Fall Exhibition 2019

On Friday, November 15 CM² researchers gathered at the new Review Gallery space in the West Mall Building at UT to present their ongoing research projects for the five-year Cooperative Mobility for Competitive Megaregions (CM²) consortium. In addition to our faculty and student researchers, representatives from our Support Partner Program as well as members from the CM² Advisory Committee were invited.

Guests in attendance were Ashley       McLain, Principal and Co-founder of  Cox | McLain Environmental   Consulting; Bill Purvis, Director of   Fleet Maintenance and   Transportation Safety at HEB   Grocery;

and Susan Handy, Professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at the University of California at Davis.

At the beginning of the exhibition CM² Director, Dr. Ming Zhang welcomed guests and presented Certificates of Appreciation to our support partner Ashley McLain and advisory committee member Bill Purvis to thank them for their continued support of the center’s research initiatives. Following the certificate presentations, researchers were divided into small teams for trivia where they were tested on their knowledge of the center regions and megaregional research.

The exhibition ended with a poster   session for new and ongoing CM²   research projects, during which   students, faculty, and guests could   discuss the research topics,   research design, challenges, and   current/expected findings.

Attendees were asked to vote for   the posters in three categories including: the most intriguing title, most surprising findings, and most interesting visuals. Researcher Junfeng Jiao and graduate research assistant Shunhau Bai won the award for the Most Intriguing Title and the Most Interesting Visuals for their poster “From Shared Mobility to Shared Responsibility: Crowdsourcing Local Knowledge of Dockless E-scooter Violations in Austin, Texas.” Researcher Ming Zhang and graduate research assistant Ziqi Liu won the award for the Most Surprising Findings with their poster titled “Benchmark the Trends of Spatial Inequality in Megaregions and Explore the Role of High-Speed Rail.”

Fall Exhibition was a success, as researchers commented on how engaging the event was and how the posters presented critical findings. Stay tuned for our next big event, Summer Forum which will be held at LSU on June 11-12! See more photos from the event below.