Civil Engineering Student Honored as Mack-Blackwell Outstanding Student of the Year

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Civil engineering student, Minh Le, will be honored at the 15th annual Outstanding Student of the Year awards ceremony. The ceremony will take place in conjunction with the Transportation Research Board’s 85th annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in January 2006 as part of the Council of University Transportation Centers annual banquet.

For the past 14 years, the U.S. Department of Transportation has honored an outstanding student from each University Transportation Center at a special ceremony held during the Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting. Each student receives $1,000 plus the cost of attendance at the meeting from the center, along with a certificate from the Department of Transportation. In addition, the banquet will feature a key speaker from the transportation field and provide its own awards for university transportation research and education.

Minh Le was brought by his parents to the United States when he was four years old. He received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1997. He then began working for Metroplan, the central Arkansas metropolitan planning organization.  His responsibilities at Metroplan have included developing short- and long-range transportation plans, modeling travel demand, conducting travel-time surveys, developing roadway cross section standards, reviewing roadway design plans, and estimating project costs.

In 2005, Le took a leave of absence from Metroplan to pursue a Master of Science in Civil Engineering degree at the University of Arkansas, with an emphasis in transportation. “In his time at Metroplan, Minh became well-known for his ability to build consensus within the community.  He is a perfect example of how transportation education opportunities provided by the UTC program can benefit working professionals. I am very proud to honor Minh with our Student of the Year award,” said Melissa Tooley, director of the Mack-Blackwell Rural Transportation Center.

Le is currently conducting research funded by the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department and the Mack-Blackwell Transportation Center to examine correlations between factors that, if not taken into account, may skew or distort the analysis of the safety effects of various multilane roadway cross section designs. The findings are expected to help in comparing the relative safety of four-lane, five-lane, and raised/depressed median arterial roadways. He is expected to complete his degree in 2006.