Student essay award winners honored at ITS America in Pittsburgh

The 2015 student essay winners were honored Tuesday morning during the ITS America Business Meeting. Chris Fitzpatrick from the University of Missouri wrote the winning essay about the potential of platooning autonomous commercial trucks with a single driver, saving fuel, improving safety and increasing lane capacity. Fitzpatrick’s winning essay ‘Enhancing Commercial Vehicle Safety and Emissions Reduction by the use of Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication in Tractor-Trailer Platoons’ argues that the technolo
June 3, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Chris Fitzpatrick from the University of Missouri
The 2015 student essay winners were honored Tuesday morning during the 560 ITS America Business Meeting.

Chris Fitzpatrick from the University of Missouri wrote the winning essay about the potential of platooning autonomous commercial trucks with a single driver, saving fuel, improving safety and increasing lane capacity. Fitzpatrick’s winning essay ‘Enhancing Commercial Vehicle Safety and Emissions Reduction by the use of Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication in Tractor-Trailer Platoons’ argues that the technology exists for this type of application and could be implemented in the near future.

Hyoshin Park won second place for an essay titled ‘Innovative Applications of Bluetooth Technology on Arterial Roads’ while ‘Assessing the Impact of Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CAACC) Technology in Managed Lanes Using Dynamic Traffic Assignment’ by Somaye Fakharian Qom was awarded third place.

Sponsored by the 5690 Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), the essay competition is designed to foster student interest in the development of ITS-based solutions and encourage future participation in the industry as a career path.

Fitzpatrick, the winner of the competition, is working on his Masters degree in civil engineering with a focus on transportation, and his research into the essay has inspired him to pursue a career in ITS.

Related Content

  • April 9, 2019
    ITS America student essay competition: deadline 14 April
    The deadline for US college students to take part in ITS America’s annual essay competition is fast approaching – entries must be in by Sunday 14 April. The competition, sponsored by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), invites students of transportation, engineering and public policy to share ‘thought provoking’ visions for the future of transport. The topic is: ‘How do you envision disruptive technologies impacting transportation systems to make them safer, greener or smarter over the next 10 years?’ U
    Read More
  • June 2, 2025
    ITS World Congress 2025: getting young people interested in ITS
    Future Leaders Program will pay for three students to attend event in Atlanta
    Read More
  • October 17, 2019
    Solving Detroit’s jams: just ask a Michigan student
    At the Institute of Transportation Engineers annual meeting, a clever student plan to reduce commute times in Detroit suggests the future of the ITS industry is in good hands, write Pete Spiller and Jarrod Cady A team of students from the University of Michigan won a national student Transportation Technology Tournament - sponsored by the National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) and the US Department of Transportation - with a compelling presentation on reducing congestion. In an impressive d
    Read More
  • July 24, 2017
    Truck platooning trials take to the highways
    There is rising enthusiasm in America and beyond for the concept of truck platooning with trials being planned in several US states, as David Crawford reports. Growing numbers of US states are considering or implementing plans for trials of electronically-linked truck platooning on public road networks. This is in response to the interest being shown by the US$70bn a year road freight industry, where fuel represents 41% of the operating costs making the prospect of improving fuel economy by trucks travellin
    Read More

Highlighted Content