University of Washington

Highlights from 2015-16 PACTRANS REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION CONFERENCE The Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans) held its third annual conference on October 16, 2015 at UW's Haggett Hall. The theme for this 2015 Conference was "Smarter Transportation Safety and Technology." In attendance were more than 180 registered attendees including 16 guest speakers, composed of government and private sector officials and faculty members from various universities. Topics covered included: Safe Users & Operations, Technology Transfer, Workforce Development, and Safe Infrastructure. Following the overall aim of the conference, faculty members and students submitted a total of 32 posters that were all displayed during the event. PACTRANS HOSTS TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH WORKSHOPS As PacTrans updates it strategic plan as a regional university transportation center for the coming years, this spring director Dr. Yinhai Wang invested efforts in communicating with transportation professionals at each of the five consortium universities and their partners. These workshops are meant to keep faculty and researchers apprised of the direction the center is headed and gain knowledge of researchers' expertise in new and emerging research areas. The first such meeting happened in-person on Oregon State University's campus in Corvallis, Oregon on Friday, April 15, 2016. Dr. Wang and University of Washington faculty member Don MacKenzie hosted a small, informal workshop with current and potential PacTrans PIs in CCE concerning transportation engineering topics of regional importance. Dr. Wang also visited in-person with the University of Idaho and Washington State University on the WSU campus in Pullman, WA, and with the University of Alaska via teleconference. REGION 10 STUDENT CONFERENCE The 2015 PacTrans Student Conference was held October 17 at the Husky Union Building (HUB), University of Washington campus. Attendees included more than fifty students from the University of Washington, Washington State University, the Oregon State University, and the University of Idaho. The conference started with a keynote speech by Dr. Michael Kyte, Professor of Civil Engineering, University of Idaho, then there was a panel session of recent graduates, followed by a second keynote speech delivered by Mr. Bruce Haldors, President of Transpo Group, and finally, after lunch, there was a research poster session. Four students won awards for their posters. 4 Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium

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