DATE: May 27, 2008
CONTACT:
Wayne Sarasua, (864) 656-3318
sarasua@clemson.edu
WRITER:
Susan Polowczuk, (864) 656-2063
spalmer@clemson.edu
Clemson civil engineering students drive away as Traffic Bowl champions
CLEMSON — Members of the Clemson University chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) are 2008 Traffic Bowl winners. They competed at the Southern District ITE Annual Meeting in Charleston against nine other university teams in a “Jeopardy” style competition known as the William H. Temple Scholarship Challenge that tests their road engineering mettle.
Graduate students Sukumar Anekar and Swathi Korpu and Ph.D. student Priyank Alluri from the Clemson department of civil engineering represented the state of South Carolina in the competition. To bring home first prize and a $3,000 scholarship, the students defeated other teams from North Carolina State, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia in the preliminary round and Georgia Tech, Southern Polytech and Mississippi State in the final round. The finals had an audience of more than 200 transportation professionals who attended the conference.
For the fifth year in a row, Clemson also took home the Southern District ITE Outstanding Student Chapter Award. Clemson is in the running for the International ITE Student Chapter Award. The award is based on all the activities of the chapter for the previous year.
“We received tremendous feedback on the performance of all of our students in the competition,” said student chapter faculty adviser and associate professor of civil engineering Wayne Sarasua. “This is a wonderful testament to our civil engineering program at Clemson.”
Assistant professor of civil engineering Jennifer Ogle is co-adviser of the chapter. The Clemson student chapter has more than 20 members from a variety of majors.
One of the activities of the Clemson ITE chapter this year was to perform a pedestrian safety study on the university campus. The chapter, along with students from psychology and civil engineering, monitored 50 intersections and crossings, then made short-term and long-term recommendations to Clemson officials for safety improvements.
ITE is a professional society of transportation engineers, planners and other professionals in more than 70 countries. The goal of the Clemson student chapter is to introduce students to the transportation profession and supplement their classroom and laboratory experiences.
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