Education

The MATC educational component is expected to become a showpiece of the UTC program because of the high priority it will receive in terms of faculty involvement and financial support. The critical elements of our approach will include stipend support for the undergraduate and graduate students, curriculum enhancement, faculty development and educational outreach to K-12 students. MATC's goal is to pursue new initiatives in transportation education that will simultaneously recruit new students into the transportation field and expose them to multi-disciplinary issues by the transportation professionals in academia and the public and the private sectors.

American students' low science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) proficiency is a major impediment to the nation's 21st century global competitiveness. Our transportation system is becoming increasingly dependent upon technology. This is due not only to the obvious example of intelligent transportation systems, but due to the technology related to roadway and bridge design, construction, evaluation and maintenance. Unfortunately, the United States is producing fewer science and technology workers while other countries are increasing the number of graduates in these fields. Thus, the strategy underpinning the design of the Region 7 UTC education activities is that the greatest potential for reversing the paucity of domestic students pursing advanced transportation degrees is to offer timely, sophisticated education and research training experiences, especially to students from the underrepresented groups.

MATC's goal is to pursue new initiatives in transportation education that will simultaneously recruit new students into the transportation field and expose them to multidisciplinary issues by the transportation professionals in academia and the public and private sectors.

MATC's undergraduate internship program provides students to opportunity to learn more about transportation engineering careers by working for a transportation engineering consulting firm or public transportation agency.