ITE congratulates the National Operations Center of Excellence (NOCoE) on its first anniversary celebrated in conjunction with this year’s Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting. The NOCoE was officially launched by three partner associations this time last year: The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE), and the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) with the support of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
The partners gathered at TRB with a simple idea in mind as expressed by then Chair Don Hunt, Executive Director of the Colorado DOT:
To improve surface transportation system reliability by lending exceptional support services to TSM&O practitioners
During its first year the NOCoE staff, led by Executive Director Dennis Motiani through October, reached out to the TSM&O community to increase awareness of the Center as well as to identify and provide services that practitioners requested to improve surface transportation system reliability. These services have include a knowledge center available through the NOCoE website (www.transportationops.org), a range of ongoing webinars in collaboration with our partner organizations, and multiple face-to-face peer exchanges held around the country.
As the NOCoE's second year begins, we welcome Tom Kern as interim Managing Director and Steve Lavrenz as the Center's Technical Services Manager joining Deborah Rouse, the Technical Communications Manager. Steve just recently earned his Ph.D from Purdue University and has joined ITE's staff. He splits his time with the Center and a brief self introduction to him and his recent work is available HERE. ITE will be continuing our partnership to build on these initial efforts to leverage ITE's resources to do more to support your organization's TSM&O mission and practices. Feel free to contact the Center at (202) 624-5478 or e-mail Tom or Steve to let them know how they can help.