Details:

Corporate Creators:
Midwest Transportation Consortium
Corporate Contributors:
United States. Department of Transportation. Office of Innovation, Research and Education
Subject/TRT Terms:
[+]
Annual Annual Reports Annual Reviews Documents Education Education And Training Planning Reports Reviews Training
Resource Type:
Organization Info
Geographical Coverage:
Iowa
Corporate Publisher:
Midwest Transportation Consortium
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.


Format:
PDF
Collection(s):
US Transportation Collection
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:d300aa92fd03f298d0148426bfca02ec6bbb385246754f18f6c6c0471950bee6
Download URL:
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/24540/dot_24540_DS1.pdf
File Type:

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