importance of trying something new in graduate studies and talking to various students, faculty and researchers at ITS-Davis. An international student from Tsinghua, Beijing himself, Qian especially extends this advice to other international students, encouraging them to open their eyes and explore in order to better learn about themselves.
Qian credits UC Davis with giving him the tools he needed to succeed, reminiscing not only about ITS-Davis and its prestige in the field of transportation, but also about the university’s nice weather and the college-town environment, which he fondly misses.
As to future prospects, Qian hopes to continue on the academic track, explaining the flexibility in research and projects that a faculty job provides. He plans on pursuing his passion in data and infrastructure systems for a long while.
“I’m going to keep going on this faculty track and it’s quite a mission. My goals are to educate the next generation and conduct cutting edge research on transportation planning and operations. In the future—in the next 5, 10, or 20 years, I hope to be more influential in this area with more theories and research to improve the quality of life. That’s my ultimate goal.”
The #AggiesAtWork series is done in partnership with the UC Davis Cal Aggie Alumni Association.
Renewed Funding for UC Davis-led National Center for Sustainable Transportation
By Stephen Kulieke on December 5, 2016
The U.S. Department of Transportation recently announced its selection of the National Center for Sustainable Transportation, led by the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, to receive a five-year grant totaling approximately $14 million ($2.8 million in the initial year) to advance a more sustainable transportation system.
The NCST is one of only five national transportation centers awarded under the University Transportation Centers program reauthorized by the federal Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act. It is the only national transportation center focused on environmental preservation and the only one in California.
Susan Handy is director of the National Center for Sustainable Transportation, led by UC Davis. Photo: Courtesy Susan Handy
The award solidifies UC Davis’ prominence as the nation’s leading university on sustainable transportation, where researchers develop scientific solutions for today’s most daunting transportation problems.
Other members of the NCST consortium include University of California-Riverside, University of Southern California, California State University-Long Beach, Georgia Institute of Technology, and University of Vermont.
“I applaud the U.S. Department of Transportation for its investment in reducing the effects of the transportation system on our natural resources, including energy, climate, air, water, and land,” said UC Davis Professor Susan Handy, director of the NCST. “Despite considerable progress, transportation’s impacts remain substantial and fall disproportionately on society’s most vulnerable. Our challenge is to reduce impacts while meeting the mobility needs of our nation, fostering healthy communities and supporting economic growth.”
Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee who represents the UC Davis community, supported the effort.
“Transportation comprises over a quarter of our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions,” Garamendi said. “Climate change is real, and sustainability must be a major consideration in how we rebuild our infrastructure. I’m thrilled that the National Center for Sustainable Transportation can continue its work in this area. I was glad to do my part to support their important mission. In Washington today, five years of dedicated funding is a precious commodity.”
Since its founding in 2012, the NCST has mobilized innovative and accomplished research teams, published studies and policy briefs on an array of 21st century transportation issues, and partnered with influential leaders and stakeholder groups to provide national leadership for advancing an environmentally sustainable transportation system.
With this new grant, the NCST plans to build upon early successes, strengthen existing programs, and add important new initiatives, including research in the critical areas of sustainable freight, new mobility and environmental review.
“We are proud and pleased to gain recognition as the premier university center on sustainable transportation,” said UC Davis Professor Dan Sperling, director of ITS-Davis. “We look forward to intensifying our efforts at addressing the growing environmental challenges facing the transportation sector.”
The approach of the National Center for Sustainable Transportation is to:
Mobilize a network of leading universities to generate new knowledge and tools that address environmental sustainability in transportation;
Design and evaluate real-world strategies that contribute to the mitigation of the environmental impacts of transportation and enhance system resiliency; and
Deliver knowledge and tools through an innovative engagement program with the U.S. DOT, state DOTs, metropolitan planning organizations, local governments, and other public- and private-sector stakeholders to support implementation of these real-world strategies.
The NCST also draws on its research in providing education and workforce development programs designed to meet the world’s growing needs for qualified transportation professionals.
“My primary research interest is in mobility data analytics and the two words I’m going to use to explain this are networks and data,” Qian said. “In the recent 5-10 years, there has been a lot more access to data. Part of my research is gathering data from different parts of transportation so we can look at data in a very holistic way and take a look at mobility transportation. In networks, I’m more interested in how the policy or pricing or infrastructure change is going to bring change to the entire network. For example, let’s say you’re decreasing the transit fare—how would that type of infrastructure or pricing or policy have a network impact on passenger flow or transportation flow in terms of spatial and temporal dimensions?”