Go! Magazine posted on June 29, 2018 Pranamesh Chakraborty is a graduate student in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at Iowa State University (ISU). He is a graduate research assistant at the Institute for Transportation (InTrans) in Ames, Iowa, and applies his gifts as a budding engineer to work on Intelligent Transportation…
Go! Magazine posted on June 19, 2018 You hear the term “big data” tossed around a lot, but what does it really mean? And what does the collection and application of data mean for the transportation world? Odds are, you’ve benefited from data collection yourself. If you’ve ever used smartphone applications like Google Maps or…
Go! Magazine posted on June 15, 2018 Whether you realize it or not, you interact with infrastructure on a daily basis. Infrastructure includes important public structures that help us live our lives, like water, waste, and energy services. There is a lot of crossover between infrastructure and transportation, since transportation structures like roads, railways, subways,…
Go! Magazine posted on June 11, 2018 Imagine a world where fresh snowfall didn’t compromise the ability to drive or bike on roadways. With electrically conductive concrete—concrete that could be heated with an electrical current to melt away snow and ice as it precipitates—that could one day be a reality. Using this technology, also known…
Go! Magazine posted on June 8, 2018 The United States has over 72,000 square kilometers (about 45,000 miles) of asphalt and concrete surfaces that are exposed to the sun. Imagine if we could harness that solar energy, convert it to electricity, and use it to power the planet. That’s where solar panels and pavement collide….
Go! Magazine posted on June 4, 2018 When it comes to groundbreaking ideas, you can count on Elon Musk to have one. The brilliant mind behind PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity has a new idea, and this time, Musk aims to solve traffic congestion in cities like Los Angeles, California. In a TED talk last…
Go! Magazine posted on May 21, 2018 This month we’re talking about inventors who brought their unique talents and gifts to the world of transportation. Our next inventor, Frederick McKinley Jones, was elected into the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers and awarded the National Medal of Technology. He was the first African American to receive…
Go! Magazine posted on May 7, 2018 Our inventors were more than just inventors—they were actresses, clocksmiths, entrepreneurs, and engineers. They brought their unique gifts and ways of thinking to the world of transportation, changing how we get from Point A to Point B forever. And our next inventor was (of all things) a veterinary…
Go! Magazine posted on April 30, 2018 Hedy Lamarr was “the Angelina Jolie of her day,” starring in films from the 1930s to the late 1950s. This actress, who was considered “the most beautiful girl in the world”—her face serving as the inspiration for both Catwoman and Disney’s Snow White—was also a brilliant inventor. Some…
Go! Magazine posted on April 24, 2018 This month we’re talking about inventors who wore many hats. That brings us to our next inventor, Maria Beasley—an “engineering dynamo” of her time. Beasley secured 15 patents from the late 1870s to the late 1890s, many of which were for machines. Her list of patents ranged from…