ITS America and Southwest Research® Institute® (SwRI®) are proud to partner once again for the 2017 ITS Student Essay Competition. This competition serves as an opportunity for today’s transportation, engineering, and public policy students to apply their knowledge in a thought-provoking manner for a chance to win scholarship money, while building awareness of the high-tech transportation industry as a limitless career path.
The competition encourages engineering students to help advance transportation technologies by sharing their ideas and concepts in an original essay.
ITS World Congress 2017 is the leading industry event bringing together global leaders in intelligent and transformative transportation to showcase the latest innovative concepts, active prototypes, and live systems in integrated mobility. Academics, researchers, policymakers, businesses, entrepreneurs, investors, and implementers from the transport, automotive, telecommunications, and technology sectors—come together to address the transportation challenges facing our mobile, connected societies today and in the future.
“As we enter the sixth year of our sponsorship, we continue to be impressed by the creativity expressed by the students in their essays,” said Josh Johnson, Director in SwRI’s Intelligent Systems Division. “By taking an active role in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) challenges now, students are helping to set themselves up for success to an important industry that’s always aggressively searching for new and innovative ideas.”
The winning 2,000-word essay will be selected based on the thought-provoking insights expressed regarding the competition topic: How do you envision the city of the future (10-year horizon) will address transportation through the use of new innovative technologies? The winning student will receive a $1,000 cash prize and complimentary registration to attend ITS World Congress 2017 Montréal, including air and hotel expenses.
“Through this essay competition, we are able to provide an opportunity for the next generation of industry leaders. It is a way to not only connect with the larger community of innovators, engineers and researchers on this global stage, but provides students a platform to lend their fresh and pioneering thinking on important subjects. Their work will be influencing the future of innovative technologies and integrated mobility driving the future of smart cities. Thank you to SwRI for their continued support and sponsorship of this contest,” commented David St. Amant, Interim President and CEO ITS America.
Students interested in entering the competition must be full-time graduate or undergraduate
students enrolled in an accredited college or university. Essays should be submitted as a
Microsoft Word® or PDF attachment to ITSWC2017StudentEssay@swri.org by October 1, 2017.
The 2017 winner will be announced at ITS World Congress 2017 Montréal.
