Donald Katz

My graduate studies are now in their sixth semester at Georgia Tech. Although I am done taking courses for my Ph.D in order to focus on my dissertation writing, I decided to audit one course this semester to broaden my knowledge of the airline industry:

ISYE 8803X - Air Transportation Systems (Dr. Ellis Johnson)

Although I am auditing, I will be making a presentation to the class about airline depeaking during the weeks the course is focusing on schedule development.

With my ACRP Scholarship in full swing, I will have several check-ups with my ACRP Scholarship advisors. One is a consultant in aviation and the other currently works for the FAA and had a previous stint with Delta Airlines. Dr. Garrow and I working together to pinpoint when different airlines depeaked their schedule over the past decade, and what quantitative schedule measures can be applied to determine the magnitude of depeaking. The literature review and first parts of my methodology will be completed by the end of the semester.

My fifth semester at Georgia Tech was focused on completing my coursework here at Georgia Tech, starting up on my research for my ACRP/dissertation, and heading up ITE.

The first of my courses, Engineering Communication, touched on how to be more effective in one’s writing, graphic designing, and speaking. The course was full of feedback, and it helped in developing skill sets that I can use down the road. The graphics component of the course focused heavily on Edward Tufte’s principles of graphics. We read through his four books, and I’d recommend those for others.

My second course was Advanced GIS. I picked up a variety of tools in GIS that I’ve already started using, such as using SQL to manage my databases, creating network datasets, and 3D visualizations in GIS. My final project was on household location behavior in Atlanta in reference to transportation accessibility measures. I collected data on the location of bus stops, rail stations, arterial roads, and highway interchanges and compared this to a 420,000 household database that I borrowed from a research project currently being done in my research group. No surprising conclusions, but an exercise in managing large sets of data with SQL and building networks.

I passed my proposal right before the semester began, and began working on my preparing my datasets for my research. I’m using SAS to clean the on-time performance airline database to recreate airline schedules to check if they have depeaked or not. I also spent time trying to dig up literature that says when airlines depeaked in the past ten years, so that I can validate my data.

ITE had a good semester with several guest speakers, social outings, and an active new website (ite.ce.gatech.edu). We are heading to TRB as usual in January, and I have been busy organizing the trip.

I received notice this past week that I received a 2011 Georgia Department of Transportation Scholarship. Several students in my department have earned this scholarship in the past.

Yesterday I attended a lecture by Jorge Cham, the artist behind the online comic Piled Higher and Deeper; an example is below. Mr. Cham is an alumnus of Georgia Tech, and he received a warm reception from the audience. The crowd itself was primarily graduate students (out of 600 guests, only 3 undergrads raised their hand by Mr. Cham’s request). The actually had to split the audience into two: half got to hear his talk live, while the rest were in another lecture hall and watched via a live feed.

Mr. Cham’s talk focused on how he started drawing his comic while in graduate school, why procrastination is good for research, and tips on surviving graduate school. After the intermission, the movie version of his comic strip released this past year was screened. The movie was incredible and hit home in so many ways.

The Georgia Tech Civil and Environmental Engineering Department’s newsletter included a writeup about the ACRP award I earned earlier this semester. It discusses the research project and the motivation behind the work.

This weekend NC State plays Georgia Tech in football. As part of an ongoing series this football season, the NC State Alumni Association’s blog is doing a weekly feature on an alumnus who works or studies at that week’s opposing team’s campus. The blog, Red & White for Life, chose me as their Georgia Tech interviewee. The interview can be seen here!

I have started my third year at Georgia Tech, and this semester I will begin my dissertation work in full swing. My research is on depeaking airline hubs, and the effects it has on revenue and network competition. I will be working on the project under Dr. Laurie Garrow, but also under the supervision of a committee at the Airport Cooperative Research Program.

This semester I am taking the following courses.  They are listed below along with the instructors’ names.

CEE 6754 - Engineering Communication (Dr. Lisa Rosenstein)
CP 6521 - Advanced GIS (Dr. Jiawen Yang)

The Advanced GIS course is my last course needed for my Ph.D minor in City Planning.

This semester will also be my first as ITE President, which involves planning meetings and coordinating the events of our chapter. As our chapter prepares to visit Washington D.C. for our annual trip to the Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, I will be preparing our travel plans.

Last week I underwent the last of three steps to becoming a Ph.D candidate in my department. The first step, the written comprehensive exam, I passed in May, and the second step, the oral examination, I passed in December. This third step was a proposal of my dissertation work in front of my Dissertation Committee, made up of four professors in my department, on my topic of research. Ultimately a fifth professor, from outside my department, will be added for my future dissertation defense.

My proposal was on the topic that I have been developing with my advisor Dr. Laurie Garrow. The topic focuses on how depeaked airline schedules at hub airports affect revenue and the airline’s competitors. In my presentation, I discussed the literature review and planned methodology. I presented, with intermittent questions from my committee, for just around an hour. At the end of another question period and asking me to leave the room, I was allowed back in. They then informed me I had passed.

Three other students gave their proposals last week in my department, and although we are quite sure we can call ourselves Ph.D candidates now, there is a debate as to whether one has to finish all their classes to have that title. So either I am one now, or will be one at the end of this semester.

One of the big items the Georgia Tech chapter of the Institute of Transportation Engineers is going after this year is a new format for our website: ite.ce.gatech.edu. Two candidates for the Vice President for Outreach in our spring election mentioned the idea for a site that would include a blog, with chapter members submitting articles on the latest in transportation. Our goal is to have a few posts a week, with members discussing the latest transportation policy news in Atlanta and DC, their current research, or small quips about the field.

In addition, we plan to have several static pages for potential students interested in applying to the Transportation Systems group in Civil Engineering.  When I was applying to graduate schools, I remember one university which had an excellent student-created site about what life in the program was like, where to live, and how to get started in their city. Our aim is to do the same, and provide the student perspective from those who are currently in our program at Georgia Tech.