Graduate students Sukumar Anekar and Swathi Korpu and PhD student Priyank Alluri from the Clemson department of civil engineering represented the state of South Carolina in the competition. To bring home first prize and a $3,000 scholarship, the students defeated other teams from North Carolina State, Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia in the preliminary round and Georgia Tech, Southern Polytech and Mississippi State in the final round. The finals had an audience of more than 200 transportation professionals who attended the conference.

For the fifth year in a row, Clemson also took home the Southern District ITE Outstanding Student Chapter Award. Clemson is in the running for the International ITE Student Chapter Award. The award is based on all the activities of the chapter for the previous year.

"We received tremendous feedback on the performance of all of our students in the competition," said student chapter faculty adviser and associate professor of civil engineering Wayne Sarasua. "This is a wonderful testament to our civil engineering program at Clemson."

Assistant professor of civil engineering Jennifer Ogle is co-adviser of the chapter. The Clemson student chapter has more than 20 members from a variety of majors.

One of the activities of the Clemson ITE chapter this year was to perform a pedestrian safety study on the university campus. The chapter, along with students from psychology and civil engineering, monitored 50 intersections and crossings, then made short-term and long-term recommendations to Clemson officials for safety improvements.

ITE is a professional society of transportation engineers, planners and other professionals in more than 70 countries. The goal of the Clemson student chapter is to introduce students to the transportation profession and supplement their classroom and laboratory experiences.

For more information about Clemson's graduate programs in civil engineering, please visit: www.grad.clemson.edu/programs/CivilEng/index.php.

Currently, intelligent transportation systems use video cameras, traffic sensors, message signs and advisory radios to monitor and control highway traffic in real time with the aid of wired and wireless communication infrastructure. A single failure can cause a domino effect that results in chaos. Public agencies have a mission to ensure that communication infrastructure not only is in place, but is reliable during extreme weather conditions such as hurricanes and floods.

To meet this requirement, new generation communication alternatives could be the answer to keeping systems up and running efficiently without the risk of failure during emergencies.

"Yan Zhou's work will focus on finding systematic methods for assessing the cost, reliability and adequacy of communication alternatives for transportation system safety and security," said Ronnie Chowdhury, Clemson civil engineering assistant professor and adviser. "It is an extremely important work that could mean the difference between life and death or serious injury to travelers during a highway incident or evacuation where prompt response is essential."

The Eisenhower Graduate Fellowship provides funding for the pursuit of master's degrees or doctorates in transportation-related fields. The objective of this highly competitive award is to attract qualified students to the fields of transportation education and research and advance transportation workforce development. The program is intended to help upgrade the scope of knowledge of the transportation community in the United States and encompasses all modes of transportation.

For more information about Clemson's graduate programs in civil engineering, please visit: www.grad.clemson.edu/programs/CivilEng/index.php.