Antioch student helps lead Cal Poly SLO Transportation Chapter to top spot in nation in Traffic Bowl competition
Cal Poly ITE, a student chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineering, was recently named ITE’s chapter of the year for the second consecutive year. Pictured, from left to right, are chapter officers Karl Schmidt, treasurer; Alex Chambers, secretary; Bobby Sidhu, marketing coordinator and Engineering Student Council representative; Kevin Carstens, president; Krista Purser, vice president; and Kelsey Littell, events coordinator.
SAN LUIS OBISPO – For the second consecutive year, Cal Poly ITE, a student chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers, has been named the institute’s international chapter of the year.
The student group – including chapter events coordinator Kelsey Littell from Anitoch – was honored at the ITE annual conference, held August 2-5 in Hollywood, Florida.
“I don’t know specifically what put us over the top again this year,” said Kevin Carstens, chapter president. “But my guess is that, in addition to our increase in membership and activities, it was our acquisition of the Transportation Engineering Student Project Area. It’s a new space in Cal Poly’s Bonderson Projects Center, which is now dedicated to transportation engineering projects and research.”
In addition to Carstens and Littell, the 2014-15 Cal Poly ITE chapter officers included Krista Purser, vice president; Karl Schmidt, treasurer; Alex Chambers, secretary; Monica Fiedler-Ross, firm tours coordinator; Bobby Sidhu, marketing coordinator and Engineering Student Council representative; and Troy Kawahara, historian and webmaster.
The club also won the title and $2,000 in the ITE Collegiate Traffic Bowl Grand Championships, competing with teams from each district in Canada and the U.S. The University of Manitoba and Purdue University placed second and third, respectively.
“Winning the Traffic Bowl was the cherry on top of this year’s Student Chapter of the Year award,” said Anurag Pande, faculty advisor for the club.
“We may not play schools like Purdue on the gridiron, but this was almost as exciting—– the three finalists turned it into a very close contest,” he said. “The Jeopardy-style event has a traffic and transportation engineering theme, and the winning question was ‘What is a sharrow?’” (Answer: A lane marking that tells drivers where to expect to share the lane with bicyclists).
Cal Poly contestants in the Traffic Bowl competition included chapter officers Carstens, Purser, Chambers and Sidhu.
The Institute of Transportation Engineers is an international association of nearly 17,000 transportation professionals and more than 140 student chapters.
Related links:
Cal Poly ITE Student Chapter www.calpolyite.com.
Institute of Transportation Engineers http://www.ite.org/
the attachments to this post:
Cal Poly engineering student
