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As a US Department of Transportation University Transportation Center, the Mid-America Transportation Center (MATC) selects one student working under affiliated faculty as the Student of the Year. This year's recipient, Khalid Al-Kady, was awarded during the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) Student Banquet that takes place at the annual Transportation Research Board meeting in Washington, D.C.
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The 2023 Mid-America Transportation Center (MATC) Scholars Program hosted 23 students from 11 Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions for a four day itinerary of informational sessions and networking opportunities.
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The Mid-America Transportation Center (MATC) Sovereign Native Youth STEM Leadership Academy took place June 18 to 22 on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus and brought in 33 Native youth from across the state.
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Dr. George Constantinescu, Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Iowa, has completed Phase V of his project as part of the Mid-America Transportation Center (MATC). Titled “Development of New Design Guidelines for Protection against Erosion at Bridge Abutments”, the project investigates erosion at bridge abutments caused by severe flooding in the United States Midwest.
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36 NTC faculty, staff, students, and affiliates will be making a big impression with poster and lectern presentations at the January 8-12 TRB Annual Meeting.
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The Sovereign Native Youth STEM Leadership Academy is one of MATC’s most hands-on experiences and activity-oriented programs. This year marked the return of an in-person event after the COVID-19 pandemic limited the outreach to online activities the previous two years. The program was in full swing on June 26th with 32 students and a full agenda.
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This year’s MATC Scholars Program for Tribal College Students hosted two students from the Nebraska Indian Community College (NICC) and brought them to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s (UNL) campus to hear presentations and meet professionals from both the university setting and work force to encourage further educuation.
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Six Interns took their classroom knowledge to the Lincoln and Omaha workforce this summer.
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In his September webinar “Optimizing the Configuration of Food Supply Chains”, Dr. Haitao Li from the University of Missouri – St. Louis (UMSL) introduced the food supply chain configuration problem (FSCCP) to explain the direction of his research on finding an efficient, quality, sustainable, and resilient method for food supply chain optimization.
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MATC Education and Outreach Coordinator Dr. Gabriel Bruguier was invited for an interview on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s (UNL) Medium site. He spoke about what he does for MATC and what led him to that position, talked on the educational programs he leads and his passion for youth education, and elaborated on future goals and influential people he has had the opportunity to work with in his career.
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Every year university transportation centers like MATC are given the chance to recognize outstanding students that represent an exceptional level of leadership, academic achievement, and research ability at the annual Transportation Research Board (TRB) Conference held in January. This year MATC is pleased to honor Khalid Alkady with this award, which will be presented during the conference on January 7, 2023. In addition, Khalid is provided with a scholarship and complimentary travel and lodging for the conference. Congratulations Khalid Alkady!

The annual January Transportation Research Board (TRB) conference in Washington DC takes a night to honor exemplary students from University Transportation Centers (UTC) across the nation. Awards are given at the Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC) virtual student banquet in which awarded students compile a short video to talk about their area of study or research and future plans.
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The Spring 2022 semester returned the MATC Roads, Rails, and Race Cars (RRRC) After-School program to schools in Lincoln. With the program’s resurgence, new ideas on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math were introduced in the club’s projects.
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Prior to the COVID 19 Pandemic, MATC’s Roads, Rails, and Race Cars (RRRC) After School program was implemented at several sites outside of the Lincoln area. The pandemic caused suspension of outreach activities at all sites, and limited engagement and restrictions as schools began to re-open.
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The Nebraska Safety Center at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) has been touring college transportation centers in hopes of expanding their capabilities when they move their location on the UNK campus.
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The Transportation Research Board’s (TRB’s) 101st annual meeting returned to an in-person event at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC. The conference hosted policy makers, administrators, practitioners, researchers, and representatives of the government, industry, and academic institutions for over 400 sessions and workshops.
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Researchers at Midwest Roadside Safety Facility (MwRSF) are in the fourth year of the project “Investigation and Development of a MASH Test Level 6, Cost-Effective, Barrier System for Containing Heavy Tractor Tank-Trailer Vehicles and Mitigating Catastrophic Crash Event”. After performing numerous calculations and simulations, they were finally ready to do a full-scale test early December at the Outdoor Proving Ground facility.
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Spring 2021 was the last semester MATC would be led by Dr. Laurence Rilett. He has served as the director since 2004 and is responsible for its success in gaining University Transportation Centers (UTC) funding and spearheading the many educational outreach programs. His new position marks him as leader of the recently established Auburn University Transportation Research Institute within the College of Engineering.
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The ultimate goal of the research is to develop clinical tools to predict the on-the-road driving safety for CDL drivers. This information can then be used by health care providers and the DOT as a framework for commercial truck drivers to improve their driving fitness and, in turn, prevent future accidents.
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The MATC after school Roads, Rails, and Race Cars (RRRC) program returned to in-person lessons at a few middle schools this semester.
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The Scholars Program, sponsored by the Mid-America Transportation Center and the Nebraska Department of Transportation, is a multi-day conference designed to encourage students in underrepresented groups in the STEM fields. With the help of diverse faculty and on-site professionals, students are taught the necessary skills to succeed in higher education and continue on to obtain graduate degrees in their chosen STEM-related fields.
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Lincoln Public School students who participated in MATC's Roads, Rails, and Race Cars (RRRC) after school program were treated to all new lessons and activities that connected them to Nebraska's Native American cultural heritage.
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MATC hosted one webinar this semester thanks to Dr. Steven Corns, Associate Professor of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology. His talk, “Deep Learning Techniques for Flash Flood Management” gave insight into his research finding a methodology that provides both risk quantification and optimal rerouting guidance for flash flooding
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The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is a private, independent, nonprofit institution that provides engineering leadership by promoting a vibrant engineering profession through the participation of eminent engineers. Dr. Witold Krajewski is joining a group of more than 2,000 peer-elected members who are among the world’s most accomplished engineers to provide expertise for numerous projects focused on relationships between engineering, technology, and the quality of life.
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MATC hosts a series of educational outreach programs throughout the year that invite youth from grade schools, high schools, and two-year colleges to get acquainted with science, technology, engineering, and math. As a result of the pandemic, MATC transitioned all four of its signature outreach programs to an online format in 2020.
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Harry Nguyen had the best report of the MATC 2020 Summer Intern Program! Harry spent his summer working with Dr. Li Zhao at the Mid-America Transportation Center on her research project studying early and late merges on Interstate work zones. Due to limitations with COVID-19, Harry worked with Dr. Zhao remotely and describes the challenges communicating and learning new technology remotely. In his report, Harry details the type of work he did: gathering research literature, learning and implementing the simulation program VISSIM, and gathering data from different Interstate sections throughout Nebraska that employ lane closure in work zones.

This opportunity has given Harry the chance to implement his classroom learning to a real work setting, saying the experience “brought me the first impression to what my career would look like.” You can read Harry’s and the other interns’ reports at https://matc.unl.edu/internship_success.

MATC hosts a series of educational outreach programs throughout the year that invite youth from grade schools, high schools, and two-year colleges to get acquainted with science, technology, engineering, and math. As a result of the pandemic, MATC transitioned all four of its signature outreach programs to an online format in 2020.
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On behalf of the Mid-America Transportation Center (MATC), Director Dr. Jamilla Teixeira, Professor of Civil Engineering at the Federal University of Espírito Santo, Brazil and previous Ph.D. graduate of UNL, led a presentation at the Prem S. Paul Research Center on June 14 about her group’s various projects involving innovative uses for local by-products in pavements.

Dr. Teixeira has been collaborating with UNL Professor Dr. Yong-Rak Kim from April 2018 to June 2019 through the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES) Post-doctoral Program. Their project includes working on advanced microscale characterization of different types of steel slags as well as performing numerical modeling of rate-dependent geomaterials based on a nonlinear viscoelastic cohesive zone model.
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