Purdue News

March 14, 2001 Robots, road rage, gas tax, land use among road school topics WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Transportation issues ranging from robots to road rage and the gasoline tax to "intelligent transportation systems" will be explored at this year's Purdue Road School. The 87th annual event, scheduled for Tuesday (3/20) and Wednesday (3/21), attracts more than 1,200 state and local government officials, traffic experts and engineers. The conference is free and open to the public. All events take place in Stewart Center. On Tuesday the road school convenes with an opening address by Indiana Department of Transportation Commissioner Cristine Klika. A 1978 Purdue civil engineering graduate, Klika will deliver an overview of state transportation-related accomplishments, problems and issues, and transportation-related aphorisms at 8 :30 a.m. in Stewart Center's Fowler Hall. A series of concurrent sessions will follow her remarks. • Chris Kubik, a Indiana Department of Transportation economist, will speak at 10:15 a.m. in Stewart Center, Room 302, about the state gasoline tax as part of a session about new developments in funding opportunities. • Steve Beningo, from the Federal Highway Administration, will speak at 10:15 a.m. in Stewart Center, Room 218, about the use of intelligent transportation systems in rural areas. The systems use a wide range of technologies, from highway message signs that alert drivers to changing conditions, to automated highway cameras and sensors used to keep traffic flowing smoothly. Engineers hope to use the systems to increase highway capacity, reduce travel time, eliminate adverse driving behavior and improve safety, as well as reduce exhaust emissions and energy consumption. • Safety engineer Karen Mathis, with the Federal Highway Administration, and Indiana State Police Sgts. Shana Kennedy and David Murray, will talk at 10 :15 a.m. in Stewart Center, Room 314, about efforts to understand and deter aggressive driving, often referred to as road rage. • David Noyce, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering from the University of Massachusetts, will discuss topics related to bicycles, including the design and safety of shared roadways, bike lanes and shared-use paths. The presentation, at 10:15 a.m. in Stewart Center, Room 320, is sponsored by the state chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and the Central Indiana Bicycle Association. • Richard Diestelhorst, a product consultant from Caterpillar Inc., will take a futuristic look at the work force and talk about the impact of the computer age on construction equipment. The session will be at 1:30 p.m. in Stewart Center, Room 318. • At 1:30 p.m. agricultural economists will discuss how explosive population growth and urban sprawl are impacting land use in rural areas. The session, in Stewart Center, Room 320, will provide information about ways for local officials to manage fiscal and physical impacts, as well as sources for assistance. Speakers will be Mark Spelbring and Larry DeBoer, specialists from Purdue's Agricultural Economics Department. In a second segment, Bob McCormick, an Extension specialist within the Purdue Forestry Department, will discuss protecting water and environmental resources. Rick Chase, district director of Purdue's Extension services, will review the rural/urban conflict as it relates to land use planning. • Miroslaw Skibniewski, a Purdue professor of civil engineering, will present an overview on how robots are used in construction and in maintaining roads, bridges and other structures at 3:15 p.m. in Stewart Center, Room 318. Skibniewski, president of the International Association for Automation and Robotics in Construction, also will speak about promising future robotics applications in construction. The session will include discussion about remote-control robots, machines that perform predetermined jobs similar to assembly line robots, and robots that free humans from the most laborious jobs, such as sandblasting, painting and fire-proofing steel bridge girders. Robots of the future, for example, may be used to study aging structures such as bridges and buildings to see whether the builders deviated from the original designs. For example, the builder might have decided not to use steel reinforcement in a wall, even though the design called for reinforcement. But 50 years later, when the structure has to undergo major maintenance, construction crews probably would be unaware the builder did not adhere to the original design. Future robots, using advanced sensor technologies, would be able to detect any major differences between a structure and its original design, Skibniewski said. • On Wednesday at 1:30 p.m., James English, an INDOT rural transits specialist, will talk about increases in funding and availability of public transit in the state in Stewart Center, Room 218 A-B. Tom Beck, an INDOT rail-transportation specialist, will then talk about recent developments in efforts to develop a high-speed rail system in Indiana. Other sessions will focus on management, traffic, safety, construction and maintenance issues. The Road School, held annually at Purdue since 1914, was the first state highway conference in the nation. A record 1,587 people attended last year's conference. The program brings together all levels of transportation-related professionals, from the Federal Highway Administration in Washington, D.C., to the smallest municipalities in the state, said Karen Hatke, program coordinator for Purdue's Joint Transportation Research Program. The Road School is sponsored by Purdue's School of Civil Engineering, which maintains a Road School Web site, and the Indiana Department of Transportation. Source: Karen Hatke, (765) 494-9310, kshatke@purdue.edu Writers: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709; evenere@purdue.edu /Grant Flora; (765) 494-2073; gflora@purdue.edu Other sources: Kumares Sinha, Road School co-chairman, Joint Transportation Research Program director and Olson Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering, (765) 494-2211, sinha@ecn.purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page