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Rose-Hulman to Help Address Need for Advancing Railroad Technologies
January 25, 2012
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology will begin educating the
next generation of railroad engineers as part of a consortium
funded by the Department of Transportation. And in a way, by
helping address the nation's need to advance our transportation
system into the future, the Institute steps back into its past.
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A New Frontier: "The railroads are experiencing a
comeback, and there are great opportunities for an exciting and
rewarding career in railroad engineering," says Jim McKinney,
Roland Hutchins Distinguished Professor of Civil
Engineering. (Photo by David Honan, a 2005 civil engineering
alumnus)
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Chauncey Rose, an entrepreneur and builder of railroads, came to
western Indiana in 1817. He joined others in seeing the need
for trailblazing engineers to bring commerce and prosperity to the
region through the expanding railroad industry. Rose
Polytechnic Institute (now Rose-Hulman) was formed in the late
1800s to help forge the new frontier.
Now, more than a century later, Rose-Hulman will be part of a
multi-university consortium establishing the National University
Rail (NURail) Center, based at the University of Illinois
(Champaign- Urbana). The idea, funded through a $3.5 million
grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, will focus on
rail education and research to improve railroad safety, efficiency
and reliability. Particular focus will be on challenges
associated with rail corridors in which higher-speed passenger
trains share infrastructure with freight trains.
"The railroads are experiencing a comeback, and there are great
opportunities for an exciting and rewarding career in railroad
engineering," states Jim McKinney, Roland Hutchins Distinguished
Professor of Civil Engineering. He is Rose-Hulman's principal
investigator to the NURail University Transportation Center
(UTC).
"College level courses in railroad engineering were eliminated
at most colleges following WW II. This lack of railroad
engineering educational opportunities coupled with a large number
of retirements within the industry have caused a great demand for
the next generation of highly educated and specialized engineers
within the railroad industry," McKinney said.
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Principal Investigator: Jim McKinney, Roland Hutchins
Distinguished Professor of Civil Engineering, is leading
Rose-Hulman's participation in the NURail University Transportation
Center.
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"Also, an expanding railroad industry could benefit America's
interstate highway system by taking long-distance carriers off
roadways and putting them on rail."
U.S. Rep. Tim Johnson, a member of the House Transportation
Committee, told The Urbana News-Gazette that the nation has spent
heavily on air- and highway-related research, at the expense of
rail service.
"Unfortunately, rail-related research has fallen behind, leaving
significant workforce shortages and a gap in rail expertise,"
Johnson said.
The railroad system is believed to be a vital link to America's
continued development through urban mass transit, shipping coal to
generate electricity throughout the country and shipping products
(grain/wheat) from America's agricultural heartland to markets.
The NURail Center will be the first University Transportation
Center focused solely on rail, and the proposal received broad
support from a large number of public, private sector, and
international rail organizations. Other colleges joining
Rose-Hulman and UIUC in the project include Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, Michigan Technical University, University of
Illinois at Chicago, University of Kentucky and University of
Tennessee.
"(Rose-Hulman) was sought out to participate because of our
reputation in undergraduate engineering education. If we're
going to address some of the underlying issues in the railroad
industry, we need engineers that are educated in this career
field," McKinney said. "This project involves a wide spectrum
of educational institutions with one goal: Setting the course for
this advanced transportation system. The opportunities are
endless."
Rose-Hulman's part of the project will include the introduction
of a new interdisciplinary railroad engineering course during the
2012-13 academic year. The course will be taught by
McKinney with assistance from other Rose-Hulman faculty who will
introduce elements of electrical and mechanical
engineering. Civil engineering students have
completed senior-year design projects for Indiana Rail Road and CSX
Railroad.
"I see a lot of student interest being developed in the area of
railroad engineering," said McKinney, a member of the Terre
Haute/Vigo County Railroad Committee and the Terre Haute Urbanized
Area Railroad Corridor Study. "Railroads attracted a lot of
people toward careers in civil engineering. Now, they will be
able to combine those two interests together in this interesting
field."
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Leading The Wave: Civil engineering alumnus David Honan
(left) is now a rail project engineer at HDR Engineering, Inc. in
Bellevue, Wash. He was part of a senior design team in 2005
that helped establish aspects of Terre Haute's Heritage Trail
system. Professor Jim McKinney (right) was mentor for this
project.
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David Honan, a 2005 Rose-Hulman civil engineering alumnus, is
one professional engineer who is enjoying a rewarding career as a
rail project engineer. An internship with CSX Transportation
helped pave the way for his employment at HDR Engineering, Inc. of
Bellevue, Wash.
"Rose-Hulman's contributions to this exciting project will come
from the many great minds on campus, which will produce the type of
creative responses that are essential for these kinds of studies,"
Honan said. "Railroads and rail-based mass transit are
finally becoming household topics of discussion as awareness grows
over how important those modes are to the U.S. economy and to
mobility in urban environments.
"With large rail infrastructure projects in planning or
construction phases across the country, it's increasingly likely
that Rose-Hulman graduates will find themselves with opportunities
to be involved, and possessing specific technical knowledge about
rail design will provide them a strong advantage over their peers
pursuing the same job openings," he said.
The NURail project is part of $77 million in DOT grants to 22
UTCs, involving a total of 121 different universities across the
country. The UTCs conduct research that directly supports the
priorities of the DOT on transportation-related issues such as
shared rail corridors, innovations in multimodal freight and
infrastructure, bridge inspection methods, and reducing roadway
fatalities and injuries.
Dr. McKinney, quoted in Inside Indiana Business.