Civil Engineering Graduate Student Honored by U.S. Department of Transportation

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Lizbeth Juarez-Bartolo receiving her award at the Transportation Research Board banquet in Washington, D.C.

Lizbeth Juarez-Bartolo B.S.C.E.'21 and her continued research in transportation planning, transportation policy and infrastructure systems has garnered University Transportation Centers' Outstanding Student of the Year award, sponsored by the United States Department of Transportation.

Each year students are honored for their achievements and promise for future contributions to the transportation field at an annual banquet. These students are selected based on their accomplishments in such areas as technical merit and research, academic performance, professionalism and leadership. 

During the Missouri Valley District Institute of Transportation Engineers' Spring Conference, Juarez-Bartolo's team won the Regional Traffic Bowl Competition, which qualified the team for the International Traffic Bowl Competition. Traffic Bowl is a Jeopardy-style competition with questions regarding transportation engineering topics.

After receiving a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the U of A in 2021, Juarez-Bartolo decided to remain in Arkansas, accepting a position as a graduate research assistant while pursuing her master's degree in transportation engineering. She expects to complete her master's degree in December.

Juarez-Bartolo's projects include serving as CEO of a startup, selling remote sensor technology for a National Science Foundation program, and creating and deploying a statewide traffic safety survey. While working on various research projects, she has also been able to participate in the Institute of Transportation Engineers. Her specific areas of research are accessibility and mobility, land use and transportation interactions, and transportation equity. 

Juarez-Bartolo's thesis is titled "Food Deserts Effect on Arkansas's Rural Residents' Exposure to Vehicle Crashes." Food deserts are areas where people do not have convenient options to obtain affordable healthy groceries and produce, due to distance from the grocery store, lack of accessible transportation and low socioeconomic status.

In Arkansas, based on available Census tract data, 50% of the population lives approximately 10 miles or farther from a grocery store, meaning they have diminished access to healthy groceries and fresh produce. While research into the adverse health effects of living within a food desert has been researched abundantly, there has been little research observing the effects on drivers' safety due to the presence of food deserts.

Utilizing the "2022 Arkansas Safety Awareness Survey," information will be gathered on safety attitudes, driving and riding behaviors, awareness of traffic safety enforcement and campaign activities, knowledge and opinions regarding cellphone usage laws, and trip information regarding grocery trips. The information gathered from this survey will be utilized to see the effects of food deserts on rural drivers' likeliness of being in a vehicular crash due to exposure on the roadways.

Juarez-Bartolo was nominated by her adviser Sarah Hernandez, professor of civil engineering, and Heather Nachtmann, director of the Maritime Transportation Research and Education Center at the U of A.  MarTREC is one of the original 20 Tier 1 University Transportation Centers in existence since 2016. For more information, please visit MarTrec.

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 an accreditation from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and ranks in the top 10 percent of civil engineering schools nationwide according to Best Engineering News. The department earned more than $7 million in research awards for fiscal year 2022, while our graduates earn a starting salary averaging $68,000. To learn more about the Department of Civil Engineering, please visit our website.