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Institute of Transportation Studies

Outstanding Thesis/Dissertation of 2009

Purpose:  To recognize and promote the highest-quality research conducted by our graduate students

Prizes:  $1500 each to the authors of the MS thesis and PhD dissertation judged most outstanding by a panel of UC Davis faculty

Eligibility:  Transportation-related MS theses and PhD dissertations completed by a UC Davis student DURING THE CALENDAR YEAR OF 2009 (January - December)

Deadline:   March 31, 2010             Decisions expected before April 30.

Procedure:

  1. Nominations are to be submitted electronically by the major professor, and are to include at least two files:
    1. A nomination letter, outlining why the thesis/dissertation merits the award, confirming the quarter in which it was filed, and listing the signing committee members (also please include the list of committee members in the transmission e-mail message, so I won't have to hunt for it in the letter)
    2. The thesis/dissertation itself; Optionally, the nomination may also include
    3. A letter from the student.
  2. Preferably, all files should be zipped into a single one, but either way, all files should be named as follows:  "OTD [student's name] [type of doc, i.e. nomination letter, dissertation, self letter].[ext]".  For example, for the PhD student Jane Doe, the three required files mentioned above could be titled, "OTD Doe nom letter.pdf", "OTD Doe diss.doc", "OTD Doe self letter.doc", all zipped into "OTD Doe nom.zip".
  3. Nominations should be sent to ANNEMARIE SCHAAF, aschaaf@ucdavis.edu.
  4. After the close of the nomination period, I will appoint a three-person committee to evaluate the submissions (faculty, please volunteer!), endeavoring to balance the disciplinary perspectives of the nominated theses and minimize obvious conflicts of interest.
  5. The panel will evaluate the MS and PhD nominations separately.  Suggested evaluation criteria include the following, but the panel is free to develop its own criteria and to weight them as they wish (with either common or individual-specific weights):
    • ORIGINALITY OF APPROACH (creativity vs straightforward extension)
    • SIGNIFICANCE OF FINDINGS (importance, impact, can include "relevance")
    • TIGHTNESS (rigor, logic, care)
    • COMPLETENESS
    • QUALITY
    • CLARITY OF EXPOSITION
    The panel is free to decline to make an award in a given category in a given year, if it does not consider any of the nominations to be sufficiently outstanding.
  6. The winners will have their names placed on a plaque that will be displayed in the ITS conference room (or some other prominent location).

Previous Award Recipients

2008 Outstanding Dissertation – Nicholas Lutsey

“Prioritizing Climate Change Mitigation Alternatives: Comparing Transportation Technologies to Options in Other Sectors,” Department: Transportation Technology and Policy Advisor: Dan Sperling (more information)

2008 Outstanding Master’s Thesis – Wayne Leighty

“Modeling of Energy Production Decisions: An Alaska Oil Case Study” Department: Transportation Technology and Policy Advisors: Cynthia Lin and Joan Ogden (more information)

2007 Outstanding Dissertation – Jonathan Weinert

“The Rise of Electric Two-Wheelers in China: Factors for their Success and Implications for the Future”  Department: Transportation Technology and Policy, Advisor: Joan M. Ogden (more information)

2007 Outstanding Master’s Thesis – Tie! - Aaron Arsenault & David McCollum

Aaron Arsenault: “Implementation and Validation of a Low Cost Sensor Array for Autonomous Roadside Mowing”  Department: Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Advisor: Steven A. Velinsky. (more information)

David McCollum: “Future Impacts of Coal Distribution Constraints on Coal Cost”  Department: Transportation Technology and Policy, Advisor: Joan M. Ogden (more information)

2006 Outstanding Dissertation - Xinyu Cao

“The Causal Relationship between the Built Environment and Personal Travel Choice: Evidence from Northern California.”  Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Advisor: Pat Mokhtarian. Professor Susan Handy also lent considerable input. (more information)

2006 Outstanding Master's Thesis – David Vernon

“Understanding the Effects of Reactor Geometry and Scaling trough Temperature Profiles in Steam-Reforming Hydrogen Production Reactors.” Department: Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Advisor: Paul Erickson. (more information)

2005 Outstanding Dissertation - Deborah Salon

“Cars and the City: An Investigation of Transportation and Residential Location Choices in New York City.” Department: Agricultural & Resouce Economics, Advisor: James Wilen. (more information)

2005 Outstanding Master’s Thesis – Jonathan Weinert

“An Near-term Economic Analysis of Hydrogen Refueling Stations” Department: Transportation Technology and Policy, Advisor: Joan Ogden. (more information)

2004 Outstanding Dissertation - Sangho Choo

“Aggregate Relationships between Telecommunications and Travel: Structural Equation Modeling of Time Series Data.” Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Advisor: Pat Mokhtarian. (more information)

2004 Outstanding Master’s Thesis – David Davieau

“An Analysis of Space Velocity and Aspect Ratio Parameters in Steam-Reforming Hydrogen Production Reactors” Department: Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Advisor: Paul Erickson. (more information)