• January 15, 2025

    PacTrans Out in Force at the 2025 TRB Annual Meeting!

    On January 5-9, 2025, PacTrans showed up in full force at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting. This annual conference typically consists of more than 13,000 transportation professionals from all around the world, hosting more than 5,000 presentations in nearly 800 sessions and workshops in what always amounts to a jam-packed week in a frigid Washington, D.C.

    With policymakers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of government, industry, and academic institutions in attendance, the TRB annual meeting continues to be an amazing platform for PacTrans to demonstrate our abilities, expertise, innovation, and research as one of the country’s leading regional University Transportation Centers (UTCs). PacTrans student and faculty researchers were in attendance from five of our consortium institutions: Portland State University, University of Alaska Anchorage, University of Idaho, University of Washington, and Washington State University.

    In total, PacTrans universities participated in over 100 lectures, poster sessions, workshops, committees, and subcommittees, and presented over 75 papers in the meeting. Of note, the presentation “Hot Topics in AI and AED50’s Planned Activities”, presented by PacTrans Director, Yinhai Wang, attracted significant attention, underscoring the success of PacTrans’ efforts on the topic of AI.

    In parallel with the TRB meeting, the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) Awards Banquet was hosted the Saturday evening before the annual meeting began. This banquet aims to honor the outstanding students and faculty who are shaping and advancing university transportation research with federal funding. At this event one of PacTrans researchers, Travis Fried (UW) won an Outstanding Student of the Year Award. This award is given based on a student’s technical merits and research capabilities, academic performance, and leadership.

    On Tuesday evening, PacTrans had the privilege of hosting a Region 10 Reception, alongside our university partners. This gathering provided the perfect opportunity to connect and listen to transportation professionals in a casual atmosphere conducive to meaningful connections. During the reception, PacTrans presented this year’s recipient of the 2024 Michael Kyte Region 10 Outstanding Student of the Year Award. This year’s award went to Ekin Uğurel from the University of Washington. 

    PacTrans students received several other accolades as part of this year’s conference.

    • Ana Tijerina Esquino (PSU) (left) and Kayla Sorenson (PSU) (right) was awarded the Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship
    • Muhammad Monjural Karim (UW) was awarded the 2025 Young Scholar Award for his paper “Thermal-Forecast: Traffic Trajectory Prediction in Challenging Nightime Condition Using Thermal Imaging” by the TRB Information Systems and Technology Committee