OTREC Points of Pride 2008

OTREC Proposal and Project Management System – a web-based project management system where faculty submit abstracts, proposals, budgets, progress reports and final reports, and where peer reviewers submit confidential proposal reviews. External searches for research topics and results will be a feature available soon.

• Total of over $2.4 million funded (close to $5 million when match from our partners is included)

• 45 multi-disciplinary faculty investigators• 22 external co-sponsors• More than 80 undergraduate and graduate students

working on OTREC projects• 191 proposals received• More than 400 peer reviews received• 28 multi-PI collaborative projects• 13 multi-campus collaborative projects

Funded 58 Projects During First Year – OTREC selected 58 transportation research, education and technology transfer projects for funding during two RFP cycles in its first year.

Effective Program Administration

Historic University Partnership – the four OTREC partner universities signed a historic Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in March 2007. The MOU commits the universities to a collaborative partnership as a National University Transportation Center, and sets a precedent for future joint efforts.

Strong Ties To ODOT and Transportation Community - more than 20 external partners provide matching funds of cash or in-kind support for OTREC projects. ODOT is a primary partner, jointly funding nearly half of our research projects selected to date. In addition to ODOT, cities, transit agencies, ports, associations and non-profit organizations around the region collaborate with faculty.

Regional Collaboration - OTREC is an active participant in Region X meetings, where regional collaboration for transportation research and education efforts is discussed.

Region X MOU - A formal MOU was completed between the UTCs and state DOTs in Alaska, Washington, Idaho and Oregon, officially forming the Region X Transportation Consortium.

Student Conference - Over 60 students from eight universities around the northwest visited PSU last November to participate in the TransNow student research conference.

New Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research - OTREC has fostered new collaborations among faculty from diverse disciplines. Associate Director Marc Schlossberg (UO) notes “OTREC has encouraged “new blood” in the transportation field, faculty who did not consider themselves to be transportation researchers, but have found strong interdisciplinary ties to transportation problems.” A new Sustainable Urban Design Group of interdisciplinary faculty at UO will be cultivating these new relationships.

National Connections - OTREC strives to be a full participant at the national level. OTREC staff is active with AASHTO’s Research Advisory Committee (RAC), and the Committee on Conduct of Research of TRB. The OTREC Director and staff attend annual CUTC meetings, and OTREC will host the 2011 CUTC Summer Meeting in Portland.

Successful Collaboration and Partnerships

OTREC Points of Pride 2008

Podcasts – over 200 PSU Center for Transportation Studies seminars are available for download as audio files. Seminars cover a wide array of transportation topics from policy and planning to operations and freight.

Future Leaders Workshop – over 100 regional transportation professionals attended a unique workshop at PSU in January entitled, Building Future Transportation Leadership: Success Factors from Portland. The goal was to share knowledge of the past with future leaders in transportation; video archives are available on the OTREC web site. A course for a national audience is in the planning stage.

Service Learning Approach to Transportation Education – an education model widely used at UO provides teams of students with hands-on experience producing products for real-world clients. Recent projects include a student-led evaluation of Eugene’s 4J School District travel behavior aimed at reducing school auto trips and charting a more walk-able community, and a project that culminated in a new Eugene Bicycle/Pedestrian Strategic Plan.  

New Student Group at UO – LiveMove is a new transportation group created with OTREC support that attracts students from across disciplines, including planning, landscape architecture, environmental studies, geography, public policy, and business. The group has organized a community bike fair, sponsored Earth Day activities, hosted speakers and discussion forums, participated in a collaborative design session about revitalizing downtown Eugene, Oregon, and initiated campus activities around bicycle and pedestrian travel.Hurricane Wave Testing at OSU - the first large-scale physical model study of wave loads on a highway bridge superstructure under realistic wave conditions and bridge geometries is being conducted by Dr. Daniel Cox in the Hinsdale Wave Research Lab. Results will help researchers understand the wave loads on these superstructures and assess the safer design of new bridges or retrofit of existing bridges. New Transportation Lab at OIT – with support from OTREC, OIT is outfitting a new Traffic Engineering Laboratory, which is a combination research and education space for this rural community campus. The lab is equipped with state-of-the-practice traffic simulation and evaluation software, as well as a hardware-in-the-loop traffic simulator.

Exciting Developments from OTREC Funding