Infrastructure Academy Transportation Program

Abstract:

The College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology at the California State University, Los Angeles has expanded its National Summer Transportation Institute into a year-long program by creating the Infrastructure Academy Transportation Program (IATP). The goal of this program is to build a pipeline of diverse, well qualified young people for the transportation industry. The program works with high school students and teachers to offer academic courses, basic skills, workforce readiness training, internships, extracurricular activities, and career placements to prepare students and place them into the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) College track. The academy emphasizes on transportation as an industry sector and aims to increase the number of underrepresented minorities and women who directly enter the transportation workforce. It also aims at increasing the number of young people who enter college to study engineering or technology and subsequently pursue careers in transportation- and infrastructure-related careers. The IATP was conducted as a full-year program with 30 student participants from high schools.

Publications:

Infrastructure Academy Transportation Program (Full Report)

Research Brief

Authors:

HASSAN HASHEMIAN, PhD

Dr. Hashemian has been a professor of Civil Engineering at California State University, Los Angeles for forty years. He has been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in transportation and traffic engineering, transportation planning, traffic flow analysis, engineering economics, and probability and statistics. In addition, Dr. Hashemian has extensive experience managing federal and State-funded research and training programs. In the past thirty years, he has managed over 32 training programs and 35 research and consulting projects. He has also demonstrated success in many outreach projects including the Infrastructure Academy Transportation Program, the Summer Transportation Institute, the Garrett Morgan Education Program, and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Fellowship program. Dr. Hashemian is a highly respected educator. On January 11, 2018, at the Transportation Research Board meeting in Washington, D.C., he received the FHWA public service award for his outstanding dedication, leadership, and contributions to advancing transportation education, research, and workforce development. He has won a number of other awards for research and teaching, including the Exemplary Achievement Award from Secretary of Transportation Mr. Rodney Slater in 1988, ITE in 1995, FHWA in 2001 and 2002, and the Outstanding Professor Award at CSU LA in 2006, 2007, and 2012. Dr. Hashemian has presented several technical papers at international and national conferences focusing on transportation engineering. For the present project, Dr. Hashemian was responsible for the academic leadership of the program, including the selection of instructors, academic assessments, and teaching. He was also responsible for implementing the statement of work according to the funding requirements of the MTI. Dr. Hashemian received his BS and MS from University of Wisconsin, Madison, and his PhD from University of California, Berkeley.

Published:

January 2021

Keywords:

Workforce development

STEM

Transportation career

Transportation Outreach

Transportation education