Three CoE Graduate Students Receive Lifesavers Traffic Safety Scholarships
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Graduate students Angelina Caggiano and Holly Russell of the of the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department and Meng Wang of the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) Department have been named to the cohort of 33 national and international 2023 Lifesavers Traffic Safety Scholars. The program enabled the three College of Engineering (CoE) students to attend the Lifesavers National Conference on Highway Safety Priorities on April 2 to 4 in Seattle, Washington, by providing scholarships to defray the cost of attending the nation's biggest assembly of traffic-safety professionals.
A Lifesavers press release also said that the program will send letters of accreditation to Caggiano, Russell, and Wang upon completion of the Traffic Safety Scholars Program Requirements. It explained that the Lifesavers Conference “showcases the latest research, evidence-based strategies, proven countermeasures, and promising new approaches for addressing the nation’s most pressing traffic-safety problems.”
CEE Professor and CoE Associate Dean Michael Knodler is the advisor for Caggiano and Russell. His wide-ranging laboratory studies: transportation safety; driver behavior (older and younger); data analysis, access, and management; traffic operations; human factors; geometric design; pedestrians and bicycles; geographic information systems; and intelligent transportation systems.
Wang works in the lab of MIE Assistant Professor Shannon Roberts, which focuses on understanding how drivers interact with technology and infrastructure to guide the design of driver-vehicle interactions.
As Roberts says, “The COE has had one or two Traffic Safety Scholars per year in the past, but having three students go in one year is outstanding.”
According to the press release, this is the eighth year of the Traffic Safety Scholars Program. “The program’s goals are to showcase the diversity of opportunities in traffic safety and encourage students, regardless of discipline, to pursue a career in a dynamic field that draws from a variety of disciplines from engineering, education, and enforcement to communications, business, marketing, medicine, public health, political science, counseling, and more.”
The Lifesavers press release explained that Caggiano, Russell, and Wang kicked-off their Lifesavers experience by learning about career opportunities from a panel of young traffic-safety professionals working in the public and private sectors. In addition, the three CoE students met with state and national traffic-safety leaders during a later reception.
The Lifesavers release also noted that Caggiano, Russell, and Wang “had the opportunity to participate in three plenary sessions and over 80 workshops featuring leading experts in the fields of distracted and impaired driving; child passenger, pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle, teen, and aging-driver safety; occupant protection; vehicle technology; law enforcement and criminal justice; public health; commercial motor vehicles; roadway design; and more.” (April 2023)
