Shane Luck, a former MSc student at Newcastle University now employed by WSP Group, has been awarded the joint TRL / ITS (UK) Student Prize for best essay.
Shane received his prize during a visit to TRL in May. His essay How can future applications of ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) in surface transport improve the transport system for the user? was judged by Dr Alan Stevens of TRL, Professor Peter White of the University of Westminster, and Jennie Martin of ITS (UK), to be the best entry.
Shane said” I am very grateful to receive this award and equally grateful for the opportunity to express my opinion on the role ITS may play in the future of surface transport. It’s very rewarding to express an opinion in a respected forum where it will be listened to. I would like to extend my thanks to both ITS (UK) and TRL for choosing my submission and for an insightful tour of the interesting work which is carried out by TRL at Crowthorne. Equally I would like to thank the staff at Newcastle University who encourage healthy debate and scrutiny of ITS technologies and other transport systems and to my new colleagues at WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff who are now providing me with a means to utilise my transport knowledge and ambitions.”
Dr Anil Namdeo of the Transport Operations Research Group (TORG) at Newcastle University commented “We are proud to see one of our master students win the prestigious Student Prize supported by TRL. Shane Luck truly deserves this award, he demonstrated his prowess by winning the Peter Hill Prize as the Best Overall Student on the Transport MSc programme at TORG, Newcastle University. He also won the Jacobs Prize for the outstanding work related to Transport Modelling. He is the first student in more than 15 years to secure distinction in all taught modules in a transport MSc programme. He obtained distinction for his MSc dissertation as well. We join ITS (UK) and TRL in congratulating Shane for his outstanding achievements.”
TRL’s CEO, Rob Wallis, added: “The continued sponsorship and development of new talent from academia into business is a critical focus for TRL and other organisations in our industry.
Many of today’s innovations and new thinking is only possible following years of sustained investment in supporting academic students, and subsequently hiring and developing them as employees. TRL is proud to be part of this initiative together with ITS (UK), and congratulates Shane Luck on his achievement, I am sure only one of many to come.”
Alan Stevens of TRL commented “It’s always refreshing to read ideas and insights from young professionals so it was no hardship to review all the entries. I congratulate all the entrants on their work. Shane’s essay particularly impressed us not only for the breadth of analysis but also the way he expressed his opinions and proposals for improving our transport systems.”
Original source: TRL
