California Transportation Foundation (CTF), the leading charitable transportation organization in the State has selected 12 students from California based universities to for sponsorships to attend transportation-related conferences this year as part of their new Conference Connections program. The sponsored students represent USC, UCLA, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, San Diego State, CSU Los Angeles, CSU Long Beach and CSU Northridge.

For more than thirty years, CTF has supported California’s transportation community by providing scholarships, programs on career development, awards and recognition, and financial assistance to transportation workers injured on the job and to their families, just to list a few. Recently, CTF initiated Conference Connections, a no cost program for junior and senior undergraduates and graduate students to attend California transportation-related conferences, usually in coordination with a mentor from the transportation industry.

The Conference Connections program is open to students in fields supporting transportation, including civil engineering, urban/transportation planning and other transportation related majors. The students are recommended by their Universities for consideration, and the awards are then made by CTF based on academic performance and career promise, with an eye to those who are expected to make the most of the experience.

Each student is sponsored to attend one of three conferences - California APA Conference, Mobility 21 Southern California Transportation Summit, and Intelligent Transportation Society (ITS) California Annual Conference and Exhibition.

The California APA Conference will be held September 15 – 18, 2019 in Santa Barbara, California. Themed “A Resilient Future,” this conference will address pressing and relevant local and statewide issues, including climate change, housing, energy, transportation, diversity, sea level rise, sustainability, economy, disaster, and recovery. Suray Nathan from CSU Northridge, Eduardo Galdamez from UC Irvine, Armin Jorgenson from UC San Diego, and Isabel Qi from USC will be attending this Conference.

Four students were sponsored to attend Mobility 21 Southern California Transportation Summit “Beyond the Limits” to be held September 27 in Anaheim, California. Organized by Mobility 21, the Southern California Transportation Coalition, this 18th Annual Summit will be focusing easing congestion, creating meaningful jobs, and enhancing quality of life. The sponsored students are Sagun Bhattarai from CSU Los Angeles, Sian Bashkiroff from CSU Northridge, Kendall Kaufmann from UCLA, and Aishwarya Sambasivan Iyer from USC.

The third Conference is the 25^th Annual ITS California Conference and Exhibition that will be held September 9-11, 2019 in Los Angeles. It will include various technical sessions over dozen topics related to transportation, from emerging technologies to smart mobility. Ambria Vasquez from CSU Los Angeles, Ravi Mazin from CSU Long Beach, Anagha Katthe from San Diego State University, and Reion Richard Domingo from UCLA were selected by CTF to attend this Conference.

CTF has afforded these students a wonderful opportunity to meet transportation professionals from throughout the state and learn about new issues facing the industry. METRANS Transportation Center Newsletter Team thanks CTF for their generous sponsorships and is excited to hear about the experiences of the sponsored students at the Conferences.

About the Author:

Adylbek Abdykalikov is a graduate student of International Public Policy and Management Program at USC Price. He has working experience in various positions at the Ministries of Transport and Communication and Investment and Development of Kazakhstan and was in charge of Transportation and Civil Aviation policy development and implementation, and serves as lead student event coordinator for METRANS and PSR.