Institute for Transportation

Hello,

The short news stories in InTrans EnRoute shine a spotlight on just a few of the activities and accomplishments at InTrans. I hope they give you a sense of what this place is about and what we’ve been up to recently.

But first, for those of you who are new to InTrans, here’s some background.

Iowa State University’s Institute for Transportation (InTrans) provides a physical home and programmatic/administrative support for 16 synergistic transportation-­related centers and programs. To varying degrees, these programs create, share, and apply knowledge related to their specific focus areas, from transportation infrastructure to policies and procedures to traffic engineering and safety.

A few centers and programs at InTrans have some long-term funding. Most, however, depend all or in part on winning and conducting competitive grants in order to accomplish their work and grow their influence and activities.

To do that, we assemble world-class teams led by nationally and internationally respected leaders in their fields. We assist those teams with talented professional and scientific staff support and advanced technologies, facilities, and services like professional publications assistance.

Time after time, grant after grant, our project teams deliver innovative and effective results, products, and services.

Proof is in the increasing number and stature of projects we are awarded each year. In 2014, InTrans’s more than $12 million budget included 6 National Cooperative Highway Research Board–sponsored projects, 6 Strategic Highway Research Program–2 projects, 7 U.S. Department of Agriculture/Forest Products Laboratory projects, and 49 Federal Highway Administration–sponsored projects, including one cooperative agreement covering a host of initiatives related to concrete pavements. More than 30 percent of our total budget comes from federal sources.

Yet, our bread-and-butter research and outreach projects continue to be funded by state highway agencies, particularly the Iowa Department of Transportation.

This level of activity supported 96 graduate students in 2014, a more than 30 percent increase over the previous year. To get the work done, we established partnerships with four new civil engineering faculty affiliates—leading experts in their fields—bringing the total number of faculty affiliates to 34. We also added professional and scientific staff with expertise in bridges, pavements, and outreach. To accommodate all the action, in 2014 we expanded our office and meeting rooms, moving into an additional 3,100 square feet of physical space.

I hope you enjoy the stories.

Shauna Hallmark,
Director, Institute for Transportation
Director, Midwest Transportation Center
Professor of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering

This aritcle is part of the CTRE EnRoute 2014 Year-at-a-Glance series. Download the full document (.pdf).