Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Transportation Engineering

The University of California Transportation Center (UCTC) through the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and the Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS) at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) offers summer research fellowships to qualified undergraduate students interested in transportation engineering. The program objectives are to introduce a small select group of students to the transportation field through research activities and selected short courses, and by doing so, to encourage these students to consider enrolling in a graduate program in transportation.

To be eligible for a Research Fellowship, prospective students must (a) be a US citizen or permanent resident currently enrolled in a Civil Engineering program, (b) have completed the Junior year, (c) have not graduated prior to Fall, and (d) have at least a 3.0 GPA. The Fellowship includes (a) on-campus housing and meals, (b) a stipend of $2,000, (c) up to $500 towards transportation costs, and (d) an opportunity to participate in state-of-the-art research in transportation engineering.

During the six-week Fellowship program, students participate in ongoing research projects with faculty and graduate students at UCI. These research activities are complemented by a series of short courses in related transportation topics. Each fellowship recipient is assigned a graduate student mentor who introduces them to the UCI campus and the surrounding community, serves as a resource for general questions about the research program, and, together with Faculty Advisors, provides guidance and assistance on the research project.

The program was initiated in June 1994. A list of students who received fellowship awards in 1994 and 1995 is provided together with their undergraduate engineering schools, summer research projects, and Faculty Advisors. Students were matched with potential research projects based on areas of interest specified in their application. Initial short course topics included (a) Transportation Planning Models, (b) Traffic Operations and Control, (c) Expert Systems, and (d) Public Transit Systems. The program also included research seminars, technical tours of transportation facilities throughout southern California, and a variety of other University and social functions.

Research Fellow        Institution            Research Project                    Advisor 


Anderson, Mike         Iowa State       Macroscopic Model of Traffic Signals     Jayakrishnan   


Barr, Joseph           Northwestern     Network Impacts on Travel Behavior       McNally        


Chen, Shao             Cornell          Evaluation of ARTIST Expert System       Ritchie        


Hsieh, Jamie           Harvey Mudd      Testing Ramp Metering Algorithms         Ritchie        


Jones, Samantha        Kentucky         Integrated Freeway & Arterial Control    Recker/McNally 


Kim, Tae               Caltech          Freeway Service Patrol Data Analysis     Ritchie        


Oki, Christine         Harvey Mudd      Transit Route Ridership Forecasting      Jayakrishnan   


Sheikh, Mikael         UC Berkeley      Driver Behavior Gaming Simulator         McNally/Recker 

Research Fellow        Institution            Research Project                     Advisor 


Blackman, Lora         Pennsylvania     Performance Assessment of PRT Systems     McNally      


Hostetter, Bob         Duke             Transportation Network Vulnerability      McNally      


L'Esperance, Brett     Massachusetts    Acoustic Sensing in Traffic  Detection    Jayakrishnan 


Marshall, Amy          Kentucky         Evaluation of Rail Alignments with GIS    McNally      


Shiffer, Gregory       Penn State       Advanced Technology Deployment            Ritchie      


Ware, Mickey           Auburn           Dynamics of Travel / Activity Analysis    Recker       


Wong, David            Texas, Austin    Transportation Network Vulnerability      Jayakrishnan 


Woods, Sinyale         LSU              Macroscopic Speed-Density Models          McNally