The Student Chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) at Georgia Tech was awarded the Southern District of ITE (SDITE) 2009 Best Student Chapter Award and won the William H. Temple Scholarship Challenge Traffic Bowl Competition at the SDITE 2010 Annual Meeting held April 11-14th in Portsmouth, Virginia.
The Best Student Chapter Award is based on the Annual Chapter Report submitted by the SDITE student chapters, which highlight chapter activities from the previous academic year. Included in the ITE at Georgia Tech report are pictures and descriptions of chapter meetings, professional conferences, community service and social activities, student chapter outreach initiatives, awards won by student members, and student member presentations and papers from the preceding year. The winning student chapters from the Southern District are forwarded to International ITE for consideration of the International ITE Student Chapter Award to be awarded at the 2010 ITE Annual Meeting and Exhibit held August 8-11th in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The ITE at Georgia Tech Student Chapter, led by chapter President Alek Pochowski and faculty advisor Dr. Michael Hunter, had a memorable and exciting 2009-2010 school year. The student chapter hosted monthly student chapter meetings with excellent guest speakers on a wide variety of topics related to the transportation profession, and began a new Lunchtime Student Speaker Series in which students had the opportunity to present on relevant topics to their peers. Beyond the Georgia Tech campus, the chapter’s participation in the Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington DC was larger than ever before with over 40 student members in attendance, and more than 15 unique presentations by student members. In addition, the student chapter had several social events each semester, and continues to serve their community with multiple service events every semester.
In addition to winning the SDITE Best Student Chapter Award, the ITE at Georgia Tech Traffic Bowl Team, sponsored by the Georgia Section of ITE, won first place in the 2010 William H. Temple Scholarship Challenge Traffic Bowl Competition. The William H. Temple Scholarship Challenge Traffic Bowl Competition was started in 2005 by the Associated Business Division (ABD) to encourage student participation in the Southern District of ITE. Teams of three students from each Section compete in a jeopardy style challenge. The answers/questions are based on transportation and traffic related topics. As a result of their victory, the ITE at Georgia Tech Traffic Bowl team, consisting of Rama Chilikuri, Matt Kittelson, and Alek Pochowski will participate in the International Institute of Transportation Engineers Collegiate Traffic Bowl Competition taking place at the ITE Annual Meeting and Exhibit on Wednesday, August 11, 2010 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. In addition, the students received a $3,000 scholarship sponsored by the ABD.