Presentation Title

Designing a Career in Transportation: Advice for Students

Presentation Abstract

The transportation field offers unlimited opportunities for students to make positive differences in their communities, the nation and the world. This presentation will focus on observations, lessons and advice gained from the speaker’s one third of a century working in the transportation field in public service, the private sector and academia. Please bring your questions about career options. After the seminar, each student will design their own life as a transportation professional.

Speaker Bio

Robert L. Bertini comes to the OSU College of Engineering from the University of South Florida, where he was executive director of the Center for Urban Transportation Research, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and director of sustainable transportation at the Patel College of Global Sustainability. He is a licensed professional engineer in Oregon, California and Florida and has been recognized as a Fellow by the American Society of Civil Engineers, by the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and as a Senior Member with IEEE.

Bertini was appointed in 2009 by President Barack Obama as the deputy administrator for research and innovative technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation, where he also led the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office and chaired the department’s Innovation Council. He had a special responsibility for civil rights within the agency, working with labor and employee organizations to strengthen the diversity, collaborative spirit, trust, and employee satisfaction of the organization. Earlier in his career Bertini was a professor at Portland State University and California Polytechnic State University, as well as working for seven years in industry. He was the founding director of the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium, a statewide, four-campus, national university transportation center in Oregon.

Bertini’s primary research interests are sustainable transportation solutions, traffic flow theory, intelligent transportation systems, multimodal transportation and proactive traffic management and operations. He is a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, is the editor of the Journal of Public Transportation and chairs the National Academies’ Transportation Research Board Operations Section. He is committed to engineering education at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels, strongly supports student organizations and has led a study abroad course on sustainable urban mobility.

Speaker Headshot

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