{"id":8726,"date":"2024-12-11T09:31:37","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T17:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/?p=8726"},"modified":"2025-04-10T09:50:29","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T17:50:29","slug":"uw-pactrans-and-wsdot-relaunch-fellowship-to-strengthen-civil-engineering-pipeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/uw-pactrans-and-wsdot-relaunch-fellowship-to-strengthen-civil-engineering-pipeline\/","title":{"rendered":"UW, PacTrans and WSDOT relaunch fellowship to strengthen civil engineering pipeline"},"content":{"rendered":"<header>\n<header><\/header>\n<div id=\"block-uwcoe-system-main\">\n<article><em>Reposted from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ce.washington.edu\/news\/article\/2024-12-11\/uw-pactrans-and-wsdot-relaunch-fellowship-strengthen-civil-engineering\">CEE News, University of Washington<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"lead\">New program helps WSDOT employees earn master\u2019s degrees, addressing workforce shortages and supporting Washington\u2019s infrastructure needs.<\/p>\n<div class=\"col-sm-6 float-right pr-lg-0 mb-3\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ce.washington.edu\/sites\/cee\/files\/news\/images\/WSDOT%20worker%20500%20width.jpg\" alt=\"A construction worker working on a concrete road.\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) Fellowship Program has been reactivated through the partnership of the CEE department, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/\">Pacific Northwest Transportation Consortium (PacTrans)<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/wsdot.wa.gov\/\">WSDOT<\/a> after being on hiatus since 2009. The program provides five WSDOT employees with the opportunity to earn a fully funded master\u2019s degree in transportation engineering, helping them advance their careers and contribute to Washington\u2019s transportation workforce.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This reactivation comes at a crucial time for the civil engineering field, which is facing a significant workforce shortage. As federal and state infrastructure investments ramp up nationwide, the demand for civil engineers continues to grow. However, fewer students are entering the field, leading to increased competition for talent and rising costs for infrastructure projects. In response to this challenge, the Washington state Legislature allocated funding in early 2024 to relaunch the fellowship as part of a broader effort to strengthen the civil engineering pipeline and ensure critical projects move forward smoothly.<\/p>\n<p>The program will support five WSDOT employees during the 2024-2025 academic year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese fellows understand the issues in transportation and will also be the kind of researchers working on addressing those issues in the future,\u201d says\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ce.washington.edu\/facultyfinder\/yinhai-wang\">Yinhai Wang<\/a>, the Thomas and Marilyn Nielsen Endowed Professor in transportation engineering and the director of PacTrans.<\/p>\n<p>The revival of this program is an investment in the state\u2019s infrastructure and a commitment to cultivating the next generation of transportation leaders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a severe lack of transportation engineers,\u201d Wang notes. \u201cThis program helps current WSDOT employees grow while meeting the pressing workforce needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wang also highlighted the long-term impact of past iterations of the fellowship, noting that \u201cthree consecutive state DOT traffic engineers were graduates of this program,\u201d a testament to its lasting contributions to WSDOT and the transportation sector as a whole.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reposted from CEE News, University of Washington New program helps WSDOT employees earn master\u2019s degrees, addressing workforce shortages and supporting Washington\u2019s infrastructure needs. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,37,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-and-workforce-development","category-student-activities","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8726"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8732,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8726\/revisions\/8732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/pactrans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}