An award-winning year in transportation

“The past year has been exciting and rewarding for the ITE Student Chapter of New York University,” Jingqin Gao, the president of the school’s Institute of Transportation Engineers chapter, wrote in her yearly review. “This year our priorities are focused upon opening an avenue of opportunity for bringing more tech and multidisciplinary events, as mobility in cities around the world is transformed by emerging technologies. As smart cities become more connected and integrated, new challenges arise, and having a discipline in transportation along with other areas, such as computer science, will give students a cutting edge in the future.”

The ITE Northeastern District applauded those priorities, honoring NYU-ITE with its Student Chapter Achievement Award, given in recognition of providing outstanding services to its members. Those members now number close to 200, since the group has, this past year, attracted more than 100 new participants, not only from the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering, but from Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Technology Management and Innovation.

In addition to that prestigious recognition from the regional ITE, the chapter also garnered Organization of the Year and Outstanding Organizational Growth honors from Tandon’s Office of Student Activities and Resource Center (OSARC).

NYU Tandon-ITE is aimed at helping aspiring transportation engineers — both undergraduate and graduate students — stay up to date on transportation and technology developments, build a network of other transportation professionals, and find leadership and career opportunities.

Gao explained that officials from both the ITE Northeastern District and Tandon’s OSARC had been impressed by the many varied activities the student chapter had planned, including:

• the popular Traffic Bowl, which brought together civil and urban engineering experts and students from schools throughout the Northeast to discuss important transportation and traffic education matters and to compete in a Jeopardy!-style competition that tests participants’ knowledge

• field trips to such fascinating sites as the NYCDOT Traffic Management Center

• tech talks on topics of interest like emerging technologies and workplace culture

“We also focused a great deal on diversity and inclusion in our industry,” Gao said, “and we’ve now held several panel discussions on women in transportation with informative speakers from places like MTA Bridges & Tunnels, Cambridge Systematics, and New Jersey Transit.”   

Faculty Advisor Jack Bringardner credits student leadership, as well as the support of C2SMART (Connected Cities with Smart Transportation), the school’s Tier 1 USDOT University Transportation Center, for the chapter’s success. “Members of the chapter are personally networking with and strengthening connections between NYU Tandon and the international community of transportation professionals,” he said. “It gives me confidence that NYU's transportation graduates will make the world’s transportation systems more efficient, better-connected, and increasingly safer in the future."

Leadership Team

President: Jingqin Gao

Vice-Presidents: Fan Zuo and Reuben Juster

Treasurers: Mateo Leon and Yueshuai He

Event Coordinators: Elsa (Hio Kuan) Kong and Logan Wagner

Public Outreach: Bruno Chede Cunha

Secretary: Siva Sooryaa Muruga Thambiran

Social Director: Assel Dmitriyeva

Communication: Manrique Vargas