 |
Dear colleagues, sponsors, students and friends, On behalf of all Center staff from our seven consortium universities, I present you with the first annual report of our National Center for Strategic Transportation Policies, Investments and Decisions. Our National Transportation Center (NTC@Maryland) was established in October 2013 as one of the five National Centers funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation University Transportation Center Program. Building on a successful Tier 1 University Transportation Center at the University of Maryland, our NTC@Maryland also benefits from great support from several State Departments of Transportation, especially the Maryland State Highway Administration and many local government and private-sector partners. In 2014, more than 100 faculty, researchers, and students engaged in more than 30 research, education, outreach, and technology transfer projects at NTC@Maryland. Our most important asset is our people, who are addressing some of the most critical issues in economic development and multimodal transportation systems. For example, several collaborative research projects that involve all seven consortium universities developed innovative solutions to improve freight mobility and reliability, to support national-level transportation investment decision-making, and to leverage private-sector funding resources in a fiscally constrained environment. It is also an exciting time at NTC@Maryland in regards to education and workforce development. Our faculty members are establishing the first online Master’s Program in Transportation Engineering and are expanding a successful crosscutting Transportation Engineering and Public Policy Graduate Program. Our Summer and Year-long Internship Programs have attracted a diversified group of future transportation engineering professionals. In 2014, NTC@Maryland organized and sponsored a series of training academies, workshops, conferences, and seminars consistent with our three Center themes of freight efficiency and reliability, congestion management with multimodal solutions, and national-level policy decision-support. These programs include the Freight Academy, Traffic Operations Academy, TRB Conference on Innovation in Travel Modeling, TRB Conference on Transportation and Economic Development, and the Gulf Coast Maritime Transportation Summit. Our vision for the coming year is for our center to grow and become more impactful. We aspire to the highest level of performance for our stakeholders and constituents with impactful practice-ready products. Through a multi-university collaborative approach, we have set our sights on major opportunities to bring NTC@Maryland to new heights in 2015. I would like to thank you for all your support to our Center and ask for your continuous support — we will not be able to achieve our goals without it. Best Regards, Lei Zhang, Director of NTC@Maryland
March 13, 2015
|
