pacific nw transportation consortium region 10 Pactrans

John Ash is a second year Ph.D. student in the Smart Transportation and Applications Research (STAR) Laboratory working under Dr. Yinhai Wang at the University of Washington (UW). John is originally from Wisconsin and came to the UW in 2014 after completing his M.S. in civil and environmental engineering (with a transportation emphasis) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also completed his B.S. with a double major in civil engineering and mathematics in 2012. His major research interests include traffic safety (which was the focus of his M.S. thesis in Wisconsin), intelligent transportation systems, and applications of data science in transportation.

This past year, he had two papers accepted for presentation: one at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting and one at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Smart Cities conference. John received the Valle Scholarship at UW for the 2014-2015 school year. In terms of service, John has reviewed papers for both the TRB Annual Meeting and IEEE Smart Cities conferences.

Additionally, he has actively participated in activities on campus to recruit new graduate students, promote science and engineering to elementary/middle/high school students (e.g., Engineering Discovery Days), and showcase lab research to visitors from academia and industry. Recently, he worked with one other student to plan the 2015 PacTrans student conference. Further, he shows his dedication to the lab by working with international students to help them revise their papers and publications. When not busy with school, John likes playing soccer and going to concerts.

John Ash UW

Andrea Mather is focusing on Transportation Engineering in the second year of her MS program at Oregon State University. In 2014 she obtained her BS in Civil Engineering from Oregon State University and her engineering in training certification. Andrea has been selected for the student of the year award because she is a top student in the graduation transportation engineering program. She has showed her skills as a highly effective team member on group projects ranging from technical reports, presentations, and designs. Andrea has been an excellent Graduate Teaching Assistant and in that role served as a mentor for undergraduate engineering students.

Andrea’s passion for public service has been shown through her four internships at the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). The internships have increased in responsibility and ranged from field inspector on a large construction to managing her own project and to this past summer working in the transportation and land use planning section. Andrea has also distinguished herself as a student leader and is currently the president of both transportation student chapters on campus (ITE and AREMA). In addition, she is also active in Women’s Transportation Seamier group in Salem and acts as a liaison to the students.

Andrea’s MS research spans both bus and rail modes of public transportation. She is using advanced data acquisition technology and a crash test dummy to characterize vehicle dynamics that are associated with tipping incidents of wheeled mobility aids.

Andrea has the personality and skills to become a leader in the transportation industry.

Andrea Mather OSU