United States Department of Transportation
i
Midwest Transportation Consortium annual progress report : October 2000.
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2000-10-01
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Abstract:From the Director: The Midwest Transportation Consortium (MTC), the University Transportation Center serving the states
of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, had a very successful first year of operation. The MTC is a
complex partnership involving six universities in two states. Yet, in many ways the MTC was able to
operate as a close-knit team. For example, the MTC partners were able to employ videoconferencing
technology to allow a series of transportation seminars to be shared at three partner universities. This
seminar series has allowed students in two states to hear experts in a number of subject areas (particularly
asset management) that they would not have otherwise been exposed to.
The MTC’s main focus is on education and human capital. This focus is in recognition of the fact that the
transportation industry, both public and private, in the region served by the MTC faces a serious shortage
of well-trained human capital. For this reason, the MTC is involved in creating totally new transportation
education programs at two of its member universities. The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar
Falls Iowa had no courses or students in transportation when the MTC grant began. During the first year
of the grant, UNI’s Geography Department took the lead in developing courses, attracting students, and
getting involved as a partner in transportation activities in its service region. A similar start-up effort is
now underway at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. The MTC has also been able to
strengthen and add quality to transportation education efforts at universities in the region that were
already leaders in transportation.
The MTC has, in its first year, been able to build from the ground up a technology transfer and outreach
program in transportation asset management. This effort has enjoyed some early successes. The MTC
team has been involved in outreach to a substantial number of local government agencies in the region.
More of this close involvement at the grassroots level will follow in the year 2001 and beyond.
The MTC’s sponsored research project program is now also underway. Projects were sought through a
regional RFP process and most are now underway. The projects represent a diverse portfolio of subjects,
but are tightly focused on the transportation asset management theme. Results and products from these
research efforts will be widely distributed within the region and nationally as they become available.
As noted in our strategic plan, a thread that runs through all aspects of the MTC’s activities is an
aggressive use of telecommunications and information technology. The MTC region encompasses four
states and includes a large number of rural communities. In order to better serve the region, an indeed the
nation, the MTC is using technologies such as the World Wide Web and videoconferencing to extend the
reach of its educational, outreach, and research activities.
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