News & Announcements
METRANS UTC, PSR
Monday, March 12, 2018
Should I continue my education? What about a professional degree? And how do I pay for it? These and many other questions can be daunting for students. Some students have a good feel for their future. However, most, and often the international students facing new immigration requirements, do not. To assist, on February 7, 2018, at USC, METRANS hosted a panel of four current students and recent graduates to share their experience studying and working, and often at the same time. Dr. Michael ...
METRANS UTC, PSR
Sunday, March 4, 2018
On February 9, 2018, the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Davis hosted a Friday research seminar on the UC Davis campus as part of ITS-Davis’ partnership with the Pacific Southwest Region University Transportation Center. The seminar, “Assessing Impacts of Transport Innovations Through Ride-Hailing Research," featured Dr. Alejandro Henao, a postdoctoral researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Dr. Henao spoke about the early impacts of ride-hailing services ...
METRANS UTC, PSR
Sunday, February 25, 2018
On February 10 th , 2018 four students from University of Southern California (USC) headed to UC Irvine to defend their title as prior year champions of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Annual Traffic Bowl. I was a member of the four-person USC team. The competition also included student teams from PSR partner universities California State University Long Beach (CSULB), University of California Irvine (UCI), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and from local universities ...
METRANS UTC, PSR
Sunday, February 25, 2018
On February 15 th , 2018 students from USC, CSULB, and UCI, along with invited faculty, staff, and public and private sector guests toured the Gerald Desmond Bridge replacement project in the city of Long Beach. I was among the students present. I learned of this trip through the METRANS student newsletter (METRANS on the Move) and was excited to attend. I remembered visiting the Port of Long Beach (POLB) almost a decade ago when the Environmental Impact Report was just adopted for the project, ...
METRANS UTC, PSR
Sunday, February 18, 2018
On January 31, 2018, at USC, Peter Gordon (Professor Emeritus, USC Price) and John Cho (Senior Regional Planner, SCAG) presented their research on agglomeration in Southern California as part of the PSR Spring 2018 Research Seminar Series. Their presentation pointed out the strong connection between agglomeration and networking and explained how physical proximity among companies can generate a flow of knowledge between them. “Sharing information is an important part of the game,” Gordon ...
METRANS UTC, PSR
Sunday, February 11, 2018
On Wednesday, January 17, 2018, the Inland Empire Economic Partnership (IEEP) held the 2018 Annual Dinner and Awards Ceremony in Ontario, California to celebrate its year of achievements and to honor special people’s contributions to the economic and social development of the Inland region. I was fortunate to attend the forum with the sponsorship of GoRail, an organization dedicated to working with thousands of community leaders across the country to tell the local story of freight rail ...
METRANS UTC, PSR
Sunday, February 11, 2018
From January 19 to January 21, 2018, students representing the USC Chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers attended the 5th annual 2018 ITE Western Leadership Summit at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR. The summit gave students from universities from across the western district the opportunity to collaborate, meet leading professionals in the field, and further develop their leadership skills. The USC representatives represented both engineers and planners. The group included ...
METRANS UTC, PSR
Sunday, February 11, 2018
On January 24, 2018, the Institute of Transportation Studies at UC Irvine (ITS-Irvine) with co-sponsor the Pacific Southwest Region (PSR) University Transportation Center hosted “Graduate Colloquium on Redefining Mobility.” The nearly 80 attendees, who included faculty, practitioners, and students from UC Irvine, UCLA, and USC, gained knowledge on the current issues and future demands on mobility. The event began with a keynote presentation by Randy Iwasaki, Executive Director at Contra ...
METRANS UTC, PSR
Sunday, February 4, 2018
“If you want to hear God laugh, make a plan!” In the summer of 1981, after obtaining his B.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering and Urban Planning from Northwestern University, Professor Moore—a Midwestern native—recounts how he was driving across the Bay Bridge toward Stanford, certain that he would never return to the unbearable cold of the Midwest. Well, he was wrong. Ironically enough, after he completed his Stanford Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, the best school that offered Professor ...
METRANS UTC, PSR
Sunday, February 4, 2018
On January 17 th , 2018, Shawn A. Chavira, Associate Director of Transit Operations at USC joined the PSR METRANS Lunch with a Practitioner series and shared his insights with an audience of students, academics, and professionals. I was part of that audience. Mr. Chavira is a transportation professional with greater more than 12 years of experience in transportation contracting management, and in 2013, was named one of the “Top 40 under 40 Transportation employees in the nation” by ...
