September 11th Memorial Program Students Present the Results of their Projects
As a capstone to their year-long research and planning projects under NYMTC’s September 11th Memorial Program for Regional Transportation Planning, four student scholars presented the results of their efforts at a Brown Bag Lunch event on September 15, 2021. David Anton, Carla Tejada, Seth Kerr, and Niloufar Nouri are the selected September 11th Program scholars for the 2020-2021 academic year.
The September 11th Program is NYMTC’s living memorial to Ignatius Adanga, Charles Lesperance and See Wong Shum, the three NYMTC staff members lost during the attacks on the World Trade Center. Through the September 11th Program, NYMTC provides stipends and research/planning opportunities to graduate students on a competitive basis each academic year.
The September 11th Program began in the 2005-2006 academic year. The projects undertaken by each year’s selected students are developed by NYMTC’s members and staff to address identified regional planning and research needs. The 2020- 2021 student scholars were assigned mentors and worked with them to undertake a planning or research project, gaining professional experience on a practical and applied project.
The 2020-2021 September 11th Program student scholars and their projects are described below:
David Anton is a second-year student in the Master of Public Administration program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). For his September 11th Memorial Program research, David worked with NYMTC staff to study the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on NYMTC’s socioeconomic and demographic forecasts and travel demand models. The project focused on assessing how the increase in telework due to the pandemic impacted the location of job opportunities across the New York metropolitan area and commuting patterns over time.
Carla Tejada is a Ph.D. student in Transportation Engineering at the City College of New York (CCNY). Carla’s September 11th Memorial Program internship was with The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) in the Pedestrian Unit. Carla’s work focused on developing a Pedestrian Network Flow Model that will allow NYCDOT to identify pedestrian generators, dense walking areas, and walking trip flows within NYC. This model will provide information to the New York City Comprehensive Pedestrian Map that will help create more rationality in the decision-making process within NYC streets.
Seth Kerr is pursuing a Master of Urban Planning degree at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service. Seth worked with NYMTC staff to research ways to improve NYMTC’s long-range infrastructure needs assessment and financial forecasting processes. Seth had the opportunity to undertake benchmarking research involving regional councils and state DOTs across the country for best practices. Seth also helped NYMTC staff develop internal procedural checklists for long-range financial forecasting.
Niloufar Nouri is pursuing her Ph.D. in the civil engineering program at CCNY. Niloufar worked with NYMTC staff to research new methods of collecting travel data and identify how such methods can complement traditional travel surveys. She identified potential alternative travel data sources such as cellular data and Location Based Services (LBS). Niloufar analyzed the methodology, statistical properties, strengths, and limitations of these travel data sources.
NYMTC is proud to remember its fallen colleagues by providing opportunities to talented students interested in transportation technology, research and planning. At the conclusion of the 2020-2021 students’ presentation on September 15th, NYMTC welcomed the selected student scholars for the 2021- 2022 academic year: Julia Amaral working with NYMTC staff, and Cristina Mejia, Fabian Barch, and Liang Tao working with New York City DOT.
To view a recording of the brown bag, click here.
To view David Anton’s presentation, click here.
To view Carla Tejada’s presentation, click here.
To view Seth Kerr’s presentation, click here.
To view Niloufar Nouri’s presentation, click here.
For more details on the memorial program, click here.