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Shepherd Named UTC 2008 Student of the Year for Region VIII
Benjamin Shepherd, originally from Reidsville, North Carolina, was named the University Transportation Centers Student of the Year for 2008 at the Jan. 12 Transportation Research Board meeting in Washington, D.C.
Shepherd is enrolled at the University of Utah under the Army's Advance Civil Schooling program. He is currently pursuing a master's of civil engineering and doing research at the UDOT Traffic Operations Center in Salt Lake City. Shepherd earned a B.S. degree in engineering management from the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, in 2001.
Shepherd served with the 18th Field Artillery Brigade (Airborne) at Fort Bragg, NC, from 2002 to 2007. He was deployed to Mosul, Iraq from 2003 to 2004 and Tikrit, Iraq from 2005 to 2006.
He has past work experience as headquarters and headquarters battery commander from 2004 to 2007. He was responsible for morale, welfare, and training of a 75-person artillery battery deployed to Tikrit, Iraq. As brigade fire control officer, Shepherd controlled all artillery and rocket fires for a field artillery brigade consisting of 54 155mm howitzer cannons and 18 multiple-launch rocket systems. He also managed hazardous and explosive brigade ammunition assets. From 2002 to 2004, he was battalion fire direction officer where he planned, coordinated and controlled all fires for an 18-gun artillery battalion and prepared operations orders for battalion-level training events and real-world deployments. He also held the positions of battery fire direction officer, platoon leader, and executive officer.
Shepherd has received numerous awards and decorations including two Bronze Star Medals, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Iraqi Campaign Medal, Army Service Ribbon, and National Defense Service Ribbon.
New Student Profiles
Colorado State University
Chris Turnbull-Grimes is an M.S. student in structural engineering and solid mechanics and received his B.S. degree in civil engineering from Colorado State University in Spring 2007. He is a past president of the ASCE student chapter and co-captain of its steel bridge team. He is a research aide on MPC projects on improved safety of bus shelters and upgrading a vehicle impact facility to Department of State standards for testing anti-terrorism structures.
Nathan Miller received his B.S. degree in engineering from Dordt College in Iowa. He is presently a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is conducting MPC supported research on shear spiking to stiffen and strengthen 50-75 year old timber railroad bridge members provided by the BNSF railroad. The BNSF is interested in the feasibility of the method for field repairs. Miller's thesis will focus on time-dependent effects on wood-concrete members comprised of salvaged utility poles.
North Dakota State University
Khalid Bachkar is originally from Casablanca, Morocco. In 1999, Bachkar earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Hassan II University – Mohammedia, Morocco. In 2005, he earned a master's degree in information systems from Shippensburg University – Pennsylvania. Currently, Bachkar is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery. In the future, he plans to teach and conduct research relating to international logistics and supply chain management.
Qing Liu is from Rizhao, China. Lui earned a bachelor's degree in transportation from Dalian Maritime University in Dalian, China. She plans to eventually earn her Ph.D. from NDSU. Her primary research interests include supply chain management and port planning.
Yinan Hu is from Wuhan, China. She plans to pursue a career in consulting, teaching or research. Her main research interests include supply chain management, logistics economics and highway planning. In 2007, she earned her bachelor's degree in management from Zhongan University of Economics and Laws in Wuhan. Hu received the third prize for Undergraduate Special Scholarship for excellent individual performance in academic competition three times, and is also a three-time recipient of the first place prize of National Renmin Scholarship.
Yolanda Carson is originally from Buffalo, NY. She earned her Ph.D. in industrial engineering and systems science in 1998 from the State University of New York at Binghamton under a National Science Foundation Fellowship. Her dissertation was "An Evolutionary-Strategy Based Simulation-Optimization Methodology for Multi-Objective-Optimization." She also earned an M.S. in industrial engineering with concentrations in production systems and manufacturing engineering and a B.S. in industrial engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo. In the future, Carson would like to teach, conduct research, and consult in the area of operations research/military operations research focusing on modeling and simulation, statistical analysis, and strategy development for applications in transportation, logistics, and supply chain systems.
South Dakota State University
Chad Stripling, a native of Minneota, MN, is a graduate student at South Dakota State University. He came to SDSU in the fall of 2002 and earned a B.S. degree in civil and environmental engineering in December 2006. Stripling joined the graduate school at SDSU in January 2007 and he is expected to complete his M.S. degree in civil engineering in May 2008. His research work entails experimental and analytical evaluation of prestressed bridge girders made with self-consolidating concrete. In November, Stripling completed the experimental part of his research which involved load testing until failure of three full-scale prestressed bridge girders. The testing was done at the J. Lohr Structures Laboratory at SDSU. The project is co-sponsored by MPC, the South Dakota Department of Transportation, and Cretex West of Rapid City, SD. Following graduation, Stripling plans to work in the field of structural design.
Zachary Gutzmer is a civil engineering graduate student at South Dakota State University (SDSU). Gutzmer, a native of Garretson, SD, earned his B.S. in civil and environmental engineering from SDSU in December 2006. His graduate research involves the development and assessment of self-consolidating (SCC) mix designs for use in prestressed bridge girders. The experimental work was conducted at the Materials Laboratory at SDSU. Based on Gutzmer's findings, special SCC provisions will be developed for use by the South Dakota Department of Transportation. The research study is co-sponsored by MPC, the South Dakota Department of Transportation, and Cretex West of Rapid City, SD. Gutzmer is expected to complete his M.S. degree in May 2008. Following graduation, he plans to work as a structural engineer.
Ryan Larsen is a civil engineering undergraduate student at South Dakota State University (SDSU). He is a native of Elk Point, SD. Larsen entered SDSU in August 2004 and became a civil engineering student in December 2004. Larsen has been working as a research assistant with Francis Ting and Allen Jones on the scour project since its start date in January 2007. He has carried out literature survey on bridge scour in cohesive soils, conducted field work at three bridge sites in relation to the subsurface exploration, measured soil erosion rates using the erosion function apparatus (EFA) as well as conducting other laboratory soil tests, used AutoCAD to prepare boring logs, conducted bridge hydraulics analyses using the Hydraulic Engineering Center River Analysis System (HEC-RAS), and performed SRICOS scour simulations. Larsen is expected to graduate in May 2008. Following graduation, he plans to attend graduate school at SDSU and continue to work on the scour project as his research thesis for a M.S. degree in civil engineering.
University of Utah
James Mulandi earned a B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Nairobi and an M.S. in civil engineering from Kansas State University. He is currently working on a Ph.D. in civil engineering (emphasis in traffic engineering). His current research project seeks to evaluate the impacts that the I-15 express lane (HOV/HOT) in Salt Lake City has on traffic operations through microsimulation (VISSIM). VISSIM is a microscopic simulation tool that utilizes a Psycho-physical car following model.
Devin Heaps completed his B.A. degree in classics at the University of Utah in May 2005. From 1997 to 2003, he served in the Army National Guard as a light vehicle mechanic. He is currently working as the system administrator in the Utah Traffic Lab. His responsibilities include new acquisitions, software maintenance and upkeep on the lab's 45 computers and network. In the fall of 2008, he intends to pursue a Ph.D. in English with an emphasis in British and American Literature.
