New Center for Integrated Transportation Systems Management

University of Maryland is designated as one of the U.S. Department of Transportation Research and Innovative Technology Administration Tier I Transportation Center sites.

A team of faculty and staff of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) led by Dr. Ali Haghani, Chairman of the Department, was one of the winners in the U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) competition to establish and maintain ten Tier I University Transportation Centers (UTC). These competitive centers are distinguished from other congressionally designated UTCs in the programs authorizing legislation. The purpose of the centers is to advance U.S. technology and expertise in the many disciplines comprising transportation through the mechanisms of research, education, and technology transfer.

RITA provides up to $1 million per center per year in 2007, 2008, and 2009 that has to be matched from non-federal sources in an amount at least equal to the US DOT grant amount. A total of 36 applications for establishing these centers were submitted to RITA. Several of the winning applications are renewals of existing UTCs. The University of Maryland's application was one of the few that were successful for establishing a new center. The success of the University of Maryland team in this competition attests to the successful records of CEE's transportation group and Center for Advanced Transportation Technology (CATT); as well as RITA's recognition of the broad range of ongoing research and educational activities in transportation in the CEE Department and the Clark School.

The Tier I Center at the University of Maryland will be named the Center for Integrated Transportation Systems Management (CITSM). This multidisciplinary center will bring together faculty from various Departments in the Clark School of Engineering, the Robert H. Smith School of Business and the School of Public Policy to collaborate in conducting state-of-the-art research in transportation and accomplishing RITA's goals for the Tier I Centers. The participants in the CITSM activities are members of CEE's transportation group Dr. Ali Haghani, Mr. Phillip Tarnoff, Dr. Elise Miller-Hooks, Dr. Paul Schonfeld, Dr. Gang Len Chang, Dr. Hani Mahmassani and Dr. Cinzia Cirillo as well as several faculty members from above-mentioned departments and schools. Ms. Lisa Schuetz and Ms. Sangeeta Kaul of CEE's administrative staff were instrumental in the proposal preparation process.

Published October 5, 2006