FHWA SPONSORS FIRST INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION ESSAY CONTEST |
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Federal Highway Administration
May 22, 1998
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 22, 1998
Contact: Karen Whitney
Tel.: 202-366-0660
FHWA 21-98
Federal Highway Deputy Administrator Gloria J. Jeff today announced that the agency will begin accepting entries for the World Road Association’s first international essay competition. The contest, which is being conducted simultaneously in the United States and other countries around the world, is designed to stimulate new approaches to meeting the transportation challenges of the 21st century.
"This competition will tap into the vision and imagination of the world’s upcoming transportation professionals and academics as we seek innovative solutions to transportation challenges," Jeff said. "Building and maintaining safe and efficient transportation systems in the 21st century will require the best that creative minds from around the world can offer."
Essays must be submitted by Oct. 31, 1998, and should consist of an innovative, balanced, practical, applicable and multidisciplinary approach to solving a real transportation problem facing a country or region. The essay must not exceed 8,000 words or 25 pages, including diagrams, charts, photographs and illustrations. Each submission also must include a two-page summary.
Graduate students, post-graduate academics and professionals with no more than 10 years of experience in the transportation field are eligible to participate. Employees of the U.S. Department of Transportation are not eligible.
The winning essay from the United States will be awarded an all-expense paid trip to attend the 21st World Roads Congress in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in October 1999 and will be published in a future edition of FHWA’s bi-monthly magazine, Public Roads. The costs of the trip will be paid for by the FHWA.
If the winning U.S. essay is eligible to participate and is selected by the World Road Association as one of the top four essays from around the world, the primary author or team representative will present the paper on a panel at the World Roads Congress.
The United States’ segment of the contest is being conducted as a component of the Garrett A. Morgan Transportation and Technology Futures Program established by U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater on May 30, 1997. Prompted by President Clinton’s strong support for education, Secretary Slater established the program with four key objectives: improving students’ math, science and technological skills; strengthening the links between the transportation sector and community colleges, junior colleges and technical schools; expanding transportation programs at undergraduate and graduate institutions; and continuing education programs for transportation professionals. The Garrett A. Morgan Program plans to reach 1 million students with its message by the end of the year 2000.
The Morgan Program is named in honor of Garrett A. Morgan (1876-1963), an African-American entrepreneur who invented the three-phased automated traffic signal and the safety hood, later known as the gas mask.
For details on the essay competition, telephone the Office of International Programs, 202-366-2155; write to the Office of International Programs, International Essay Competition, FHWA/US DOT--HPI-10, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, D.C., 20590; fax 202-366-9626; e-mail international@fhwa.dot.gov; or go to the Internet site at www.international.fhwa.dot.gov.