Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) Award
Dr. Qisheng Pan, Professor in Planning and Director of CTEDD, receives an award of $157,558 from Entech Civil Engineers, Inc./Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA). The grant is to develop a Transportation Equity Framework and an Activity Based Travel Demand Model (ABM), and assist HCTRA with transportation project evaluation, resilience analysis, mobility, and accessibility analysis. Dr. Taylor Li at the Department of Civil Engineering is the Co-PI on this project. Entech Civil Engineers is a well-established multidiscipline consulting firm and one of the strongest consulting practices in Texas. Both organizations provide tolling services to METRO, and the award aims to respond to issues around transportation and develop some solutions.
Dr. Pan plays a significant role in UTA's Center for Transportation, Equity, Decisions and Dollars (CTEDD) and University Transportation Centers (UTC) program. His areas of interest include transportation and infrastructure planning, economic impact analysis, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in urban studies. CTEDD offers a variety of funding opportunities for the researchers interested in pursuing the choices that are contributive to the CTEDD focus areas, mission and vision. The various available funding opportunities intend to encourage the multidisciplinary and multi-entity collaborations. According to the Entech Civil Engineers, "With the team of our Project Managers, Technical Experts, and Design Staff, Entech will investigate the project, work closely with the your staff, and develop a design that will deliver your project in the most cost effective and timely fashion".
We are very proud as we share this well-deserved achievement of our faculty, impacting the community.