Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN)

Graduate Fellowships in

Transportation Infrastructure Engineering

Want to learn more? Please plan to attend one of the following information Webinars:

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 7:00 pm, or

Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 4:00 pm

To register for either please email Professor Sue McNeil at smcneil@udel.edu with the subject "GAANN Webinar." Include the date of the meeting you wish to attend. An email invitation with instructions will be forwarded. We look forward to "seeing" you there!

Objective & Background | The Program | The Fellowship | Participating Faculty | How to Apply |Contacts

Objective:

The objective of our GAANN fellowship program is to educate and train Ph.D. students in the area of transportation infrastructure engineering.

Background:

The deteriorating condition of our nation’s transportation infrastructure is well known. Almost daily, the general public hears stories of congested highways, pothole-riddled roads, crumbling bridges, and delayed commuter trains due to poor track conditions. The 2009 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Report Card for America’s Infrastructure1 grades roads a D-, bridges a C, transit a D, and rail a C-. Insufficient funds, years of neglect, and poor maintenance practices have led to these conditions. While the economic stimulus bill includes $48 billion for transportation infrastructure, this does not come close to meeting the $2.2 trillion need identified as part of ASCE’s Report Card, and underscores the need for a new generation of engineers who will serve as the stewards of these assets and academics who will train these stewards. This new generation of academics and researchers must be trained to handle the multitude of problems associated with deteriorating systems and a changing environment due to climate change in the context of sustainable transportation systems from an environmental, social and economic perspective. These individuals require education and training in a broad range of fields from structural, transportation, and geotechnical engineering, to risk and reliability, planning and public policy, asset management, and sustainability. More importantly, the next generation of academics and engineers needs to be trained to address these issues from the viewpoint of the entire system. Historically, individual elements of our transportation infrastructure have been designed with little regard for their relation to other elements of the system and how these elements will be operated and maintained.