ITE Student Chapter Dominates at Annual MOVITE Meeting

The 2022 meeting of the Missouri Valley Institute of Transportation Engineers (MOVITE) took place in Overland Park, Kansas. In only its second year, the Traffic Bowl competition is a “Jeopardy” style quiz game consisting of answers and questions covering a variety of topics related to transportation engineering. The competition consists of teams of three. Master's students Lizbeth Juarez-Bartolo, Kwadwo Amankwah-Nkyi and Adedolapo Ogungbire represented Arkansas, defeating teams from Kansas University and Southern Illinois University to earn Traffic Bowl victory for the second year in a row.

The Arkansas ITE Student Chapter, mentored by civil engineering associate professor Sarah Hernandez and civil engineering assistant professor Suman Mitra, consisted of graduate students Fariha Tasnim, Arna Nishita Nithila and Vuban Chowdhury along with the Traffic Bowl team members.

In addition to the Traffic Bowl, these civil engineering students achieved success in other areas. The team of Chowdhury, Amankwah-Nkyi and Ogungbire took first place in the Student Design competition. Judged by three professional traffic engineers, the team presented solutions to an open-ended transportation design problem with a focus on transportation safety.

The Student Poster competition was undertaken by Tasnim, Nithila and Amankwah-Nkyi with all three taking awards. Nithila’s poster titled “Knowledge and Opinion About New Transportation Options Among the Older Adults in Arkansas” was awarded Best Poster Award in Graduate Level category. Tasnim’s poster titled “Data-Driven Method to Assess Transportation System Resilience in Arkansas: A Case Study Development” earned the Outstanding Poster Award Overall. Amankwah-Nkyi’s poster titled “Criticality Assessment Metrics of Arkansas’ Highway System using the Analytical Heirarchy Process (AHP) Model” earned Best Poster Award in Graduate Level category.

The ITE Student Chapter team would like to thank Nathan Becknell of TEC Consulting, Andy Brewer of Olsson Consulting, and Brian Vines of Halff Associates for their assistance in helping the teams prepare for the competition. They would also like to extend their thanks to ARITE (Arkansas Institute of Transportation Engineers) President James Arbuckle of Halff for his support of the team.

The Institute of Transportation Engineers is the professional society of persons engaged in the planning, design and operation of streets, highways and other transportation facilities. The Missouri Valley District, consisting of members from Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma was chartered in 1951, with the U of A chapter joining in 1993.

About the Department of Civil Engineering: The Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Arkansas was established in 1897 when the College of Engineering made clear the separation of civil and mechanical engineering degrees. The department maintains accreditation from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and ranks in the top 10% of civil engineering schools nationwide according to Best Engineering Schools. The department earned $2.7 million in research awards in fiscal year 2020 while our graduates earn a starting salary averaging $68,000. To learn more about the Department of Civil Engineering please visit our website.