While at the conference, I checked out several presentations on aviation, although none were directly applicable to my current work. I also went to sessions on managed toll lanes, climate change, and transit. Perhaps the highlight of the week was the session involving the current and five other past Secretaries of Transportation were they discussed their time as the head of USDOT, the challenges they faced, and their thoughts on current transportation policy issues.

I attended several receptions including the annual Georgia Tech reception at the Churchill Hotel. I also had to arrive to the conference earlier this year as I was named as the Georgia Transportation Institute’s student of the year, and attended a banquet for the University Transportation Centers’ student of the year awardees. While at TRB, I also caught up with my contingent from Eno and past students, professors, and colleagues from NC State.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I received notice this past week from the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) that I earned a fellowship in this year’s Graduate Research Award on Public-Sector Aviation Issues competition. I am the fourth consecutive student in my research group, run by Dr. Laurie Garrow, in the last four years to have received the award (preceded by Stacey Mumbower 2008, Brittany Luken 2009, and Josie Kressner 2010). The submitted research proposal, entitled “Continuous Scheduling: Beneficial for Airports and Airlines?” will be the focus of my work over the next year. My faculty advisor on the project will be Dr. Garrow, and a research mentor from the aviation industry will be assigned to me, along with other panel members who will help steer the project to completion.