pacific nw transportation consortium region 10 Pactrans

PacTrans Workforce Development Institute (WDI)

PI: Yinhai Wang (UW), yinhai@uw.edu, ORCID: 0000-0002-4180-5628

Co PIs: Shane Brown (OSU), Kevin Chang (UI), Billy Connor (UAF), Ali Hajbabaie (WSU)

AMOUNT & MATCH: $175,000 from PacTrans; $175,000 Match

DATES: 8/16/2017 – 8/15/2019

STATUS: Completed

CATEGORIES: Education, Workforce Development

RESEARCH PROJECT HOT SHEET:

UTC PROJECT DOCUMENTATION:

FINAL PROJECT REPORT: This is an ongoing project that will deliver a final report after Phase III of the project

DESCRIPTION: This project will set up a Workforce Development Institute (WDI) and to develop a demand responsive and flexible program platform with the first sample certificate program and courses responsive to the workforce development needs in the Pacific Northwest, which includes Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. In addition to the proven advantages of TRANSPEED and other past programs, WDI also takes advantage of the new information technology to make training accessible online and available at trainees’ own pace and schedule. It is a program centric to addressing Region 10’s workforce development needs by delivering a collection of short-term training courses and workshops.

The proposed workforce development program will benefit PacTrans and Region 10 in the following three aspects: (1) It allows Region 10’s busy working professionals to access desired training materials and courses at their convenient time and locations, and at their own pace; (2)It provides a forum for working professionals and university researchers to jointly investigate on challenges and opportunities associated with the new technologies, such as connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) technologies and their potential impacts, so that transportation agencies and companies can be proactive in incorporating the new technologies into practice; and (3) It directly addresses the continuing education needs of Region 10 working professionals’ and thus is critical for enhancing local transportation agencies’ organizational strength and local companies’ competitiveness.