Five graduate students named Eisenhower Fellows
Vanderbilt University’s strengths in transportation, resilience and sustainability are on display this week at the Transportation Research Board’s 102nd annual meeting held in person in Washington, D.C. As part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the TRB provides leadership in transportation improvements and innovation.
Three faculty members and six graduate students delivered presentations. Five of the students received prestigious Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowships and were recognized at the annual meeting. As part of the Eisenhower Fellows activities, each of the five students gave poster presentations.
“As the nation looks to rebuild critical infrastructure for a range of vital needs, it’s important that we do so in a way that leverages smart approaches to resilience, cost-effectiveness and sustainability,” Philippe Fauchet, Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Dean of Engineering, said. “Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering is a thought leader in many of these areas, and I appreciate the opportunity our faculty and graduate students have had to discuss their research with industry and government leaders this week.”
Presentations included workshops led by three faculty members.
- Structuring a long-term extreme weather and climate resilience research agenda, Mark Abkowitz, Distinguished Professor of civil and environmental engineering, professor of engineering management and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Environmental Management Studies.
- Collaborative forums to boost research-based solutions to transformational technology, Janey Camp, research professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Transportation and Operational Resiliency.
- I-24 MOTION: Enabling traffic science through trajectories at scale; Analysis, modeling and simulation, Dan Work, professor of civil and environmental engineering and professor of computer science. I-24 MOTION is a first-of-its-kind test bed along I-24 in the Nashville-Davidson County Metro area.
Lectern sessions are oral presentations of four or five peer-reviewed research papers recommended for delivery by a sponsoring TRB committee. Two faculty members and two graduate students participated:
- Professor Mark Abkowitz presided over the Extreme Weather and Climate Change Adaptation Committee meeting.
- Professor Janey Camp, Evaluation of HOV/HOT lanes through public perception and model simulation.
- Graduate student Lauren Gardner, presided, Using scenario planning to help your agency make decisions.
- Graduate student Oliver Stover, Risk-based, data-driven decision framework to improve pedestrian safety.
Eisenhower Fellows are selected through a competitive process that includes university panels and a national selection panel. The awards, up to $30,000 each, are made by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. The 2023 Vanderbilt recipients are:
Maddy Allen, civil and environmental engineering, advised by Mark Abkowitz. Her research focuses on risk, resilience, and the built environment, with a strong focus on flood risk assessment of critical infrastructure systems. This is her third year as an Eisenhower Fellow.
Lauren Gardner, civil and environmental engineering, advised Mark Abkowitz. Her research focuses on pavement resilience. This is her second year as an Eisenhower Fellow. Gardner also led a policy and organization group young members subcommittee session.
Derek Gloudemans, electrical engineering and computer science, advised by Dan Work. His research involves using machine learning methods for detection and classification of faulty components in electric motors. Gloudemans also works on the I-24 MOTION project. This is his fourth year as an Eisenhower Fellow.
Matt Nice, civil and environmental engineering, advised by Dan Work. His research interests are broadly in transportation cyber-physical systems, which includes autonomous vehicles, sensor networks, and human-in-the-loop systems. Nice works on the I-24 MOTION/CIRCLES Consortium project. This is his third year as an Eisenhower Fellow.
Yanbing Wang, civil and environmental engineering, advised by Dan Work. Her research involves estimation for complex traffic flow that involves multiple mobility services, such as bikes, scooters along with passenger cars. Wang works on the I-24 MOTION project. This is her fourth year as an Eisenhower Fellow.
Vanderbilt faculty who are members of TRB committees are:
- Mark Abkowitz, Committee on Extreme Weather; Climate Change Adaptation and the Resilience Section Committee.
- Janey Camp, membership coordinator, Standing Committee for Inland Waterway Transportation; member of the Subcommittee on Ports Digitization and the Subcommittee on Operations Resilience.
- Leah Dundon, Standing Committee on Strategic Management; Committee on Extreme Weather and Climate Change Adaptation. Dundon is a research assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Vanderbilt Climate Change Initiative.
- Craig Philip, Executive Committee, and Chair of the Marine Board, a division of the TRB. Philip is a research professor of civil and environmental engineering.
- Dan Work, Standing Committee on Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics.
Contact: Brenda Ellis, 615-343-6314
brenda.ellis@vanderbilt.edu