The Cooperative Mobility for Competitive Megaregions (CM2) consortium held its annual Summer Forum earlier this month, hosted by the University of Texas at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Austin. The Summer Forum provides a unique opportunity for UTC researchers from different institutions to share ongoing research efforts and program updates with CM2 partners and industry stakeholders, as well as discuss the future of the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) funded Tier 1 University Transportation Center (UTC).
Researchers from all of CM2’s partner institutions – the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), Texas Southern University (TSU), and Louisiana State University (LSU) – attended as did members of both the Executive Committee and the Advisory Committee, CM2 Support Partner representatives, and guest speakers from the transportation industry.
The Forum was divided into two days. Day One began with opening remarks from the Dean of UT’s School of Architecture, Dr. Michelle Addington, and an overview of CM2 accomplishments from director Dr. Ming Zhang, before yielding the floor to moderator Dr. Frederick Steiner to introduce our morning session guest speakers. Day one’s morning session guest speaker presentations included:
Michael Morris, North Central Texas Council of Governments, presenting – ‘Importance of Cooperative Mobility for Competitive Megaregions’
Thus concluded our morning session, and we transitioned into lunch, but not before taking a group picture.
The afternoon session of day one was moderated by Louisiana State University’s Dr. Brian Wolshon and contained two more guest speaker presentations, oral presentations from thesis award winners, and a presentation from a student group from the University of Pennsylvania.
successes and thoughts for the future’
There were six Thesis award winners, and two of them presented during the window of time after our guest speakers.
Andie Duong, University of Texas
James David Fuller, University of Pennsylvania
After this, Dr. Frederick Steiner moderated the student presentation from the University of Pennsylvania.
Thus concluded our day one, and our guests enjoyed an evening reception on Hilton Garden Inn’s Apex rooftop plaza. This location entertained a wonderful view of downtown Austin, the Texas Capital, and The University of Texas.
View of UT from the rooftop
Day Two continued the Summer Forum with another round of guest presenters, this time moderated by Dr. Lewis Carol from Texas Southern University.
Region-9 Director, presenting ‘Slow Streets and Dockless Travel: A Quasi Experiment’
After these informative presentations, the forum transitioned into an open floor to discuss the future of megaregion research, collaboration, and innovation. UT’s Dr. Michael Oden initiated this discussion with a conversation around Electric Vehicle infrastructure.
Finally, the Summer Forum hosted an award ceremony for two different categories. First, for best Thesis/Dissertation award, given to six individuals from across the partner institutions. Each host institution voted on the best submissions from their institution, and the winners received a certificate and a $1000 scholarship.
These winners were
Andie Duong, UT Austin – “Funding Our Future 35: An analysis on the compatibility of value capture financing with a highway redesign project in Austin, Texas”
James David Fuller & Mohammad Shapouri, LSU – “Disruptions in Megaregional Network Evacuations: Identifying and Assessing Critical Links”
Bing-Yu Chiu, Penn – “Transforming the Asian motorcycle city? Evaluating the travel and urban development effects of the mass rapid transit in Taipei, Taiwan”
Grace Cole, LSU – “Incident Diversionary Routing: Survey of Influences and Decisions“
Shunhua Bai, UT Austin – “Opportunities and Challenges for Shared Micromobility Planning: A Case Study of Austin Dockless Scooter-share Program“
Abdullah Adeal, TSU – “Defining Public Transit Purpose and Need for Rural and Interstice Communities“
Next, there were six awards given to student posters across three categories. Throughout the Summer Forum, students had posters proudly displaying their work hung around the forum hall. Across the event, Forum attendees were encouraged and given time to read the posters, and then vote for their favorites across these three categories. Each winner recieved a certificate and a $500 scholarship. The categories and their winners were
Most Equitable Project Award
Kai Liu, UT Austin – “Improving Access to Fresh Foods for Low Income Populations in Austin, Texas”
Yingrui Zhao, Aodhan Hemeon-McMahon & Shawn Lee, UT Austin – “Explore Affordable Housing Supply through Land Use Optimization for Corridor TOD”
Most Impactful Planning Practice Award
Alex Cartwright, Penn – “Cherry Island Wetland Park”
Shayna Goldsmith, UT Austin – “Human Trafficking policy and the Transit Sector: Intersections and Transit Justice Implications”
Most Innovative Project Award
Riddhi Batra, Penn – “A Manifesto for Place”
Ziqi Liu, UT Austin – “Distributive Economic Impacts of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: A Case Study of Texas Applying the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model”
A huge congratulations to all of our winners! All of the projects displayed were deserving of recognition, but these six truly stood out. Thanks to all the students who submitted their work.
With that, our 2023 Summer Forum was concluded.
If you would like to view all of the pictures from the event, they are available here.
If you would like to view any of the presentations from the event, they are available here.
A huge thank you to our CM2 admin, and volunteer team, who together created and ran this entire event.
Thank you to our executive committee who helped gather presenters and students to attend the event.
- Ming Zhang, UT Austin (SOA)
- Lisa Loftus-Otway, UT Austin (CTR)
- Sandi Rosenbloom, UT Austin (SOA)
- Carol Lewis, TSU
- Bumseok Chun, TSU
- Brian Wolshon, LSU
- Erick Guerra, UPenn
- Frederick Steiner, UPenn
To get the latest updates about the projects and research of the CM2 consortium, please subscribe to the CM2 newsletter, follow us on Twitter (@CM2_UTC), or connect with us on LinkedIn.
