Because the quality of a community is directly related to the quality of its transportation system, your function as a transportation engineer will be to move people, goods, and materials safely and efficiently.
The transportation engineering program contains three major subareas.
- Pavements – design, materials, sustainable pavements, asset management, airfields
- Systems – traffic engineering, geometric design, planning, multi-modal/freight, bicycle and pedestrians, intelligent transportation systems, aviation
- Smart Infrastructure – sensors, transportation Big Data, innovative project delivery, digital pavements, virtual reality, geo-spatial intelligence
Your challenge will be to find ways to meet the increasing travel demand in both urban and rural areas. You will design, construct and maintain all types of facilities including highways, traffic signals, transit systems, airports and seaports. For example, you will be involved in:
- performing geometric design of highways
- optimizing traffic signals
- analyzing traffic flow
- simulating transportation networks with computers
- applying safety and traffic crash statistics
- planning land-use and transportation
- accommodating all modes including bicycles and pedestrians
- designing airports
Faculty in the Transportation Area
Research
The active areas of transportation research include the following:
- traffic engineering
- intelligent transportation systems
- geographic information systems
- infrastructure management
- transportation planning
- traffic flow theory
- innovative geometric design, e.g. diverging diamonds, median U-turns, and roundabouts
- traffic signals and operations
- transportation safety and statistics
- bicycle and pedestrian facilities
- advanced computing applications in transportation
- simulation and modeling
- highway work zones
- transportation security
- emergency and evacuations
- management of river ports
Missouri Center for Transportation Innovation
Transportation research shouldn’t end at just ideas — its effects should be seen in our roads and structures. This is the vision of the Missouri Center for Transportation (MCTI) – to drive transportation research forward and turn that research into real-world results. Better infrastructure means safer roads, a more connected community and a robust economy. We don’t just improve Missouri infrastructure – we transform it.
Transportation Laboratory
The transportation laboratories have capabilities for advanced surveillance, video image processing, traffic management and control, driver behavior, micro-simulation, Geographic Information Systems and several other
advanced computer modeling and optimization packages. The physical laboratories include the Translab computing facility, the Traffic Management Center and a shared-use, 10,000 square foot Remote Testing Facility.
Transportation & Infrastructure Center (TIC)
The center is a hub for multi-disciplinary collaboration in Transportation Engineering research and education. There are over 25 faculty affiliated with the center that belong to several home departments including Civil and Environmental Engineering, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Agricultural Economics, Rural Sociology, Harry S. Truman School of Public Policy, Geography and Information Science and Learning Technologies.
Mizzou Asphalt Pavement and Innovation Laboratory (MAPIL)
The MAPA-sponsored lab, along with an existing on-campus lab and two additional labs at Discovery Park in Columbia, is the centerpiece of the Missouri Asphalt Pavement and Innovation Laboratory, or MAPIL. The investment of MAPA in asphalt research resources from the Barton family, the university, and the state, has allowed MAPIL to become one of the most comprehensive asphalt programs in the world. It allows Mizzou Engineering to provide a world-class asphalt materials education while performing research into the next generation of flexible, sustainable materials to solve critical transportation problems.