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Education & Workforce Development

Implementing Research for Education:

Download New Safety Engineering Education Course

The Southeastern Transportation Center has long been an advocate for highway safety in education. The higher fatality rates of the Southeastern states point to the need for development of a college level course to educate future professionals on the issues of highway safety, and ensure that graduates have at least a basic background on highway safety and associated issues.

The teaching package includes lecture notes in PowerPoint presentation format, accompanied by instructor notes that identify the main points in each slide and suggest questions to stimulate student participation and interaction.

STC: Advocate for Highway Safety in Education

The high value of STC’s education program is achieved through experiential learning, student research opportunities, and inspired teaching. One result is the great number of gifted graduates who make significant contributions to the regional and national transportation workforce. Another result of STC’s extensive continuing education, outreach, and continuing education activities is a more safety-conscious transportation workforce.

From middle school students to seasoned professionals, STC develops and executes programs for graduate and undergraduate education, workforce development, and continuing education. STC supports courses offered by the Traffic Signal AcademyTennessee Academy of Transportation Engineering, and Tennessee Transportation Assistance Program.

We help the transportation sector improve its existing workforce while we develop the next generation of educators, professionals, technical specialists, and practitioners who will create and sustain our nation’s safe transportation systems.

Current education status

The STC program educates transportation professionals in comprehensive transportation safety. We recruit students from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and they complete a core curriculum of safety-related courses with multimodal and intermodal content. STC students throughout the region have access to the safety resources available at all STC member institutions.

STC universities are responsible for more than $175 million of transportation research expenditures over the past five years. This funding pays the salary of a large portion of the 394 transportation faculty and research staff. Each year these faculty members are the backbone of the educational system that over the past five years has support 6,948 undergraduate students and 3,362 graduate students, which includes 3,040 master’s students and 322 doctoral students.

STC’s nine universities offer 22 transportation degree programs that encompass more than 35 transportation courses, augmented by multiple on-site transportation libraries and 16 active distance learning programs. Specific graduate and undergraduate courses include transportation engineering, highway safety, systems design and management, crash reconstruction, human factors, planning, logistics, analytical methods, global supply chain, highway design, airport planning and design, data collection and analysis, traffic flow theory, intelligent transportation systems, automotive safety engineering, materials, pedestrian and bicycle facility design and planning, intermodal freight transportation systems, and directed readings and research.

Over the past 18 years, STC has recruited and supported over 1,600 students who pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in transportation-related disciplines. We have helped place 70 to 80 new transportation graduates annually into the region’s transportation workforce. Many of these individuals are today’s leaders in their respective work sectors. We have provided graduate students and their faculty advisors with critical exploratory research funding. We have supported the participation of thousands of students and faculty in professional development opportunities including TRB, ITE, ITS, Eno Foundation, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Women’s Transportation Seminar International (WTS), and AASHTO activities and events.

STC uses a multifaceted approach to education and workforce development that begins with the idea that safety is vital to all aspects of transportation. Safety is a fundamental and underlying component of every course offering.