Officials with the U.S. DOT’s Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) visited with TTI and other consortium members of the Southwest Region University Transportation Center (SWUTC) during the grant kick-off meeting March 21 in College Station.
The RITA officials are meeting with each of the 22 UTCs across the country that were recently awarded federal grants to conduct transportation research, educational and technical transfer programs vital to their states, regions and the nation.
SWUTC was awarded $3.5 million in the competition. TTI leads the consortium that includes Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Austin, Texas Southern University, Louisiana State University and the University of New Orleans.
“During the meeting we presented a summarized version of our winning prospectus and discussed our transportation research and curriculum program implementation plans for the year,” SWUTC Director Dock Burke says. “RITA officials were here to ensure that we are moving forward with our education, research and technology-transfer efforts.”
Since its inception in 1988, SWUTC has been active in developing transportation solutions and the workforce needed to solve some of the transportation issues in our region, including efficiency, finance, safety and sustainability.
“This new grant funding will help us attract top-quality students with scholarships and other educational opportunities to our campuses,” Burke says. He also noted that the research program is likely to yield some very significant contributions to the transportation sector in our Region 6 states, especially Texas and Louisiana.