The Jeopardy-style contest pits the Northwest’s brightest transportation students against each other and tests students on their knowledge of transportation planning, engineering, and history with a sprinkling of arcane facts and pop culture thrown in for good measure. The knowledge-building event also brings practicing engineers and students together to network and assist transportation job seekers.
Team captain and student Kayla de Hoop coached the team, consisting of civil engineering students Michael Hoie, Garrett Stephens, Natasha Karan and Tyler Anderson. While in the Portland area, Oregon Tech students toured a multimodal bicycle and pedestrian friendly street re-construction project in Wilsonville, and the $2 billion Portland International Airport terminal expansion project.
Oregon Tech's next traffic bowl appearance will be at ITE Western District Conference in late June 2020 in Honolulu where they hope to earn a berth in the ITE International Traffic Bowl in New Orleans in August.
Roger Lindgren, Oregon Tech civil engineering department chair and chapter adviser, said the team advanced to the final round edging out the team from the University of Washington, and in that final round rallied late to beat archrival Oregon State University and fell just short of the winning team from Portland State University.
Over the years, the Chapter has arranged very successful trips to the ITE Traffic Bowl in Portland, ITE Western Region Student Leadership Conferences in Corvallis, Berkeley and San Louis Obispo, ITE International Meeting in Austin and the Transportation Research Board Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C.
The ITE Student Chapter works with other Oregon Tech student groups, such as the American Society of Civil Engineers and Tau Beta Pi (engineering honors society) to put engineering students in contact with practicing engineers and real-world projects.
The Chapter's activities are supported by a generous grant from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities.
For more information on events or to become a member, please contact chapter adviser Dr. Roger Lindgren at roger.lindgren@oit.edu.
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