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Volpe Center Highlights - March/April 2003

Director's Notes

Director's Notes | Focus | Safety | Mobility and Economic Growth
Human and Natural Environment | Organizational Excellence | Homeland Security
Awards | Papers and Presentations

Comprehensive Expertise in Transportation Systems

Each year, the Transportation Research Board's Annual Meeting provides an excellent showcase of the Center's diverse support to the DOT across all modes and strategic goals. Volpe's participation at TRB also exemplifies the Center's continuing involvement in facilitating knowledge exchange. Volpe provides a variety of services to enable knowledge sharing, education, and technology transfer across the transportation community, as well as for other federal agencies. This issue of Highlights presents a range of this work.

Conferences and workshops provide forums for professionals to exchange information and perspectives; Volpe develops large-scale and small-scale meetings involving regional, national, and international participants. A recent meeting held at the Center was the first in a series with the Canadian ministry of transport on railroad grade crossing systems in North America. On a broader scale, in conjunction with the U.S. Army, the Center co-chaired an international conference on the prevention of closed head injury attended by leading engineers and researchers in the physical and medical sciences.

Education, training, and information management are vital components of any successful organization. A Volpe team supports the design and implementation of a comprehensive, nationwide DOT program to train transportation professionals in intelligent transportation systems. Other Center staff have developed award-winning training videos for the DOT and the U.S. Army. In addition, Volpe helps many clients manage information with the right technology, developing tools from databases to Web-based data analysis systems.

Volpe experts are often called on to address particularly critical issues. Some assignments are short term, such as the quick-response analysis recently provided to the DOT Transportation Policy Office. Others may be of indefinite length. Dr. James Hallock, Chief of Volpe's Aviation Safety Division, serves on the NASA Space Shuttle Program's review board. Since the Shuttle Columbia's accident, Dr. Hallock has been serving as a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. His focus is analysis of the data on the shuttle from its launch through its disintegration. We are very proud of Dr. Hallock, and of the entire Volpe workforce, which enables the Center to continue to provide creative solutions to complex problems.

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