November Birthdays

Promil Pandey

Ken Short

Sara Hendricks

Brian Pessaro

November Anniversaries

Bill Morris—18 yrs

Steve Reich—15 yrs

Ali Akram—10 yrs

Cecil Carter – 9 yrs

Jonathan Summerlin— 2 yrs

David Lamb — 2 yrs

Lorraine Barnett — 1 yr

November 5, 2014

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

The Business Services group within CUTR, also known affectionately

as the “Admin” group, is responsible for all things within CUTR that

are not research. We handle many things that are visible to most peo-

ple, including travel, purchasing, setting up and shutting down re-

search grants, grant accounting, work order coordination, creating

CUTR Connections, providing required infrastructure and office sup-

plies, etc..

There are also many things that must be done, that most folks proba-

bly don’t know about, including these annual activities: providing

SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) accreditation

data to the Provost’s office, completing the Institutes and Centers report for the BOG

(Board of Governors), completing the Space Inventory and the Key Inventory, recalculat-

ing the Leave Pool assessment rate, regularly reconciling every open account, etc. And

there are some things we handle that occur more frequently than once per year, like PERT

(Personnel Effort Reporting Tool) certifications and payroll processing.

Over time we have changed and (hopefully) improved some processes. For instance, we

have moved to electronic document storage and away from paper file storage, and we have

created an online form for hiring, instead of a paper form. As time permits, we will contin-

ue to make improvements.

And all of CUTR is involved in a key step: entering your time into Aegis allows us to pull

the data we use for almost all of the activities I mentioned. Thank you for entering your

timesheet information every two weeks (and thanks for getting them in on time)!!

Ken Short

Director

Business Services

WELCOME NEW CUTR EMPLOYEE

Please welcome Linh Pham!

Linh Pham is pursuing his Bachelor of Science degree in Civil

Engineering. He will work on the Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety

Educational outreach and data collection project. He worked for

the Design team for a Land Development Division that involved

preliminary design, site investigation report, reviewing of munici-

pal zoning and construction documents. He recently received

certification in Analytic Problem-Solving module.

Welcome Linh!

AEGIS Timesheets

Pay period 11/07/14 to 11/20/14

AEGIS submission date is Friday,

November 14 at 10 am.

Pay period 11/21/14 to 12/04/14

AEGIS submission date is Tuesday,

December 2 at 10 am.

CUTR wishes Cindy Wooten the best on her retirement as she embarks on the next

chapter in her life!

Alma Mater Days SHOW YOUR ALMA MATER PRIDE: Wear your favorite college t-shirt, sweatshirt, and the like (must display the College’s logo or name) the first Friday of every month. Friendly banter on performance of affiliated sports teams or alumni news is also highly encouraged. If you want to add a banner or anything to your door, that’s great too. Dress code restrictions on sleeveless shirts, shorts or sandals will remain en-forced. Jeans can, of course, be worn (with a reminder that a contribution

($1) is appreciated).

GO BULLS!!!

Alma Mater Days:

November 7

December 5

GOOD LUCK

UPCOMING EVENTS

Nov 11 USF Holiday — Veteran’s Day

Nov 12 Faculty & Staff Campaign Pizza Party, Noon, CUTR Lobby

Nov 18 CUTR Staff Meeting, 2:00 pm, CUT100

Nov 20 CUTR International Potluck and Olympics, CUT100

Nov 27 –Nov 28 USF Holiday — Thanksgiving break

GRADUATE TRANSPORTATION SEMINARS, FRIDAYS, 11:00 AM, CUT202

Nov 7 Lukai Guo, USF CEE, will be presenting Study of External Factors

on RRPM Failure

Nov 14 Xia Jin, Florida International University, TBA

Nov 21 Nikhil Menon, USF, CEE, will be presenting Autonomous Vehicle—

Consumer Perception and Anticipation Urban Mobility

CUTR WEBCASTS AT 12:00 PM

Nov 13 TriMet’s Customer Service Modules & OTP Analyst Extension us

ing OpenTripPlanner; Presenters — Kevin Webb, Co-Founder and

Principal, Conveyal; David Emory, Co-Founder and Principal,

Conveyal; Bibiana McHugh, IT Manager of GIS, TriMet; and Myleen

Richardson, GIS Planner/Analyst, TriMet

NOTEWORTHY ACCOLADES

CUTR’s Advanced Geo-Spatial Informatics Laboratory (AGIL) collaborated with the FDOT District 7 GIS Coordinator

Steven Branson to kick off the Tampa Bay GIS User’s Group (TBGIS).

The first meeting of TBGIS took place on October 17 at the FDOT District 7 auditorium and was attended by over 120

GIS professionals from the Tampa Bay area.

Martin Catala and Donald Hayward presented on the opportunities presented by open source GIS web applica-

tions, highlighting experiences with open source GIS in past projects. AGIL is currently working with the GIS commu-

nity to schedule and coordinate the next meeting in November.

Please contact Martin Catala if you are interested in attending and participating in the group’s activities.

Sisinnio Concas was invited as keynote

speaker at the 2nd International Conference in

Economics, Management and Accounting, held

in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. The confer-

ence, hosted by the Universidad Tecnológica de

Bolívar, provided the opportunity to interact

with international researchers from various

disciplines. Sisinnio gave a presentation on

the Implications of Transportation Infrastruc-

ture Investment on Economic Development.

While there, Sisinnio gave an interview to the

Colombian newspaper El Universal where he

discussed the economic implications of delay-

ing public transportation investments. The city of Cartagena is one of the Latin American locations where bus rapid

transit was first planned, but failed to begin operations.

__________________________________________________________________________

Tameika Fraser earned the designation of the Certified Research Administrator at USF (CRA-USF). The CRA-

USF is an internal designation given to employees by THE RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION IMPROVEMENT NET-

WORK (TRAIN®) who successfully complete one of several certification courses. She completed the online eCRA

-USF/Basic, scoring 100%.

The eCRA-USF/Basic curriculum covers all phases of the research administration life cycle: searching for fund-

ing, proposal development, proposal submission, award negotiation, underwrite process, award setup, financial/

technical administration, and closeout. Course content includes step-by-step business processes, best practices,

forms, tools, guides and resources. Congratulations, Tameika!

The 2014 Transportation Achievement Awards Event was held on Wednesday, October 22nd

at the Embassy Suites and was a success! Recognized as the award recipient was Jim Sebesta,

Florida Transportation Commissioner and former State Senator. State Senator Jack

Latvala presented him with the CUTR Transportation Achievement award. This award is pre-

sented annually to an individual who has made significant contributions to the transportation

field. This year’s guest speaker was Ananth Prasad, P.E., Secretary of FDOT. Paul Steinman,

P.E., District 7 Secretary, Noranne Downs P.E., District 5 Secretary, Billy Hattaway, P.E., District

1 Secretary, and Diane Scaccetti, Executive Director & CEO, Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise were

in attendance among other dignitaries.

TRANSPORTATION ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS EVENT

Sashikanth Gurram was awarded the 2014 Georgia Brosch Memorial Transportation Scholarship. He

expects to receive a Ph.D. in Civil & Environmental Engineering in Spring 2015. He holds a master’s degree in Civil

Engineering from Virginia Tech. His dissertation research involves understanding and predicting the impact of urban

form, transport infrastructure design and policies on human exposure to traffic-related air pollution, with a particular

focus on social equity.

Previously Sashikanth won the 2013 Florida Section Air & Waste Management Association scholarship, the 2012 USF

Graduate Research Challenge grant, and the 2008 Kenneth E. Wilkinson Scholarship awarded by the Virginia Section

of Institute of Transportation Engineers. He also served as the Secretary of Air & Waste Management Association at

USF in 2012 and the Vice President of Virginia Tech Alliance of Transporta-

tion Engineering Students in 2007.

Following graduation, he aspires to build a consulting career in the multidis-

ciplinary fields of transportation and environmental engineering, public

health, and policy with the aim of advancing sustainable transportation de-

sign philosophies for improving air quality. Mr. Gurram’s advisors are Dr.

Amy L. Stuart and Dr. Abdul R. Pinjari.

The $2,000 scholarship is awarded based on academic achievement, profes-

sional activities, and career goals.

Patrick Buddenbrock has been selected as the National Center for Transit Research Student of the Year

for 2014. Each year the U.S. Department of Transportation encourages every federally funded University Transporta-

tion Center to select one student who demonstrates particularly strong technical skills, academic accomplishment, and

leadership. Patrick is due to graduate in December 2014 with a Master of Civil Engineering with an emphasis on trans-

portation. He has earned a 3.83 GPA, has co-authored a paper that has been accepted for publication by TRB, and has

served as the Vice-President of the Engineering Honor Society at USF. Over the past 18 months, Patrick has made im-

portant contributions to a number of research projects undertaken at

CUTR and played a key role in developing alternatives for future corridors

in Florida requested by the FDOT. He has been very engaged in class-

room discussions and has been incredibly responsive in all projects he has

been involved with. As the NCTR Student of the Year, Patrick will receive

a $1,000 scholarship and attend the CUTC Transportation Awards Ban-

quet that kicks off the TRB Annual Meeting. Patrick has been offered a

position in the Region 1 Office of the Federal Transit Administration in

Boston, Massachusetts upon graduation. Faculty who have worked with

him are extremely proud of his performance at USF and CUTR and wish

him a happy and productive career. NCTR also thanks Patrick, along with

Casey Jarrell, for being the “pioneers” as the first recipients of the NCTR

Scholars designation.

CUTR TRANSPORTATION ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS EVENT

The first Student Poster Competition was held during the CUTR Transportation Achievement Awards event during

the reception from 5:30 p.m.—7:00 p.m. Students were able to present research that he or she performed with their ad-

visor; however, advisors could not give feedback to the student in regards to the preparation of the poster. The competi-

tion judges, Dr. Pei-Sung Lin, P.E., CUTR, ITS, Traffic and Operations & Safety Program Director, Dr. Seckin Ozkul, E.I.,

CUTR Research Associate, Peter Yauch, Albeck Gerken, Inc., Dr. Yu Zhang and Dr. Abdul Pinjari, USF Civil Engineering

Professors, Christopher Hatton, Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc., and Jean Duncan Transportation Manager at City of

Tampa evaluated the student posters. There were monetary awards for the first, second, and third place poster winners

in the amounts of $300, $200, and $100 respectively: First place—Sashikanth Gurram, “An Integrated Transporta-

tion and Air Pollution Modeling Framework for Estimating Mobile Source Emissions and Human Exposures: Applica-

tion to the Tampa Region”; second place — Jodi Godfrey, “The Impact of Millennials’ Travel Behavior on Future Per-

sonal Vehicle Travel”, and third place — Yolibeth Mejias De Pernia, “Digital Image Processing Determination of Op-

timum Asphalt Content (OBC) for Open Graded Friction Course (OGFC) Pavement Mixtures”. The other students taking

part in the poster competition were: Rui Guo, Yordanka Goodwin, Max Mantius, Menna Yassin, Cagri Cetin, Noureddine

Elmehraz, Mohammadreza Kamali, Michael Bato, Ram Kanteti, and Mona Fathollahi. The poster competition was en-

gaging, informational, and a very successful addition to the transportation event.

NEW AWARDS/CONTRACTS

Project Urban Circulator Impact Assessment

Sponsor Federal Transit Administration

PI(s) Concas/Reich

Value $148,291

Project Airport Webinar Series

Sponsor Fla Airports Council

PI(s) Audino

Value $7,865

Project Community Traffic Safety Support

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Lin/Cruse

Value $10,000

Project Comprehensive Pedestrian & Bicycle Program

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Lin/Cruse/Kourtellis

Value $200,000

Project Fl's Bicycle/Pedestrian Focused Initiative: Communications

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Lin/Larsson

Value $100,000

Project Fl Comprehensive Motorcycle Safety Program

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Lin/Lee

Value $180,000

Project Impaired Motorcyclist PSA Campaign

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Lin/Larsson

Value $300,000

Project Motorcycle Program Evaluation & Data Collection

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Lee/Lin/Larsson

Value $35,000

Project Pedestrian Program Evaluation & Data Collection 14-15

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Kourtellis/Lin

Value $50,000

Project Ride Smart paid Media Campaign 14-15

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Lee/Larsson

Value $100,000

Project Share the Road PSA Campaign FY 14-15

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Lin/Larsson

Value $210,000

Project Improving Knowledge of Safe Pedestrian Behavior through Walk Wise

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Bond/Lin/Mosher

Value $25,000

Project Bus System Safety and Security Review

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Staes/Davis

Value $69,110

Project FDOT District One - Vehicle Inventory

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Mistretta/Gregg

Value $10,069

Project Grant Workshop/ Grant Review & Decision Making Process

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Gregg/Mistretta

Value $48,259

Project FL Statewide Transp. Demand Management Clearinghouse

Sponsor Fla Dept of Transportation

PI(s) Winters/Bond

Value $129,691

Project Use of Idle Reduction Technologies in Transit

Sponsor Internal Account

PI(s) Reich/Kolpakov/Hinebaugh

Value $50,000

NEW AWARDS/CONTRACTS CONTINUED

PROPOSALS SUBMITTED/UNDERWAY

Project: Evaluation on Implementation of Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons at Freeway Off-ramps to Reduce Wrong-Way Driving

Sponsor: Fla Dept of Transportation

PIs: Ozkul /Lin

Value: $56,604

Project: Transit Research Inspection Procurement Services Program

Sponsor: Fla Dept of Transportation

PIs: Bart/Staes

Value: $570,000

Project: Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Dissemination Project

Sponsor: The Cadmus Group, Inc.

PIs: Audino

Value: $17,925

Project: Transit Maintenance Analysis and Resource Center

Sponsor: Fla Dept of Transportation

PIs: Bart/Staes

Value: $360,000

Project: Quantifying the Impact of CBP Trusted Traveler Programs on Passport Inspection Wait Times

and International Air Travel Demand

Sponsor: Center of Excellence (COE) Center for Borders, Trade and Immigration Research (CBTIR)

PIs: Concas

Value: $483,569

NEED TO SUBMIT TO CUTR CONNECTIONS?

If you have information that you would like to share and include in the monthly issue of the CUTRConnections—CUTR

Employee Newsletter, please send an email with the information to Grace Hunt.

Next CUTRConnections is scheduled to be out on December 1, 2014. Deadline to submit information is

Wednesday, November 26th by noontime.