The ITS-Howard University Connection
Kossi Adjaka, originally from Togo and a graduate student in transportation at Howard University, is working at the California Center for Innovative Transportation (CCIT) on a project that involves benchmarking travel time estimations on Bay Area freeways.
Makesi Quashie, who comes from the twin island republic of Trinidad and
Tobago, and is an undergrad at Howard University, is working with the Innovative
Mobility Research team at California Partners for Advanced Transit and
Highways (PATH) on the electronic locker portion of the EasyConnect project.
UC Berkeley’s transportation students have received more of the prestigious Eisenhower Transportation Fellowships than students at any other campus since the program began 12 years ago. As a result, the National Highway Institute’s Office of Professional Development, which administers the Eisenhower program, asked ITS if it would be willing to participate in its fledgling exchange program.
The goal of the Eisenhower Summer Exchange Program is to provide opportunities for students to participate in a wide range of significant transportation research projects at co-hosting universities. Program leaders hope that in future years, transportation students from Berkeley can spend the summer at Howard.
“The program they were suggesting fits very well with our goals of nurturing students from underrepresented groups,” explained ITS Director Samer Madanat.
Howard University was founded just after the end of the Civil War to provide education for African-American clergy, and went on to produce more on-campus African-American Ph.D.s than any other university in the world. Well-known alumni include the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American governor L. Douglas Wilder, and Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison.
Adjaka and Quashie will present the results of their research projects at a UC Berkeley forum at during the week of August 13.